My cat only stomachs baby food, am I in the wrong?

Kittypet

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Hey guys, I'm in a bit of a pickle here and I'm not sure if I'm doing the right thing, but I figured I'd come to ya'll and see if I can't get another few set of eyes on this: essentially, my cat, Newnie, 2 years - 3 in August, won't eat wet cat food anymore. Initially we thought she had a sensitivity to chicken as whenever she ate any cat food with chicken or a chicken by product in it she'd be vomiting a few moments later and it'd just be a mess each time...so we changed proteins, changed formulas, figured it wasn't just chicken, but poultry in general...all these things were vetted by the, well, Vet lol so we weren't just doing this out our ass and had advice from someone who's been treating her since she was 8 months old.

At one point she was so ill, vomiting anything we gave her, that she was losing weight rapidly and getting lethargic. I was afraid my little girl was going to cross the rainbow bridge before she turned 2, but then the Vet suggested 'baby food'. Just pureed one ingredient baby food: water and a protein, maybe a little cornstarch, but no artificial anything added to it; Gerber's 2nd Sitter Baby Food. My husband actually left work to pick up a few bottles and brought them home to see if she'd eat it and, lo and behold, she scarfed it down happily!

We had her on the baby food initially for maybe a week, slowly transitioned her back to wet cat food, and dry, she eats a mixed diet throughout the day, and she started gaining again/was back to her normal self in no time. For a while it was fine like that, we had no more issues, just stayed away from poultry as a protein and focused on exotic proteins or fish (rabbit is her current favorite for dry food), but it's reached a point where she just won't eat wet cat food, no matter what the protein or brand is. She still loves her dry food (feeding her Instinct Limited Ingredient Rabbit Formula) and eats about one and a half cups throughout the day, but when it's time for breakfast and dinner, which is when they get wet (we have three cats), she snuffs the food in her dish and goes to her hidey holes to pout.

She started really losing weight again a few weeks ago, early March. Of course I was worried again so we got her a bottle of her favorite baby food and there she was eating it up without a second thought. It's been almost two weeks now that she's been exclusively rotating between chicken, turkey, ham and beef flavored baby food. I'll provide an attachment to the brand nutrition labels, but they're all pretty much the same where ingredients are concerned: protein, water, and occasionally cornstarch.

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c034ef81-1c6e-4ec2-aacc-e56523517722_1.c64aba46aa4788aee1f5166be2d7c6f5.jpeg

She's still eating her dry food regularly and hasn't thrown up, even a hairball (okay, maybe one hairball), in all this time which is pretty dang rare considering she was the one guilty of tossing her kibble all over the house whenever the mood struck her. At this point, we're pretty sure she doesn't have a sensitivity to proteins (no other signs of allergy) and that it was more a preference over anything else...but I just want to know if I'm doing the right thing?

Newnie eats one bottle per day like her brothers eat one can of wet per day. We split it between morning and night and she licks the bowl clean each time with no ill effects afterwards, same as her brothers who have never had the issue of vomiting after they eat. Speed was never an issue as she eats at her own pace and has her own location to eat where she doesn't feel rushed or disturbed by her brothers being little chonkers and wanting to eat everything in sight, so that's not an issue either. My concern now is whether or not she's going to be getting all the vitamins and minerals she needs to live a long healthy life by just eating baby food and dry cat food.

Do I need to provide supplements and if so which ones?

cat tax:
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kittyluv387

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You might need to switch to raw food and / or home made. Sounds like all the additives in cat food are not agreeing with her system. She is fine with something that is mostly meat with a few other ingredients.
 

FeebysOwner

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There are some cats who eat nothing but dry food their entire lives, so I don't think the proper nutrients/vitamins are a big issue. If it is water content you are worried about, you can try to mix some of the dry food with water - just a small amount at first, and more over time, if she will eat it that way. Could also be a first step to migrating her back to wet food, eventually.
Have you tried mixing a whole lot of baby food with some of the wet food just to see if she would eat it that way? Start with mostly baby food with some wet food mixed in really well, then over time - several weeks if you have to - reduce the baby food amount and increase the wet food. I did this with Feeby went she started to protest eating her canned food. I was finally able to get her back to eating her canned food without the baby food.
 

Willowy

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I think in those amounts it's probably OK. She's getting most of her nutrients from the dry food.

Have you tried mixing the baby food with a little canned food?
 
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Kittypet

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Mixing baby food with wet cat food: yeah, we tried doing this a few times last week and she actually licked around the wet food despite it being pretty decently mixed before just abandoning it completely lol I didn't want to waste anymore of the wet cat food since we need to make this batch last due to quarantine so I just kept her on the baby food only thinking it wasn't doing any harm.

Adding water to dry food: she's such a purist, she snuffs the dry if we try this- but she does drink religiously from the two cat fountains we have, so maybe I'm just being overly cautious about making sure she's hydrated.

Homemade: I can try this! I know we have a forum dedicated to it, so I might just take a look and see what I can do. Might be worth getting that Costco membership again if I can bulk buy the ingredients to make their food for them. I'd likely transition everyone to homemade if we made that switch with her, mostly to save money, but also to not make the boys feel like they need to try even harder to get to her food since it'll likely smell more like human food than what they're eating lol
 

kittyluv387

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Mixing baby food with wet cat food: yeah, we tried doing this a few times last week and she actually licked around the wet food despite it being pretty decently mixed before just abandoning it completely lol I didn't want to waste anymore of the wet cat food since we need to make this batch last due to quarantine so I just kept her on the baby food only thinking it wasn't doing any harm.

Adding water to dry food: she's such a purist, she snuffs the dry if we try this- but she does drink religiously from the two cat fountains we have, so maybe I'm just being overly cautious about making sure she's hydrated.

Homemade: I can try this! I know we have a forum dedicated to it, so I might just take a look and see what I can do. Might be worth getting that Costco membership again if I can bulk buy the ingredients to make their food for them. I'd likely transition everyone to homemade if we made that switch with her, mostly to save money, but also to not make the boys feel like they need to try even harder to get to her food since it'll likely smell more like human food than what they're eating lol
Yup I've been making 3 different kids of raw (chicken, turkey and rabbit) for the past year now. Costco is a great place to get chicken thighs! With the liver I get them from asian markets and I get turkey liver from Hare Today. Definitely browse and post in that section of this site!
 

maggie101

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Someone remind me. Weruva has a brand of canned that is like meat loaf but very light. Almost like pudding.
 

maggie101

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I dont think its sold anymore. My cat Coco only likes pate. Maggie likes pate but with pieces of meat. They will not eat it mushed down like a loaf. Peaches would eat it because she licks her food. Peaches does not like fish so I always check the ingredients. Even if the can says chicken, fish or fish oil is added. Feeding them is hard!
 
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