I posted this on another site as well, dunno if I'll get in trouble for that just tohught Id mention it



my kitty Mecha (who is about 6 months in age) has just recently been refusing to eat almost all of her wet food.

I feed her whiskas (and have since I first got her about 3 months ago) but in the last 3 weeks or so she has refused to eat any of it (with most of the feed going in the bin due to it going yuck)she is still eating the dry food but not the wet (and aside from really expensive cat foods wiskas is the best thing...the only other can type none expensive foods being home brand (which I dislike alot) or kitecat

she isn't desexed and she has never been to a vet (I know I'm gunna get a lecture for that but I cant afford the vet bills for it yet and as soon as I get a job she is going in for her first check up) she doesnt have any obvious illness symptoms ie no sneezing, vomiting or any change in her behaviour or routine except for the I dont want that behaviour.

I've tried changing the flavour I feed her (thinking she was sick of the can I was feeding her) but she still refuses to eat it..



anyone have any ideas? or had this experiance as well?

1. Whiskas is complete crap junk food.

2. Some cats don't like wet food. Cats can be fine on just dry food. They don't need wet food, though it can be beneficial for cats with urinary problems to get more moisture into their diet.

3. If she starts refusing all food she needs to be taken to the vet immediately or she could develop Hepatic Lipidosis (fatty liver disease) and die.



You don't want to hear it, but you should not get pets you cannot afford to take care of. She is now reaching an age where she is able to get pregnant. You need to be EXTREMELY careful that she does not get out. I recommend contacting some sort of rescue organization or humane society as they often offer free or reduced cost spays/neuters/vaccinations.

ditto everything rabid said. my cat stopped eating just over a year ago and did develop fatty liver. when we finally realized something was up and brought him to the vet we were told another few days and he would have died. he had to have blood work done which is expensive, we managed to get by without an ultrasound luckily cause that's about $500+

we had to feed him vet-prescribed food from a syringe every couple hours for about a week. it involved one of us holding him and the other forcing the syringe into his mouth and basically forcing food down his throat. it was messy and heartbreaking and we got like no sleep.

after a few days he started to get his appetite back and i started buying one of every brand of food i could find until i found one he liked.

i narrowed down that he doesn't like seafood (go figure a cat that doesn't like fish) and that was the problem. i had bought seafood based canned food by the case to save some money and he didn't like it.

now i know that it wasn't the brand he disliked but i still buy some of every flavour but the seafood ones and alternate them so he doesn't bored of any one flavour. every now and then i buy one can from a different brand just to give him some variety.



think about it, would you want to eat the same thing day in and day out?



the fact that she's still eating her dry food is possibly a good sign. maybe she's just bored of her canned food, try a different brand, try several brands and flavours.

it is true that changing foods too quickly can upset their stomachs but i find it's less of an issue with canned. try to stick to similar quality and ingredients.

you don't have to spend a fortune to get a better quality food. a good place to start is don't buy anything that lists "by-product" in the ingredients. it's garbage. and anything with grains for filler, and definately anything with ash you want to skip. check your health food store, there are some natural brands that are small companies or local companies that aren't big enough to distribute to pet store chains so they sell to specialty stores and health food stores instead. they tend to be cheaper than the high end brands from chains.

also if you have a petcetera near you they have their own brand that is incredibly cheap and while i can't attest to the quality of the meat, the ingredients are literally like "fish, water" and that's it. no junk in them at all. the one i went to only had fish based ones so i don't buy them but i did get a couple to test him with and they had real whole shrimps and calamari rings and real chunks of fish. i was amazed considering how cheap it was.

whiskas and any other brand you typically find in grocery stores or department stores is like the equivalent of you eating mcdonalds every day



one more thing, when you go to a higher quality brand you may find your cat actually eats less of it. cats will instinctively eat only what they need (for the most part, there are some piggies out there lol) so if they are getting a low quality food lacking in nutrients they tend to eat more of it to make up for it. a higher quality with more concentration of good nutrients means they generally need less of it to get their daily requirements therefore they will instinctively eat less. you might notice her pigging out a bit at first because it's new and seems like she's getting a treat, but once she's figured out it's there to stay she'll balance out. so in the long run going to a more expensive brand doesn't always cost much more

Why do you have a cat if you can't afford to get it medical attention? What if she got pregnant? Came down with something very serious?



