Help with food pickiness

[3furbabies]

I swear its always something food wise with one if my cats. One gets dry only and the other two get dehydrated raw in the morning and wet in the evening. Starting a month ago they both slowly stopped eating the dehydrated. One eventually gave into hunger and ate the other did not, so I switched flavours. Still no dice. Now the picky one is turning her nose up at certain flavours. She's not sick because she will go to the food, sit beside her dish and cry for food. She spends most of the day following me around screaming for food. I have resorted to force feeding her a bit in the morning to get food into her. When I put food in her mouth she eats it but won't on her own.... Now I have to force feed her dinner if she decides she doesn't want that particular can. I've cut all treats out.

I think it started around Christmas because they were getting several treats a day. Any ideas how to stop this pickiness? I'm getting sick of force feeding her.


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[catloverami]

Sometimes cats just go off a particular food. You shouldn't have to force feed, but you don't want your cats to loose weight because they aren't getting enough food if they're already at a "normal" weight for their size. I suggest you switch to a completely different food from the raw dehydrated. Try a good brand of grain free canned food (no corn, rice, wheat barley) and see if that doesn't make a difference. Or you could add a smear of Fancy Feast with your dehydrated food. FF is highly palatable to cats and most cats will eat it.

[spirite]

When Celia first pulled that last June, I'd try 2 or 3 cans of wet to see which one she'd eat, because she just wouldn't eat anything at that point. But that was irritating and obviously just making her fussier. Like your kitty, she's awfully stubborn and just won't eat at all if she really doesn't like it. If she's eaten in the morning and then at night refuses a food that I know she eats, well she just won't get food til the following morning. She'll usually eat just enough if it's a flavor she doesn't like that much, so this is where we've been for a while now. I can't have 9 lbs. running my life any more than they are already.

[3furbabies]

I do regret force feeding because now she runs and hides when I get the dish out but she is already lean as it is and was scared she was going to lose weight... If she could stand to lose a few pounds I wouldn't be so concerned. Yes I think I am going to stop the dehydrated for a while. Unfortunately I am limited on wet food choices as she can't tolerate grains. I usually rotate between the cans but lately she is just super picky. One day she will love something and a few days later she acts like its poison. This just started a few months ago since we were feeding them a ton of treats which we shouldn't have started. Now anytime I give my dog a treat she will come running and try and get at it.


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[yingying]

I force fee my Metoo once a while (usually for chicken heart and liver), and she is perfectly ok with it. No hide or fear before/after force feeding. So force feeding may not always be bad idea depending on cat's personality. As of pickiness, my cats LOVE Weruva BFF series. Could you dip your dehydrated raw in BFF and see if your cat would like it?

[3furbabies]

Originally Posted by yingying

I force fee my Metoo once a while (usually for chicken heart and liver), and she is perfectly ok with it. No hide or fear before/after force feeding. So force feeding may not always be bad idea depending on cat's personality. As of pickiness, my cats LOVE Weruva BFF series. Could you dip your dehydrated raw in BFF and see if your cat would like it?

Well the dehydrated raw is pretty much a wet food so I can't dip it. I think I am going to cut it out for a while. Ya she hates force feeding.. she is very independent and only likes to do things on her terms. I use to feed the normal Weruva for a while but again they stopped liking it and it was to expensive to keep wasting. I think she just like more variety because when I fed a different can every meal, she had no issues at all. It was since I started feeding dehydrated for every breakfast(same flavour) she became picky. She ate it fine for months then randomly started eating less and less of it to the point she won't go near it now.

[3furbabies]

This is a picture of her from yesterday. She pretty much sat beside her food dish all day meowing me. When I put more dehydrated out she ran away. At dinner I gave her wet food and she ate like crazy.

[GhostTown]

I have obviously missed the tutorial on how to force feed a cat.

You must be pretty set on exactly what you want them to eat and are not willing to stray from it?

Maybe I'm reading this wrong.

[3furbabies]

Originally Posted by GhostTown

I have obviously missed the tutorial on how to force feed a cat.

You must be pretty set on exactly what you want them to eat and are not willing to stray from it?

Maybe I'm reading this wrong.

Well no... I originally started the dehydrated because it is waaay cheaper than canned. I only did this for one meal because at first they loved it so much. Then they also got picky with canned. Sometimes I would feed canned in the morning instead of the dehydrated. Even if it's a flavour she typically loved, sometimes she decided she would want something else. That's where I refuse to give in. I am not having several opened cans because she is picky. Also, none of them will eat wet food if it has been in the fridge for even a second(even when brought to room temp again) so I end up throwing it in the garbage and I can't afford that at the moment.

[yingying]

Originally Posted by 3furbabies

Well the dehydrated raw is pretty much a wet food so I can't dip it.

Does she like any dry food? Sometimes my cats refuse to eat wet (the brand & flavor they liked before), I just crunch 4-5 pieces of their favorite dry and sprinkle them on top of wet. They will happily eat the whole thing. I'm not sure if it's just my cats' habit, but maybe you can give it a try