Very frustrated with cat not eating

[Love4himies]

Well I am extremely frustrated with my miss royal highness Puddles. She must change to a low phosporus, low calcium diet, no choice, her health demands it.

Well I have tried Wellness, Natural Balance, California Natural, Felidae, and NV Instinct. The first time I fed her NV Instinct (which was the last product I tried), chicken, she loved it, ate hers, ate Jaspers, great, finally I found one she likes! Then I tried her with the Beef, she ate that OK too the first time. Well for the last couple of days she decided she is not going to eat it, no way, it is only good for trying to bury! So I tried mixing her all time favourite Fancy Feast to tempt her with the Instinct. No still not good enough, she wants to go back to her old kibble. So then I tried mixing 50% of her old kibble with some NV Instinct kibble that I bought. Nope, not good enough.

Her life long routine is she gets fed canned twice a day, which she eats immediately, and is left kibble to munch on through the day. She is usually a great eater of canned, but the previous products are too high in phosphorus and she just can't eat it any longer.

She has always been very lean and I am so worried about her not eating. What do you suggest to be my next steps with this stubborn cat? She is 11 and her bloodwork is indicating that she will probably soon be having kidney problems and vet has said she needs to change her diet.

[sugarcatmom]

What happens if you take away the kibble during the day? It's possible that with continuous snacking, she's not hungry enough when you offer the canned food. Is there a treat that she really goes nuts for? You could try grinding some up (or even use her old favourite kibble) and sprinkling it on top of the wet. When my cat decides he doesn't want to eat a particular variety of canned (usually after I've bought a case of it ), I dust his food with some powdered freeze-dried chicken (Halo Liv-a-Littles or Real Food Toppers) and suddenly it becomes interesting again.

[Love4himies]

Thanks Sugarcatmom, but she is not eating the kibble either. I took away her not very good kibble and replaced it with a mixture of her not so good and NV Instinct, she won't touch it. I even mixed her NV Instinct with Fancy Feast, her all time favourite food, but no way. It can't be that she doesn't like Instinct, she ate the first can I bought for her and in fact loved the first can. She is driving me crazy.

Where do you purchase the powdered freeze dried chicken, I would like to try that little trick?

[Love4himies]

Oh I forgot to add. She is hungry, she has her own feeding room (it's like a walk through closet from the kitchen to the laundry room) and she goes in there, looks at the food dish, looks at me, looks at her food dish, sniffs her food dish, looks at me and says, "hey cook/maid/caregiver don't you have anything better to feed me?"

[want4rain]

if you ever figure it out, ill be watching. we have the same issue with Shadow.

-ash

[sugarcatmom]

Originally Posted by Love4himies

Where do you purchase the powdered freeze dried chicken, I would like to try that little trick?

This is what the Halo website says about availability:

Where to Find Halo Products
You can find Halo, Purely for Pets Products at Whole Foods Markets, Petco, Wild Oats Stores, Vitamin Shoppe or your local Health Food and Pet Stores. Or, you can always call us at us at 800-426-4256 and we will be happy to locate a store near you.

Not sure if that helps for your area.

As for the Real Food Toppers, their store locator doesn't have any info for Canada . I've only ever found them at one pet food store here in Calgary. It might be the kind of thing you have to get your friendly neighborhood store to order in for you.

What about Benny Bully's? They make freeze-dried liver, clam and chicken hearts and might be easier to find.

[Love4himies]

Thanks Sugarcatmom, I asked at the pet food store where I purchase my cat food and they would like to know the manufacturer too. They think your idea is wonderful and would like to carry it for those cat owners who are having problems switching cat foods.

[Frenchy]

I feed mine kibble mixt with a bit (about a talblespoon) of canned food and I add warm water to it all. It makes a kind of soup , and they love it. Maybe she would like it ?

[Love4himies]

growler, you are right, they are exactly the same!! Have to e-mail them to ask about it. I am sure I read many times that dog and cat nutritional requirements were very different.

[growler~GateKeeper]

From everything I've heard yes dogs & cats do have different nutritional needs especially taurine for cats - however I guess in the 95% meat there isn't a difference why I don't know

I don't know about feeding them this as a primary diet or whether it should be just used as supplemental meals ie 1-2 times a week

and like I said a member of another forum feeds her cats solely the dogfood version of ? brand because they have the same ingredients & nutritional analysis

The lady from the supply store also mentions she has customers who feed Evo 95% meat dogfood varieties to her cat

Let me know what the response is you get from Evo

[growler~GateKeeper]

L4H - I picked up 2 cans of 95% Venison dogfood Duffy was not impressed with it. She has never had venison before so it might just be that, though when I mixed it with the Wellness beef & chicken she finished it

good luck w/ Puddles

[Love4himies]

I picked up the 95% beef Wellness dog food on Friday and gave some to Puddles and her reaction was priceless. She sniffed, look at me and started backing up as if to say "What are you doing feeding me dog food, do you not realize who I am?", so she got some rare top sirloin steak instead. Much more to her standard.

She is eating Wellness Turkey and Chicken flavours quite well now. Got her a water fountain, but haven't seen her drink out of it yet. She is not much of a water drinker anyway and I have continued to syringe 3.5-7 ml of water in her mouth daily.

Her energy levels continue to improve with the higher quality food and her gums appear pinker.

[growler~GateKeeper]

I think we have a pair of "Princess Divas" on our hands for sure

Duffy will only eat the Evo 95% Vension if mixed w/Wellness but now she has decided she doesn't really like the Wellness Turkey wouldn't you know - the lowest phos of the 3 W varieties she's getting