Need Help -fussy 3 Year Old Female Cat

[Amryta]

I adopted a brother sister pair 8 months back. They are almost 3 now. While the brother Leo is not picky about food at all, the sister Sera is the fussiest cat I've known in some time.

They are on a wet only diet, with Leo on home cooked chicken and some Royal Canin. Sera however refuses to touch chicken. She's been having only Royal Canin (intense beauty / instinctive / ultra light) since the last 8 months with me. Her appetite has never been steady though, and meal times are a big struggle. She does not even come to the food, instead I've to take food to wherever she is, under the couch, or in her cat cave etc. And she'll not finish more than 30-40% of her food at a time. So I end up running behind her a couple of times every day, trying to get her to eat. This approach of feeding her her meal over 2-3 intervals worked okay, until a couple of days back, when her appetite fell to 50% of normal. It is 100 degrees here, although she is an indoor cat, not sure if the heat has impacted her appetite. Her blood work came out clean, a month back, so not sure if there is an underlying medical cause.

I tried changing her wet food, with Sheba tuna, mixed with RC, she ate that enthusiastically a couple of days, then gave up on that too. She doesn't eat home cooked chicken, fish etc. There aren't too many cat food brands available where I live, so I don't really have the option of switching her to grain free on a sustained basis. The only brands available in pet stores here are Sheba, RCanin, Meow mix, Whiskas. I don't want to downgrade her to Whiskas or Meow Mix, but am running out of options for Sera. Has anyone faced a similar problem? Looking forward to your pointers,

Sincerely,
Cat Mom

 

[maggiedemi]

Have you tried Sheba Cuts in Chicken and Turkey? My cats love those. Can you get Friskies? My cats like the Shreds. Also Fancy Feast Grilled and Sliced.

 

[arouetta]

How's her weight? Is it holding roughly steady? She might just not need the calories, which is why what looks like one serving to you is a struggle to get down her.

And you going to her.....that's a habit. She's not going to food because she knows food will come to her. If you stop she will eventually learn that she's going to have to go to it. If you want to switch to her coming to the food, I would recommend you carry her to the dish for a week or so to make it easier for her to learn that the food now has a permanent spot she has to go to.

 

[Amryta]

How's her weight? Is it holding roughly steady? She might just not need the calories, which is why what looks like one serving to you is a struggle to get down her.

And you going to her.....that's a habit. She's not going to food because she knows food will come to her. If you stop she will eventually learn that she's going to have to go to it. If you want to switch to her coming to the food, I would recommend you carry her to the dish for a week or so to make it easier for her to learn that the food now has a permanent spot she has to go to.

Thank you for your response!

Yes, I go to her with her food, since she refuses to come to food most of the times, and prefers eating in dark enclosed spaces like under the couch, in her cat cave. The vet said that some cats just prefer eating in dark places. At times when she's really hungry, she follows me to the kitchen where the food is made, but once her plate is laid down, she'll just take a few bites, eat about 20% of her food, and walk away. I sprinkle some orijen chicken treats on her food, that used to perk her up a little and get her to finish food, but even that's stopped working these last few days.

In terms of weight, she came to me 8 months back at slightly under 3 kgs, now she's at 4.1 kgs currently, but when she's eating okay, she goes to about 4.17-4.2 kgs. She's never gone beyond this despite my best efforts. However since she's not been eating enough over the last couple of days, her weight's come down from 4.15 to 4.1 kgs.

But I'll try making her understand that she needs to go to food. Also she's a short snouted cat, and most of the times, doesn't even open her mouth to eat food off the plate, I tried a couple of feeding bowls to reduce her discomfort, but that hasn't yielded positive results.

So her weight's dropped since she's given up on food. Last week I was traveling for work and my husband usually fed her in the morning and night. She was eating fine. I returned from my work trip last Friday, Friday night she ate very well, 1.5 pouches of RC, and from Saturday morning, she's been eating just 50% of her normal diet.

Still trying to figure out how much of this is a behavioral vs. a medical issue.

Worried,
Cat Mom

 

[Amryta]

Have you tried Sheba Cuts in Chicken and Turkey? My cats love those. Can you get Friskies? My cats like the Shreds. Also Fancy Feast Grilled and Sliced.

I tried Sheba chicken, she just had a lick and puked it out. Friskies / Fancy Feast aren't available here.

Thanks.
Cat Mom

 

[maggiedemi]

Have you tried giving her a little dry food? If my male cat doesn't get at least 1/8 cup of dry kibble, then he refuses to eat his wet food...Did you try the Sheba Cuts? My cats didn't like the Sheba Pate unless it was in a can. You could try Whiskas pouches, but the only one my cats liked was Purrfectly Chicken. They liked a few Meow Mix- tender favorites and pate toppers, but every flavor seems to have fish in it. What about Purina One or Purina Pro Plan wet food, do you have that where you live? That's all I can think of, sorry!

 

[Amryta]

Have you tried giving her a little dry food? If my male cat doesn't get at least 1/8 cup of dry kibble, then he refuses to eat his wet food...Did you try the Sheba Cuts? My cats didn't like the Sheba Pate unless it was in a can. You could try Whiskas pouches, but the only one my cats liked was Purrfectly Chicken. They liked a few Meow Mix- tender favorites and pate toppers, but every flavor seems to have fish in it. What about Purina One or Purina Pro Plan wet food, do you have that where you live? That's all I can think of, sorry!

Hi,

Thank you for your response. Yes I've ordered Whiskas and Sheba chicken today. And will certainly try some dry food as well. Unfortunately no Purina here. However have just ordered a few Tiki cat cans from Amazon US, hopefully those will bring back her appetite. Shipping and import from the US cost a lot, so trying to keep that to a minimum and not make a habit out of it.

