Looking for opinions on our cat's diet and appetite

[tpapictures]

I'll try to be brief to not bog the question down with details.
But I should preface this now with the following to just not waste certain people's time...

1. We will not under any circumstances feed our cat dry food.
2. We will not feed him commercial brands full of gums and nameless things like "whitefish"
3. We will not feed canned foods that have fish, as cats shouldn't be eating fish at all.

If you're somebody that feeds your cats like us, then you're probably still reading. If not, that's ok, thanks for stopping by.

Starting off, we have a perfectly clean bill of health from our cat's vet. So outside of a sonogram, there is nothing more we can do and nothing showed reason for concern in both blood and urine checkups. And nothing according to our vet -- who we trust entirely -- necessitates further exploration at this point. With respect to us concerned about our cat not eating as much as we'd like, our vet simply said, keep trying to give him more and finding something he loves. Naturally, as much as we love them, vets aren't nutritionists or behaviourists.

So... this is where we are:

• No food in cans, really, entices him at all. And the response is even worse to dry but as we've said we won't feed him dry anyway.
• Commerical raw is something in our trials he doesn't acknowledge at all as food which is normal but getting him to start adapting to it and ultimately like it by way of using "his other food that he likes" is very difficult because there's no "food that he likes" for more than about 5 days before getting sick of it.
• Just constantly swapping food works fine from one to another, but when you have to switch every 5 days it causes diarrhea.
• Creamies (treats by Catit in a tube) were working fine for introducing bits of raw food until we realised the tapioca starch -- which cats shouldn't really eat -- that is in them was provoking diarrhea and upset stomachs. So that had to stop.

What have we tried other than what I've mentioned?

• There are any number of wet cans, all good quality, natural ingredients that he likes, but again, rarely for more than 3-5 days.
• Different methods of eating to keep getting his attention, which works, but it means staying on top of showing it and reshowing it to him, offering food on our finger for him to lick which hooks him back into his plate to eat on his own.
• For a test, I tried giving him raw chicken thigh and boiled chicken meat (no seasoning, it was prep for a soup) and he devoured both instantly. He did the same to cooked pork.
• He gets probiotics daily to balance good gut flora to aid in digestion.

Why the concern for his diet?

He should really be more like 13.5 - 14 pounds. He's at 12.8. According to any calorie based feeding guide he needs 280 - 310 kcal per day. He's getting on average about 270. There are days where we get him to a solid 290 but just as many where we can't get more than 260 and we can tell it's not out of a lack of hunger, but rather of interest because he looks for food and then walks away. Or we have to go through the finger tasting thing to get him to continue on his own on the plate.

FINALLY! Our question...

Any thoughts on what to try, how to turn that craving for chicken, cooked or raw, into a balanced meal? Any other thoughts? We're all ears. We're in Canada if you want to recommend products or foods. And we appreciate it.

 

[Destinyyymarie]

I know you want no dry food but if you mix in some dry food just to get those calories in him I recommend taste of the wild. My cat cannot eat lots of chicken and while we give him one with some, the probiotics in the food help with the sometimes upset stomach he has with chicken.
I’m sure you have tried the tiki cat that has the quail egg etc but maybe try reveal they have minimal ingredients and while there are some with fish I believe there is a chicken one as well!! Good luck of the good hunt! I wish cats had a bit more options like dogs do

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi, there are some things in this thread below that could help get some weight gain going, and why not utilize his interest in the chicken and pork?

You'll want to double check this website below to ensure he's getting all the nutrients he needs, and you could consider talking to a nutritionist.

Any Good Tips To Get Your Cats To Eat? Share Them Here!

A Guide To A Balanced, Homemade Cat Food - Alnutrin Supplements

 

[furmonster mom]

I’m in a similar boat with a new cat.
I have been feeding raw to my animals for about 15 years now, and really want to get this guy on board.

Unfortunately, he was fed commercial dry food for years before we brought him home.
Transitioning has been difficult

We finally got him off the dry, and he is now eating a reasonably decent commercial wet food. But he lost some weight in the process, and he is still not eating as much as he should. Whenever I try to sneak in a tiny bit of raw in the food, he leaves it on the plate. So it’s more important at this point to get him to eat an appropriate amount before we start up another transition period.

I’m thinking of trying to add a little egg slurry (cooked whites chopped fine and mixed back with raw yolk) to get a little extra simple protein, fats, and omegas into him.
Fingers crossed he won’t turn his nose up at it.

As for appetite stimulation, I would normally advise a tiny bit of canned tuna or chicken juice (like the Costco canned chicken), or benito (? asian style fish flakes). But you said you don’t want to use fish. So maybe see if he responds to the egg yolks?

