Cat is driving me crazy

[sonniemell]

Hi all.

Since I had my little girl, shes a tortie (Astro) she had been eating dried food, Gocat indoor. I would give her tuna as a treat, but I had never tried wet food with her, she is now 5. To cut the long story short she basically had a few months back, im not sure if it was cystitis or UTI took her to the vet, anyway she recovered, but I vowed never to give dried food to her again, and to change her to wet food.

After researching, and getting recommendations from my friends who have cats, I bought a variety of tinned cat and pouches from Feline Fayre, Encore, HI Life etc (all high meat content). jelly ones, gravy ones, pate and terrine, you name it.

No problem there, you would think, yeah sure if only it was that easy.

I have never known a cat like this, I would put her food out she will lick it, actually she will lick all the moisture or whatever it is and leave all the meat, fish etc....

I tried this with every available one to see which she likes the best. upto now its the, hi life pate ones, you know the ones in little tins and encore pate, everything else she licks it dry and leaves all the meat.

In the meantime I went back out and bought Encore dried food too, chicken, and also the chicken and salmon as an addon. As I didnt want her starving as I was concerned she was not eating enough, she actually likes that, obviously....

So what I do is say I give her a fish dish when I get up, she licks to her heart content. then a meat dish i give her later on, be it pate or with chicken pieces or meaty bits. I also have a small bowl of encore dry out for her, so she has got a choice as shes so fussy. (I am trying to use all the food I bought her) shes wasted to much of it.

I am going on holiday soon, and we usually put her in a cattery. (you give them the food to feed her with) The last time I did this I just left them with the indoor gocat dry food to feed her.

I dont know what to do this time, do I leave her with the encore dry (which I am sure is not ideal on its own) or do I give her wet? or both. Or can I give them the dry and see what happens.

It was easier just giving her dry back then but im trying to get her off that, And after reading most people with cats give wet and dry, but what do you do with a fussy cat??

Can anyone give me any ideas??? I do not think Jackson Galaxy can fix this one.

Regards



Sonniemell

[meriad]

I have six fussy cats and I now know that what they will eat is Felix As Good as it Looks and that's about it. I've tried all sorts of other wet foods, expensive, cheap, top quality, etc... and they just don't like them.

As for the dry food - dare I say this, but GoCat is probably one of the not so good foods you could give you cat, compare it to a human having MacDonalds on a daily basis. Yes, on the one hand it has all the minerals etc that a cat needs but if you look at the list of ingredients; the highest content ingredient is listed first and with GoCat it's wheat. They bulk up their food with lots of sugars and fillers that the cat doesn't really need.

What I'd do is definitely stick with a top quality dry food, have lots of water bowls around the house and then find a wet food that she does like. Another thing to avoid is the fish flavoured foods because (and I'm not 100% sure on this so someone please correct me if I'm wrong) they do contain some mercury (from the fish) which can in turn also cause cystitis issues; but it's more of a concern for male cats I think.

Does your cat eat raw food? ie when you're preparing meat and give her some would she eat that?

[Kay]

she sounds a lot like my 12 year old Tiffany, who refuses all wet food except those little tins of Gourmet pate, and she only will eat half of one of them a day - nor will she eat cooked or raw meat, or fish

she is prone to cystitis too, and I keep her on a maintenance dose of Cystease or similar, which you might want to look into

an indoor fountain might encourage her to drink more, and I find bowls of water left outside are well used

the cattery could contribute to her stress levels, so I'd send her with whatever you know she will eat - and if you decide to try a bladder supplement, start her on it asap to minimize the risk of a recurrence of stress-related cystitis

[sonniemell]

Hi all

Touch wood, that problem she had and went to the vet, she was fine 2 weeks afterwards she has been using her litter tray fine and doesnt seem to have any problems apart from this food issue.

I dont feed her anything apart from the Encore, Hi Life and Feline Fayre as this is higher meat and has no rubbish in it that could cause her harm. I have been feeding her this since the trip to the vet and trying various ones in those ranges. She does love the encore dried though, but I dont think this would be ideal on its own as a meal (even though it is high meat, and mainly natural ingredients) but I wanted to get her onto the wet food as I dont want her getting (bunged up again) and not being able to pee properly like last time.

I have not tried her on raw meat yet, but would she need to take vitamins or something to go with that like taurine and other vitamins which is in this food I have.

I have no idea what to do. But it annoys me that there is so much bad food out there for our pets
and you buy this on good faith for your pet and they get ill with it, and to top it all a fussy cat.

[KittyWitty]

My boy sometimes does this but I have found that if I mash up him food with a fork just so it isn't in a block sort of thing he will eat it no bother...maybe worth a try?

[Crewella]

I do that too for cats that lick off the gravy/jelly - it does make them much more likely to eat it!