cats and gravy advice please?

pirate101

I have a stray cat that has been living with me permanently for 18 months or so now. I also have a 2 year old cat i've had from a kitten (the stray followed her home and refused to leave LOL)

The stray had a few food issues when he arrrived - namely eating everything in site! but I always leave a large quantity of dry food down permanently for the 2 of them (far more than they could eat in a week!) and i refresh it regularly. The stray loves this food - I also give them wet food when they want it - with no idea what i was doing i thought if the stray got used to the idea of food being available all the time he would stop the constant eating - and he did (although he still demands wet food immediately he sees me put my coat on!)

My problem is that he will only eat wet food in gravy and seems to want it only to lick the gravy off! He will happily go through tons of the stuff doing this (he does eat the meat a couple of times of day though) - My question is can cats be given just ordinary gravy? or is it bad for them, I think he must be thirsty and although there are two bowls of water in the house (1 by the food bowl and 1 elsewhere) he seem to prefer gravy for his fluids - getting it from cat food though is a tad expensive.


so can cats be given a bowl of gravy?

thanks for any ideas
sorry this is a bit disjointed - its my first post.

foreign_correspondent

I think gravy made from gravy granules would be far too salty (which can be dangerous for animals). I am sure someone else will be along with some useful ideas soon!

Krystaltips

You can buy gravy designed for weaning babies, it has no salt (or flavour) but might be better for a small cat?

Milford_Cubicle

I have in the past used Bisto low salt gravy for my puppy to try and encourage her to eat her dried food (only on two or three occasions), however I only used around a 1/4 of a teaspoon with loads of water. The Bisto version doesn't have added MSG, however other low salt versions do. You could perhaps try 'flavouring' a lot of a water with a little bit of gravy and see if that does the job? (You might have to play around with the concentration to start with, i.e. 1 teaspoon to a litre etc)
Otherwise, if you're concerned he's not drinking enough then it might be worth investing in some kitten/cat milk as I can guarantee that'll be slurped down in seconds!

Savvy_Sue

One of my friends showed me her cat drinking fountain which was her solution to her cat refusing to drink from a bowl of water but constantly up by the taps licking them. could that be the answer: cat wants dripping / running water rather than 'standing'?

sandy2_2

My old cat just licks the gravy/jelly from chunky cat food, I tried mashing down to make more of a pate, that helped a bit

lowis

my cat would only lick the gravy off the food too. i told my vet and he suggested i boil some chicken, and instead of throwing the water away, put it in a bowl as a source of extra fluids. she loved it! of course she got to eat the boiled chicken to

SkipE

My girl licks all the gravy and jelly off as well then leaves the chunks. We have water for her in another part of the room but she only sips it when we change it. Shes not interested otherwise.

I have no idea how to resolve this but your not alone.