Have you tried canned food?

Treats are not food. Even manufacturers say that on the package.

Consult your vet on what he is ailing from, maybe that's why he is not
eating. If it is just a matter of finicky taste, try changing the
flavor (beef, chicken, tuna, etc) as well as the texture (loaf, pieces
in gravy, etc). Try different canned and dry (canned preffered), and
stick to what he likes.

If you have a Petsmart near you, they sell by single cans which makes
experimenting easier. To speed up the process, serve him a small amount
of 3-4 types of food at a time and see what he likes.

Try different flavors in Fancy Feast, Iams, Science Diet, etc, one
small can a time.

No treat is going to provide your kitty with the nutrition necessary to
regain his health- he needs real nutrition.
This website http://www.geocities.com/holisticat/ffeed.html gives you very
good instructions on how to syringe feed your cat.

I am curious as to why any veterinarian would prefer sugar laden treats to a
good old can of Hill's A/D, one of the preferred foods for syringe feeding.
In addition to not providing any real nutrition the sugar is further
challenging an already weak immune system.

Please get some real food into this cat asap. It is easy enough to do, it is
what the cat needs, so why not?

To clarify, he now refuses to eat his canned food much of the
time.  He will eat the kitty treats almost always so we have
taken a "something is better than nothing" approach when
he won't eat anything else.

He has been eating the same brand of canned food since
before adoption and has refused to eat anything different.  We
don't really have the luxury to experiment with new foods now
and based on past experiences are not optimistic about
finding something new he would eat in the best of circumstances.

So, we are sticking to what he has eaten in past while trying
to get him to eat what he should.  Anyone who has ever tried
to get a cat to eat when he doesn't want to knows how
problematical this is.  All of this leads to the question about
nutritional value.

I hope this wasn't too longwinded.

Thanks for the responses so far,
Gary

What was he diagnosed with?

Gary Brown <garyjbrown@charter.net> wrote in
rec.pets.cats.health+behav:

It depends on what he's ailing from.  I would try tuna and baby food if
it's not a kidney issue.