She's Repelled By The Food

[EmmiTemmi]

If FortiFlora fails too, do you guys have any other suggestions?

My very picky boy does great when I crush and sprinkle Instinct Raw Boost Mixers on his food. Just one little piece sprinkled over the whole dish of raw gets him to eat every last drop. I don't understand it, but I don't question it. I've also, in the past, sprinkled PureBites freeze dried chicken over his food. I know you said you've tried toppers, but have you tried either of those?

 

[sabrinah]

I've tried the Instinct and found she likes Stella and Chewy far better. S&C doesn't get her to eat it. She doesn't like Purebites of any variety. I also tried another freeze dried brand, I think it was called Vital Essentials or something, and she refused that too.

 

[sabrinah]

The FortiFlora won't be delivered until April 3. My next idea is maybe she's getting a little tired of the food since she didn't usually eat this much chicken before (a lot of chicken flavors went on sale) and I didn't want to buy more food because she already had more than I have space for. She still has a lot but I can grab a few cans of something different and see if she'll eat that with homemade mixed in.

 

[sabrinah]

Well, I switched foods (still has some chicken but also has a different type of fish and is a different brand) and that in conjunction with tough love is getting her to grudgingly eat. 1/2 of her usual amount of wet mixed with a dime-sized amount of homemade is all she gets until she clears her bowl (or until it's sat out over an hour), and then she can have the rest of her wet and dry. It won't work as well during the week because I don't have time to wait her out in the mornings before giving her the rest of her food, but hopefully, she'll still get the idea. She's definitely pretty upset with me but maybe when the FortiFlora shows up she'll be less angry about eating it. If I can ever get her to eat a couple raw meals a week I'll be ecstatic and I'll finally be comfortable ordering a full bag of Alnutrin.

 

[sabrinah]

FortiFlora has failed me. It's not kitty crack.

I even tried remaking the food with all raw instead of my partial bake gone wrong but I think it made it worse

 

[sabrinah]

I think she realized that if she waits long enough I'll eventually toss the food with the raw in it (or feed it to the dog) and give her the food she wants. I don't know how to work around it without starving her or wasting food. I really am not ok with wasting food, regardless of who's it is. I couldn't tell you the number of awful things I've eaten in the name of not throwing food away. My cat is stuck with the same rule. My dog will eat literally anything so it doesn't really count with him.

I've been giving her the canned/raw mix, waiting an hour and a half, then tossing it (or giving it to the dog) and giving her just canned. Sometimes she eats the mix, sometimes she doesn't. She absolutely will not even consider eating it unless it's been there an hour. If I keep taking it away, putting it in the refrigerator, and bringing it back she'll never eat it. It's not a temperature thing either because I've tried both cold and warmed. She eats her canned cold anyway, so I doubt she has any kind of temperature preference. I've been trying to put her dry out later (ideally after she's eaten the canned) but she likes to eat them together (one bite of canned, then a bite of dry, then a few more bites of canned, then more dry...) and will often refuse to eat (or go beg for ham and turkey from everyone else) until her dry is out and she can eat both at the same time. This is so frustrating! I tried putting the canned/raw mix out (and just raw) with her dry and she, of course, turned her nose up at the mix and just ate dry until I gave her straight canned. Just about the only time she'll eat the mix is if it's no more than 1/3 raw. Any more than that and she won't touch it, even if it's covered in FortiFlora. Am I supposed to stick with this tiny amount forever? It's not even 1/3 with her total canned she gets per meal, it's only 1/2 the canned.

 

[jen]

I didn't read the whole thread but I have a picky cat who will beg for food and I will put it down and she walks away, I just leave it and she will eventually eat it, usually overnight. I feed canned and raw.

 

[sabrinah]

If it's a canned food she doesn't want to eat (but doesn't make her sick) I leave it out. If she gives in and eats it, yay! If she doesn't, she's getting it again and again until the can is empty whether she likes it or not.

I hear such mixed information about how long to leave raw out for! Some say 20 minutes, some say 30 minutes, others say no more than an hour, and I've even read some that say all day and the cats really like it when parts get dry and crunchy. I can't figure out what's safe! I would love it if I could just mix her full amount of canned with an ever-increasing amount of raw and just leave it there until she eats it or until next meal time. I'm pretty positive she would start eating with zero fuss within a few days. She would still get a bit of dry (no more than a quarter cup a day) so she wouldn't be totally starving, but she would be hungry enough to eat the raw.

 

[lavishsqualor]

My very picky boy does great when I crush and sprinkle Instinct Raw Boost Mixers on his food. Just one little piece sprinkled over the whole dish of raw gets him to eat every last drop. I don't understand it, but I don't question it. I've also, in the past, sprinkled PureBites freeze dried chicken over his food. I know you said you've tried toppers, but have you tried either of those?

