Cat Chat Feline Forum

Hi everyone. So I have 2 13 week old kittens. When I got them at 8 weeks they were eating fine, easily 2 full pouches each per day. Now they are 13 week old and I'm really struggling to get them to eat more than 1 pouch each a day. They either lick all the jelly and leave the meat or don't be even touch it. Sometimes they may eat quarter of the pouch and then leave the rest which I end up binning as it all goes hard. Not sure if it's the food or then flavours maybe. They tend to prefer fishy flavours as aposed to meaty flavours but it's hard to get kitten food in that flavour. Any ideas? They are happy and bouncy kittens.

Hi and welcome

I may be wrong, but I wonder if your kittens are teething? Have you noticed any other changes such as extra-smelly motions, which can also happen? If they let you look inside their mouths you may notice their gums are inflamed. It's normal, of course, and they usually get over it without mishap. Do you feed a dry food, as they might enjoy gnawing on that, like a baby with a rusk.

Of course, like all cats, they might simply have decided that they're tired of their usual brand of wet food and be holding out for something different, little horrors.

Hopefully other people will have more advice - all the very best with them and do let us know how you go on

When I first had cats there was no such thing as kitten food. Once weaned they ate cat food, most of which only came in the large 400g tins. At 3 months you could safely offer them cat food. Pate type would be easy for them to eat, especially if they are teething. Lidl and Aldi have it in foil trays at only 19p/100g, which my cats love, including some marked 'Junior', so not much to lose if they don't like it. They do salmon flavour, but you could try them with the poultry, etc. Other supermarkets do have pate types, too. Felix 'as good as it looks' has small pieces of meat, so is easy to eat - look for it on offer, and if they take to it then it's much cheaper online from Zooplus. To avoid waste I'd just put a small portion out at a time - I do this with adult cats as mine like to have little and often. I'm home most of the time, so I can do that - not easy if you're out at work.

http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/cann ... ches/felix

As Lilith says, you could offer dry food - there are junior versions available, but please don't buy Go Cat - it's very poor quality.

I'm sure you're having fun with them, do keep posting to let us know how you get on with their food.

Thanks for your reply. I brought them wiskas salmon flavour tins in jelly and they seem to like that they eat about quarter of the tin each feeding morning lunch and dinner. I leave down Tesco own dry food to munch in between. Must have been the food they didn't like before

Tesco own food is just as poor quality as Go Cat unfortunately, probably the best of supermarket available dry food is Purina One, Harringtons is good, but not all supermarkets stock it.

Go cat is made by purina one. I'm still struggling on getting my kittens to eat very much. They will only eat half a pouch each in the morning and half at night. I've tried to give them more wet food at lunch but they won't eat it. They just want to sleep a lot. They are very active on the evenings. I've left dry food out for them to graze on because I'm worried they are not eating enough. They are half the size of their sisters.

Have you tried offering them cat milk? When I got Ria at 13 weeks old, she didn't eat a lot and I thought she was too thin, but I left out cat milk for her, and she would drink some.

Might be worth getting them checked by the vet

Maybe I should have clarified, Whiskas do bottled milk for cats, and some supermarkets do their own brand. Tesco have adult and kitten versions.
Don't want to spread confusion...

MarySkater wrote:Maybe I should have clarified, Whiskas do bottled milk for cats, and some supermarkets do their own brand. Tesco have adult and kitten versions.
Don't want to spread confusion...
cat milk 2.jpg

I can imagine why they needed to put up that notice - a friend's sister works in a supermarket; once a woman came up to her holding one of those speciality 'beefsteak' tomatoes and enquired, perfectly seriously, how much meat was in the tomato!

Lilith wrote:I can imagine why they needed to put up that notice - a friend's sister works in a supermarket; once a woman came up to her holding one of those speciality 'beefsteak' tomatoes and enquired, perfectly seriously, how much meat was in the tomato!

As a friend of mine on another forum would say 'Ya can't fix stoopid!'

MarySkater wrote:Maybe I should have clarified, Whiskas do bottled milk for cats, and some supermarkets do their own brand. Tesco have adult and kitten versions.

That pic is fantastic!
Did you take it yourself? How I love notices in other countries' shops and supermarkets

I didn't take the picture. Another forum that I read (book-related, not cats) has a section "Funny and clever pictures." Someone posted that, and I thought it was good enough to save it. I assume it was taken in Britain, but I don't know what shop has customers who imagine a mini-dairy with cats lining up to be milked!

MarySkater wrote:I assume it was taken in Britain

The pic has a low definition and is a bit grainy, but it doesn't seem the symbol before the price is £

Antonio wrote: The pic has a low definition and is a bit grainy, but it doesn't seem the symbol before the price is £

I agree the symbol looks a bit strange, but it doesn't look like $ either. Where else might it be to have the notice in English?

Could be Ireland, who use euros

Doesn't look like the Euro € sign to me, I would have said a slightly wonky Dollar $ sign if anything.

