4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[Cinnamon]

Humph.

 

Chilli my 3 year old half Bengal boy is suddenly refusing to eat the wet food I am putting down for him

I have tried several different brands & flavours - sometimes he will eat it,so I go & buy a box & he starts leaving it again.

He will eat roast chicken or other meats if we have some, & fresh fish, & is still eating plenty of dry food (Iams,Wiskas etc)

 

Is he just being fussy & fickle?

[Nicola H]

My cat is the same Sarah I am for ever having to change her food, then she goes off it again but she won't eat fish or meat, so i just put dried biscuits down for her with the wet food and hope if she is hungry enough she will eat one or the other.... It is a real worry isn't it and very wasteful.

[cloud]

Our old cat, Freddie, use to do this. We concluded that sometimes he was just being fickle. However, sometimes we also wondered if the manufacturer has just change the mix and he was put off by the change in flavour. We weren't going to do a taste test ourselves, so that that was never proven.

 

Whatever the reason he usually started to accept it again in a few days.

[Cinnamon]

Problem with us if that if I leave the wet fodd down, which I hate doing because of the smeall & the flies,the dog snaffles it

 

Its costing me a fortune in chicken at the moment,as its all he seems to want to eat

[..lay a little egg for me]

Ha, ha, He's got you where he wants you!

[Cinnamon]

Yes,that has occured to me too

[The Dogmother]

Sounds like that to me too Sarah, try leaving off the human food and just give him what you want him to eat.

 

Mine get biscuits in the mornign and wet food on top of any left-over biscuits in the evening. Seems to work well for them.

[Lydia]

Is he an older cat? I ask because mine are getting increasingly fussy as they get older - sometimes tuna flavour is fine, sometimes for no reason, it is not. Or sometimes one will eat it and one will not. Other times beef flavour is out of favour, other times it is the best thing ever. They used to eat everything.

 

In her later years my parents' cat would only eat fish and would not touch cat food at all. The result was that their house stank of fish 24/7 and so did the cat!

 

It is annoying and expensive. To be honest, if he'll eat biscuits and the dog isn't keen on those I'd switch to those permanently. As long as there is always water available he shoudl be OK.

[Tessa the Duchess]

I used to buy boxes of mixed pouches for Google and one by one she rejected all but the tuna ones I ended up giving loads of pouches away to a neighbour. All she will eat is tuna pouch food and her dried food, I have tried her with roast chicken, smoked salmon cat treats of all description, she will have none of it....fussy cats!!

 

Tessa

[dancing cloud]

I have to chop and change Loki's food regularly too or the little monkey won't eat it - and he has to see it come out of the cupboard and the pouch being opened

 

Something that he loves one week, he'll leave the next, and I have to watch like a hawk or Cleo then helps herself - needs to lose a pound or two and is not in the least bit picky! Loki even turned his nose up at tuna recently, because it was the other half of a large tin and he'd had it the day before. Tubby Puddy would have killed for it!

 

I'm getting a bit harder now and occasionally just letting Loki go hungry, as otherwise it is very wasteful, even with a bunch of greedy beaks ever eager to hoover up the leftovers. Only problem with that is he then just hangs around under my feet yowling to be fed

 

You could always try a bit of tough love Cinnamon? (and then teach the rest of us how to do it )

[Aunty e]

I'm afraid mine get what they are given, which is generally Iams wet food, with lots of fresh water. The only cat who simply wouldn't eat unless I tempted her was Dilly, which was another reason why she went to live with my mum. The rest of them eat when they get hungry. I do give them wet food as a treat, but only a tiny bit, as the farts are unspeakable if they get anymore and the maus have sensitive tummies anyway. I just hate they way they behave on wet food, it's like having a house full of furry crack addicts. We're all a bit happier this way.

[Gem_Seb]

Ours are fussy too and my last cat was terrible! however once you start giving them tuna, fish and chicken they have you right where they want you!!! Cats will rarely go hungrey so just stick with it or slowly introduce it back with bits of chicken in it?? We have to regulary change our brands of food and it seems to be consistant with my mums cat so i do think the companies chop and change their recipes sometimes! Ours have now got in the habit of eating their dry buscuits during the day then they get half a pouch each on a morning and evening so if they dont want it sometimes it doesnt work out a big waste, then they get ham and chicken etc as a treat after their food.

