Why will my seven year old male cat eat everything except cat food?

Question

he suddenly isn't interested in cat food or cat biscuits at all, but will happily eat ham, cheese, fish even the dogs dinner. He just turns his nose up at his own bowl. i've tried various types and flavours of cat food, but he just walks away.

Answer 1

Put it this way, your cat will eat catfood if he is hungry.

dont feed him anything else other than catfood if you only want him to eat catfood.

cats arent stupid, if they think they can get away with it they will!

put his bowl down and leave it, he will eat it in the end

Answer 2

Put a little bit of ham, cheese or whatever in with the cat food, see if he eats it then. good luck

Answer 3

sounds like he is a bit spoillt,i dont think you will change him now

Answer 4

Well, your first choice of action is to have a visit to your local vet, just to be sure that there isn't anything wrong with him health-wise. Better to be safe then sorry, yeah? He IS 7 after all and that means he is considered a senior cat, which means more health troubles, especially teeth wise. If he has a loose or sore tooth, he won't bother trying to eat the hard, crunchy cat food and will instead resort to softer foods. And if he was eating cat food before and suddenly has stopped, there could be something wrong.

Also, You didn't specify whether you have tried feeding him wet food. If you haven't, I suggest Fancy Feast - Seafood Medley. Not the best kind, I know, but the seafood feast is in loaf style and it is quite fishy smelling. I don't suggest sliced, shaved or gravy style though. Most of the cats I've known just l**k the gravy.

Until you can get him to the vet, I suggest that putting him up (with litter box, food and water) in a separate room for a couple days to monitor him would be best. Because honestly, do you watch him 24 hrs a day? Of course not.. You have to sleep sometime, right? Cats are nocturnal. Out in the wild, they hunt and eat at night, which is also true for household cats. So maybe he IS eating, but you just haven't been able to catch him in the act. And if you don't see that he tried to eat, then a vet visit is needed.

But I must remind you that people and dog food, even though it may seem tantalizing to a cat, isn't as good as cat food. Cat food is chock full of all the little things that are good for your kitty's health. People/dog food is like junk food to a cat. So, don't give into him, no matter how much he begs. :) It just ruins his teeth even more.

Good luck!

Answer 5

Because you're letting him. Put down his food, and that's all he gets. When he gets hungry enough and realizes he isn't getting anything else, he'll eat.

Answer 6

If you did not feed your cat these things , hunger will get the better of him and he will eat any type of food put to him , he will not starve to death

Answer 7

Do not let your cat eat your food. You must nip this in the bud right away or you will have a BIG problem in the future. Give it cat food and starve it until it eats it.

Answer 8

There is no problem in that. But you have to consider that it might NOT be the food that is the problem, it might be a the bowl, if its plastic I wouldn't be suprised. It can also be that your cat just doesnt like CAT things it just probably just prefers DOG stuff, or other annimal foods!

Answer 9

It's a good question and i don't really have much idea, but maybe he just fancies a change?