
A cat that won’t eat is both worrying and frustrating. Your first thought may be that your cat is just being fussy, but you know your cat and if they stop eating when they are generally good eaters you maybe right to be concerned. As a cat sitter I always ask clients if their cats are fussy eaters and are they likely to stop eating while they are away? Over the years of knowing other peoples cats I can often notice if something is wrong especially with cats eating habits. If we are worried the first plan of action should always be to call the vet. This is especially important if the cat is elderly as not eating can cause problems with the cats liver. Older cats that stop eating but are drinking a lot are also a worry and a sign something is wrong, possibly kidney problems…. so always best to get it checked. So for whatever the reason for not eating here are some tips that have helped me in the past……
- Feed your cat meals at room temperature, cats really don’t like food straight from the fridge. If the food is at room temperature this is similar to the cats tongue which will encourage eating as the taste receptors will work better. This is of course for wet food. You may also wish to heat up the food a little.
- Cats are naturally drawn to strong aromas; they have many more smell receptors than humans, so you may wish to try your cat on smellier foods such as sardines or pilchards. Warming the food may help also as the food will become stronger smelling.
- Provide your cat with as fresh as food as possible, cats can detect bacteria in foods much better than humans. In the wild they would not touch food that had harmful bacteria to protect them from infection.
- If your cat is settling into a new home, offer them a variety of commercially produced cat foods, some cat foods are better than others. Your cat may prefer as high meat content as possible as they are true meat eaters. Cats are able to detect amino acids produced by meat, so maybe try a cat food that is high in amino acids; this is often mentioned on the packaging.
- Try making the food warm and gravy like by adding warm water, the cat may try to lap it up. Try this little and often.
- When Mr Ringo was very poorly last year, a dear friend suggested using lick-e-lix, these are runny yoghurty treats like gravy. They were amazing and got Ringo licking and eventually eating very runny foods. They are great for hiding pills in too.
I hope this helps with any feline eating issues x