Hi, Pat –

Well, I have a cat that is a picky eater but certainly not as bad as your kitty.

My weird cat actually prefers dry food to canned or cooked food.

You know, not too many years ago, the prevailing thought was that cats had to have some “predigested protein”. What ever happened to THAT theory?

Anyway, my cat is 9 years old, and for the last couple of years, he won’t touch anything that is too COLD. I have found only 3 flavors of cat food that he will eat. He will not touch cooked beef, chicken or turkey. He will eat leftover canned food from the refrigerator but only if I warm it to at least room temperature (about 69 degrees).

If I store the unopened canned food in a cupboard that is too cold, he won’t eat that ether.

He has a ceramic bowl, and I just put very hot water in it, let it sit, then wipe it out and put the cold food in there. I spread it around on the bottom so the bowl warms up the food. I’ve used the microwave on occasion, too, but try not to do that.

I have no idea if this could be the problem with your kitty, but it is possible that he has developed sensitive teeth or maybe indigestion from cold food. This is just a guess.

The only other thought I had is that you may be allowing him to eat too much at one time when there is something he really likes. I do “free feed” with the dry food, but limit the amount of wet food my cats get every day. If your kitty ate too much of a certain food and got major indigestion or nausea, perhaps he now associates that food with feeling bad, not the fact that he made a pig out of himself. Again, this is just a guess.

One other thought is that your kitty’s intestinal flora may have become imbalanced from the antibiotics he received recently. I don’t know how often that happens, but I sure know that my dog’s digestion has improved with the 2 T. a day of Activia/yogurt I give him. I would only cost you $2.40 to get some Activia and see if he will eat it. If not, you can eat it yourself. My pets won’t eat the plain stuff, and yes, there is sugar in there, but you may be able to make adjustments with that later. And once the good bacteria get “implanted” in the intestine, this could become a periodic thing rather than a daily thing. Once again, just an idea.

I sure don’t want you to give up your cat, but I understand your frustration.

Tracy

Hello Tracy

Well as othis morning I'm convinced the problem is me. I'm adding to his spoilness by changing his food to something else.

This morning he woke me up begging for food. He was determined to wake me up no matter what. But not just any food. He wants more of the Fancy cat food I gave him last night. He ate the whole can by himself without any help from me. He left a couple of scraps in the bowl last night which were gone this morning. I've never seen him eat any scraps of anything before. So he found another food he likes FOR NOW and until when?

This morning I gave him some other canned food, but he won't eat it. I gurantee you that if I offer him the Fancy brand can food he will gobble it right up just as he did last night. He reminds me too much of my brothers when I was growing up. They wouldn't eat anything but hamburgers and hotdogs. They used to have a paper route and spoiled their eating habits permanently. I think to this day over 20 years later they still live off only hot dogs and hamburgers. Glad I don't live with them cause they'd probably have me running to the store or Fast food restaurant EVERY day same as this kitten.

I sure which someone else could share with me how long they have left their cat without eating before he will eat whatever they put in front of his face. Eventually, I will be forced to let him starve himself. I mean there are only so many different kinds of food out there.

The good thing is that this morning his dry food plate was cleaned so so far he is still eating the dried food.

I will have no choice but to try to get him another home or I might have to deal with watching himself starve to death.

For now I'm not going to worry about him. He is playful and energetic and peppy. It's a shame because he is such an outgoing personality kitten. I love being around him. He is so uplifting.

Apparently, the vet has some probiotics for me to pick up. I will see if I can get some information from the vet techs there today about dealing with this kitten's eating habits.

Pat, the reason you kitten is eating the Fancy brand food is that it is mostly MEAT. Not a bunch of fillers. It fills him up and doesn't upset his tummy.

Do you know what happens when you feed a cat dry food? They eat it. It goes into their stomachs and sits there until they drink water before it digests. If they don't drink water the dry food will actually pull moisture out to the cat's body. The stomach and intestines of a cat have to add moisture to the dry to digest it.
Cats are NOT big water drinkers to begin with. They depend on their food for most of their moisture intake. If you only feed dry food it will eventually mess up their tummies. You kitten is trying to tell you something here if you will listen to him. He wants MEAT, not grains, not veggies, not fruit. Meat. It is what cats need to survive and live a healthy life.
A dog can survive for a few years eating dry food without too many health issues but a cat can not. If you feed the wrong food, they can get very sick, can develope bladder stones that can lodge in their urethias...which is not only very painful, it can mean big bucks at the vets.

If people would just feed species appropriate diets then the vet bills will diminish to next to nothing. WHY? Because your animal will be healthy.

Regardless of the hype the pet food industry puts out, their **** in a bag or can is not healthy nor is it nutritionally correct. Sooner or later the animal will get fatty tumors from eating the wrong food, or cancer of the stomach or some other cancer. It is caused by eating inappropriate food.

Your kitten is trying to tell you to feed it meat. That is what it needs and wants. He is not being picky, he is only trying to survive.
Please go to the links I provided and read. Also read the link that Dillweed provided. Cats need MEAT, organs and some bones that are soft enough for it to chew.

And it doesn't have to cost a bunch. I do not pay anymore now for my pets food than I did when I was buying the expensive commercial food. My animals don't need their teeth cleaned once a year. You don't even need to buy all the suppliments if you feed raw.

To switch over to raw simply mix a small amount of ground meat (chicken, beef, pork, turkey ect) into their wet canned food. Keep increasing the amount until it is just raw food. It's not that hard to do. Raw meats take a little while for them to adjust to because there is very little smell to it when it is fresh. (do not feed old meat) But once they get used to it they will beg you for it. Their coats will shine, their eyes will be bright, no smelly breath, teeth pretty white, smaller poops with little to no smell.

