Finicky eater Finnegan

Hi,

My diabetic cat, Finnegan, is a very fussy eater. He's about one year old and was a stray that I brought home. His MO for food is:

1. I LOVE this food! I will eat it all up so I can get my shot!
2. I like this food. And if Mommy sits next to me and encourages me to eat, I will eat most of it.
3. I'm not sure about this food. If Mommy adds a treat of two, I will eat some of it. Maybe.
4. I don't really care for this food at all. Those treats you put in there? I will eat them and not much else.

He started out on Purina DM, which was OK for a while, then went to Fancy Feast Naturals, which he has started to not want to eat after loving it. I am trying to get wet food that is NOT grain-free, as my vet says not having grain has been shown to cause issues with cats. Finn has turned his nose up at most other foods, including the Fancy Feast pates that were recommended by my vet.

Does anyone have some tips or tricks? I am beyond frustrated with the little guy as I know he is hungry. He just doesn't want to eat what we are giving him.

 

I am doubtful that your vet got this from a reliable feline nutrition source. I think I would be tempted to ask him what his source is. As catinfo.org puts it, "the cat is an obligate carnivore which means: They are designed by nature to get their protein from other animals (meat), not plants (grains/potatoes/other vegetables)." Maybe the vet is thinking of dogs. There has been info recently about the FDA investigating a link between heart issues in dogs and certain grain-free diets.

When I was first transitioning my girls to wet food, I had trouble getting them to eat much. They would do what you describe - act like they love something at first then stop eating it. I went through SEVERAL different types of foods until I found a couple that they would eat some of. There were two of them (FF Classic Chicken and Sheba Perfect Portions chicken pate), and when they would stop eating one of those, I would switch to the other... repeat. I add homemade plain chicken broth to their food as well as a little water, mix it very well and microwave for a few seconds to get it warm. I initially topped their food with a few kibbles (Dr Elsey's Clean Protein Chicken is a good option) then switched to crumbled PureBites freeze dried chicken. To this day, Mia will not start eating her food until I put the crumbled freeze dried chicken on it. At one point, I was topping their food with home cooked chicken. Now, that is just given as a treat for shots, testing or any kind of medication being given. Once they had been eating wet food for awhile, I was able to switch to one that I felt better about ingredient-wise and that did not cause any issues with their poop (FF did). I have been feeding them Weruva Chicken Frick a Zee exclusively for a long time now without any issues.

 

Thanks so much! We were thinking of having to types (chicken and tuna) and switching weekly to keep interest. The freeze dried treats I used to temp that Finnegan LOVED are now persona non grata. He won’t eat them at all. And it might be he likes chicken. I was just trying to find some that had the same amount of protein in it. The tuna has more than the chicken.

How often do you feed your babies a day? I’m also wondering if it’s too much food at once for Finnegan. He’s still trying to get glucose under control of sorts and acts hungry most times.

So thanks for the advice and letting me know I don’t have the only picky eater in the world!!!

 

I feed four times per day and leave any leftovers out for grazing.