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My kitten only eats human food...
Morvidus
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
How can I break her of this? She eats anything we eat, but she won't go near her cat food. We've tried 6 or 7 different brands of dry cat and kitten food, and a few different brands of canned. She begs like an untrained dog when we eat. Most nights we have to put her in her cage with a bowl of cat food and water, and she only goes for the water.
I know garlic, onions, and red tomatoes are fatal for cats, but unfortunately my family loves the stuff. I really don't want her to accidentally eat something bad for her, so is there any way I can train her to eat cat food?
I know garlic, onions, and red tomatoes are fatal for cats, but unfortunately my family loves the stuff. I really don't want her to accidentally eat something bad for her, so is there any way I can train her to eat cat food?
Morvidus on
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Aaand limed.
Talk to your vet to make sure the kitten isn't malnourished, which if it's been eating human food for a long time it may well be. It's probably not getting enough taurine.
You can also go the "fool it" route by mixing tuna in water (drain the water as much as possible) in with its wet cat food. And make sure that nobody feeds it human food any more. Period. If someone caves, she'll just keep going back to them.
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We don't feed her human food, but she takes full advantage of our 3 year old. He won't feed her, and he shoos her away when he catches her, but fuck, he's 3 and only cares about Handy Manny and the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.
She's so insanely stubborn. I left her in her cage for a whole day. Her water was empty and her cat food was full.
I will try mixing tuna with cat food. She should develop a taste to it. She's only 6 months old.
The Raid
And since this is a H/A thread about cats: http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/8593/mykitties.jpg
They were only six weeks old at that point, but I don't have access to any other pictures at work. Work even blocks imageshack and other image hosting sites now. =/
This is a good idea short-term, but keep in mind that you're really going to want to taper back and eliminate it eventually, as tuna is not really all that nutritionally valuable for cats compared to the "real" food. I assume you've tried a fish-flavored food already? Unless there is something medically wrong with her or she is unimaginably, mind-bogglingly stubborn, hunger will win out eventually.
Also, as far as picking a brand, keep in mind that one of the things you get with premium-quality foods is that they're usually pretty darn palatable (and nutrient-dense) in exchange for the higher cost. All depends on what you can afford though, of course.
Requisite kitteh pics:
Our boy has grown from this (3 months):
To this (2 years):
He was pretty picky when he was a kitten also, but as you can see, he got over that eventually
The Raid
The only way you are going to get your kitten to eat the proper food is by stopping all human food, whether someone is giving it to her personally or not - put her securely in a cage/another room when your kid is eating, and don't let her back out until all the food is completely out of her reach.
From the little I know about cats, this is important. Cats are one animal that can't produce taurine naturally without the supplements found in catfood. I'm not a vet or a biologist, so don't ask me why, but this is important.
Problem: We let, by one way or another, the cat eat human food.
Answer: We stop letting, by one way or another, the cat eat human food.
Yes, the "tuna in the food" was intended as a bridge method to put her on a proper diet. Google "taurine and cats" if you want the long stuff, tl;dr is that a cat lacking in taurine goes blind* and gets an oversized heart.**
*central retinal degeneration, damage not reversible
**dilated cardiomyopathy, can be reversed if caught in time
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I make sure she gets no food from us while I'm at home, but during the day while I'm at work, who knows what my wife and kid are doing. My wife is a sucker for cuteness and stubborn as fuck. If I tell her how the cat can develop a taurine deficiency, I bet that will make her stop giving in.
I did come home one day and caught her eating sliced cheese straight out of the refrigerator...
The Raid
Wet foods are better than dry, and high quality wet foods (Wellness, Innova Evo, etc) are preferable, but any sort of nutrition tailored for cats is better than people food.
You can try sprinkling Parmesan cheese on top of the cat food. Cheese is fine for cats (though they are lactose intolerant, so not too much), and cats are attracted to food by their sense of smell, so having something strong-smelling in their food dish can help.
If your cat is accustomed to receiving food from fingers rather than eating out of her dish, you might be able to interest her in the food by hand-feeding it to her, and then use that as a stepping stone to transition her back into proper eating habits.
Then your wife is just hell bent on killing your pet because she thinks its cute and someone is incredibly stupid enough to leave the fridge open (which lets the cat and lets the cold air out so you're food might not be as good as you think it is). Frankly, this couldn't be any easier, your wife is an adult and needs to start acting like it. Tell her to stop feeding the damn cat because she is only going to make it sick. If she keeps it up have the vet scold her like a child and hope that the embarrassment of that is enough for her to knock it off. And keep the fridge shut, you don't want your toddler getting into something he shouldn't either.