Like Rabid_Child said, cats don't need wet food. What type of dry food are you feeding her?

she eats some of her wet food, just alot less than she used to.

she has next to no chance of getting alot of cat to cat contact disseases because she is a completelly indoor cat (there is no chance for her to get outside, I live on a second story of a flat) so that rules out the babies problem as well.



and when I first got her I brought 1 can off home brand which she wolfed down alot of very quickly and I gave up on that because I knew it was crap straight away, she just seems to want alot less of the cat food now then she did when she was a baby kitten.



if she starts not eating any food I will be going to vet straight away (but she still meows for food, she just seems to prefer getting dry to wet, as when I put wet down she looks at it and then looks in the dry food bowl and meows at me for dry food).

perhaps she eats less now because she doesnt run around like a hyper active child anymore?



I feed her whiskas dry food as well.

she still loves the dry food (would probably eat the whole box if I'd let her)



and while I can not afford the vet bill if she did come down with something serious I would find a way to afford the bill.

if she ever changed her behaviour or appeared to be unwell I would go to a vet straight away and then work out some way to pay it off.



thanks for answering, I didnt realise cats dont actually need both food types to be healthy

my cat is strictly indoor is well. he got fatty liver and almost died. he also has a heart condition which caused him to have a serious blood clot, it was like a mini stroke. his heart rate was so high, it was scary. he is now on medication for the rest of his life. his pills cost me $150 every 3 months.



i suggest doing one of 2 things. get pet insurance or put money aside into a savings account every week and don't use it. if something happens and the cat needs vet care you'll at least have something to dip into. even 5 bucks a week could make a big difference in the event that you need it later

We put away $25 a month incase of vet emergencies for Kira. I'd suggest doing something similiar like Faile suggested. I'd also look around for a low cost clinic so you can atleast get your cat a rabies shot and a check up. Petco usually has a day once a month where a mobile vet comes out and does routine check ups and shots that are very reasonably priced.



Probably just an appetite change is what I am guessing. If they are still eating the dry food, I'd just stop giving them wet for awhile.

Cats do not need wet food, but also limit the amount of food your cat gets in a day to prevent obesity. Many cats will eat out of bordom. Provide fresh water daily.



Also get her spayed as soon as you possibly can, she will start goining into heat very soon and will drive you crazy with her behavior.



Cats that are indoor only can still get some diseases, like heartworm disease. Also, I've heard of cats living in upper floor apartments coming down with various diseases. She's at less risk for illess, but there is still a risk. At her age she should only need two distempers (2-3 weeks apart) and the rabies vaccine, bordetella is up to you for when she goes to the vet to be spayed.

Where did you hear that it was okay to just feed a cat dry food? I'm not sure if that's true.

Five years of working in veterinary medicine (with both "normal" and holistic vets), to start. Dry foods are nutritionally complete. Wet foods definitely have a place as they add more water to the diet which is especially good for cats with urinary problems. Wet foods are also lower in carbs and thus closer to a cat's natural diet and are often good for weight loss for overweight cats. They don't NEED it though and can live healthy long lives eating nothing but dry food.



The person who posted above you (cheekywhiskers) who also said cats don't need wet food is a vet :P

Most articals i've read say cats need wet food in their diet to keep them healthy. As rabid_child said, It's good for them, Some cats can probably do without it, Though.

