New Cat Not Eating

[fionasmom]

Believe me, the fact that you brought her back home is huge for her. She had to have thought that this was one more move when she was just settling in with you. I agree that picking a food and starting her on it is a good idea...and it answers the dry food question. My guess is that if she was owned by an older person who might have been on a fixed income that the food might have been of the moderately priced variety. She may not be that picky either. As you said, her appetite is better as she gets used to her new home, so it all may solve itself.

 

[artiemom]

I remember something a dear friend told me when I took Geoffrey home from his first Vet Visit.

He was so frightened, fearful.. He had lived in 4 different places in a matter of a few weeks. He was extremely anxious.

My dear friend told me, when Geoffrey returned from the Vet appointment: "Now he knows that this is his forever home~~ He returned home. He now knows you will never leave him. He has a home. ".
That struck me as such an astute comment...

I found a change in Geoffrey.. He did realized that I will always be here for him. That he will always come HOME.

 

[Danneq]

I think she's settling in pretty nicely, plus or minus some hiccups. I had to vacuum today and she was not a fan; she spent about five hours hiding in my closet, which she hasn't done since her second day here. I gave her some treats about three hours in, but she didn't want to come out; she finally did when I went in and did cuddles. I was starting to get worried that she wasn't feeling well, but she's acting normal now. Vacuums are very scary!

She's still not eating as much as I would like, but this is perhaps because I am leaving dry food out all of the time. She is eating well enough that I'm not worried about any health crises, but is still only eating about a third of what I think she should be. So, I leave the dry food out so that she can have more calories in between meals and overnight-- but that means she fills up on dry food and so doesn't eat as much wet food. (I completely understand. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has accidentally filled up on bread sticks at a restaurant and ruined my appetite for dinner. )

I'll stay the course for now. I think she's making decent progress, and I want her solidly eating something for when I go on vacation (unfortunately timed, but I'm having my brother and SIL spend some time with her so it's at least not complete strangers looking after her while I'm gone). She has a fountain that she is definitely using (in fact, it was really cute -- I cleaned it the other day and she followed me around looking worried, like, "human, where are you taking my water, I need that!" and thoroughly investigated it once I put it back). We'll work on cutting back the dry food when I'm back.

 

[fionasmom]

It sounds as if you are really making progress! She is bonded to you and the vacuum episode is not at all unusual for most cats and some dogs. I agree about letting her eat the dry food so that you know that she is comfortable with what she is served when you are on vacation and will not have eating problems them. Very cute about the fountain.

 

[Danneq]

Lexi's doing nicely. We survived the vacation with no problems!

Right now I'm struggling to figure out calorie requirements. The food she really latched onto is Tiki Cat Velvet Mousse, and there's apparently only 72-83 calories in one of those pouches? Which is not a lot. The directions say to feed two pouches per 7 lbs of body weight, and Lexi is 9 lbs something, so that's about 2.5 pouches a day, but if I give her a whole pouch at once she doesn't eat it all. It also "looks" like too much food, though what do I know, I'm not a cat nutritionist.

They only sell the pouches in boxes of 12, so each box would last about half a week, and they're not cheap. And it all makes my head spin.

 

[fionasmom]

I do not feed that particular food, and not for any reason at all which suggests that it is not good quality. Their website does say 2-3 pouches per day per 7 lbs of body weight. If you have specific nutrition questions, you could post in that forum.

Thanks for the update! Glad everything went well.