Encouraging old girl to eat more

[LaLoose]

We got back from the annual jabs visit to the vet yesterday. She has lost 12 per cent of her weight in a year! She is 16. The vet asked me to encourage her to eat more. Any idea how? She LOVES biscuits (which she has in the morning) and is less certain about wet food, which I was giving her in the evening until yesterday. Yesterday evening I gave her wet food AND biscuits and she did a good job at both.

Obviously I will carry on in the same way, but has anyone had similar and succeeded in getting weight on a too-skinny old lovely cat, please? And how did you do it? Thanks!

Mine (not old) love having probiotics sprinkled on their food, I think it's very appetising.
I'd aim for getting more higher calorie food in her. Licky treats, a little cheese if she tolerates dairy, cat milk, cooked chicken/tuna.

Probiotics? Such as...? I wouldn't even know what to look for! Yes I'll go to the shop and get licky treats today. Thank you.

A few things I did for my older cat (He passed away aged 20) was give him licki-lix, warm his wet food, use a cat food topper and sometimes spoon feed him! I did pander to his every whim! Of which he had many!

That's all great advice, thanks. So I'm off to the supermarket this morning for cat junk food!

When my cat was on his last legs the applaws tins were very good for stimulating his appetite. They are very palatable and easy on their tummy too. Downside is they are a little pricey.

Try crumbling Thrive cat treats on her food. Both the chicken and tuna ones are highly appetising. Their wet food is also very appetising. Poorly cats seem to love the chicken ones.

Right, Thrive and Applaws going on the list too, thank you!

Thrive treats are great crumbled up and sprinkled over the top of food.

They also do a ready made crumbled version - thrive ProTaste 100% Chicken Food Topper for Cats at bitiba!

I'm very grateful, thanks all. Kate says thank you too.

We have an 18 year old girl.

We have 3 sorts of biscuits that she has on rotation. Sometimes she has a toddler's divided plate with all 3 on.

She has (currently) 7 types/flavours/makes of pouches on the go. Just because she devoured a Sheba poultry this morning does not mean she wants another one later, it'll be fishy Hills. And despite being hungry, she will not eat the same food she liked earlier, except for the times she does, because she is old and cranky. The minute you say something about how much she's liking a certain pouch is the minute she goes on strike.

She has human cheese and tuna at lunch, leftover chicken at tea, and 9pm treats. And possibly a few more times as she likes treats.

She still is barely 3kg, but her last bloods were "surprisingly ok" according to the vet.

Our other cat has put on nearly a kilo from eating all the leftovers and refused food.

Also you could try poaching fish in milk, I used to buy frozen and it defrosts super quick. Lick e lix are great as an easy treat, also if you get desperate there’s Liquivit but if she’s not a fan of wet it might not be her thing.

Yes, mine is also fussy and cranky. And I also have two more cats, one of whom has some sort of feline Prader-Willi, so she will balloon from now on!

My mum used to poach fish for one of her elderly cats and I always thought she was mad. Here I am about to do it myself...

The probiotics are a branded one - made by Purina. I buy them online.
Warming food a little does work - it smells more which makes it more appetising.

@LaLoose the lengths you go to for senior cats is quite insane. Heat pads, special food, poaching things, raised bowls, sacred sleeping spots etc etc. 😁 We always adopt seniors so I’ve been down the route of “please just eat” many times!

Ah I didn't know about warming it up. I'll try (but don't fancy the smell much!)

Definitely warming up food. Just 10 seconds (covered!) in the microwave does the job.

I’ve never met a cat that doesn’t love a rotisserie chicken so that’s what I buy for poorly or old cats when they need pepping up. You can freeze it in portions too.

Thank you!

Hi OP, I'm another one who's had a skinny pensioner cat! And, btw, isn't it weird that most of the food you see for elderly cats is designed to get them to LOSE weight?!

After working our way through several options with our old boy, we eventually settled on:

A Lik-e-lix on a separate plate (we called that his 'starter'!)
Half a tin at a time of Royal Canin Recovery food. It's really palatable and soft and is designed for animals needing a boost.
A plentiful supply of Dreamies on demand!

Just as a side note, we found that our old boy preferred to eat from a plate rather than a bowl in his last years because he was starting to get a bit of arthritis in his neck.

Yes, it is! Though I've also had chubby elderly cats and the vets worry that they will get diabetes as they age... I can't put my finger on why it goes one way or the other, though this one has never been greedy, so perhaps it's innate?

Useful titbit about the plate as well, though I'm pretty sure mine eats in a way that will make it fall off the rim furthest from her.I'll give it a go though.

Honestly SO grateful for all this, thanks all!

OP, I used to feed our cat from my hand when she was old. She would lose interest in her dinner, but if I put a bit in my hand and held it under her nose, she would eat it.

Yes that's another of the issues with Kate. I think: she just can't really be bothered with the wet food. I sit next to her at the moment and that helps a bit.

We give ours the tuna water plus a little tuna mixed in as well as her wet and dried food.

That's a good idea, thanks.

Great thread I’ve just added a little melted butter to my old cats Apple paws and she’s lapping it down !