scruff the small cat

ian103

we adopted 2 kittens 7 months ago, dylan the male is a healthy 4kg and a livewire (except he doesn't like going outside) but scruff the female varies between 2.8 and 2.9kg, picks at her food and is very clingy.

both are fed a diet of butchers classic and hills kitten food plus the occasional pouch.

scruff occasionally eats the wet food but normally picks at the hilss aver the day. we are getting concerned as she drinks a lot and over the last couple of days when we have let her out she runs into the garden and jumps on the cast iron table and starts licking it - any ideas why? we are wondering if its salt as we are near the coast. she is very small (petite build) and her spine / ribs are very easy to feel etc. we can tempt her to eat with human foods but thats no healthy for her.

any suggestions on what we should watch for

rising_from_the_ashes

mmmm TBH I'd say best to pop her along to the vet for a quick check-up

It may be nothing - but the fact that she's not eating a lot & is very thin would worry me...... it could be she's missing some kind of vitamin/mineral but the vet would be best placed to advise.

Hope she's OK - please let us know how she gets on

nickcc

My Daughter adopted a cat a few years ago, her weight has never been in excess of 3 kg and she eats well. As suggested the best advice must be to visit the vet if your at all concerned.

ian103

Thanks

we have been concerned since it became clear that she was small, when we took her to the vets they weren't concerned as they said the mother cat was small.

we have just started to get concerned again, as her weight dropped albeit by only 100g but its alot when shes tiny in the first place and the strange habit she has developed of licking the outside table. her weight has increased slightly again over the last couple of days but at max 40g.

the other option is to feed her up with other food (chicken / fish etc) but will this then make her a fussy eater.

splishsplash

We had a litter of kittens a year and a half ago, four in total. We kept them all, but sadly lost one when she was six months old (accident, not illness).
Of the others, two are seriously massive, but the third is the runt of the litter, was hand-reared mostly as she was too weak to compete for food, and is still a slight, small cat who tends to be thin unless coaxed and fed supplemental foods.
She's not a huge eater unless it's 'proper' food, so if I think she's looking thin, I will cook her a portion of whatever meat or fish we're having, and feed her this for a few weeks to keep her weight up. She will still eat canned food and biscuits, but not a lot.
I don't think feeding her the extras have made her fussier, it's just that she didn't have the same interest in food as the others to start with. She never really comes running when she hears cans opening or biscuits being poured, unlike the others.

I just weighed them out of curiousity - the 'runt' weighs just over six pounds, two 'big' cats weigh just short of 10lbs each.

ian103

thanks

we think scruff was the runt, generally she appears healthy just very slight, shes petite built so perhaps we should stop worrying.

perhaps her being picky will be the norm, dylan just eats for england.

ian103

scruff has now regain the weight she had lost, shes eating hills again which is good as i think thats her fave, shes started fighting with her brother again. so alls good,

nickcc

ian103 wrote: »

scruff has now regain the weight she had lost, shes eating hills again which is good as i think thats her fave, shes started fighting with her brother again. so alls good,

Great so pleased for you my Daughters rescue cat (Ella) loves treats and we would never leave after baby (cat) sitting without feeding her up.

ian103

just weighed her again today back down to 2.6kg after being at 2.8kg since 22/1/13. Shes healthy enough, washes her and her brother but sleeps alot. Trouble is she just turns her nose up at cat food. Over the last few days we have tempted her successfully with-

chicken
fish
prawns
cheese
milk
minced beef
scrambled egg
and last night she was eating pringles.

all in very small amounts and only given to her when she doesn't appear to be eating. Are the treats spoiling her??

Her brother eats for England so no worries with him.

If she gets to 2.5kg she's off the vets but not sure what they will say as she will eat but only human food.

scaredy_cat

my old Sugar cat was never much more than about 2.5 kgs, she always looked like a kitten as she was so small. Her brother on the other hand was a big boy at about 5 kgs!

and she liked:

marmite on toast, peanut butter on toast, tuna and salad cream, mini cheddars, crisps, cheese, ice cream, ham, sausage meat (i always had to share the sausage rolls at christmas!!), white fish, chicken, blueberry muffin, butter and other things i can't remember!!

ian103

Scruff has just eaten cheese as a starter, followed by chicken curry and strawberry yoghurt. Well 2 chunks of shicken out of my curry and licked the yoghurt pot clean!

I think we're bordering on spoiling her!