I do the same thing! My cats LOVE the rabbit ones!

 

[sophie1]

Sabrinah, it sounds like you've made progress: your kitty is now eating some raw, yay! BTW, I let my cats graze on raw, and you can definitely leave it out. I've left it out up to 24 hours with no problems (x 5 years now).

I suggest trying not to switch up food because your cat will definitely hold out for the canned. Just mix the raw with canned, leave it out and let your cat finish it on her own. Put an ice pack underneath if it takes her a while. Then gradually increase the raw portion.

Still think it would be useful for you to try introducing her to raw one ingredient at a time. What happens if you feed her just the ground chicken meat with nothing added?

 

[sabrinah]

I do the same thing! My cats LOVE the rabbit ones!

I'm so jealous of everyone who can successfully use toppers!

Sabrinah, it sounds like you've made progress: your kitty is now eating some raw, yay! BTW, I let my cats graze on raw, and you can definitely leave it out. I've left it out up to 24 hours with no problems (x 5 years now).

I suggest trying not to switch up food because your cat will definitely hold out for the canned. Just mix the raw with canned, leave it out and let your cat finish it on her own. Put an ice pack underneath if it takes her a while. Then gradually increase the raw portion.

Still think it would be useful for you to try introducing her to raw one ingredient at a time. What happens if you feed her just the ground chicken meat with nothing added?

You have no idea how happy it makes me hearing I can just leave the raw out! I'm postive leaving it there and waiting her out will have her eating it without resistance in a week max. Last week I tried the separate components. Plain chicken she'll eat a little bit of without a fuss, but she seems to still not be used to the texture. She eats it perfectly fine if its mixed with canned. Liver she absolutely avoids if its alone, but she'll eat a mix of half liver, half canned. The liver also doesn't grind up super small in my meat grinder which she doesn't like. I'll have to run the liver through multiple times next time so it hopefully doesn't have any chunks.

 

[sophie1]

Sabrinah, any luck?? Sounds like your plan A with leaving raw food out is the way to go....fingers crossed for a smooth transition!

 

[sabrinah]

The first night of leaving it out forever with only a small amount of raw she took about 8 hours to start eating and it wasn't finished by the next meal. She started the next meal about 2 hours after I put it down, but didn't finish until I put some Stella and chewy on top. Last night and this morning all food was eaten within 2 hours of giving it to her! I do have to put S&C on the liver chunks to get her to eat them, but I'm hoping if next time I run the liver through the grinder twice I won't have any chunks.

I don't know when to start reducing her dry/canned to make room for the raw. Right now I'm just adding half a bone (I froze the raw in dog bone treat molds...one bone is about 35 grams) to each meal and not reducing anything. She's older, I don't care if she gains a little weight. I actually wouldn't mind it because I don't like how much I can feel her spine, even though her weight is technically perfect. She ate the entire wet part of her breakfast within an hour, so for dinner, I'm going to increase the raw to 3/4 of a bone. She's always been a really good self-regulator, so maybe I should keep feeding the same amount of wet/dry, increase the raw, and wait to see when she stops finishing it or has a lot of dry left at the next meal before reducing anything? Her canned is 1/4 of a 5.5 oz can per meal btw. I'm hoping I can get her to a whole bone (or paw, 30g) with 1/8 can wet, then get her eating half her meals raw while we work through the rest of her cans.

 

[sabrinah]

3/4 bone of raw, 1/4 can of wet, and ZERO HESITATION! SHE EVEN PREFERS IT OVER HER DRY!!!!!!
She ate 1/3 of the bowl within 5 minutes! She's taking a break now, which is normal for her since she prefers to graze and this is A LOT of food. I should probably wait until she finishes the bowl to celebrate, but each time she's willing to eat just a little bit more raw I get so darn happy!

 

[sophie1]

Wow that's great news sabrinah!

Sounds like you are all set! If she eats everything within a few hours you shouldn't need to mess around with ice packs. You can add a bit of water to keep it from drying out, if that's a problem. Another tip: after you put out the food and she's eaten a bit, play with her. My cats eating is a signal that they want to play, either with me or each other, and afterwards they go eat some more. I also notice that before they start an eat/play/eat cycle, they go nibble on plants first. Seems like a more natural system than making them eat large meals on a tight schedule.

Once she's eating chicken reliably, you might want to think about trying her on different proteins. What's easily accessible? Pork is usually well liked by cats and it's reasonably cheap if you get a big hunk and carve it up yourself.

 

[sabrinah]

I would love to play with her but she's decided she's too old for that. I gave away over 20 toys a few months ago that she hasn't touched in years, and just spent $20 on more toys she's not amused with. After she eats, she sleeps. Before she eats, she sleeps. Pretty sure if she could sleep while eating she would do that too. The only time she isn't sleeping is when she's walking to another sleeping spot, looking out the window, or yelling at me to get her food together quicker.

