Complicated Cat

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Pat - 23 May 2008 20:47 GMT

On a finickiness scale of 1-10, Abelard is a 12. Same goes for spoiled.

I tried many times today to get him to eat, before finding the key. The
other cats are loving the fact that I've had to open half a dozen cans of
gooshy food to find one that Aby likes. The others are growing fat on the
goodies he rejects.

No way is he starving "to death" - he has an appetite and he's fussy as can
be about what he will eat. I knew he was hungry, cuz he kept looking at me
until he'd catch my eye, then look over at the food dish, then back at me,
back at the dish, back at me, etc.

Now, the real difficulty is that I have to push the first few bites into his
mouth before he starts hoovering. This even goes for fish or shrimp, and I
assume it's because his nose is stuffed. I shoved three bites each of beef,
lamb, turkey and two types of chicken, before finally giving up and heading
out for more fish.

The deal is, he won't eat anything but fish or shrimp. Forget chicken,
turkey, beef and lamb; ground or shredded makes no difference, it MUST be
fish or shrimp. How will I ever get the weight back on his bones?

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Judith Latham - 23 May 2008 21:14 GMT

> On a finickiness scale of 1-10, Abelard is a 12. Same goes for spoiled.

> I tried many times today to get him to eat, before finding the key. The
> other cats are loving the fact that I've had to open half a dozen cans
> of gooshy food to find one that Aby likes. The others are growing fat
> on the goodies he rejects.

> No way is he starving "to death" - he has an appetite and he's fussy as
> can be about what he will eat. I knew he was hungry, cuz he kept
> looking at me until he'd catch my eye, then look over at the food dish,
> then back at me, back at the dish, back at me, etc.

> Now, the real difficulty is that I have to push the first few bites into
> his mouth before he starts hoovering. This even goes for fish or
> shrimp, and I assume it's because his nose is stuffed. I shoved three
> bites each of beef, lamb, turkey and two types of chicken, before
> finally giving up and heading out for more fish.

> The deal is, he won't eat anything but fish or shrimp. Forget chicken,
> turkey, beef and lamb; ground or shredded makes no difference, it MUST
> be fish or shrimp. How will I ever get the weight back on his bones?

When my first cat wasn't interested in food (usually when she had a cold,
which she was prone to) I could get results with tinned sardines or
Pilchards (had to be in tomato sauce). I think because the smell and taste
is quite strong. It was the easiest way to give her pills too, when
crushed and mixed in she couldn't smell them.

Judith

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Judith Latham
Stourbridge, West Midlands. UK.

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Pat - 24 May 2008 03:50 GMT

| When my first cat wasn't interested in food (usually when she had a cold,
| which she was prone to) I could get results with tinned sardines or
| Pilchards (had to be in tomato sauce). I think because the smell and taste
| is quite strong.

I forgot to mention that he has never liked sardines. None of my cats do. I
occasionally buy a tin of them just to check and see if their taste has
changed. It never does. They just turn up their spoiled noses at any form of
sardine.

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bastXXXette@sonic.net - 23 May 2008 21:20 GMT

> I knew he was hungry, cuz he kept looking at me until he'd catch my
> eye, then look over at the food dish, then back at me, back at the
> dish, back at me, etc.

LOL, I guess you can't miss that message. :)

> Now, the real difficulty is that I have to push the first few bites into his
> mouth before he starts hoovering. This even goes for fish or shrimp, and I
> assume it's because his nose is stuffed. I shoved three bites each of beef,
> lamb, turkey and two types of chicken, before finally giving up and heading
> out for more fish.

Do you have a microwave oven, or a toaster oven? (If you don't have either,
there's no reason you can't use the oven on your stove - it just takes a
bit longer to get hot.) I recommend heating his food a little bit. Not so
it's hot enough to burn him, of course, but so that it becomes more aromatic.

Cats often won't eat food that they can't smell. I don't know exactly why,
maybe they're not identifying it as food unless they smell it? If that's
the case, that would explain why he starts eating once you've gotten a few
bites into his mouth and he realizes it's food.

