cat off her food.

[mrsnec]

Morning all,

For the past week or so Necat has become more and more fussy. She had been a fusspot since day one but in the past week or so she turns her nose up to everything, takes a couple of licks and mooches off. She'll eat prawns and dreamies and that's about it.obviously we know she can't live off that!

Her usual food is gourmet sachets or tins, the whiskas oh so range and whiskas biscuits.

There are no other noticeable changes to her character,behaviour or demeanor.

She is about 4 years old and just a moggy we think,although she has bengal characteristics.

About a week ago she had a fight with a stray ginger tom. She got a cut on her cheek. She was shaky for a day. Vet said keep her in for a bit and use antiseptic spray on the wound. A couple of times since then I've seen her staring outside through the catflap but she still goes out a lot. Dh and I shoo away this ginger tom when we see it.

There has been no other changes at home recently except we do have a 2 month old dd. They are accepting of each other. Necat doesn't react at all when dd cries and if Necat wants a cuddle dh and I pass dd to the other one so Necat isn't left out.

Necat had booster jabs a month ago and a check up from the vet and he said she was fine,so, any ideas?

Are you just giving her prawns and Dreamies on request? (I'm wondering, if she's a fusspot, whether you're hanging tough at all or whether you're being played because she wants reassurance.)

Is she (apart from her recent scrap) otherwise healthy and drinking/using her tray?

Thanks for the response Cozie,

She's been around my feet this morning and scratching at her food cupboard because again she didn't like her breakfast. I sprinkled some dreamies on top of it and she turned her nose up and went out.

This was the same as yesterday when dh gave her prawns in the evening because he felt bad she hadn't eaten in ages.

I haven't seen her drinking. But I don't see her drinking very often anyway. She doesn't have a litter tray she uses our garden but I don't know where her favourite spots are. Dh does and will be home for lunch so I'll get him to see if there's been any changes in the toilet habits.

Apparently she's now using the fields next to our house so we can't check.

At her visit to the vet she had a blocked gland which the vet sorted and told dh to keep an eye on and she's normal, no sign of any blood or anything.

I once had an incredibly finicky (but very lovely) cat. It got to the point where he would only eat fresh prawns and pan-fried steak. I knew this wasn't good for him, so weaned him onto actual cat food. From then on if I gave him prawns as a treat, he'd go on hunger strike, holding out for the good stuff.

Sometimes with proper picky cats it's best to cut out the treats for their own good god, that sounds so harsh.

That's the problem, she's so lovely we'd do anything for her but she does play us.

I posted on here before about her going on hunger strike if we leave her and get someone in to feed her! So I'm not sure that would work since she's no stranger to hunger strike punishment!

We've also tried washing her feeding mat and offering her food in different bowls.

Dh is worried about how much it's costing us.our butcher just gave us some liver for free which she's had but she can't have that all the time. I think we'll try and cut down on the dreamies despite the fact one of my friends arrives today with a suitcase full of the festive ones for her!

I think that my concern would be not just so much the cost (although that's not to be disregarded) as the balance of her diet. As fas as I know, Dreamies are only a treat and don't constitute a complete food - and prawns usually have a rather high salt content. Put the two together and if she'll only eat those two, she's likely not getting a good diet over the medium to long term.

I'm torn here. I suspect that you're being played but on the other hand, you can't have a cat not eating - and it sounds as if you have a difficult one.

I still think I'd stop the prawns and the Dreamies (except as treats) and go back to ordinary complete cat food. Are any of the family mear eaters who might be planning to eat some chicken or something in the next few days?

Do you know if she hunts?

Could she be unsettled by the fight she had?

Some people have success with a feliway diffuser to calm kitty.

Yes we're meat eaters hence the liver. I do have some chicken I could do over the next few days. I cooked beef mince tonight. Usually she can smell it but she's asleep in front of the fire instead of watching me cooking.

We've put some tinned food down which she hasn't had in a while and we've agreed no more dreamies for now.

She is usually a hunter.sometimes we get presents (birds,mice, lizards and even snakes -not in the UK) but we haven't seen anything in a while. We checked the garden for carcasses but didn't find anything.

Chockbic, I wondered about that but she seems fine although is probably spending more time in the house than normal but that could be because she's cold. We are trying to pay her lots of attention and reassure her.

Our neighbours have a cat too who is only fed on kitchen scraps and no commercial food so it's also possible she's been next door.

Have you tried switching to a different brand of cat food?

Mine, a few months ago, decided Whiskas was no longer edible, and refused to touch it (naturally, just after I'd bought a huge box of the sachets). No idea why, as I would always swap things around so she'd get the different flavours in a wee box in rotation, then go on to a different type of box / different make altogether, with a Sheba or Gourmet Perle thrown in once in a while.

She will eat Felix, but only certain ones. I can't afford to get the expensive Felix, but she wolfs down the dual-flavoured ones at the moment. Not sure where I'll go next, as she still won't touch Whiskas. (Except Whiskas biscuits, they're ok, for now).

She's just keeping you on your toes, and making sure you know she's in charge!

We could try that again. I think there are a couple of brands we haven't tried.

Will look out for the Felix dual flavoured ones.

Honestly she's got very refined taste buds. It's hard to believe but we have a local market that sells uk imports but we can also get all the uk brands in the supermarkets. When she was eating the whiskas oh so range she could tell the difference between the stuff from the market and the stuff from the supermarket even though the packaging said they were the same product!

I will look out for feliway too I think the vet sells it.

If you can buy all the UK foods in your local supermarket, try Felix AGAIL Doubly Delicious meat in jelly varieties - mushing them up in the bowl to distribute the jelly evenly. Not a food I would normally recommend but it's complete and for some reason, fusspots like it.

Thanks everyone! Great advice.

I checked the wound tonight and you can't even see it,she's letting me stroke it and she's sleeping on that side so think she's healed.

Ginger tom was outside the house howling and she didn't flinch.

Will try Felix doubly delicious and mushing up the food and microwaving it.