Kala is very finnicky when it comes to food, always has been

[Joe_Danger]

Ever since she was a baby she's been exceptionally picky and finicky about food.
She was the first to open her eyes, to respond to her name and was generally the most active and quick to reach new milestones of the 4 kittens but when it came to getting weened off of her mom's milk and starting dry food she was rather difficult.

I suspect that she doesn't have a sense of smell or her sense of smell isn't good at all.
She won't try new food no matter how strong smelling unless she tastes it first, but getting her to taste food is an ordeal of its own. If it's wet food you have to smear some on her fur so she tastes it while trying to lick it off, then she usually goes for the rest of the food. If it's dry food I try to do the same but with less success due to it not staying on her fur for too long.

We even bought some Royal Canin food that's supposedly good for picky eaters but even that she wouldn't try until she got a taste of it first.

She also acts like she "forgets" food, if she eats a certain type of food for a bit she forgets the type she previously liked and we have to go through the whole tasting process again.
I've tried many times to let her discover food on her own but it's a no go, she begs and goes hungry for hours without so much as touching the food around her, it's not until she gets a taste of it that she registers it as food.

If it's food that's familiar to her tho she eats it without having to go through all this. Problem is, she gets bored of the same type of food, especially wet food so we need to change it up every few weeks. Dry food she normally eats the same stuff, but if you change the dry food like we did now, she may not go back to the old one on her own.

I'm pretty sure her sense of smell isn't right, but I haven't had this confirmed by a vet.

My vet wants me to fatten her up in the next 2-3 months so that we can FINALLY get her fixed.
We had to wait longer to get her fixed due to her Chronic respiratory infection thingie or whatever, but she's been much much better now due to I guess being older, but it seems that really messed up her sense of smell...or she never had it to begin with.

[bobbys girl]

Hi Joe, I was only thinking about you today. I have a long haired kitten, my first, so I will be coming to you for advice about grooming!

As for Kala, have you tried warming some food? It does seem to smell stronger when warm.

It is such a worry when they won't eat. It's all very well to say 'they'll eat when they are hungry - but that only applies to dogs! Cats are far more choosy (and fussy)

I hope you can find something to tempt her. Have you tried prawns? Purdy has a fondness for warm prawns and she it very picky. Just a thought.

[Joe_Danger]

Thanks

I'm not sure I'd be of much help when it comes to grooming advice, just regular brushes usually do it for mine. Milla and Kala never really mat and Casper does mat even with regular brushing so as per my vet's advice we just cut the mats off if we can't break them up. His dad mats a ton too and my vet has no choice but to cut his mats.
Casper has so much fur tho you usually can't tell a mat was cut.

Kala's fur is very smooth and silky, it is long but it rarely mats.

Milla's medium I guess and she very very rarely mats too.

We did try warming up food in the past, but she didn't care.
She's always been like this but now we really need to put some meat on her bones because the vet says it will help her immune system so we can minimize the risk of bacterial infections and stuff after surgery.