My cats eat fish only

[kissa mia]

Hi, 

I have 2 cats at home, one of them has no problem with eating different sort of cats' foods, but the other one, is my biggest worries. She eats ONLY pacific cod fish, cooked with rice. The rice has carbs, sodium and proteins. She changes her appetites very often, she used to have problem with liver before spaying.  She prefers to eat nothing and die hunger but eat the cooked cod fish mixed with rice.  I have tried many professional brands, like Royal Canin , Schesire ... Dry foods, canned and all you name it, but she shows no interests to them. 

Almost forgot to mention that, she is a very especial cat, I saved her when she was just 2 month old, she is 1 and half now, She has got buffet of different type of foods at home, she eats a little a bit amount of Royal Canin dry food and very much of the cooked cod fish.

I don't know, how much dangerous is the cod fish for her? Should I force her to eat other foods ? (Which won't work for sure) give me some ideas please.

Appreciated in advance. 

 

[denice]

This really isn't good.  Complete cat foods have things in them that replicates the diet when a kitty eats their normal prey.  She does need to get off the fish only diet but the first priority should be a complete diet.  There are supplements that you can add to what she is already eating.  http://www.thecatsite.com/f/65/raw-home-cooked-cat-food   is our forum for those who feed raw and homecooked.  You can get info there on how to make what she is eating now complete.

Once she is eating a complete food then you can begin trying to get her off the fish only.  Who knows she may eat other proteins when they aren't in the form of processed kitty food.

 

[LTS3]

 
This really isn't good.  Complete cat foods have things in them that replicates the diet when a kitty eats their normal prey.  She does need to get off the fish only diet but the first priority should be a complete diet.  There are supplements that you can add to what she is already eating.  http://www.thecatsite.com/f/65/raw-home-cooked-cat-food   is our forum for those who feed raw and homecooked.  You can get info there on how to make what she is eating now complete.

Once she is eating a complete food then you can begin trying to get her off the fish only.  Who knows she may eat other proteins when they aren't in the form of processed kitty food.

A diet of fish that you cook yourself with rice that you cook yourself is an improper nutritionally deficient diet. If your cat really won't eat regular cat food, then consider feeding her raw food or a homecooked balanced diet. You've already been given the link to the Raw and Home Cooked Diets forum. Please check out the links at the top of the page for more info.

What country do you live in? There may be someone here who knows what raw meat or home cooked diet sources are available in your area or can suggest a better brand of cat food that your cat may like better than Royal Canin.

Also, has your cat been chcked by a vet lately? A vet can determine if your cat has a medical condition that may be causing her to only eat the fish and rice.

 

[sarah ann]

Try mixing the fish with other foods. If you want her to get used to eating chicken, slice it very fine, and mix a small amount with the fish. If this isn't a commercial diet it sounds dangerously deficient. You can buy a blender or food processor and mix it that way. Turn the fish chicken into a complete blend so she can't eat around the chicken.

Make sure to only give two small meals a day. Often people overfeed their cats and that is why the cat will not eat the new food.

My cats love sweet potato and pumpkin. You can try adding those. Ham is another favorite as long as it is well cooked. Bacon too.

Slowly change her diet until she is just getting fish broth on meat. Fish oil capsules are very tasty according to my cats and can be added to the meat. I highly recommend the food processor as that is the best way to blend every thing together so she can't pick through it.

 

[kissa mia]

Thank you all for the suggestions. I have figured out that she likes raw chicken breasts , but it's not safe to give her raw meat, I am an expat in China, raw foods are extremely dangerous here, unfortunately that's the only food she likes to eat. Cooked cod fish with rice + raw chicken. I frozen the chicken and the fish first, then defrost and cook the fish then mix the fish with chopped defrosted raw chicken. I also force her to eat 4cm of nutri-gell daily bases. 

I can't keep her hungry to force her for going for cat food, she had problem with liver while ago, I don't want to bring her the same issue again, otherwise she will refuse of all the foods.

 

[stephiedoodle]

When she's hungry enough she will eat. White fish and rice isn't nutritionally beneficial a human can't live on that alone neither can a cat try mixing the fish in with the cat food and also really try freeze dried raw you coukd possibly find a pet supply site that delivers to china?

 

[LTS3]

See this thread for info on a home cooked diet and recipes: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/264153/home-cooked-cat-food-resources Cooked meat can be fed to a cat as long as you add in other things to ensure a balanced diet, like calcium and organs. Feel free to post over on the Raw and Home Cooked forum for more info on making home cooked food for your cat with ingredients you have available.

 

[mnm]

I'm not so sure about the statement.."when she's hungry she will eat" as we used to give our cats a "treat" of a spoonful of wet food every 6 hours and all of a sudden noticed Mikki was so thin.. she was ONLY eating that little spoonful of wet food!!! No dry! We didn't realize it since we had 2 cats. The vet told us to start feeding them meals of wet food and we have ever since...but he did think she was starving herself Hopefully that's not the case with all.

 

[stephiedoodle]

Well i find that when your hungry enough you'll eat we recently got a new kitty and our resident isn't eatting as much as normal yet I find if I leave her a while with nothing when it comes to her next meal she'll eat it. Maybe your cat wasn't as keen on dry as you thought and when given the alternative she realised hmm wait this is nicer and decided she wanted that. Thats what happened with our Lilly she was all dry and she had one little taste of wet and that was it she wouldn't touch the kibble unless it was the only thing put down and we didn't give in to her meows.

 

[denice]

There is usually at least one case of fatty liver on this site sometimes more than one, my kitty had it a little over 4 years ago.  A kitty can go into fatty liver very quickly and it is caused by trying to use their fat stores too fast.  Once a kitty goes into fatty liver they will not eat because of nausea and lack of appetite.  My kitty had a feeding tube put in, it is a slow recovery and it usually leaves the liver at least somewhat damaged. 

Hepatic lipidoses is unique to cats because their liver is not very efficient at processing fat.  Cats in the wild probably don't get it as often as domesticated cats because they live very lean, often on the brink of starvation so they don't have fat stores that can lead to this condition.  Overweight cats are more susceptible but any cat can get it.  My kitty was actually a little underweight from undiagnosed IBD when he got it..

Kitties can and do literally starve themselves to death because of this condition.

 

[stephiedoodle]

Yes but from the info provided this literally sounds like a picky cat she didn't say there were any other symptoms than the fact the cat prefers one type of food home cooked that isn't complete. I was simply speaking from my experience with my cats and in the end unless we're trained vets/nurses thats all we really can do!