Glutton or picky cat solution to food problems

Are you familiar with the following situation? Your cat begs to be fed as if she hasn't eaten in seven days, spinning around you, meowing and making unhappy eyes until you fill her bowl to the brim with something delicious. Then the cat carefully sniffs the offered food, turns away and begins to energetically bury the bowl, after which it walks away offended. If the situation is familiar, then there is a little fuzzy little fussy living next to you. And what’s most interesting is that you took a direct part in her upbringing!

Picky cats are common, and you may even live next to one of them.

A picky cat has enough dried and moldy food in her bowl to feed three more, and she keeps walking around the dining table begging for something tastier. Owners of picky cats are sure that a cat can die of hunger in front of a full bowl. Their cat dies like this every day!

In reality, picky people are not born, they are made!

If you suddenly realized that your cat has become picky, that more food from bowls goes into the trash than is eaten, and that you have already gone through all the brands of food to please your pet, then you should start fighting this problem, because to solve it it will take a lot of patience and strength.

Here are some tips for those who have already raised a picky child or for those who would not like to raise one.

First of all, you must establish the reason why your cat began to reject its usual food. Very often people mistake partial food refusal for pickiness, when this can be a serious symptom and means that the cat is sick.

Before you begin behavior correction, be sure to consult with your veterinarian about your cat’s health! Many diseases cause a decrease in appetite, but the cat may not refuse tasty morsels. Gastritis, pancreatitis, cholecystitis - these are just a few diagnoses that you should exclude from your list of suspects.

If the cat has stopped eating altogether, then a visit to the veterinarian cannot be postponed even for a day, because if the cat fasts for more than a couple of days, it is at risk of developing liver lipidosis. This is a condition in which fatty deposits accumulate in the liver and is a very serious problem.

Changing your diet

One of the most common reasons that a cat develops fussy syndrome is when owners suddenly change the cat's diet. While variety is very helpful in preventing fixed eating habits, sudden changes may be unacceptable to the digestive system. It is very convenient when a cat can eat different brands of food at different times, this way you will protect yourself from problems if one or another brand of food disappears from sale, but you should not often and abruptly change the selected brands of food among themselves.

Of course, cats get bored with monotony, and it's okay to take a break once or twice a year and go for a month on a different brand of food, but you need to make sure that you make a gradual transition between the old diet and the new one. Gradually add some new food to the old food over several days, decreasing the amount of old food and increasing the amount of new food. At the same time, I do not recommend making such a feed cycle between industrial feed and natural food. This will be too much stress on the cat’s body, since these diets are digested too differently. But putting your cat on preventive medicinal food for a month or two a year can be very useful. Not only will this food prevent exacerbations of chronic diseases, but the cat will also have a little rest from the daily diet that has been boring for years, its appetite will increase and it will enjoy this event. Of course, this is provided that she likes the medicinal food. And the choice is up to you; there are a lot of medicinal feeds on the market now.

If the cat does not have chronic diseases, then you can change the brand of food or flavor for a month or two. Of course, you need to make sure that the food is suitable for your cat. But it is necessary to make a reservation that there are animals that are very sensitive to a change in diet in terms of the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract. If your cat gets diarrhea or stomach cramps with every new bite, or if your cat has food intolerance, this food cycle is not for you.

Force feeding a newborn kitten

Kittens are fed with syringes. But you should choose a size larger than 10 ml. The needle needs to be removed. Even a small kitten will try to escape, so before feeding you need to carefully wrap it in a towel so that the pet cannot move. In this case, you should not press down the paws too much or squeeze the body, as this will negatively affect the internal organs.

Note! The kitten will show the desire to eat only after it tastes the food. The owner's only task is to force the pet to take the first sip.

When feeding kittens, do not squeeze them too hard by the body.

Almost every owner of a four-legged creature will sooner or later have to learn how and what to feed a cat if it doesn’t eat anything. This is required not only in case of illness, but also due to any other reasons due to which the pet refuses to consume food.

Do you feed your cat from the table?

Another reason for the appearance of fussy syndrome may be that the cat is fed table scraps. Or maybe not even leftovers, but whole royal dishes. Do you think the cat will eat her boring, monotonous, unsalted and healthy food from a bowl if in the evening at dinner she can beg for grilled chicken, cheese casserole or filet mignon? Of course, she will starve all day, waiting for the opportunity to eat something more tasty.

By supplementing your cat's diet with foods rich in flavor, flavor enhancers, seasonings and salt, you will achieve only one thing - she will simply stop eating food and starve for days, waiting for something tastier. In this case, a vicious circle arises - the owners, in order for the cat to eat at least something, give out human food upon its first request, and the cat begins to starve longer and longer, knowing that in the end it will achieve its goal and they will fry it a grilled chicken or feed it liver sausage . Ultimately, such nutrition leads to serious problems not only in the cat’s behavior, but also to health problems. But putting a cat accustomed to sausage on medicinal food will not be an easy task. Therefore, it’s better not to even start feeding your cat from the table; it’s better to let her not know the taste of fried chicken, sausages and liverwurst, so she can maintain her appetite for her special food for many years.