I usually heat Roxy's food, because she often has a stuffy nose due to
herpes. She's very finicky, maybe she can't smell food very well. She's
far more likely to eat heated food. I don't know if that's because she's
a spoiled princess who demands to be served room temperature food, or if
it's the smell theory. But it's worth a try!

> The deal is, he won't eat anything but fish or shrimp. Forget chicken,
> turkey, beef and lamb; ground or shredded makes no difference

Fish is a lot smellier than the other items.

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Joyce

To email me, remove the triple-X from my user name. ^..^

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Pat - 24 May 2008 03:52 GMT

| Do you have a microwave oven, or a toaster oven? (If you don't have either,
| there's no reason you can't use the oven on your stove - it just takes a
| bit longer to get hot.) I recommend heating his food a little bit. Not so
| it's hot enough to burn him, of course, but so that it becomes more aromatic.

I always warm the food unless it's a freshly opened tin. I take the
partially used tin out and put it into a steamer for a few minutes. But
normally this is unnecessary as I never have leftovers. What one doesn't
eat, another will.

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bastXXXette@sonic.net - 24 May 2008 05:06 GMT

> | Do you have a microwave oven, or a toaster oven? (If you don't have
> either,
> | there's no reason you can't use the oven on your stove - it just takes a
> | bit longer to get hot.) I recommend heating his food a little bit. Not so
> | it's hot enough to burn him, of course, but so that it becomes more
> aromatic.

> I always warm the food unless it's a freshly opened tin. I take the
> partially used tin out and put it into a steamer for a few minutes. But
> normally this is unnecessary as I never have leftovers. What one doesn't
> eat, another will.

Oh, well - I thought maybe warming it up might make it more interesting
to smell. Has he eaten any more since earlier today?

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Joyce

To email me, remove the triple-X from my user name. ^..^

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Granby - 24 May 2008 05:13 GMT

The warming usually helps if you have a cat or dog with colds or any other
nose problem.

My blasted dog was so spoiled, she wouldn't eat the part of the tin I would
put in the frig unless it was warmed.

> > | Do you have a microwave oven, or a toaster oven? (If you don't have
> > either,
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
> Oh, well - I thought maybe warming it up might make it more interesting
> to smell. Has he eaten any more since earlier today?

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Pat - 24 May 2008 05:54 GMT

| Has he eaten any more since earlier today?

No. I tried. Hard. It was a bit of an easier-than-usual "feeding" of shrimp
juice from a syringe. I imagine he'll be hungry around 2 AM again.....
yawn.....

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Christina Websell - 23 May 2008 22:21 GMT

> On a finickiness scale of 1-10, Abelard is a 12. Same goes for spoiled.
>
> I tried many times today to get him to eat, before finding the key. The
> other cats are loving the fact that I've had to open half a dozen cans of
> gooshy food to find one that Aby likes. The others are growing fat on the
> goodies he rejects.

I know that feeling when I had dogs with vestibular syndrome. Trying all
sorts of treatie foods to get them to eat and the others saying "Me, me, I
can eat that!"

Little pieces of roast chicken, scrambled egg, sardines, tuna, salmon you
name it. They would either eat it or they would not.

Keep on going.

It's a long hard road with vs but it can be done. I've done it several
times. It does take dedication though, you cannot work while you do this.
I took annual leave.
Some might say I wasted my leave, I could have had a holiday.
Yeah. I would have been happy in Spain knowing that my dogs were falling
around all over the place and needed me, don't you think?

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Takayuki - 24 May 2008 02:41 GMT

>The deal is, he won't eat anything but fish or shrimp. Forget chicken,
>turkey, beef and lamb; ground or shredded makes no difference, it MUST be
>fish or shrimp. How will I ever get the weight back on his bones?

I'm really glad to hear that it's just a stuffy nose now. Since he's
obviously hungry, you've won half the battle. Actually, Abelard's the
one who's won by making his slave feed him whatever he likes. :)

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