Why won't you eat your cheezies?!
March 30, 2012 5:07 AM   Subscribe

Getting a cat back on kibble?

My gorgeous cat Mustard (I wish I had a photo for you on this computer!) is now elderly, at somewhere between 11 - 12 years old. And she got her first old-cat problem last week -- she has a UTI. The vet gave her an antibiotic shot and three cans of prescription cat food and asked me to bring Mustard back in two weeks (so, a week from tomorrow). She is doing much better now. I wouldn't even know something is wrong, except for the kibble thing.

Mustard usually eats kibble. In fact, pre-UTI it was somewhat difficult to get her eating wet food, and the only brands she consistently liked were Whiskas wet and Meow Mix dry (I know, Mountain Dew and cheezies. We're remedying this!). After a scare where she wouldn't eat at all, we've got her eating the prescription wet (although we're nearly out, and the vet has said she no longer needs the prescription).

However, we go away for weekends a fair bit, so we like to leave an auto-feeder of kibble out for her. She's a healthy weight and is a good self-regulator. But she won't touch the kibble (not the straight meow mix, not the meow mix + Science Diet Mature Active Adult, not straight SD). I put some tuna water on a small plate and mixed it with some kibble and she gobbled that up, but still won't look at her auto-feeder. I even sprinkled some catnip on the food -- still nothing.

I had plans to go away this weekend. Obviously I won't if she won't eat the kibble (I've heard cats will happily starve themselves?!). But I'd like to.

So: is there any way I can get her back on her kibble within.... 10 hours? Most of which I am at work? I can buy her something new and go home at lunch if that's the best option, but I am a wee bit tired of spending $20 on bags of things she won't eat.

PS: We will continue to feed her wet food + kibble. This worked pretty well for us before and I hoped it would continue.
posted by AmandaA to Pets & Animals (13 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Are you just going away for the weekend? The cat won't starve in two days. Leave out the kibble, and if she's hungry enough, she'll probably eat it. If not, she'll meow at you angrily and you can feed her a can of food.

One thing that cats love (that I've had) is IAMS food. I know some people on this site think it's crap, but cats that I have and have had think it's better than chocolate-flavored crack.
posted by xingcat at 5:10 AM on March 30, 2012


Response by poster: Sigh. I always leave something out. I would be going away from 7PM on Friday (tonight) until around 8PM on Sunday. I've heard if a cat fails to eat for 36 hours+ they'll get some horrible life-threatening liver disease or something? (can you tell I'm paranoid about this? she's my first sick cat...).
posted by AmandaA at 5:15 AM on March 30, 2012


Best answer: Generally the plan here with cats like this is that you have a friend come over Saturday afternoon, clean her litter box, and scoop her out some wet food. (If she just had a UTI, the litter box cleaning is almost as important as the feeding.) Surely someone can pop over for 20 minutes?

Give Weruva a shot for wet food. And give Orijen a try for kibble. A GOOD pet store will give you lots of samples. When our cat was having troubles, our hippy-dippy pet store was like TRY THIS AND IF THAT DOESN'T WORK TRY THIS AND HERE'S SOME PACKS OF THIS. All the pet food stores (and vets!) get samples of products that aren't dominant in the marketplace; it's just that, if you're going to PetCo, they're not gonna kick that down to you.
posted by RJ Reynolds at 5:34 AM on March 30, 2012


Best answer: The cat won't starve in two days.

I've heard if a cat fails to eat for 36 hours+ they'll get some horrible life-threatening liver disease or something?


You're not being paranoid. Anorexia, prolonged and brief, in cats has the potential to be deadly. The “horrible life-threatening liver disease” you’re talking about is primary hepatic lipidosis. How severe the liver damage is and how quickly it’s treated will determine the outcome. I actually just had a lecture on this (I am a 3rd year Vet Tech student) and my lecture notes have the mean mortality rate at 50%.

Of course I cannot tell you “Mustard will/will not develop hepatic lipidosis in 36 hours if she doesn’t eat.” But I would NOT risk it.

Also, in terms of overall health and hydration wet food is much better than dry.

See if you can have a friend or neighbor pop in and open up a can of wet food for her on the days that you are away. If you can't do this, and really must leave, call your DVM and ask him/her what they think.
posted by OsoMeaty at 5:40 AM on March 30, 2012 [3 favorites]


Probably too late for this weekend, but maybe for next time, you could get a timed sectioned feeder like this and put wet food in it. If you freeze little cans of wet food and put it frozen into the timed feeder segments, it will be thawed by the time the segment opens. (Note that I have never tried this myself, but have heard about doing it from other cat parents.)

