What can I feed my cat, that she will eat, to fatten her up?

Question

She is a 5 yr old Abby. and on 5/31/2008 her stupid owner, that would be me, decided to spoil her a little and gave her "Natural Temptations" chicken flavor. From the very first one she was hooked. On 6/16/2008 I took her off the munchies and also to the vet because in those 2 weeks of eating the Natural Temptations she had not eaten her regular food at all and had lost about half her body weight. From then until now I have been struggling to get her to eat anything to put that weight back on her. I have how ever finally gotten her to eat almost regular. I say almost because there are days when she hardly eats anything and to this day she still asks for those d**n munchies! She looks terrible and I would like any advice on what to give her to make her gain some of that weight back, quickly. I am so worried about her. She use to be so healthy and beautiful. Now she looks like I've been starving her and it's her! She's been doing it to herself. She is so stubborn! I was almost to the point of force feeding her just so she wouldn't die. She is now eating Iams canned food and is very picky about which ones. She also eats Purina Kitten chow, on the vets suggestion. And some times she will eat her old food, Purina dry food for indoor cats. (which she use to love) But she will only eat dry food if I put it in little piles on my bed and I mean little, maybe 20 pieces. she still has not gained any weight back. Can someone please tell me how to make her gain weight? Is she going to be this skinny always? skiny meaning "skin and bones". Oh and one more thing...the vet said he didn't think it was the munchies that did it but couldn't find anything wrong with her and then wanted $150 to do blood work.

Answer 1

Try a little cat nip mixed in with her dry food, and the Kitten Chow is higher in calories and will help her gain weight back.

Answer 2

If you care about your cat then I recommend the blood work. There are quite a few things that would show up on there that otherwise you wouldn't be able to find.

Bottom line-if a cat is hungry it will eat. It knows it must for survival. So if she isn't eating it is almost definitely a sign of sickness.

I understand your reluctance to spend that much money, but there could be something seriously wrong with your cat.

FIV (Feline Immunodeficiency Virus) or FeLV (feline leukemia virus) are two of the more serious things that you need to get her checked for.

Hopefully she doesn't have either, but wouldn't you rather be on the safe side and KNOW without a doubt that she doesn't, than to write this off as a behavioral issue?

Answer 3

friskeys has a dry cat food that has a mixture of tastes and our cats go nuts over it its called Feline Favorites this with a little meat broth specially chicken might help then gradually ween her off the broth and maybe this will help. good luck  

Answer 4

Again...agree that you need to get the bloodwork.  Cats can be finicky but also hide their illnesses quite well.  And what often appears as behavioral problems can really be serious illness.  If your vet suggested blood work then there are certainly suspected illnesses that could be found in the test results that would explain why your cat is so thin, and not gaining weight.

Re-consider the blood work and keep working with your vet.  Most healthy cats will eat when they get hungry, if the owner just sets the kibble down and refuses to hand out the treats any more.  That drastic a weight loss, with such resistance toward eating in general would worry me if it were my cat and I'd work with my vet until I had an answer.

Good Luck.

Answer 5

i don't know

Answer 6

Jellymeat in brands like Dine or Chef. My cat loves them. Also Whiskas biscats lol

Answer 7

A friend of mine  has a cat that does not like any type of cat food and one day she was eating  pimento cheese and  offered her cat some and that is all she eats now. Her cat was so so underweight before the pimento cheese. Now she  is a healthy cat! Believe me!  Also my grandma used to give her cat raw meat-but I think that's a bit freaky!

Answer 8

I agree with your vet.  A cat doesn't get that skinny because it's spoiled with treats.  Sounds like a potentially serious underlying issue (a few of which I can think of fit the bill).  $150 for bloodwork is a bargain - take it.  Bloodwork around here costs way more than that.

In the meantime, you can grind her favorite stuff and put it over her other foods - mixing thoroughly so she doesn't just pick off the good stuff.

I've had a number of clients who's cats just suddenly went anorexic for no reason.  Hundreds of dollars later the pets were near death's door and no cause could be found.  There are medicines they can compound so you can run in their ears to increase appetite.  Sometimes baby food items can be more interesting to picky cats.  There is also a high calorie syrup (looks like hairball medication) you can run in her mouth daily to make sure she's getting a few more calories.  Giving sub-q fluids on a regular basic an perk up their fussy appetites if the problem is dehydration.

But the best help in my experience is always to find the underlying cause as quickly as possible.  Without finding a cause, it becomes a very long, difficult, and expensive struggle in the long run.