Darn cat...

The room that my rats are in is always closed off, dogs with high prey drives.

Tried another flavor with her, tuna and crab tiki cat. I spooned a little out for her and she started licking it and I got so excited cause I thought she was eating it. Came back to look five minutes later and she hadn't, she licked all the broth stuff from the food and left the tuna and crab sitting there. Now she's sitting by me meowing cause she's hungry.

I haven't caved in yet and given her anything she wants.
 
Working at a vet clinic taught me some cat tempting tricks when it comes to food since many cats won't eat in the hospital.

I have found with cats that sometimes it is a matter of consistency of the food more than anything else. I would always offer one variety that was chunky/had chunks mixed with the gravy and one that was a pate. Both of my cats hate the chunky foods and will only eat pate. Even with the pate, I add some water and make sure to mash up any major chunks so it has a smooth consistency. My male cat also has a history of urinary tract problems, and more water in their diet is always helpful since they get a majority of their liquid intake from their food...they aren't big drinkers by nature.

Some cats prefer non-fishy flavors as well, while others dive into it (smelly foods are sometimes more appetizing). Its all a matter of finding a compromise. And honestly, she will probably not eat it for so long...they won't starve themselves when food is available. :)
 
yeah she seems to like both seafood and beefy stuff. Like she likes tuna fish that's canned for humans and she likes the mixed grill classic pate friskies brand. She seemed to have not so much of a desire for white fish so I didn't really choose any of the pricey food that was white fish. I chose lots of tuna stuff cause that's what I thought she would like best.

One thing I have noticed is that she always goes for the liquid broth stuff in the can and will eat the meet last. Like on the weruva beef and potatoes she drank the broth but left everything else and same with the tiki cat tuna and crab, drank the broth and left the meet. I opened a can of beef broth and poured some in the food to make in really brothy and she didn't touch it.
 
captaincaveman9 said:
my cat thinks he owns my home too, even gets upset with me if i don't fill the bathtub for him when he wants it filled.....
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lol, my cat Skipper is queen of the house, and anything she wants must be hers. She wants a treat, we owe her a treat. She wants to go outside, we are required to let her out. She wants food at 3 in the morning, she gets shove off the bed. :D

Snowy and Midnight are ok though, Snowy is a total coward and Midnight is to nice to own anything. And hesa coward too. Scared of a rabbit. XD

Stripes... dear god, he's full of himself. I was watching TV and he just decided to jump on my lap, didn't even wait for me to pat my lap and let him up. And when i shoved him off, he jumped up on the top of the chair and waited for me to ignore him, then flopped down on my lap again. Sheesh...

Yep, my cats own the house... until the dogs come over, then they either run and hide, or hiss at Dash and Jaxs. XD
 
I feel like I just won a million dollars right now. The other day I was so sick and tired of trying to make the food more desirable for Chance. I tried having it 2/3 tuna fish and then a 1/3 canned cat food. I tried pouring broth over it, mixing dry cat food in it, warming it. Nothing nothing nothing. I just got so agitated that I tossed the last mixture I had made for her out to the ferals, spooned in 2 large teaspoons of some tiki cat crab and tuna and I would give her several opportunities to eat it throughout the day and when she wouldn't eat it I'd stick it in the fridge. I gave up heating it, had no more patience. Well last night I stuck the bowl on the ground and walked away and came back a bit later to put it away and some of it was gone, I was so excited but I told myself she wasn't getting nothing she wanted until it was all gone. Well a half hour ago I stuck the bowl on the floor and she took a couple bites and then walked away, so then I'm like well let me move her wet food bowl next to her dry cat food bowl which is in the bathroom. I don't know why I thought she would suddenly eat it in the bathroom but I just felt like I should. Took it to the bathroom, set the bowl on the ground and she ran over to the bowl and ate it all. I was just astonished. I mean it's not like I don't usually give her her wet food in the bathroom but because she was being such a brat and turning her nose up at everything I figured I'd just put it down by the fridge seems how the food would be going right back in there.

So long story story I cried, tears of happiness. I do realize that that is quite sad but I felt like I won some huge accomplishment because I can't tell you how many times i thought about giving up and cracking open a can of friskies. Anyways as a reward as soon as she finished I gave her a big handful of dry cat food which she scarfed down so fast it wasn't funny. It was like a light bulb went off in her head that if she just ate the meager amount of wet food I gave her she could have what she wanted.

Do you think me giving her the say 1/3 of a cup of dry food as a reward was a good idea? I didn't give her that much because I didn't want to fill her belly so that in a few hours I can offer her some wet food again. I know this whole ordeal will likely repeat itself but at least I know there's light at the end of the tunnel. I'm just so proud of her.

