My cat is a much loved, but very fussy, member of our family.
The problem is her eating - or not eating - habits. She is 13 months old and she LOVES either Friskies or Whiskas brand Kitten dry food. I tried a more expensive dry food and she wouldnt eat it.
But with regards to wet food she will like something one day, but then turn her nose up at it. We have tried every brand, every flavour, expensive, cheap, everything....
I am thinking maybe I should just buy her chicken fillets or sardines or something? Either that or ditch wet food and buy some eukanuba dry food or similar vet brand.
I got mine onto chicken wings, chicken necks, ( can get cheap at butcher good for their teeth) also gave them a drumstick bone every once in a while and fresh chicken meat. Also tinned tuna, sardines, salmon ( get plain brand)- they LOVED all of these, I used to buy in bulk once a week, chop up and freeze. Theres a good thread somewhere about raw meaty bones diet for pets.
Some vets don't believe in giving wet food to cats anyway ( Hugh Worth I think is one) and apparently it is ok for them to just have dry food. I can't cope with that idea though.
My cat won't eat wet food. Even if she's hungry she turns her nose up at it. WE just feed her kibble and she seems to be ok with that.
At 13 months she could probably move off the kitten onto an adult cat food so maybe get a vet brand kibble for her or even just a better quality supermarket one (FYI Purina and Friskies are owned by Nestle).
Saffy, a small amount of tuna as an occasional treat is ok but if cats eat it regularly it's quite bad for them.
I would ditch the supermarket stuff and just go with a professional brand. Eventually your cat will have to fold and just eat it. you can start by mixing half and half with whiskettes or whatever, then gradually reduce it until its only the vet stuff. chuck in ghe occasional raw chicken wing for dental health. The problem with fussiness is that it could over time limit the range of nutrients your puss is getting. When I was feeding my cat fresh food I gave her lots of variety (yes this included some veg too) but I don't have a lot of faith that the supermarket brands contain quality nutrition. Our Puss is on a vet dry food, has been now for several years. She's kicking on towards 20 years old so we must be ding something right.
n2l if you have access to rabbit paws, my vet also suggests those, my cat only gets those if/when I buy a whole rabbit for cooking, the butcher de-paws the rabbit for me. Mine is not a big raw chicken wing fan, but it is good for their teeth.
My cat is a dry food eater, will get treat meals regularly but those aren't pet food ones, she will get some steak cut up, or a small tin of tuna, or a bit of whatever we are eating. She does steal strange things off plates, caught her yesterday eating a snow pea.
Over the years we only give her Professional brand dry cat food. Most of the wet foods have alot of preservatives and can be too rich for their tummy's. She is currently on a science diet oral care adult dry food only (not senior as she needs to gain some weight).
I think Mylitta used to work as a Vet Nurse. She is great with this sort of advice.
Our two cats are on dry food only and they're very healthy kitties! They love can food but we only give as treats or if they need medicines. I don't think they need wet food but a lot of people feel sorry for their pet only eating dry, so depends on you... as others have said try to get a premium dry and mix it with the friskies or whiskas that she loves and take it from there.
My previous cat loved kangaroo mince, but the vet told us not to buy ones for cats (has some preservative), Coles used to sell packets meant for human consumption and that worked well! But seriously SO much easier just feeding dry lol.
My vet recommended a dry food only diet for my extremely fussy cat, he was approx 10 months at the time. Now about 4 months later I have started fostering kittens through SAFE, so have wet kitten food in the house again, and surprise surprise, Mr Fuss Pot has started eating the wet food!
As Marydean mentioned, I would try change her food gradually if you were to opt for a vet brand dry food.
I also buy tinned tuna in no name brand occasionally for my fussy one and she loves it (so does the maltesex). She mostly will only eat anything from a purple tin or satchet! I'm not sure that the benefits of the expensive pet/vet shop food outway the high costs and my cat didn't really like it anyway - I couldn't face throwing away such expensive food.
I have a fussy cat too. She won't eat any dry food at all, the only tinned food she will eat is Whiskas casserole or mince. She LOVES tinned tuna. I tried her on chicken wings and necks but she'll only eat cooked chicken.
Our cat was like that. The only things she'd always eat were chicken necks and kangaroo mince (that cheap stuff - not the stuff you get to make burgers with).
Got me SO frustrated, because when we got wet food, she'd inhale the first time we got it, and then completely refuse to eat it the next few times, and then love it again. Temperamental little puss.
Absolutely no rhyme or reason. Sometimes she'd *only* eat casserole, then she'd refuse anything but fish, then she wouldn't eat anything so we'd try a jellymeat out of desperation, and she'd eat that. Once. And then the rest of the tin would go to the dogs because she wouldn't eat it anymore ...
And another tip - feed them at night time, when they would normally be active finding food (in the wild). Once a day. That way, they either eat or they're very hungry the next day when the food window opens again.
That's one of the other benefits of the vet dry food - they eat a smaller quantity (because there's less filler) and if they don't eat it one day it's still "fresh" the next, so there's no wastage (unless your naughty little dog sneaks in and woofs it down).
Our cat only has dry food - for years and years he was on Science diet (whatever was applicable for his age/weight) recently we have had to change to Royal Canine brand as they are the only one that make a hypoallergenic as he suffers from blood in his stools with the other brands now.
It costs around $65-$70 for a bag of food but as he only has 1/2 - 3/4 cup per day we find a bag lasts a long long time, plus you don't have the issue in hot weather of having wet cat food out for the ants to find.
Fussy cat
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