Cat Not Eating And Kitten Videos

Question: Cat not eating normally?

(Posted by: Ryan N on 2009-09-22 21:16:03)

We have a 2 year old female cat with FIV. She is usually very active and regularly accepts her food. Recently she's been sleeping often, and would rather stay inside during the day than be out. She's become a very finicky eater. Currently she will only eat chicken. I don't feed them dry food, as I am aware that the low moisture in dry food causes their kidney's to work harder eventually causing kidney failure. She is fed Weruva canned food, a grain- free food made with human- grade ingredients. She will also eat freeze dried raw food if it is chicken. I've tried raw food, but she is not interested. I don't mind always getting Weruva chicken for her, but I would like to be able to switch her protein source to another type of meat for better nutrition. What could be causing her eating habits to be off, and could her recent abnormal behavior have anything to do with it?

Posted by: Elaine M on 2009-09-22, 21:23:07

Cats with FIV usually stay asymptomatic (healthy) for years. Our guys didn't have issues with FIV except for the dry coat and occasional runny eyes (both treatable). The disease does not take any years off their lifespan. What's changing her eating wouldn't have anything to do with FIV. Have you had her in for a checkup? If she's got some problem developing then now is the time to get a handle on it to help stabalize her. Without more info, we'd just be guessing on this. Do you have access to a pet supplies store? There are several other really good canned cat foods that would work. EVO is one, Wellness and Wellness Core are others. You can even supplement occasionally with some baked chicken if she likes 'people food', provided you take the bones out and don't feed the skin or coating (low fat is better, chicken skin is over salted and too fatty). Occasionally I bake up a piece of fish for ours, no salt or pepper, and they love it. It's protein, muscle meat, and once every two weeks is ok. But get a checkup on her. See if the vet finds an issue with her teeth or organ function. Those would be the two areas that I would investigate on her.

Posted by: holpet on 2009-09-22, 23:13:22

I don't know a lot about FIV, but I do know some foods that cats really like. Have you tried: Tikicat (all fun flavors) Solid Gold blended tuna (it's like kitty crack) Weruva Peking Ducken we have really good success with these three brands and our foster cats As for raw, I would try to do a dehydrated raw like Honest Kitchen. Our foster cat now will not eat frozen raw, but loves Prowl by Honest Kitchen. The protein they use is turkey, so that switches it up a bit. If you want to feed her a little bit of dry food for different protein sources, do a dehydrated raw kibble like Feline Caviar, Rubicon, or ZiwiPeak. These will just add a little variety to her diet. And you could put a little bit of low sodium chicken or beef broth in her bowl to get her some moisture.