Feeding times - I am really struggling now

[emmab]

I have mentioned on here before my issues with one of our cats with feeding times. We have had Grany for 6 weeks and has become very fussy with food. It could be an underlying problem (being investigated) or because the other cat tries to steal his food I am not sure. Anyway, some questions please?
If a cat used to eat croquettes and doesn't now does this mean he is just being fussy? I thought if there was nothing else out he would eat them but he doesn't!
Secondly leaving him for the day with wet food is not easy as he eats such a little amount at a time Gemo will come along amd swipe it! We cannot afford for him to lose any weight.
Thirdly, i want him to learn that if he leaves it, it will disappear with another cat around, but gemo is getting so fat from poaching his food that I have two issues here...an underweight cat and an overweight cat.
If a neighbour comes in to look after them she would have to sit with them for a while so Grany got his food.
If only I could get Grany to eat some dried food it would be so much easier. He won't eat Iams or RC gastro food, which is what he really needs to be on.
If I set 2 meal times a day and thats that will this help?mI have been trying to feed him away from gemo when I think he wants it but this is messing up my day?

[bobbys girl]

I have tried mine on a variety of dry foods, but the keep coming back to James Wellbeloved. Even Tommy, who should have been on a special diet for CKD would much rather eat JWB fish. BTW it was hard to keep Tommy's weight up - even with biscuits. But he did love meat, chicken and beef were his favourites. If we ate out we would always bring something back for him. He would wolf it down.

[emmab]

What is safe to give cats? I am just worried that giving him treats wil make him even more fussy than he is now. I just need to get him to eat dried food, then it would be plain sailing. I simply cannot buy any more bags of food. I am wasting so much.

[bobbys girl]

That's ALWAYS a problem - buy a small bag 'yum yum', buy a big bag 'nah, don't like it'! We discovered they all liked JWB when our local vet had some sample bags on the counter. They were fighting over it.

JWB IS a complete food, but our lot will eat it as a treat too. I would occasionally give Tommy some tinned sardines in tomato sauce (he'd have one and I'd have the rest on toast ) Not an ideal food - but he did love it and it was good to see him eating.

The other day Bobby received a sample pack of Royal Canin wet food (Comes to something when you CATS get mail). Now, non of them like RC dry, but they fell on this like locusts. Looks like I'll have to make use of the voucher that came with the pouch.

It is a worry when you can't get one to eat and the other is a feline waste disposal unit. I understand, I really do.

[emmab]

Thats reassuring thank you. I know that if we leave him with neighbours to pop in Grany may not get much food whilst we are away. This concerns me a lot as he is being investigated for an illness and his weight is low anyway.

[emmab]

Just a question. If I left out some dry food for Grany, would he eventually have to eat it? He manages dry treats so does eat dried food but he won't eat Iams or RC. Should I be more harsh with him even though he needs more weight? Past experiences gratefully received with your kitties please?

[bobbys girl]

You know the old saying - you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink!

Sometimes Purdy is like that. I put food down in front of her 'nah, don't want that.' OK missy, just go hungry - I take it off her and feed the others. It's amazing, the other cats are all chomping away and Purdy is suddenly hungry.

[emmab]

You know the old saying - you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink!

Sometimes Purdy is like that. I put food down in front of her 'nah, don't want that.' OK missy, just go hungry - I take it off her and feed the others. It's amazing, the other cats are all chomping away and Purdy is suddenly hungry.

Awww, you have a Purdy. We had a Purdy until 2 years ago. Unfortunately I think Grany's issues with food may be medical hence the reasons for more tests. He eats around a pouch of Felix a day atm which is not a lot. Tonight he turned his nose up at Felix and Whiskas and has had a few Go cat inbetween the Iams. Too much variety is confusing for me and him. Hard to know what to do, juat leave Iams down, then there will be no issues with both cats and Gemo overeating or keep feeding him wet and him being picky. Our neighbour is looking after him at the weekend. God knows what will happen!

[bobbys girl]

Go Cat is not good stuff - full of cereal - might cause digestive problems.

