UPDATE: She won't eat... Or will she?

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Thaiger & Katie

Thaiger & Katie

Member Since 2015
Thaiger has decided to stop eating her wet food as of Friday. All day Friday, she only ate 2/3rd of a can of Fancy Feast (those tiny cans) and yesterday she ate half a can of Fancy Feast all day. Prior to Friday, she was eating 2 cans a day. I've been feeding her some handfuls of EVO dry food to try and get some food into her body and she'll gobble that up in seconds. But, she is refusing the wet food. We haven't had a problem with the wet food until Friday, she seemed to like these flavors before. Everything else is normal - bathroom habits, water consumption..

Should I be concerned? Is she just being a diva? Should i put the dry food down so she'll get some food into her body?
 
I gave her a handful of dry food about 45 min ago and just thought to test her BG.. She is at 93. And it may be worth noting that she has been OTJ since Feb. 11th so almost 7 weeks.
 
Cats can be a fussy but sometimes that can mean an underlying issue that isn't diagnosed. Has she had any blood tests recently? Has there ever been any concern about pancreatitis?

If she isn't being sick, hiding or just siting in one position and is still drinking water okay I would tend to just try another flavour of the same cat food that she normally has.

I don't know about the dry food, I will others advise but in the end a cat has to eat and so I would think as a last resort then that would be better than nothing. Does she go up to the wet food and then walk away? Any lip licking?

If it doesn't resolve a trip to the vet and a blood test might be a good idea.
 
She walks by the wet food, sniffs it and walks away. Then she goes to her dry food feeding station and yells until I cave. I've tried 4 different flavors on her since Friday and these were all previously Thaiger approved flavors. :) She is still out and about and playing so doesn't seem to be feeling bad.. I just don't want her to go too long without eating a normal amount of food.
 
Try crushing some of the dry (putting it between 2 bowls and squashing works well) and sprinkling over a thin layer of canned.
 
I'd agree with the above: keep a watch on her and get her checked out if it doesn't resolve. But in the meantime, don't panic.

Earlier this winter, after a couple months of blissfully eating all wet food, my other cat Teeger decided that he had had enough and was holding out for dry too (Tonka, fortunately, is enough of a glutton that he'll eat whatever I put out for him). I caved a few times, since I could feed Teeger up on a higher surface that Tonka couldn't get to (the dry we had was higher carb than the Evo you're feeding Thaiger), but I eventually just had to wait him out. I started by mixing a few kibble in with his share of the wet for a couple days (along the line of BJM's suggestion above, except I didn't bother to crush it up in our case); after that, I put out a bit of other wet food with his usual, and he decided that he was much happier about eating the wet if I mixed it up a bit with other wet foods (he was getting rather tired of the all liver all the time DM diet, apparently). The whole process lasted less than a week and now he'll eat the wet again. But he'll always go for the "new" food first. :rolleyes:

So, hopefully it's just a matter of her being tired of the wet food and trying to stubborn you into feeding the dry. Good luck!
 
My MurrFee when through no eating canned but is back to al canned. My Badger also stopped canned months ago and now is back to almost all canned. Vet visit/blood work did not show anything.
 
This is helpful, guys. Thanks. She has gallstones so I have to be careful with those because they are extremely painful. The last time she had a flare up, she stopped eating but I don't think that's the case this time because she won't reject the dry food, only the wet food. And her belly doesn't seem painful to touch. She is such a diva and knows that she has me wrapped around her little clawless paw! **Previous owners took her claws away and now she suffers from arthritis in the front legs. Poor darling. :(
 
So we're down to half a can per day... That's 1.5 oz per day.. She refuses to eat more than that (unless it's dry food). I have a call and email into my vet and am awaiting her response. She seems completely normal otherwise so I have no idea what is going on!
 
Poor baby! I hope she eats soon! My Rudy is on a hunger strike since his dental extractions last friday, so I feel your pain. I've offered him everything under the sun and nothing has worked. We are now on phase two of sub q fluids (for the dehyration), anti nausea pills and appetitie stimulant pills. Fingers crossed for these kitties!
 
Sending healthy appetite vibes to Thaiger, plus some special anti-inflammatory scritches. I know how worried you must be, Katie. I feel for you. :bighug:
 
Hey guys,

So the vet called back and suggested the DM dry food and noted the concern that she could come out of remission if she won't stay on the wet food but she said that she definitely needs to eat more... So I reluctantly got in my car and drove to pick some up.

BUT - before I left, I sprinkled some Forti-Flora onto her wet food just on a whim and when I came home, the entire can was gone! The 3oz can has been down for about 6 hours and yesterday she only ate 1 can in 24 hours!

So my new question: is Forti-Flora packed with carbs? Is it better to have her on that than a dry food supplement?
 
I think plenty of people here use FortiFlora with their diabetic cats with no problems. I use it with Bud. Sooooo glad Thaiger came around to eating!!
 
Hi Katie,

Great to hear that Thaiger is eating! The Fortiflora is probably better than the dry food (caveat - I have read that probiotics might not be a good idea for pancreatitis kitties - I've no idea how it might affect the gall bladder). If she goes off the Fortiflora, try sprinkling crumbled-up freeze-dried chicken on top of the wet food. Also, warming food a little before serving can intensify the aroma of the food and improve palatability. Tuna water's another good 'seasoning' (assuming that Thaiger is allowed fishy things). Try raising Thaiger's bowl, too.
 
Forti Flora is probiotic bacteria in an animal digest. Digest is the same stuff they spray on dry food to make it palatable. It is basically cooked to death protein.
 
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