Kitten - fussy & not eating enough

[Graciecat]

Hi there

Advice please! I have a 6 month old kitten ( crossbreed) who's looking a bit skinny although she weighs 2.5kg which I think is okay? She has a mix of dry and wet - either James Wellbeloved or other good quality food but will only lick the gravy and leaves the meat or fish! She does eat the dry biscuits but I wasn't sure if an all dry diet was a good idea. I've tried about 6 different brands, pates,mashing it up with a fork but the same story.

Even with the soup she loves the juice but leaves the bits of fish. How can I get her to eat the solid stuff or don't I need to worry too much and feed her just dry? Would it be a mistake to try the adult versions - I know it's not got the right nutrients though.

Would love your expert advice feline friends!

[booktigger]

2.5kg might be a bit low for a 6 month old, but depends on her build. Certainly no harm trying her on adult food, but if she prefers dry, that is fine as it is a high quality. Is she neutered?

[Graciecat]

Thanks for that - she just looks a little skinny. No not been spayed yet due to Covid restrictions but will be as soon as vets re-open whenever that will be.

[Mollycat]

Wet food is ideally better so i would keep trying without any great pressure on her every now and again as she gets older, different brands, flavours and textures. Many cats will only lick the jelly or gravy and leave chunks and seem to manage to be fed and healthy. Any time I feel my cats are having a lower quality diet than I would like for whatever healthcare reason, I supplement it with raw or rare fresh meat - like Molly was recovering form illness that had caused some muscle wastage, she was on normal food plus a little meat daily to help boost her protein levels. Who am I kidding, she gets some of whatever meat I'm preparing for us - but maybe a bit more when she needs it.

Just go careful on the amount though, to keep the overall diet from becoming unbalanced nutritionally.

[Graciecat]

Thanks Mollycat! Good idea about supplementing with fresh food. She does eat chicken & salmon when I cook it so maybe that's the way forward.

[JasonDR]

Hi Graciecat
My ferral rescue has always eaten very little
We got her at when she was less than a year (according to the vets best guess)
She had just had and lost kittens (fox got them) so not a good start
At first she ate anything (including any Moths she could catch) but soon became a lot like yours sounds
Only licks the juice off a lot of food and sometimes seems to go for days with very little
We do have a Hairball problem with her as she has a very long coat and normally will eat quite well after getting rid of a hairball
I have found that a very varied diet seems to get her to eat we try differebt brands each day on a rotation basis and if we find she woofs something down she will get that for a few days
One thing she will always eat is Dreamies or Goodies not good I know but sometimes you get desperate
We have lived with this compromise for about 10 years so far and the vet always seems to think she is healthy on our check ups
I would love to feed her the "right stuff" but she just won't eat it
Good luck
Jason

[alfiecat]

Try royal canin exigent, there are aroma or taste versions. My mum has a cat that would only eat soup, which has practically zero calories or dreamies, again not good. She loved the royal canin, we use the aroma one and she eats it up no bother now.