New rescue cat not eating

[HilaryBriss]

I got an 18mth old cat from a rescue on Thursday and im struggling to get him to eat/drink. He ate some biscuits (same ones he had in the rescue) overnight on Thursday, ate nothing on Friday but vomited a few times so I took him to the Vet Saturday morning who said he had a bit of a temperature and gave him an anti nausea injection. Sat evening he did eat and drink a bit but so far today we are back to no food. He had the same biscuits he was eating in the rescue, I've tried chicken and rice, I've tried wet food. Nope. He has eaten 5 dreamies though.

Any ideas? Could this be down to the stress of a new home? At the minute he is spending loads of time hiding with a couple of hours downstairs each day (his choice).

One issue is that he should be taking cystease for a bout of cystitis he had prior to coming here but it gets sprinkled on his food and he won't bloody eat anything!

Ours barely ate the first week he lived here. Then on day 7 breakfast was inhaled and he has been a greedy bugger ever since!

That's good to know. I feel a bit better knowing that he did eat something last night, even if not much. Hopefully he will come round if I keep enticing him with tasty treats!

I bet it is stress.

We have a rescue who is now the greediest cat in the world but when she came to us it took 5 days before she ate.

I think she was testing us to see if we were up to good owner standards and were willing to try and source every expensive food and treat available.

Like fools we fell for it

I forgot to say - for the first few weeks she would only eat at night. We used to leave the food out and at about 2am we'd hear her crunching away.

I agree with leaving some dry food out at night. Have you tried feliway plug in? Helps relieve stress as I'm sure your fur baby will be stressed with the move. My 2 would graze at night but they stayed firmly under the sofa for 10 days and totally ignored me and then day 11 decided I was worthy of their presence. They were definitely worth the wait

Our rescue cat was 5 months old when we got him. He hid behind the tumble dryer for nearly a week before he ventured out. During that time he barely ate or drunk anything.

Meant to say we left wet and dried food out at night and in the morning we could see that he had eaten a little bit during the night.

I've just tried some tuna, he's eaten a bit of that so that's something I guess.

Hilary
I agree with PP it sounds like stress. Does he have a cat basket where he can snuggle and feel safe? I also agree with leaving dry food down during night so if he's hiding, he can emerge eat it. Hope it goes well

Thanks all, I feel a bit happier today as puss is not hiding away so much and coming downstairs lots, this morning he has even eaten breakfast so hopefully things are heading in the right direction.

Just need to get him to use the litter tray now, rather than pee behind the armchair . We'll get there.

If mine aren't eating, I always ask the vet to check their teeth. Sometimes they have sore gums, a loose toothe, etc. One of my cats stopped eating when I went away for a days. I took her to the vet and he found that she had a very sore throat.

We had rescue kittens who refused to eat (they had been found in a skip, very cold) until we opened a tin of tuna. That was just irresistible, and once they'd eaten that they were eating whatever was put in front of them before long.

To be honest I would try putting a litter tray where he is going at the moment then move it to where you want it once he's more settled, choose your battles.