However is it normal for a cat's appetite to drop during summer - by 50%? My male cat continues to eat with gusto, but the female has always been picky with a sensitive digestion.

Thanks again for responding, everyone!

Best,
Cat Mom

 

[di and bob]

Yes, heat can definitely affect the appetite, just like it does ours. ( although obviously not enough for me to lose weight!) You might order some Friskies on the internet if you can, my picky cats like the bits/ shredded too, especially the Turkey Treasures with cheese. I would definitely try dry too, anything to get her to eat. Sometimes we do all this extra work to give them a good diet that they won't eat. They want and crave the cheap stuff! I spend a fortune on cat food and they turn their nose up and go to the cheap dry I get for the outside ferals!

 

[maggiedemi]

I agree with Di, if you do order any Friskies from the US, I would go with the Shreds, my cats never turn those down. They make a multipack of different flavors. Try giving her 1/8 cup of dry food with her wet food. It works with my male cat. I also have to give my cats Lysine treats. Does your cat have runny eyes? If they have upper respiratory problems, Lysine might help them to be able to smell their food.

 

[Amryta]

Yes, my I've noticed tears from my cat's eyes a couple of times, I brought it up with the vet, he ruled out a Lysine deficiency since she's on 100% aafco certified food. But I've noticed she takes a while to register smells.

I'll definitely try the Lysine treats. Could you please let me know which brand is good? Are there similar taurine treats I could give her? She refuses to touch her cat supplement tablets.

Thanks a lot for your help!

Best,
Cat Mom

 

[maggiedemi]

The Lysine treats I use are Pet Naturals of Vermont in the purple bag. I give one with breakfast and one with dinner. There also is a powder you can add 1/8 Tsp two times a day to their wet food, but my cats prefer the treats. I don't know of any Taurine treats, sorry.

 

[Amryta]

Thanks a lot! Will try and order some on Amazon.

Best,
Cat Mom

 

[maggiedemi]

One more thing, are your cats on a monthly flea treatment? Are they dewormed every 3 to 6 months? Fleas and worms can also affect appetite.

 

[Amryta]

They are on a quarterly flea and deworming treatment. Though I must confess that I'm a month behind schedule on the female's deworming, since she just got off anti-biotics for a chronic infection, in April. Will deworm her today itself.

Meanwhile the food I'd ordered from Amazon came in, she ate it with gusto for a day, and now she's back to her fussy ways, just licks off the water / gravy in the food. Will check if there's any improvement once the deworming meds are administered.

Thanks for your support.

Best,
Cat Mom

 

[maggiedemi]

Amryta- how is it going with the food you ordered? My cats have decided that they don't like Whiskas anymore. So we are down to just the Purina brands, Sheba Cuts, and the occasional Meow Mix Tender Favorites. I wish you had Purina products where you live, I feel sure there would be something Sera would like, they have so many types and flavors.

 

[Amryta]

Amryta- how is it going with the food you ordered? My cats have decided that they don't like Whiskas anymore. So we are down to just the Purina brands, Sheba Cuts, and the occasional Meow Mix Tender Favorites. I wish you had Purina products where you live, I feel sure there would be something Sera would like, they have so many types and flavors.

Dear Maggie,

Sera's appetite has recovered significantly. I introduced some variety in the form of Tiki Cat poultry and Sheba tuna. She rejected poultry, but took to Tuna immediately, mixed in her Royal Canin wet food. At the same time, the vet prescribed a syrup for inappetence, both these together seemed to have worked, with her appetite going up to 75-85% of normal.

Thank you so much for your support and your kind suggestions. BTW I will order some Purina from Amazon, hope she likes it My Sera baby is eating, cat mommy is happy

BTW I found this really informative document on Lisa Pierson's site regarding nutritional analysis of the leading cat food brands. Do take a look when possible, if you haven't seen it already:

http://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf

Best,
Amryta

 

[maggiedemi]

That's great! Which Sheba did she like, the Cuts or the Pate? My cats like the Cuts best. They'll only eat the pate if it's in the cans, not the plastic. But the cans are getting harder to find.

 

[Amryta]

That's great! Which Sheba did she like, the Cuts or the Pate? My cats like the Cuts best. They'll only eat the pate if it's in the cans, not the plastic. But the cans are getting harder to find.

Here, they only have the cuts. Plus I also ordered Royal Canin from Amazon, the formula in the US seems to be different and Sera took to it too. Bottom line, she is a fussy cat who prefers variety in her food.

Hope your cats overcome their Whiskas aversion soon

 

[maggiedemi]

Nope, not going to buy Whiskas again. I bought the multipacks that had 3 or 4 of each flavor and they kept rejecting them. It was a waste of money. So I'll just stick to Friskies, Fancy Feast, Purina One, Purina Pro Plan and Sheba. They like a few of the Meow Mix tender favorites, but they hate the Chicken & Liver one. I'm keeping a list of the ones they consistently eat.

 

[Jade Angel Pearce]

I feel your pain. My one cat Tiny has always been supper fussy. It's a struggle to keep her on a 50/50 wet and dry diet because she just doesn't like wet food. The only non grocery stores and wet food I've found that she likes is wild calling chicken or turkey and even they only eats about 50% of her meal at a time (I feed a 1/4 can per meal). She eats more if I mix the food with warm water so it's more of a soup. But still depends on her mood.

I'm not much help lol but the struggle is real. Just keep trying foods and try dry food if you're concerned about her not eating enough.