Lucky hates her food....dish!

[carolina]

Lucky started eating less once I switched her to no-grain foods, and to try to entice her to eat more, I started doing "treasure hunts" meaning: I put little bits of food all over the house in different spots, leaving some on her dish as well... I am also now mixing her food with Nutro, that has a little bit of grains, and she ate really well in the past.
Well, now my problem is that she doesn't want to eat from her dish anymore - she knows how to look for food on the treasure spots, and refuses to eat otherwise...
I tried switching the dish from deep to shallow to deep stainless steel, ceramic, etc. Nope - she likes eating from the other places.
Is there a way to change this? Her tommy is not doing so well right now, because all of the food changes, so she is already eating less than normal... I am afraid if I don't give her treasures she won't eat anymore...
How and when do I get her to eat only from her dish again?

 

[jack31]

It seems you have given a cat exactly what they want--a hunt for their food. I think you are just going to have to be strict about only offering in her bowl now. If she wants to eat, she'll eat out of the bowl. Obviously don't let her go until she starves but my gut tells me she won't protest long.

Consider yourself lucky. We can't let cats protest long, I on the other hand have 5 turtles--who can (not ideally) go a month without food. Sometimes we wait 10 days until they eat whats good for them. (The side effects of bad owners feeding crappy food (basically turtle happy meals) and then me the rescuers having to correct their diet to salads, with only the occasional "burger")

When the cats protest or 10 hours its a piece of cake for me!

Leslie

 

[kalikat]

Maybe try putting several small bowls around her hidey spots, gradually reducing the number you put out, moving them to where you normally feed her.