Need Help, My Kitties Won't Eat Their Wet Food Suddenly

[scoochmom]

Hi everyone, I'm writing about my two sibling kitties, Mooshie (girl) and Scoochie (boy), both 11.5 years old.

I've raised them on Fancy Feast, which they've always been fine with. The vet says that cats need 2 cans of food every day, but my guys aren't big on their wet food, so they have always consumed maybe 1-2 cans between the two of them, and then gone for their dry food.

Well, last week, something weird happened. Scoochie suddenly got diarrhea and threw up three times, and started to avoid his wet food as well as the dry food, which he is crazy about. The diarrhea was liquid for about a day. Well, then the day after Scoochie developed his diarrhea, Mooshie came down with the same thing, producing cowpatties for about three days and during that time, threw up once and also started avoiding both wet and dry food.

Whatever happened to them, they did get better, both are producing good sized stools pretty much every day. The problem is they are still not eating enough wet food. They are relying on their dry food for nutrition, which I don't like.

Today I went out and bought a can each of every grain free premium food I could find at Petsmart. I bought Natural Balance, Wellness, Blue, Chicken Soup For The Soul, Authority, Nutrish, Purina Beyond, and a few others. I put out a line of bowls of each premium brand, plus a bowl of their usual Fancy Feast. One by one, each cat sniffed the premium brands, then moved on to the next bowl. Neither one of them would touch the grain free stuff, but when they both got to the Fancy Feast, they both took a few bites and then moved on to the dry stuff.

I'm at my wits end with these guys. I can't get them to eat the good stuff at all. They cry like they are starving for their Fancy Feast, but when I put it down, they only take a few bites and walk away. I really don't know what else to do to make them eat, and I can't imagine what caused the diarrhea and avoidance in the first place.

Does anyone have experience with this sort of thing? Any ideas?

 

[Neo_23]

Hi there - you may find this information from Dr. Lisa Pierson helpful: http://catinfo.org/docs/TipsForTransitioning1-14-11.pdf

 

[LTS3]

I'd keep offering samples of the new canned food for a few more days. Sometimes cats turn their noses at new food at the first smell / sight of it but will eventually give it a try. Leave the samples out overnight. Sometimes cats try new things at night when no one is looking.

You can also try smushing small amounts of new food into the canned Fancy Feast and slowly increase the amount over a couple of days or so. Try one brand at atime. To mask any smell of the new food hidde in the Fancy Feast, you can sprinkled toppers on top. Crushed up freeze dried meat treats, FortiFora, crushed up dry food, Parmesean cheese, tuna juice, etc typically work well.

 

[Elfilou]

Perhaps a bit farfetched, but could it be that they changed the formula of the dry food? This could explain the diarrhea and maybe also their increased want for dry food? Do you leave the dry food out 24/7? Because it's gonna be very hard to get them to try anything else if you're free-feeding.

 

[scoochmom]

Perhaps a bit farfetched, but could it be that they changed the formula of the dry food? This could explain the diarrhea and maybe also their increased want for dry food? Do you leave the dry food out 24/7? Because it's gonna be very hard to get them to try anything else if you're free-feeding.

Hi, no, I don't free-feed. Before they stopped eating their Fancy Feast, they were getting 4 feedings of wet food a day plus a half-cup of dry fed alongside their wet food feedings.

 

[mosimom]

Pro Plan is practically the same recipe as Fancy Feast. Both Purina.

Crush some of the dry and put it on top of wet foods.
Grated Parmesan cheese could work too.

Can you look on the bottom of the can and give me the numbers?
It will look something like this: 71511600