A previous post implies that this cat can. Our family cat growing up could open the fridge and now so can my dog. One does not need an opposable thumb to open the fridge.
Putting a child-lock on your fridge will prevent the thefts, at least you have the excuse of a 3 year old to explain it! (there is a child lock on my fridge and I have no kids - people tend to find this confusing)
The older cat can open the fridge. Sometimes he naps on top of it, and when he stretches, he can catch the door and pry it open. We have a security gate to the kitchen, but locks never hurt anyone.
The Raid
Actually...
http://gothamist.com/2009/07/21/video_bicyclist_attacks_man_with_lo.php
...though the video has been removed.
GUESS WHAT THE CAT WENT BLIND due a lack of taurine
This works for dogs, not for cats. Cats will starve themselves and cause the previously mentioned fatal conditions rather than eat something they'd rather not. If you want to kill your cat, go ahead and do the above.
http://www.thepetcenter.com/article.aspx?id=3405
So, I recommend some of the stinky brands of wet cat food as an interim solution. The best ones that I've found to be unresistable are Solid Gold Tuna (its tuna for cats, and is very healthy) and Fancy Feast which is nutritionally very poor but may work for you in the weaning period.
You'll want to mix say a small handful of dry food into the wet delicious goodness of either of these brands, even heat the canned food (obviously not in the can) in the microwave for a little time to get it good and stinky before offering to the cat. In fact, you may want to take one of your child's old bowls that the cat will *think* holds human food, fill it with the canned food and leave it out somewhere.
As the cat starts to eat it's own food, you can increase the quantity of dry food (if you prefer dry) very slowly to maximum, I would say over the course of 2 weeks. Additionally, if you used Fancy Feast, wean the cat onto something nutritionally sound instead over the same period with gradual mixing.
If the cat will only eat from the child's bowl, slowly move the bowl toward the area where you want the cat to be eating. Be aware that a cat will not want to eat in the same room it shits, so don't expect that.
Consulting a vet might be a good idea, as i'm not sure what a 6-month kitten's tolerance is like....I can say that my adult cats can (and have, if they're being finicky) easily go 12 hours or so with no problems. The only time i've seen them refuse food for longer than that is when my male cat had a urinary blockage.
That said, realistically there are many ways to tempt them to eat, as has been mentioned, so hopefully this doesn't become an issue.
And speaking of blockages....
While this is less of a worry with female cats rather than male, it really is vastly better for cats to be on an all-wet diet. They have a very weak thirst drive, and are wired to get their water as part of their food, not separately.
Too much dry food can cause chronic dehydration, leading to mineral stones, bladder issues, blockages, etc. - which is almost certainly how our boy developed a blockage, thanks to eating vastly more dry food than wet, and only taking a few sips from his fountain each day.
This site - http://catinfo.org/ is a good read about food issues, dry vs. wet, carb content, etc. The author is a big advocate of actually making their food from scratch, but feeding 100% canned will accomplish many of the same goals.
I stand corrected.
Thanks everyone for your help. I'll be picking up Solid Gold Tuna, Fancy Feast, regular tuna, and everything else mentioned here and see what works. I'll keep you posted!
The Raid
Sounds tasty. Don't forget to pick up a cheeseburger for the cat.
NO, U CAN NOT HAZ CHEEZBURGER.
I don't care how cute you're being.
Can trade TF2 items or whatever else you're interested in. PM me.
A+++++ WOULD DO BUSINESS AGAIN
I know with dogs you can add flavor to their food if they're being picky... like just sprinkle some garlic powder over it (just a little).
No idea if that would work for cats.
I've yet to see a dog that's picky about food. Most of the ones I've had would eat tinsel if they could get to it.
As has been said... you absolutely have to go cold turkey on feeding the cat human food. If anyone is sneaking, it's not going to change. Keep setting out different kinds of wet food (if you're having difficulty getting a cat to even eat wet food then dry food is a lost cause for the time being imo). If you have two rooms in the house you can shut the cat in, put a litter box in one of them, wet food in the other and leave the cat there for a couple days. Change the food of course but make it very apparent that this is what there is to eat, nothing else.
You could also try sneaking the cat wet food at the time when it's begging to rule out a learned behavior...