Picky eating syndrome can also occur due to the conditions in which food is served. If you simply add food to an already dirty bowl, it may be unpleasant for the cat and she will refuse to eat, no matter how hungry she is. Wash food bowls before each meal, and water bowls daily. If you feed wet food, wash the bowl every time your cat eats, do not wait for the leftover food to dry out and turn into cement.

Make sure that none of the family members feed the cat on the sly. Keep all foods out of reach so your cat can't steal anything edible. Establish a complete ban on feeding your cat products containing salt, spices, seasonings; it is also necessary to exclude from the diet economy class food containing attractants and food with tuna, as well as tuna itself in any form.

How much food should you give your cat?

Cats are not able to determine the degree of satiety, as dogs can do, so we need to determine the right dose for them ourselves, after which the cat will not experience lazy languor from overeating. As for some types of food that she never wants to try, then in such a situation our intervention is sometimes required to regulate it.

And if something remains in the bowl, then it’s a pity that she doesn’t like the food. But this does not give us a reason to punish her. Therefore, delicious food should appear in her bowl twice a day! And it is best to feed her from plastic dishes that do not have an odor that irritates the cat's very sensitive nose.

Stress as a reason for refusing to eat

Stress can also be one of the factors that affects a cat's appetite. Make sure the bowls are in a secure place that is safe for your cat. In a multi-cat household, it may be necessary to install more than one feeding station if the cats are competing for food. The feeding area must be safe from the cat's point of view. Do not place bowls in a walkway or in a room where the cat feels uncomfortable. If there are dogs in the house, place the bowls on a raised surface where the dog cannot reach them. If your cat becomes nervous and afraid that she might be ambushed near her bowls, whether by her companion dog, another cat, or even a child, her appetite may be affected.

Healthy competition also affects cats' appetite. I noticed that when I have three cats at home, the appetite of my old-timers increases noticeably, because there is another eater, and if you gape and don’t eat on time, you can return to an empty bowl.

Mode

Following a diet regimen is very helpful in adjusting the appetite of a picky cat. For picky eaters, it is better not to leave dry food freely available so that they do not interrupt their appetite. You need to put only as much food in the bowl as the cat can eat at a time. If the cat did not eat the food, or ate a little and left the rest, the bowl should immediately, after the cat leaves, be put into the refrigerator until the next feeding time. Establish a complete ban on snacking! The cat should not receive any tasty treats, spoons of sour cream, or pieces of sausage. She should receive food only from her bowl and only at a certain time.

Half an hour before meals, it can be useful to play active games with a cat with a toy fishing rod.

If you follow the above rules, in about a month you will achieve an excellent appetite in your cat. Now the cat will know that no matter how hard she tries, she will not get a single extra piece from the table and she will not be offered six dishes to choose from. But she will know that at exactly nine in the morning her shiny bowl of fresh and healthy food will appear. And if she doesn’t rush to eat everything from it right now, then the bowl will disappear and will not appear soon.

And, comrades, cat owners are picky! Healthy cats don't die from full bowls! Be patient and you will see this confirmed! Just be consistent in your actions and let the cat know that her manipulations no longer work.

The cat is a picky eater

How should you raise a cat so that it eats everything that the owner offers? How to prevent the “birth” of a picky cat and, most importantly, how to re-educate an adult cat that is used to being picky? You will learn about all this from this article.

First of all

you must establish the reason why your cat does not eat and began to reject the usual food. Very often people mistake partial food refusal for pickiness, when this can be a serious symptom and means that the cat is sick. Before you begin behavior correction, be sure to consult with your veterinarian about your cat’s health! Many diseases cause a decrease in appetite, but the cat may not refuse tasty morsels. Gastritis, pancreatitis, cholecystitis - these are just a few diagnoses that you should exclude from your list of suspects.

It is necessary to give the cat a blood test (general and biochemistry and separately for pancreatic amylase) to determine whether there are any abnormalities in the functioning of the cat’s body. If a trip to the veterinarian does not reveal any abnormalities in the cat’s health, then you can proceed directly to behavior correction.

Cats are very clean animals and the sanitary condition of their feeding area, as well as the quality of food, is of paramount importance to them. Therefore, the first thing you need to do is check if some simple rules for feeding your cat are followed:

1. Use a special cat bowl made of glass or porcelain for feeding. These bowls are easy to clean and do not collect bacteria in their pores like plastic ones. 2. Feed your cat high-quality food of premium class or higher, and if you feed it natural food, then try to use fresh and high-quality products. 3. Do not leave perishable food for a long time at room temperature. A cat has a keen sense of when food is starting to spoil and will not eat stale food. 4. Do not place cat bowls close to the litter box; cats do not eat where they relieve themselves. 5. Wash your cat's bowl with dish soap or in the dishwasher after each feeding. This was about hygiene and food quality, and now let’s move on directly to what causes such a phenomenon as a “picky cat.”