Anyone recognise the brand of cat food to the left of the milk? It appears to be priced at 45p?

PLEASE don't use Whiskas cat milk!! It's absolute rubbish and filled with sugar. Not a nutritious treat for cats or kittens at all. Please, just don't do it.

If you MUST give kittens (or mother cats) a milk supplement, you're better off with Lactol, which is very similar to the milk the mother cat produces when rearing her young. It's highly nutritious and very good for any cat who has experienced weight loss or is having difficulties putting weight on for any reason.

Beyond that, and yes, I'm sure everyone is bored of me harping on about it, but the best thing you can do is select a cat food that has a high meat content. Whiskas, Felix, Sheba, Gourmet, ALL of them have only 4% meat and animal DERIVATIVES. That's not meat, it's the stuff they derive from the meat. Cats are carnivores and should be on the highest meat diet you can afford. A couple of supermarket brands now offer cat food that is higher in meat but you MUST read the ingredients. Don't believe what you read because marketing is very clever. If you can afford it, try Canagan or More or Cheshire Cat, all of which have very high meat contents. The Canagan and More is also grain free. Grains are not a normal part of a cat diets. I can't remember the last time I saw a cat hunting down a field of rice. However, More is a slightly cheaper, low-grain option that still has 40%-50% meat in it. Canagan and Cheshire Cat are available as wet foods but if you want a cheaper-but-still-good option, Applaws is good as well.

Just please, please stay away from Whiskas Milk!?!

cat milk is very useful for administering meds, especially to a cat who will only eat dry food

I was thrilled when I found Tosker would take his Bisolven dissolved in milk

In the 80s I bought a Siamese kitten and on her diet sheet (no kitten food in those days; it was all chopped fresh chicken or rabbit and brown bread etc) diluted evaporated (NOT condensed!) milk was listed ... this is cheap, easily stored, and they like it. You can still buy it in tiny tins if you've only the one cat. I don't know what modern views on it are though.

Beware - Applaws wet is only a complimentary cat food. I don't know what of the essential ingredients of a cats diet it does not contain, but you will need to feed a complete cat food as well. (As Tilly demolishes 3 tins a day plus a saucer of dry food, this is no great problem for me!)

LittlePenBigHeart says...
" Grains are not a normal part of a cat diets. I can't remember the last time I saw a cat hunting down a field of rice. "

Well, I don't know where you live, but my cats would have a VERY long way to run before they found a field of rice - thousands of miles I believe!

alanc wrote:Beware - Applaws wet is only a complimentary cat food. I don't know what of the essential ingredients of a cats diet it does not contain, but you will need to feed a complete cat food as well. (As Tilly demolishes 3 tins a day plus a saucer of dry food, this is no great problem for me!)

It doesn't contain enough taurine which is essential for cats

When I found Willow as a tiny kitten, on the road not far from our house, I had no experience of owning a cat and got no help from our local vet (things have changed now thank God). Can't remember who told me about it, but for the first few days we fed her on Carnation evaporated milk. Must have been alright, 13 years on the only problems she has had have been an ear infection and an in-growing dew claw. Not ideal, but it saved her life.

So kittens are nearly 15 weeks and I'm
At my wits end with there eating now! I've tried everything to get them to eat more . Jelly vs gravy, fishy flavour vs meaty flavours, splitting meals up to smaller ones. Just can't get them to finish a meal never had cats like this and I've grown up with loads of cats. So fussy it's unbelievable. They seem full of beans so
I'm not to worried yet but not sure where to
Go from here .

Hi, it is worrying when they carry on like this; mine (I mean the cats I've had throughout my life as well as the the present gang) have done this too. I'm afraid I get to the point where I think, get on with it guys, and try a little benign neglect - obviously as long as no health problems are involved.

Just at present everyone screams for wet food breakfast from 6am on ... a snack might be asked for later, but dry food often preferred, and 'tea' (another dish of wet food) just doesn't seem to be required at the moment. So I'm leaving things at that for the time being.

I wonder if your guys are snacking on more dry food and seeing the wet as a bit of a relish rather than a full meal. If they're fit I wouldn't worry about their growth rate as kittens in the same litter can often differ. Also, if they're moggies, they might even have a different father - 2 or more toms can (and often do!) contribute to the same litter, resulting in differing kittens

Alice wrote:LittlePenBigHeart says...
" Grains are not a normal part of a cat diets. I can't remember the last time I saw a cat hunting down a field of rice. "

Well, I don't know where you live, but my cats would have a VERY long way to run before they found a field of rice - thousands of miles I believe!

To find a field of rice they would have to go a long way, to find a plate of leftover rice, they just have to go as far as the kitchen.

Last night I caught my Tuxie troublemaker, Saturn, happily wolfing down the leftover rice from my Chicken Stroganoff, no chicken or anything just a bit of rice and sauce. No one has told him that he shouldn't like grains.

bobbys girl wrote:Anyone recognise the brand of cat food to the left of the milk? It appears to be priced at 45p?

Looks like tesco to me xx