Cat food for incredibly picky eater?

[SummerRose]

My cat Marie has always been a very picky eater but she maintained her weight when I free-fed her. I now have three cats, one of whom is a very easy keeper, so I’m restricting access to food except for feeding times. Now Marie isn’t eating enough.

She absolutely refuses wet food. She’s been on Blue Buffalo Tastefuls dry food since she was weaned and did okay. She’s never been an enthusiastic eater but she ate enough when she had free access and she was in excellent health, if a little on the lean side.

She will happily eat Friskies Original treats, but that’s not exactly healthy as her main diet. I haven’t tried many other varieties of treats but so far, that’s the one she’s most willing to eat. She won’t touch most of them.

And suggestions for dry food that’s both irresistible and nutritious? Or even wet foods that usually work for extraordinarily picky cats?

[deweydee]

My cats are both gaga for nutritional yeast as a topper. It worked well to convince them to try new foods and we weaned them off it when they were over the newness.

[Simkie]

Treat her inappetence. Cats (and dogs) develop gastric ulcers in times of stress, just like horses do, and that turns them into “picky eaters.”

Try pepcid and see if that changes her willingness to eat. Sure won’t hurt her, and has a very good chance of helping.

[OzarksRider]

My cats all like Taste Of The Wild dry food. I don’t feed it to them anymore because my oldest cat has kidney disease and needs a low phosphorous food, so now they eat Hill’s Urinary Hairball Control dry food and they all seem to like it. I bought a small bag of Taste Of the Wild for a stray cat that I’m trying to persuade to join the clowder, and he always chows it down. Sometimes pet food stores have small sample bags of cat food that you can try.

[chestnutmarebeware]

@OzarksRider

My cats all like Taste Of The Wild dry food.

Mine, too! I buy the ‘Rocky Mountain’ version in the light green bag.

I also use the Friskies Lil’ Shakes, Delectables Bisque or Churu Bisque purees as a side dish for my senior cat that needs more calories as she ages. I just squeeze a puddle out in a low dish and they all go crazy for it.

[SummerRose]

Do you mean the nutritional yeast sold for human use, or is there a formulation for cats/pets?

[SummerRose]

I hadn’t even though about ulcers. Besides her poor appetite, she overgrooms so clearly she’s under a lot of stress. She did that even before the new cats came and it does not seem to be getting any worse, but it isn’t any better, either.

It looks like Chewy has famotidine specifically for pets - I’ll try that. Thanks!

ETA, I had also forgotten that she eats a bit better when I sprinkle Fortiflora on her food. Which also might suggest that she has ulcers … I’ll try that again, too.

[JB]

FortiFlora is like crack for lots of kitties. I can get our CKD kitty to eat a lot more of his ckd food, which he likes but doesn’t LOVE, with a sprinkle, and another kitty will take your hand off trying to get it when she sees the packet come out.

She’d really be better off on an all/mostly wet food diet, from a kidney health perspective. Have you tried Fancy Feast Classics? They’re really pretty decent foods.

Wellness seafood flavors have done well here too.
Victor is a little pricier since it doesn’t come in big cans, but has been received well.
Nulo has also done very well

[Simkie]

My preference on famotidine is the generic from Walgreens. The pills are very small, and teeny tiny when quartered. They crush down to nearly nothing and don’t seem to have a flavor–I’ve never had one say no to top dressing wet food. Honestly, it’s so small it can often be dropped right in.

It’s also super easy to pill, if they’re reeeeally inappetent, because of the size. Cover with a little scrap of pill pocket and they may just down it on their own.

I pretty much treat any small animal who is a little off their food, with very good effect. And I also proactively treat at times of stress, like over xmas when we have visitors and there’s just more chaos in the house. It’s a great tool to have in the cupboard.

Eta: cats (and dogs) can also develop food aversion if they’ve not been feeling well. They eat, they feel icky, they blame the food. This is why playing food roulette works, but not for long. They’re hungry but feel bad, they know they felt worse eating their normal stuff, but they’re hungry so they’re willing to try something new. But then they feel crappy with the new food, too, and start refusing that.

Better to treat the inappetence before introducing something new. If the inappetence has been long standing, you can expect to still see aversion, and may need to find something novel to get them back into eating eagerly. Aversion does gradually fade, so old “icky” foods can be reintroduced later.

[luvmyhackney]

My kitties aren’t super picky but lose their ever loving little minds when I feed them Tikis wet food or Viva raw rabbit.

I imagine your kitty might like it.

[deweydee]

I have the Bob’s Mill brand right now.

[SummerRose]

I’ve tried Fancy Feast kitten food and she wouldn’t eat it at all. She was one of my fosters and I can’t tell you how stressed out I got when I was trying to transition her from formula to “real” food … she wouldn’t eat wet food or moistened dry food, but she started gumming plain dry food (Blue Buffalo Tastefuls kitten formula) even before all of her teeth came in, so she did okay. She got leaner than I liked, but not to the point of malnutrition.

Still, wouldn’t hurt to try the adult formulation.

And I almost forgot, she also has chronic FHV-1 which can’t be helping. She often has a runny nose and watery eye on one side. Her sense of smell is probably affected.

Here’s a pic of her and her brother at about 5 weeks old. She’s the bottom kitten in this pic. Sorry for the mess - they had just finished their lunch of formula and wet food for him, dry food for her.

And @Simkie, the food aversion and treating inappetence makes sense.

She has always eaten enough to stay at a healthy, if lean, weight when she was allowed to free-feed, but she’s never been an enthusiastic eater. I think I’m going to start keeping her in my bedroom at night with food available. The other two will just have to sleep elsewhere.

(I was trying to get a good pic to show what she looks like now, but she wasn’t cooperating. The drawstring on my hoodie was just too much temptation. But you can see her leanness in the overhead pic, unfortunately.)

(Clearly her activity level is still excellent. )

[hopper20]

I feed my semi-picky eater w/a chip feeder while the fatso only gets a set amount. As a result she’s finally at a good weight while fat boy has lost two pounds. She eats Blue Buffalo dry food while also eating wet food in the morning. They’re both crazy about Merrick’s rabbit with gravy.