To our regret, we are forced to admit that this phenomenon is mainly caused by the owners and their attitude towards the animal’s nutrition. After all, if the owner is consistent in his decisions, strict but fair, then the cat will not think of being picky.

Cats are amazing manipulators! If you give your cat just one chance to do things her way, she will certainly take advantage of it! Often, owners of picky cats make one big mistake when trying to please their cat. When a cat refuses one food, they offer her another, then a third. And the cat chooses only the most delicious pieces, begs for food from the table and sits near a full bowl with the unhappy eyes of a starving man. Such cats often have four or more bowls with different foods at the feeding site, from dry food to yogurt and sour cream.

To prevent a picky cat from entering your home, you must establish feeding rules that all family members will follow.

Rules for feeding a cat that is picky about food:

- It is necessary to follow the feeding regime. Feed should be given out strictly on an hourly basis (shifts plus or minus an hour do not play a role), and the dosage of the feed must also be observed. — A cat should have one bowl for water and one for food. For picky eaters, it is better not to leave dry food freely available so that they do not interrupt their appetite. You need to put only as much food in the bowl as the cat can eat at a time. — If the cat did not eat the food, or ate a little and left the rest, the bowl should immediately, after the cat leaves, be put into the refrigerator until the next feeding time. — Establish a complete ban on snacking! The cat should not receive any tasty treats, spoons of sour cream, or pieces of sausage. She should receive food only from her bowl and only at a certain time. — Make sure that none of the family members feed the cat on the sly. Keep all foods out of reach so your cat can't steal anything edible. — Establish a complete ban on feeding the cat products containing salt, spices, seasonings; it is also necessary to exclude from the diet economy class food containing attractants and food with tuna, as well as tuna itself in any form. - Half an hour before meals, it can be useful to play active games with a cat with a toy fishing rod.

It should be noted that cats are also very stubborn animals. Not every owner is capable of over-stirring a cat. Therefore, many owners are firmly convinced that if they follow all the feeding rules, their cat will simply refuse to eat and die of hunger next to a full bowl of healthy, but not at all tasty, food.

Remember, not a single healthy cat has ever died near a full bowl. Have you checked your health since you started correcting your behavior? A cat can be stubborn for a day, eat nothing, suffer, look into your eyes, but on the morning of the second day it will still have a little snack, maybe even without an appetite, so that you don’t celebrate your victory so quickly. She will be begging for tastier pieces for a long time, eating her food poorly, pretending to be a sufferer, she knows that it worked before and she got everything she wanted! And if you break down and still treat the sufferer to another tasty piece, then you will further strengthen the confidence in the cat that if you starve long enough, they will definitely give you something tastier.

It happens that a cat begins to refuse food after changing its diet. For example, if you changed the brand of food or switched from feeding food to feeding natural food. Here you must ensure that the transition from one food to another occurs smoothly. You can’t just give your cat one food at one feeding, and then another at the next. This is especially true in cases where owners transfer a cat from economy-class food, which is stuffed with cat-attracting substances, to food from lines above premium, which do not contain flavor enhancers and harmful additives. Of course, after the bright taste of the previous food, the cat will not immediately fall in love with the bland, but healthy, food.

To properly transfer a cat from one food to another, you must carry out this transfer over several weeks, gradually, half a teaspoon every few days, replacing the old food in the bowl with new one. If at any stage the cat begins to refuse food, go back a step, put in a little more of the old food and keep the cat on this mixture longer, then continue to reduce some of the old food and add new.

As a result, you will slowly and without harm to the cat’s body and your nerves, transfer the cat to a new diet. Many owners believe that cats get bored with monotonous food, and therefore they need to be fed something else, or change food more often. In fact, frequent food changes are not very beneficial even for healthy cats. Some cats have food intolerances or weak stomachs and are sensitive to any change in their diet, and may suffer from stomach pain or diarrhea. Such cats, of course, need to choose one food for their entire life. If the cat has chronic diseases, then you can keep the cat on preventive food once a year, of course, after consulting with a veterinarian. But in no case should you buy ten brands of food and offer your cat one brand today and another brand tomorrow - this is a shortcut to gastrointestinal diseases.

Another factor that can trigger food refusal is stress. You must make sure that the cat is not stressed. Stress in a cat can be caused by moving, rearranging furniture, a new animal in the house, a new family member, guests, improper placement of bowls (in a walk-through place or where the cat might be disturbed by a dog or a small child), a tense emotional situation in the family, etc. . If your cat is stressed, be patient and provide the cat with a calm environment, then its appetite will improve on its own.

So, install the bowls correctly and safely, keep the bowls and feeding area clean, follow the rules for feeding cats, do not allow yourself to be manipulated, be consistent in your actions - and you yourself can make sure that cats do not die near a full bowl of food and cats can have excellent appetites!

If your cat is picky about food, then a zoopsychologist and felinologist at the veterinary city clinic “VetState” will conduct a full examination of your animal and help solve the problem with food 7 days a week, 365 days a year, without holidays or weekends.
We are glad to see you from 10.00 to 21.00. For more detailed information, you can contact multi-channel phone
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