fussy cat

WeAreGhosts

my new rescue cat (shes about 14 months and we have had her for three weeks) is really fussy with food. initially the rescue said it will just be stress and she will settle down but she hasnt

she wont eat meat -tried sachets and tins and different brands but nothing. despite the rescue saying she wasnt fussy when she was with them and would eat anything. tried mashing it up too, but no she turns her nose up and goes to her biscuits. ive tried leaving it down thinking that if she is hungry then she will eat and have been told not to fuss her and she might be pushing her luck to see what she can get us to give her.

she will eat fish sachets but not fish from tins.

have tried putting the meat in different bowls and just on a mat too , but no difference.

should i give up and just let her eat fish? is this ok to do?
also how much should i be giving her? i wont be letting her out until the weather gets better, so do they need less food because of this? she never really lets me know shes hungry.
im feeding morning and evening, one sachet per time and she has biscuits and treats in between. is this too little? the sachets say they should have 3-4 per day! she never has this, never really wants it ...

any help appreciated

bouncydog1

None of mine will eat sachet or foil food. The mother who was a rescue will not drink water from her bowl - she drinks out of plant pots in the garden, waits for us to get out of the shower and drinks from the gutter!

their favourite is Royal canin diet food in unlimited quantities but they are all healthy weight with lovely coats. Occasionally they get fresh fish - one gulps and is then sick:( - the others are fussy over what sort it is and won't eat chicken or other meat but they queue up for the porridge bowls!!

What I am saying is cats are all different - she will eat when ready and of she likes fish and you are happy to let her have that, the. That's ok. keep an eye on her weight. Worm and flea her regularly and get the vet to check her teeth. She should have so e harder stuff like biscuits to keep her teeth clean, but the supermarket brands are not necessarily the best. You can get trial Royal canin in different flavours and the website used to offer free samples. Don't worry too much she is still settling in.

bouncydog1

By the way I get Iceland White fish and microwave - they sit and watch it cooking if they're able!!

WeAreGhosts

thanks for the advice. i will try royal canin. i have tried varying her wet food to see what she likes and fish is pretty much it. i wondered whether this could be to do with the texture? she will lick the gravy / jelly off meat chunks and leave the chunks behind. i have just looked at sheba too, they seem to do some 'fillet' type things so am going to try them.

shes just had a bit of chicken and wolfed it down - wont touch the tinned variety tho!

apart from the food stuff shes settled in great, no other problems yet

meritaten

have you tried the pate type foods? gourmet do them in little tins. my second cat nicki loved them. he had problems with very chunky foods as he didn't have many teeth! (had FIV and lost most of them). I am sure the vet has checked over your cats teeth and gums and you say he eats dried. He may just not like the texture of meat chunks.
Applaws do finely flaked chicken in cans (100% chicken in stock) but it is a bit pricey. good food though and my present cat loves it and he is a fussy bu99er! he gets the occasional can as a 'treat'. he wont eat chunks of meat - yet will happily scarf down the finely grated 'leavings' of our meat slicer! he cant tolerate fish - but prawns are definitely on his 'naughty but nice' list!

WeAreGhosts

ive tried pate ones which she ate begrudgingly but she loved pets at home brand mousse tins, but they only sell them singly [at least, i cant find them in packs on the website] which works out to be v. expensive and i cant easily get to the store.

i think it must be a texture thing. im going to try a meat tin tonight and mash it up to see if it makes a difference. if not i will give in and only buy fish based ones from now on. she likes the wiskas and felix fish pouches, but theres not much in them.

ive checked out applaws, thanks for that, and yes very pricy but will keep an eye out for offers and will try and single tin with her and see if she likes it. she probably will. methinks she has expensive taste!

southcoastrgi

my two just have Royal Canin kibbles (biscuits), i do give them a pouch now & then but they do the same as yours, lick up all the jelly or gravy & leave all the meat/fish

meritaten

do you have a stick blender? if so I would try 'whizzing' up one or two of the ones she likes the jelly or gravy of. maybe add a bit of stock or water.

my local shop sell the larger tins of Applaws for £1.19 - BUT - they are two portions for him! still pricey but not too much for the occasional 'treat' for his supper!
Applaws have their own ordering service but it aint much cheaper than PAH. especially when PAH are doing them under the 'get sixteen for price of 12 offer'. (I still find them too expensive tbh - Barnes just has the occasional one now).

his_missus

My 9 month old kitten won't eat meat or fish of virtually any type - tinned or fresh. He lives off cat biscuits. He has this weekend eaten roast beef and chicken scraps but even then only a little amount. My other cats would devour a whole roast chicken if given the chance!

As long as she's eating, I wouldn't worry. Give her chance to settle and perhaps try her on meaty food again later.

If she's eating biscuits she'll probably not need 4 pouches of food too. My other four have 2 tins between them a day as well as enough biscuits for 2 cats.

WeAreGhosts

i dont have a stick blender but have been mashing food up manually and adding a little boiled [but cooled] water to it.

she has about a mouthful of biscuits then leaves them and comes back hours later. i leave them down all day though and ive not yet found the bowl empty or any where near empty

i tried her on sheba chicken fillets tonight and shes licked the jelly and left most of the fillets behind, but ate one and a half pouches of salmon this morning - she was starving!

think i will stick to buying fish based meals in future. thanks for the help and suggestions

LondonDreamer

If it is a texture thing, Sainsbury's do a mousse in their Delicious range. From memory it comes in chicken, duck and salmon flavours. I know there's also a box of 6 but I don't remember which flavours are in it. Also while you're there, they sell the "Encore" brand which is Applaws repackaged for supermarkets. About 20% cheaper than the real thing, and sometimes on good offers on top of that. They recently had everything on a third off.

If it is that she prefers fish and you want to give her more variety, you could maybe try one of the mixed meat and fish flavours and see if she'll eat that? There's not that many in the supermarket that I'm aware of, but I know Gourmet Gold do a chicken and salmon flavour. You might then be able to introduce more chicken if she takes to it.

Also don't worry if she's not eating the recommended amount, as she's having a mix of wet and dry. The recommendations are for if you were to only serve the wet.