I was doing some research on cat food a couple days ago about the importance of wet cat food. I know a lot of people said wet food makes their poo stinkier but It's always been just as stinky when I only fed dry food. But I read that one important thing was the liquid it had in it that cats need because they don't generally go for water as some of you mentioned. And I thought about how someone said that they soaked their food in water which food solve the problem of getting fluids into the cat but then I read that cats need to be eating real meat, which is what they get from canned cat food. From the articles I read it said that dry cat food was real grainy and full of carbs which cats really don't need that much and that a lot of cat food didn't carry the necessary protein that cats, being a true carnivore, need. Anyways I just wanted to share the good news.
 
Fishfriend1 said:
lol, my cat Skipper is queen of the house, and anything she wants must be hers. She wants a treat, we owe her a treat. She wants to go outside, we are required to let her out. She wants food at 3 in the morning, she gets shove off the bed. :D

Snowy and Midnight are ok though, Snowy is a total coward and Midnight is to nice to own anything. And hesa coward too. Scared of a rabbit. XD

Stripes... dear god, he's full of himself. I was watching TV and he just decided to jump on my lap, didn't even wait for me to pat my lap and let him up. And when i shoved him off, he jumped up on the top of the chair and waited for me to ignore him, then flopped down on my lap again. Sheesh...

Yep, my cats own the house... until the dogs come over, then they either run and hide, or hiss at Dash and Jaxs. XD
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I don't dare fight my cat when he wants out. It prevents messes from being made.... and Scratchy upset is something I don't want to experience
 
I adopted both my Bombays and the future heath of their bladder, gums, and diabetic health I feed them "By Nature" (No soy, No corn, No rice) in glad resealable containers on schedule. They know that between 7-10 am when I shake the dry food container 1/2 cup each is placed out for 30 minutes and then placed sealed back in the fridge until lunch time 12-2 PM at which point another 1/2 cup is added and placed out for 30 minutes until 7-9 pm same routine until morning when the their glad containers are washed and the whole cycle starts over.

I respect their right to eat or not eat but not to waste fresh dry food. It amazing how well they learn to regulate their eating on schedule no matter how seeming finicky they start out and refuse to eat they always come round when you respect their decision to come to terms with proportional meal times. Something we as humans abandoned 50 years ago and are paying the price with all the obesity related health problems.

When my kid were small and complained about the menu, I told them if they preferred they could always have a water-sandwich.
 
My Gus eats until he pukes. I always fed him 1/3 cup twice a day... Now he's with other cats so he gets to pig out but thankfully only threw up a few times. The trick is science diet, which has bigger bits, which forces him to chew. We used to feed him Iam's weight control but Iam's has teeny bits and Gus just inhaled the stuff & then barfed it back up.

I'm glad Chance is eating now... I was going to recommend mixing in some dry food. And yeah, my cats always liked the gravy best!
 
I had already tried mixing in dry kibble when I was trying the different tricks of the trade, didn't work with her. This morning I gave her some weruva beef and potatoes. I took out the peas, bell pepper and potatoes that were in the can. She doesn't like it and she doesn't need it. So I stuck all the beef in the bowl and put it down for her and I thought she would be more willing to eat this one because she had eaten the gravy the first time I tried to feed it to her but she turned her nose at it. I guess she's just gonna have to figure it out again that if she doesn't eat this she's not getting dry kibble. After she had finally given in last night to the wet food it renewed my hope. She was sure happy though when she got the dry kibble last night.
 
wesleydnunder said:
Try not feeding her at all for a couple days, then give her some of the new food...
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Just FYI, not feeding cats for a couple days can result in some pretty scary health issues. Specifically, some cats can develop a condition called hepatic lipidosis (liver disease) when they go too long without eating. It's more of a problem in obese cats that suddenly stop eating, but I definitely wouldn't recommend withholding food on any cat for that period.

To the original topic, glad to hear that you finally found a trick that worked for Chance and got her eating. Cats are little pains sometimes... they definitely have more willpower than we do. Just out of curiousity, are you worried about Chance maintaining/gaining weight or just concerned that she does not appear to be eating enough? If her body condition is good, coat is healthy, etc. those are all good signs that she's getting enough nutrition, even if she's driving you nuts in the process.

The fact that she ate so well in a different room seems to preclude something like a tooth problem or other health issue, but keep an eye out for that stuff, too.

Having not met Chance, I'm not sure this is the case, but my guess on the meowing isn't so much, "Mom, I'm starving to death, please feed me," but more of a "Hey, Slave, I'm out of that yummy gravy stuff and left with a heaping pile of stuff I don't want, so hop to it and get more gravy, stat." When I break out a can of wet food, my cats go nuts: meowing, trying trip me, etc., even though they have free choice dry food out all the time. They're not starving, they'd just rather have the wet food.
 
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