Making food more enticing to cat?

cylon.descendant

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Hi everyone,

I figured some of you may have some tips here. My cat has chronic pancreatitis and IBD. At this point, the food that has been safe for him has been duck (he has a reaction to chicken, tuna, turkey, and I think rabbit as well).

He has been on the Rawz LID duck for a while, but sometimes he does get a bit sick of things. When that happens, I can sometimes entice him to eat by sprinkling some crushed treat on top (I use the Orijen freeze-dried duck for dogs -- it's just duck and duck liver so it's safe for cats too). But that doesn't always work (even though he still likes the treats by themselves lol).*

I'm looking for tips for making his food more enticing, but with the caveat that I can only stick to duck as a protein for now at least, so I can't just add tuna juice or something lol.

*also worth mentioning that eating issues come up for him when he has a pancreatitis flare-up, and he gets treatment for that when it happens. But he kind of has a trifecta of food issues: being particular about the taste; sometimes having flare-ups that result in hesitancy to eat; and having a bunch of intolerances. In this post, I'm looking in particular for tips to address the taste part, because if I can at least attack that problem, it would make things a little less complicated at least lol.
 

di and bob

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Have you tried heating the food for a few seconds in the microwave? I have a picky eater who eats much better when it is warm, be careful though and stir it so there are no hot spots! I have a cat with severe skin issues due to allergies right now, and she is doing much better with .25mg of CBD oil in her food twice a day, so far. It may be good for the flare-ups too as it reduces inflammation.
 
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cylon.descendant

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Have you tried heating the food for a few seconds in the microwave? I have a picky eater who eats much better when it is warm, be careful though and stir it so there are no hot spots! I have a cat with severe skin issues due to allergies right now, and she is doing much better with .25mg of CBD oil in her food twice a day, so far. It may be good for the flare-ups too as it reduces inflammation.
Thank you for these ideas! I hadn't thought of heating it the microwave before. In the past I have ever-so-slightly warmed his food when it had been in the fridge, just by putting it in a plastic bag and running warm water over it. But perhaps the microwave will make more of a difference!

And I will ask my vet about the CBD oil as well! If it could help with inflammation and maybe appetite, that may be worth a try.
 

LTS3

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Many vets are reluctant to suggest or recommend CBD use in pets because there are no good published long term studies out there (yet) on using such products for pets and any benefits / risks. A holistic vet may be more open to CBD use. Some articles:


That said, many people buy CBD products from pet stores and other places anyways to treat their pets for various ailments. Does it actually work? Some people claim it does, others say it's a quack.

You can try a little sprinkle of FortiFlora on the food to make it more appealing.
 

Purr-fect

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I did use the fortiflora once. It encouraged my cats to eat wet food (transitioning from dry when we adopted them). However I found the fortiflora expensive and difficult to find.

I now use a mixture of greenie treats and a high quality grain free dry food. I powder it in a coffe grind blender and if needed, sprinkle it lightly on the cats wet food. (Sometimes you have to mix it into the food, as the cat might otherwise just lick it off the top.) This has saved alot of money and has worked well long term.

One of my cats has had a suspected bout of panceatitus (had to be syringe fed for about 5 days). We are now very watchful of his eating habits.
 

di and bob

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Cannabis is a member of the hemp family but contains THC which gives users the 'high' they get. CBD oil does not carry any THC or such a minute bit it is almost nonexistent. They are really two completely different products. I mentioned CBD oil because I have tried a LOT of allergy/inflammation products with my cats and CBD oil is the ONLY one that seems to be helping even a little bit. It is pricey but most pharmacies carry it over the counter for pets and you use only .25 mg. which isn't very much. Cannabis is illegal in a lot of states, while CBD is a lot of times available and is now put in many everyday products like sunburn cream, and skin products. It has been proven to help a lot with seizures in children.
 

sivyaleah

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As toppers, I use a dusting of Fortiflora (one little pack can last me at least a couple of days or more) or, nutritional yeast (I use Bragg brand). The nutritional yeast has a cheesy flavor and a bottle will last like, forever pretty much.
 

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I did use the fortiflora once. It encouraged my cats to eat wet food (transitioning from dry when we adopted them). However I found the fortiflora expensive and difficult to find.

Are you in the US? Chewy sells FortiFlora. I just get it from the vet whenever I have to get a refill on a medicine.
 

Purr-fect

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Are you in the US? Chewy sells FortiFlora. I just get it from the vet whenever I have to get a refill on a medicine.
Im in Canada. Everything that you get....is harder for me to get and costs more....lol.

The greenies and quality dry cat food, ground, is easy to make, plentiful and much cheaper than fortiflora available here. And it has been working with my cats for years.
 
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cylon.descendant

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Thank you everyone who has shared their tips so far! I really appreciate it and feel I at least have a few more ideas to try now!
 

tnrmakessense

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Im in Canada. Everything that you get....is harder for me to get and costs more....lol.

The greenies and quality dry cat food, ground, is easy to make, plentiful and much cheaper than fortiflora available here. And it has been working with my cats for years.
I'm pretty sure that the dust on the outside of Temptations is FortiFlora.
 

tyleete

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Careful with stating amount of cbd to new used. There are a lot of different companies with varying strengths out there. But the bottles usually give the weight dosage on them.;)
 

di and bob

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Yes, make sure you read ALL labels before using, I thought that was a given.....I'm using a lung supplement product right now for one of my cats that says a 'dropperful', the dropper has NO markings!!!?
 
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