Do any of you have REALLY finicky kittehs?

[badgerpup]

I've got one, and need some advice...again. :hi:

Esme, my eldest, has a problem with dry, flakey skin. It doesn't seem to bother her...
she doesn't spend a lot of time scratching or seem uncomfortable...but she always has 'snowflakes', and after I've brushed her, she looks as though she's rolled in salt.

They get dry food...Diamond Active Cat.
It's recommended for pregnant, nursing, and baby kitties, so it's got a high fat and protein content, and my boys are all doing splendidly...NO dandruff, bright shiny coats, lots of energy, ...and their weight is where it should be.

I've tried the obvious stuff for Esme...fish oil capsules. SHE. DOES. NOT. LIKE. THEM. :thumbsdown:
I even crushed one and put it on her fur, thought she'd lick it off and get the taste and the idea that way.

Kitties can give you some of the most crushing, guilt-inspiring "How could you DO that to me? I trusted you!" looks...
did you know that?

She doesn't care for gooshyfood, either. I've tried giving her canned food (with and without olive oil) and she just walks away...leaving it for the boys to snarf. Just about the only thing she considers as a 'treat' is tuna water.
Pounce, Greenies, Whiskas, Bonkers, soft chewy stuff that the boys go NUTS for..."No, thanks".:thumbsdown:

I don't want to have to start shoving a pill (fish oil, vitamin E, what have you) down her throat...she doesn't appreciate that even though I think she's made the connection between 'getting an aspirin' (rarely) and 'hips feel better' (within about 1/2 hour).

Anybody have experience with aesthetic finicky felines? PLEASE? :banghead:

[MissHoneychurch]

1. Give her a little bit of butter

each day. That helped with my late kitty. She had dandruff and after we started giving her butter the dandruff disappeared.

[Kookaburra]

2. How about tuna in oil?

You can drain off the oil and maybe she'll eat that?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

3. Kidley loves raw eggs

which I discovered after he jumped into the kitchen sink to lick some egg shells that I had left there.

Now he gets a raw egg every morning, and his coat, once rough, has become smooth and silky. Interestingly enough, he started turning silky from the head on back.

[japple]

4. I have one: Lola. There has never been a commercial

that she actually enjoys. She will unenthusiastically eat a few flavors of canned cat food, but I've tried everything from Wellness to EVO to Newman's Own to Nature's Variety and she's been underwhelmed. If I could find canned tiny bird hearts or mousie livers, she might like that.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

5. Kidley also hates canned cat food,

but he loves canned chicken and canned turkey, the kind that people buy for sandwiches, and an occasional canned tuna or salmon. He's not a big eater, so one can lasts three days. Other than that, he eats Katz-n-flocken dry food.

It's possible that he objects to the texture. If I'm cooking with meat, I give him the scraps instead of the canned stuff, and I've found that he will eat meat that's cut or broken up in bite-sized chunks, but he won't touch a large lump of ground chicken or long strips of beef. Canned cat food may be too much of a solid lump.

[BrklynLiberal]

6. try the Merrick Cat foods. there are many varieties, and they contain

human grade ingredients, and are nutritionally balanced for cats' needs. Canned chicken, tuna, turkey etc that are for people, are not adequate for a cat's health and well-being.

http://www.merrickpetcare.com/
http://www.merrickpetcare.com/about_us/

http://www.merrickpetcare.com/store/canned_cat_food.php


Grain free:
http://www.merrickpetcare.com/store/bg_canned_cat_food_32.php
http://www.merrickpetcare.com/store/bg_dry_cat_food_1.php

[Lydia Leftcoast]

7. Right, the canned meats are a supplemental treat, not his whole diet

His main food is Solid Gold dry food, which he loves, but he won't touch their canned food.

[spooky3]

9. unfortunately, all 3 of my cats HATE Merrick

it's interesting how, like people, all cats vary in their tastes.

To the OP: I have one kitty (adopted fairly recently) who refused to eat anything except Purina EN dry food and had the same symptoms. What changed? She had to do a stint boarded at the vet (for an unrelated problem) and they apparently did not indulge her food tastes. The day she came home she began to eat Wellness and Paul Newman canned food just like the boys do, and she continues to eat it to this day. Still prefers her EN though. So while I wouldn't recommend sending her into boarding just to change her food tastes, if you can be "cold" enough to take away her preferred food for a couple of days, that might be all that is necessary to get her to open her up to alternatives.

It's still too early for me to tell if the dandruff is going to go away, though.

[and-justice-for-all]

8. I have 3 and of course one of'em just has to be picky...

Mona is picky about what she will eat, if she turns her nose up at the moist, well she gets the usual dry instead simply because thats all she will eat half the time.

She will eat the Friskies Tuna, but other than that, is all dry. the other two, especially the 20lb boy Piggy, will eat just about anything.