Otherwise, I’m at a loss. Maybe there are enzyme powders or sprays that would help?

 

[sophie1]

So I'm a bit confused here....are you wanting to feed your cat commercial raw, canned food, or homemade food? Or a mixture?

I would pick the food you want to feed him, and then SLOWLY transition from whatever it is he will reliably eat now. Definitely go with a rotation of at least 3 animal proteins. Chicken, turkey and pork sound fine to me. I give my cats that plus rabbit, goat, duck, and occasionally venison, rotating foods about every other day.

If you're planning to go with homemade, you already have a good start in that your cat is handling plain chicken and pork meat just fine. Decide on whatever it is you'll add to make it a complete cat food (premix, individual supplements, organ meats, bone-in cuts), and slowly start to introduce these new ingredients. You have time (a few weeks or a month or so) but don't let it drag on for too long if the diet isn't complete.

 

[tpapictures]

So I'm a bit confused here....are you wanting to feed your cat commercial raw, canned food, or homemade food? Or a mixture?

Sorry, the post kind of shifted gears..
First there is our cat losing interest very quickly in food. That's one thing.
We happen to also be trying to slowly get him into raw.
As part of resolving his weak interest in food, we once offered raw chicken and it happened to work well.
Regardless of that, he now no longer has interest in that either.
So we're back to just trying to get him into a way of eating that allows him to get to the 275 calories he needs daily. We struggle to get past 250-260, sometimes as low as 200.

 

[sophie1]

A cat not interested in food? That sounds like a red flag. You did say you'd taken him to the vet, but did you ask specifically about the not wanting to eat problem? Did the vet check the cat's mouth and teeth?

There may also be non-medical reasons, like: where is the food being fed, is it near a noisy machine or is there another pet in the house guarding the food bowl? Is the dish so small that the cat's whiskers are hitting the sides? Try feeding off a plate and in other locations. Another potential issue is that this cat may be used to free feeding instead of meal feeding. Leave the food out and see what happens. I used to free feed my cats raw food and it's really not a problem as long as the food is fresh. If your cat does well with free feeding, let him do that until he's eating enough to gain weight, then transition to meal feeding if you prefer it. I got both my cats onto meal feeding and as seniors with one of them on a twice a day medication, that's been super helpful.

 

[tpapictures]

You did say you'd taken him to the vet, but did you ask specifically about the not wanting to eat problem? Did the vet check the cat's mouth and teeth?

Full clean bill of health.
There is nothing situational wrong with how he eats. Whisker fatigue, placement of bowl, these are all things we know about. This cat can't be 'used to' free feeding, he's our cat. He has been for several years. The question is simply (in an admittedly wordy way) about finding things to offer to cats that can get them into eating more. But we can rule out environmental factors.

 

[sophie1]

Well, a cat not eating enough means SOMETHING is wrong. Go over the ground and see if there's anything you missed. Or, especially if his weight is stable, maybe he's not too thin and isn't a cat prone to overeating, which is a good thing!

Maybe you should be having this conversation with your vet rather than an online forum.

 

[tpapictures]

You may need to read my whole message again or just ignore it, it is rather long, I'll admit.
Vets aren't nutritionists and selling Hill's, Royal Canin, and Purina doesn't make them knowlelldgable about food. Which is why it's good to speak to other people to get opinions.
Thanks for your help.

 

[Jabzilla]

Hey there, since you said you're in Canada perhaps you can try a place like this if you're in BC. Cryo freeze dried Archives - True Carnivores They have a bunch of raw treats, freeze dried, cryo freeze dried, and frozen that could be worth sprinkling on his food to try to tempt him to eat more of it.

 

[Jabzilla]

As for turning his craving for chicken into a balanced meal, you could feed him ground or chunked chicken with something like EZ Complete to provide the missing vitamins/minerals and make it fully balanced. Or you could use the amazing spreadsheet from Raw Fed and Nerdy to plug in chicken, chicken liver, chicken bones, etc plus supplements to make it balanced.

EZComplete Premix Information (foodfurlife.com)

Raw Fed and Nerdy Formulation Sheet - Raw Fed and Nerdy

 

[Jabzilla]

Oh, one other thing. You can try adding more skin when giving him his chicken. That will increase the amount of fat and thus raise the caloric content of the food without adding significantly more volume for him to eat. That would help him to gain weight without having to consume a much larger amount of food.

 

[tpapictures]

As for turning his craving for chicken into a balanced meal

We can just pass on that, turns out that like with any other food, he's done with raw chicken.