Please go to the links and read. It works, they love it and they will love you for it.
People will ask you what you feed your pet. They won't believe how healthy your pet is. And your pet will live a longer, happier life.

I fully agree with WiseOwl`s post !

Wim

__________________
Homeopath for people and animals.
(Sorry, Wim no longer works here.)

My cat will only eat 1 flavor of the Fancy Feast foods, so I don’t believe it is just a meat thing. There are certain meats he just won’t touch, whether it is canned stuff or otherwise. He is not interested in raw chicken or raw beef or raw liver. And I don’t think it is just a “meat” thing going on with Pat’s kitty, either. I know that can happen, but I just think there is something else here at play.

How come Pat’s kitty wasn’t interested in the ground beef?

William, is there a possibility that Pat’s kitty could have some kind of intestinal parasite (worms) or bacterial overgrowth going on?

Every 2 or 3 years, my dog will get either worms or some kind of bacterial thing going on. I believe this is because he insists upon eating stuff like deer droppings and heaven knows what else when I am able to take him out walking in the country.

When this happens, my dog’s appetite is often affected – one day he is very hungry, and the next he doesn’t want to eat at all. So I gather up a stool sample and off to the vet I go with the sample to see what might be growing in there.

Just a thought.

Tracy

Yes, Tracy that would be possible but I suppose the kitten has been properly wormed.

As for bacterial overgrowth we should first have a look at the action of the intestines when absorbing food. A cat has a very short intestinal tract and the intestines in a healthy cat are lined with hair-like fingers that absorb the nutrients and moisture from the digesting food and there`s a very delicate balance of good bacteria (or flora) and bad bacteria in the intestines and the slightest change in a cat`s diet can upset this balance tremendously ! The good bacteria help to break the food down into something that the hair-like fingers can suck out of the intestines and into the blood stream. Bad bacteria are always present but in a normal situation they are kept in check. Some causes of the increase of bad bacteria may come from not properly cleaning (sterilizing) the feeding bowl/other utensils or from leaving the food out too long. Twenty to thirty minutes is already too long ! Sometimes our hands/garments aren`t clean/sterile enough, etc. Bacterial overgrowth is actually the number one killer of (very) young kittens.

So both intestinal parasites/worms and bacterial overgrowth may influence a kitten`s appetite !

In case of doubt it`s always best to have a stool sample examined by the vet.

Wim

__________________
Homeopath for people and animals.
(Sorry, Wim no longer works here.)

Thanks, William – good information.

I always tell my cat that if he doesn’t eat his canned food right away, that I will give it to the dog. And I do. And if the cat won’t eat what is offered, well he can go eat his kibble (which he prefers anyway, for some reason.) That way, there is never food lying around in dishes for very long.

I’m really hoping that my dog will have fewer problems with bacterial overgrowth in the future now that he is getting his good flora better balanced in his intestines. I’ll have to wait for spring to find out.

Tracy

Hello

This kitten will not eat left overs under any circumstances.

If I even want to get him to eat anything, it has to be a freshly opened can. I am now in the habit of popping it opened right in front of his face so that the smell pops up his nose.

I agree that it isn't entirely a meat thing because he will no longer eat the home made chicken I make for my dog and he no longer eats my dog's dried food which he used to eat all the day and night. He will not eat the freshly cooked salmon either. Today, I am going to buy some fresh salmon for breakfast and i am going to offer him some raw.

He seems to be a lot like me. I have to eat the same thing every day for about a week and then I get so sick of it and then I have to switch to something different. Every day the same food for another week and then I have to switch.

The difference with the kitten is that he will not go back to eating the same food that he ate back in September/October when he first came to live here.

He is still being a finicky eater. For now I'm not going to worry about it as he is being himself and is healthy otherwise. If he gets to the point of not eating anything, then I will just have to let him starve himself to death. Force feeding is not going to do him any good but possibly make him vomit if he has no desire for the awful food. It is awful food to him. If I give him away, I will only be making someone else watch him starve himself.

He woke me up again this morning determined to wake me up to feed him. His dry food bowl was cleaned. He is in the habit of waking up in the middle of the night to eat so I make sure to leave him some dry food. This morning he ate some of the dry food but very little and I offered him left over food from last night but he won't touch it.

So I will need to open a brand new can of food to try to get him to eat. I have been trying to wait until after 8 a.m. to feed him canned food in hopes that he will be more hungry.

I bought several cans of the Fancy Feast canned food. All of the cans say they have wheat glutten except the one he likes the most. His favorite Fancy Feast does not have any grains in it at all.

Today, I'm going to find him some Neutro's canned food which may have less chemicals in it. He may be sensitive to the chemicals. So I am going to find something with less chemicals and mostly meat.

My dog would never eat anything that had too many chemicals in it.

I wish I knew if it was ok to feed him only every other day that way by the time I opened a new can of food he would it it instead of ending up in the garbage can.

I have thrown away probably about 50 cans of food by now.

I have been extremely paranoid about giving him anything that is not freshly opened or freshly cooked. I can not take a chance in him getting sick.

I started him on some probiotics yesterday that I got from the vet. It comes in a squeeze tube. It's great because he can't spit it out the gel.

If anyone has any more thought on why he won't eat the same food, let me know.

I don't know how much of the probiotics to give him. Can they be over done? I'm only needing to give him enough to replace the ones destroyed by the antibiotics in the IV when he was hydrated after throwing up.

Thanks for everyone's help on this.

For dosage of probiotics :

http://www.flintriver.com/Probiotics-Liquid-Rescue.htm

Scoll down to Feeding Instructions.

Wim

__________________
Homeopath for people and animals.
(Sorry, Wim no longer works here.)

I don't recall if this has already been discussed, but I wonder if there is something wrong with his sense of smell. Wim, any rubrics for something like that?