I did discover 3/4 of a bone and 1/4 can is more than she can eat, so she's getting 3/4 of a bone and 1/8 can. I think that's a little more raw than canned.

Once she's solid on chicken about all there is to try here is pork and beef. Beef would only be during an amazing sale. Around Thanksgiving maybe I'll be able to find turkey, but it's not currently anywhere around here. I found one place with frozen rabbits but they're nearly $40 for a full (pretty dang small) rabbit. It's also $40 for a few pounds of duck so that's never happening. Her protein variety is mainly going to come from the S&C freeze dried since I prefer to feed way more variety than the 3 proteins I can get.

 

[sophie1]

It would interesting if your kitty starts to get more energetic on her new diet.

Why don't you ask your favorite grocery store if they'd be willing to carry frozen turkey? Also keep in mind that freeze dried cat food runs ~$10/lb (equivalent of fresh) for chicken, and more than that for other proteins - actually given your financial situation, you might get a real shock if you calculate how much that stuff actually costs. You might do better ordering online, if you can squeeze a minimum order size into your freezer. You'll be able to get several proteins for no worse than $7/lb with shipping, to which you can add locally purchased chicken to dilute the bone content (so feeding cost will actually be lower).

Example: Hare Today rabbit is $6/lb, add $1 shipping (guesstimate) for a minimum 10 lb order ==> $7/lb
It's 15% bone, so you want to add 1/2 lb boneless chicken per 1 lb chub. If the chicken is $4/lb, the combined cost is $6/lb, plus a few pennies for supplements. That's less than half the cost of S&C freeze dried rabbit.

 

[sabrinah]

I get one small shelf in the freezer for both the animals and myself, so ordering meat isn't an option. I won't even be able to make a full month of food at once. I can fit about 4 pounds of cat food on the shelf, that's it. An additional freezer is not an option. S&C is more of a regular treat type thing, not meals. If I could afford meals I wouldn't make my own cat food! She gets about 2-4 nuggets a day of various flavors, so a 3.5 oz bag (which is the same price at the local feed store as on Chewy!) lasts multiple months. I also try to get other proteins besides chicken in her dry food. At the very least I make sure she gets turkey regularly, duck, and (every once in a while) salmon. My local feed store is super generous with the free samples, so I snag whatever looks interesting, and then they usually insist you take multiples to really make sure your cat likes it. She's trying all kinds of brands, flavors, and proteins thanks to that place! Eventually, I'll settle on a couple more to add on to her current rotation of 3 brands/ 4 flavors of dry.

If this was any other city I'm sure asking the grocery store to carry turkey would work, but this ridiculous county is terrified of change. I could go on a rant for hours and hours about it. They don't change things here. If they don't have it it's because the locals don't want it, and no one new really moves here to stay, it's just temporary. Heck, I'm bailing in a year and a half, provided I find a way to pay for grad school. Can you tell I'm a bit bitter about this place?

 

[sabrinah]

Ok I'm kinda confused about how much to feed her. She's eating straight raw with minimal attitude but I think I'm feeding too much.

She gets 1/4 cup of dry a day, which is about 99 calories. She also usually gets 1/2 can of canned food, which is 66-101 calories depending on the brand/flavor. Every night she gets Greenies, so that's about 7 calories. If she finishes all her food before bed and is still hungry (generally the days with the lighter calorie cans) she gets more dry food or freeze-dried, which is at least another 45 calories. So her usual daily calories are 207-217. I've always felt this was a little low but any more than this and she doesn't finish her food. She's sedentary, sleeps all day and only moves to yell at me during meal time, so this amount maintains her around 12.5 pounds which is a good weight for her. When I use raw instead of canned I've been giving her 2 bones, so 70 grams or 2.47 ounces per meal. This seems like a bit much? Others who feed only raw have said they feed 4-5 ounces a day, but I've been giving my cat nearly 5 ounces plus 1/4 cup of dry and she's eating it all. She does self-regulate, so if there's too much food she just won't eat it. Is the raw just not filling her up? I know she's not eating so much because she likes it. I get a dirty look every time I give it to her since she's still not impressed with the texture. I was expecting to have to feed more if the raw gives her an energy boost (hasn't happened yet), but that would be an excessive amount of food at this rate.

 

[sophie1]

It does sound like something isn't adding up. 5 oz raw should be more nutritious than a 5.5 oz can. How much water did you use in the batch, and are you sure about the weight of each of your "bones"? And is she visibly gaining weight?

Another factor may be the amount of fat in the food. Cats need more fat than we're used to thinking of as "healthy". Is the meat you're using skinless as well as boneless, and did you trim off any fat? For the next batch you might want to include thighs or drumsticks that you debone yourself, so you can include more skin and fat.