 

I have been told though that they should be getting chicken and tuna as a meal one a week by the rehoming centre we got ours from!

[chickencam]

I change what I feed mine on an almost weekly basis because I find that they get bored with the same food. I tend to buy whatever is on offer.

 

The only food that they really didn't like was Waitrose own brand pouches. I buy pouches because they can eat a whole one between them then there is no waste and nothing for the flies.

 

The only thing that they consitently eat is Iams at night but I vary the flavours of these too.

[cloud]

There is another cat that comes over our back fence and often tries to sneak in to the house (which requires navigation through two cat flaps) to steal the food we leave out for our two. We hadn't realise at first what was happening, but then heard the cat flap when ours were know to be upstairs. Since then I've caught it in the kitchen several times and chased it out. Poor thing doesn't know it ought not to I guess. At first I didn't do more than shoo it away but it got bolder an bolder and just just ran to the neighbours shed roof and then just to followed me back in to the house (like playing statues!). Eventually I chucked a jug of water over it and that seems to have done the trick. We sometimes still hear the cat flap, but it's long gone by the time I get to the kitchen.

 

So, that could be another reason why your cat's not eating his food - could be getting fed some place else

[Cinnamon]

That is a distinct possibility actually as I have had issues with him being missing for days on end & coming home with his collar intact but the tag removed , & its a tag that you have to take the collar off to remove it...............

 

Ah well, I will let them buy in the roast meats then

[chickencam]

I would

[Blackrocksrock]

I have 2 bengals and one of them is really fussy and will only eat Hills natures best dry food and felix wet food but if its a tin and been in the fridge he will only eat it if its nuked for about 12 seconds in his dish - he only does this for me and obviously does not like it cold - try it warm for him!! I know I pander to him but he has only 3 and half legs and half a tail so he is really my wee baby boy. ( big lad of over 6kg he is)

[Cinnamon]

Sadly Chilli has been really unwell over the weekend.

 

He vomited up a HUGE (& I mean HUGE!) grey 'thing' on Friday night, which was gross & stank to high heaven, & has been sick in little amounts since then.

He was due for his wormer on June 1st, but I have given it to him early, & I am keeping him on dry food for the moment too.

[cloud]

Have you checked to see if he's having problems with his number twos? Cats can get constipated. If you're not sure then it might be worth keeping him in so he has to use the kitty litter. If he's on dry food make sure he has lots of water available, and keep an eye on him to see if he's actually drinking it. Our old cat drank very little and suffered from constipation. We were shocked how much our two new cats drink in comparison.

[Blackrocksrock]

Was it a hairball? They are long and strange looking.

[The Dogmother]

One of mine regularly sicks up a furball and it looks for all the world like a dead mouse

[Cinnamon]

I am thinking that it was a hairball, but I have never seen one so big - about 8 - 9 inches long

 

Don't know about his ablutions Cloud as he is an outdoor sort of chap, but he was at the vets for his annual MOT last week & got a very clean bill of health - in fact I was told that he is a picture of what a cat should look like - lean & very muscular.

 

He is out tormenting the poor holidaying hens (I have 2 extra pairs in 2 Eglus this week), so seems OK in himself

[cloud]

Wow, that was a big hairball. I had though hairball, but I've not seen that many even although we've had has for years, and never any that big.

 

If he seems his normal self now I would not worry. Maybe it was that hairball that he being trying to get rid off, and now has, so that's good.

 

It's amazing how we pick uo on little things. If only they could tell us what was wrong and or what they wanted.... on second thoughts, it's probably best not to know. They have have us way they want us anyway.

[The Dogmother]

Just an idea Sarah... with this 'hairball' being so long... do you think he's been picking up hair off the floors from you and the girls?

 

That might explain why it's so long.

[bellekatz]

My Coonies often get hairballs that are quite long but then they have longer coats anyway. If he had a hairball that long it would probably put him off his food. You can get a paste from the vet or online that you just smear on his paws for him to lick off. It helps things pass through easier and should cut down on the hairballs - it's called Katalax and has always helped my cats that are prone to getting hairballs. When it comes to food, mine eat whatever they are given or do without! I change brands every few months for a while but I find that good quality biscuits they will always eat. Mine get Kitekat or waitrose own meat tins that they seem to like but I only put out wet food in the morning and dry food is left down all day. No one is fussy here