For this weekend, as OsoMeaty suggests, can you have someone come by and open some wet food for her? Or hire a pet sitter to do this?
posted by dayintoday at 6:11 AM on March 30, 2012


If you're looking for a "next 10 hours" solution, could you take some tuna juice (what we usually drain off the can) and soak a weekend's worth of kibbles, so that she is maximally likely to eat at least some of them while you're gone? You'd probably need to throw the remainder out on Sunday, lest the kitchen get a bit rank, but that's better than all the fears about self-starvation and the like. (This is presuming that you don't have a friend to stop over...)
posted by acm at 6:18 AM on March 30, 2012


Probably too late for this weekend, but maybe for next time, you could get a timed sectioned feeder like this and put wet food in it. If you freeze little cans of wet food and put it frozen into the timed feeder segments, it will be thawed by the time the segment opens. (Note that I have never tried this myself, but have heard about doing it from other cat parents.)

We had a automatic feeder that had a built-in ice-pack that you froze and then put in the feeder to keep the wet food refridgerated.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 6:21 AM on March 30, 2012 [1 favorite]


Orijen dry food has extreme palate-power, from what I've seen. Many pet stores have sample bags of it, but even if not, leaving this out means any bites she takes will be packed with nutrition.

Best, it's really good stuff.

PS: there's probably a rescue/shelter in your area that will take any unused food you have on hand, even if open. That can make your experimentation feel more like tithing and less like a waste.
posted by batmonkey at 6:32 AM on March 30, 2012 [1 favorite]


Try forrtiflora. Sprinkle it on the food. My cat has gone through this and it works.
posted by superfille at 7:29 AM on March 30, 2012


I have gone through the finicky-eating scenario with several cats. I agree with those who have said you should have a friend come over and clean her box and give her a can of wet. Leave the kibble out anyway and your friend can monitor how much of it she's eaten, if any. Also, go get samples of a few different kibbles as others have mentioned. (Seconding the local hippy-dippy pet store if you have one; when I had a sick cat who wouldn't eat they were incredibly helpful and gave me tons of samples.) For a specific recommendation, my cat LOVES Natural Balance Limited Ingredient Diet (which is grain-free). We give him the duck & green pea formula and he gobbles it up like he's never seen food before.

Cats can react strangely to dietary change, and she may also just feel better on the wet food due to its higher water content, so it may just be worth it to have a friend or cat-sitter come by once a day for future trips and give her a bunch of wet food.
posted by bedhead at 9:50 AM on March 30, 2012


Just popped in to say I'm having almost the EXACT same problem with my cat but $450 and two completely different DVM visits later, they tell me she's perfectly healthy, although she was under 5lbs, not eating and stopped going in her litter box. (No UTI, no kidney cancer, no feline leukemia, no bad teeth. ARGH)

Gah, bedhead. My 15 yr old cat History is being damn picky this month and we bought a bunch of the Natural Balance Limited Ingredient Diet wet duck and green pea stuff, which she has scarfed down SO FAST in the past but is now turning her nose up. Last night she even ate the dry kibble she was refusing before when we started giving her the duck/pea stuff in the first place. Of course, as soon as I bought two cases of the stuff, that was when she decides she doesn't like it anymore.

WTF, cat? EAT.

Now all she wants is bacon grease, chicken fat and treats. (honestly, I can't fault her preferences)

(obligatory picture of said cat basking in 90F humid weather last summer and couldn't be happier, and being stubborn)
posted by jillithd at 11:53 AM on March 30, 2012 [2 favorites]


I know it's not what you asked for, but could I offer an alternative?

We use this thing when we go away or work late. It works pretty well for overnights or late evenings.

You can use dry with it, but the thing is, you can put a cold pack under one or both bowls, which allows the use of wet food in the feeder too. A small cold pack will last a day or so. You simply chuck them back in the freezer when you come back, and you're ready for the next trip. The bowls are dishwasher safe too.

If you're worried about not accepting dry, you might try this sort of feeder. Petsmart has them obviously, but I've seen them in many different stores.
posted by bonehead at 12:35 PM on March 30, 2012


Try Nutro Max Cat. My cat loves it with all her heart and my roommates cat has completely given up his previous diet of Meow Mix in favor of the Nutro. Seriously, I've never seen cats react this positively to kibble before.
posted by mygothlaundry at 1:39 PM on March 30, 2012


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