[mr_frisky]

My cats are fussy eaters, and like anything in gravy - the more runny the better. I get them sheba, also sometimes sheba sauce lover sachets, and a new Whiskas called 'soup', which they seem to like.

Maybe try one of these?

[Janey]

If Grany can eat what he likes then I would give him that. If they need to put weight on there’s no point giving them food they dislike because they will end up losing more weight because they don’t like the food, and get stressed and miserable. My cat, and the ferals love Gourmet pouches and the little tins. They also like Sheba, but get fed up if they get it a lot. I give them Whiskas and Felix pouches and lots of others too, plus some our left overs occasionally, and different dry food as well each day rotated, so they get lots of variety and they usually enjoy their food, providing I don’t give them the same thing. I also usually find if they have access to some food e.g. some dry all the time, they rarely overeat as well, than if they are given just two meals a day.

[MarySkater]

I once had an overweight greedy cat, and a small, slow-eating cat. My eventual solution was to get a pet crate, and replace one of the doors with a microchip cat flap, programmed to let the small cat in but not the big cat. I put the small cat's food in the crate. It worked for mine. It would fail if the greedy cat learned to follow on the tail of the slow eater going through the flap, but my big cat never figured it out. The small cat quickly learned to use the cat flap, then would wander in and out to graze on her food.

[bobbys girl]

I once had an overweight greedy cat, and a small, slow-eating cat. My eventual solution was to get a pet crate, and replace one of the doors with a microchip cat flap, programmed to let the small cat in but not the big cat. I put the small cat's food in the crate. It worked for mine. It would fail if the greedy cat learned to follow on the tail of the slow eater going through the flap, but my big cat never figured it out. The small cat quickly used to learn the cat flap, then would wander in and out to graze on her food.

What a brilliant idea!

[MarySkater]

I used a PetPorte flap - there are more choices around these days. I fitted the flap into a board, took the door off the crate and secured the board to the crate with plastic cable ties.

The PetPorte reader was in a kind of porch roof over the flap. I found that the cat had to be quite close to the reader for it to detect the chip, so I kept a box as a "doorstep" for Shadow, to raise her up to the reader. In normal use, the crate fitted in a corner of the kitchen, near a power point because the PetPorte was mains operated (with battery backup). The photo was taken after I'd lost the other cat, and Shadow no longer needed her own "dining room." I set it up temporarily in the living room to take pictures, to sell the setup on Ebay.

[emmab]

Thanks for all the replies. Wow glad I am not the only one. I have read that too much diet change makes them even more fussy and confuses them and the likes of gravy is too rich for their digestive systems and if grany's is sensitive anyway. He has Go cat as in just 5 or 6 a day which shows he can eat dried food but chooses not to, I currently have x2 4 kilo bags of Iams, a 4 kilo bag of RC gastro, 2 boxes of Felix wet pouches and 2 boxes of Whiskas wet, all unopened. He really does need to be eating Iams. I am finding my days atm are just one big feeding pattern and trying to keep Gemo away from his wet food.

[meriad]

Emma, I haven't read through all the posts so apologies if I'm duplicating something that has already been said, but what about a microchip feeder; same concept as what MarySkater posted but a lot smalelr

https://fetch.co.uk/surefeed-microchip- ... oCT1Pw_wcB

not the cheapest, but it may solve your problem with leaving food out for Grany but Gemo cannot access it.

As for fussy eaters; it never ceases to astound me just how quickly a cat that previously would eat anything and everything learns to turn their nose up at the most amazing foods and as has been said on more than one occasion on this forum; the best food is the food your cat will eat.

Best of luck with this - never an easy job

[emmab]

Thank you for the reply. I have looked into this but we have had a microchip cat flap and it was so unreliable that we could not use it on one of the cats as the chip was slight misaligned so would not work. If we go away it would be such a worry. Thing is as well, he is so finicky with his eating and we need to encourage him to eat, especially with Gemo intruding with his eating. I think a microchip one would could more issues. I sometimes feed him myself as for some reason he does eat out of my hand, so you can see what I am contending with. He is going to the vets next week so will see what we can do. If I can find a food that they both like once the Iams is finished I will maybe change foods but cats being so finicky makes it a problem. I will look into it though...maybe on another thread