I suppose if their geting a good quality dry food and plenty of water they would be okay but I wouldn't give up on finding a wet food your cat enjoys. It took several brands before I found one my cats will eat. My kitties don't really care for 99% of wet food. My cat Lilly has always been very fragile. If I refuse her wetfood she becomes sickly. My advice is simply to find some higher quality wet cat food, (Not cheap brands, They really aren't good for the cat). And give it a few trys before you give up. Don't just look for other flavours, Also look for different textures and thicknesses. My cats won't eat the shreded, Or the kind with very little sauce, Or the kind with gel-like sauce and it has to be certein types of fish, No other type of flesh.

oh i forgot to mention that thanks for reminding me about the textures thing. my cat won't eat anything that's not the classic "pate" style. there's one chunky one he likes because it's got a tomato-based sauce on it and he loooooves tomato. but he'll just lick off the sauce and not eat the chunks so i don't buy it often. once in a while for a treat and then i smush up the chunks with a fork. can't be bothered with doing that every day but i do like to spoil him with a little treat now and then

thanks for all your advice, she is kind of eating the wet food now (tomorow Im buying a differant brand which is very differant in texture to whiskas just to see if she is bored of the brand)

I always give her fresh water, I change the water bowl 2 - 3 times a day because I wouldnt like drinking water that'd been sitting there for hours lol

I live in rural n.s.w. Australia so there really arent any low cost vets around here. And I dont think animals in Aus. get rabies shots because I dont tihnk we have rabies.



thanks for your advice though, she seems okay now, perhaps it was the heat lol

I work in the veterinary medicine field as well.

We have a DVM who recommends wet food that has meat as its first ingredient ((which may include 9 Lives, Whiskas..I know I was surprised too)) for teh kittehs.



The spectrum has changed...a few years ago wet food for cats was "bad" because it was "bad for their teeth"...now ((from what I've gleaned from the DVMs)) I recommend at least some wet food in their kitteh's diet, to help with the kidneys and urinary tract and all that.



I'd rather have a cat with tarter teeth than one with a possibly fatal urinary blockage!



To the O.P:: glad your cat is eating!!..please get her spayed! ..there are many low-cost options that beat out "free kittens to a good home (( )) "-!

glad she's eating. keep an eye on her food intake if she loses interest again and isn't eating as much or any dry food get her to a vet asap. hopefully a change of flavour is all she needed. but again some cats just don't like canned food, it wouldn't be a horrible thing to cut the wet food out altogether if she eats enough dry. my cats have always been dry-only until just a couple years ago. my Moo is a little (a lot) on the fat side and diet foods don't agree with him so i opted to try wet food since it has less carbs and fillers which is what tends to make cats overweight. now he loves his wet food so much if i went back to dry only he'd probably starve lol.

whereas my brother's cat who lives in the same house as mine won't touch wet food. she has anxiety issues, i tried to introduce myself to her with a treat of wet food when she first moved into the house and she wouldn't touch it. we've tried since then and still no go.

Our cat ate anything in front of it after I first fed it, because it was starving. Now it will touch nothing but the cat kibble stuff we give it, unless it eats a bird, frog or mouse. Doesn't seem to have any health issues, and **** knows it's been to the vet enough with being neutered and having its deformed teeth removed.

When I had my first cat, I was actually told this by a vet. "Wet food is a waste of your money, it makes your cat have weak teeth. Don't give your cat wet food once it is no longer a kitten unless you mix it in with dry food. It will also make the cat very spoiled."

I agree with everyone, wet food is not needed. All my cats eat only dry food.

You're not agreeing with everyone.



I hope your cats get plenty of water.

I was agreeing with certain people that posted that as well. I will count next time for you so I can post if I am in the majority or the minority.



Wet food is eaten in quantities too high when you have to free feed, which is why it isn't done in my house. I would have cats as big as houses. As far as the water intake, they have a waterer which constantly supplies them with fresh water as well as my Saint Bernard's bowl which is constantly full.

Don't worry so much, as long as she's still eating her dry food. Make sure she has lots of water, and that's she's actually drinking it. Try setting out different dishes and see which one(s) she will drink out of. If possible, give filtered water - my cats tend to drink more filtered water than just plain tap water.



One of my cats basically refuses to eat wet food. He will sometimes lick the 'gravy' off of it when it's at room temp, but won't touch it after it's been in the fridge. Yes, he drinks lots of water. He likes it out of only a certain dish and I keep it nice and full for him. He's about to turn 4 and is doing ok so far!