We have two Siamese cats, one of whom (Junior) is quite thin (8-9 pounds at 3 years) and a light eater. I’m not sure whether it is fair to describe him as picky, as he doesn’t flat out refuse any of the foods we give him. He just doesn’t eat very much. My guess is that Junior eats 30 or 40 grams of dry cat food daily while the recommendation for his weight is about 60 grams. His brother could easily eat 100 grams (though we are giving him less now since we bought microchip activated feeders for each and can control who gets what).
I have tried probably half a dozen different commercial cat foods (mostly dry) over the years, but he doesn’t seem to eat a lot of any of them. So I am wondering if there are any particular brands/flavors out there that cats seem to really like? Although I have been giving dry food primarily, I am willing to give more expensive moist food if Junior will eat it well.
I am in Switzerland, so US niche brands are not available here. But we seem to get all of the big international commercial brands.
You could try asking your veterinarian, or even your local pet supply store, if they have any samples of different foods you could have, or buy, to try out. Vets frequently get supplies of small samples to give out to customers (in America, at least; I don’t know if they do that in Europe but I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t).
Boy cats should primarily eat wet food due to dry food having the potential to cause crystallization of urine. We had a cat with it, and in addition to being very painful, it leads to high vet bills. You might see a better appetite if you switch too.
I did not know that. I did know that Brock had the problem, and we had to switch him to canned food exclusively when he was about two. Now, at age thirteen, he gets a couple of cans of food daily, and has a bowl of Meow Mix that he snacks on.
If you are in the right delivery area, you could try some of the cat food that is not dry or tinned, basically consisting of raw meat plus kitty vitamins. There are also freeze-dried or otherwise dry cat foods that are less perishable but still have actual meat rather than salt and food colouring; here is a link with some brands: https://pictures-of-cats.org/Best-Dry-Cat-Food.html
It doesn’t take much fish sauce, a few drops only. I know vets recommend fish sauce this way as appetite stimulant if needed. But I don’t claim personal expertise.
The nice thing about bonito flakes is that there is a lot of flavor packed into very little volume so it won’t fill the cat up with “treats” or, I assume, much sodium.
just to be clear, is this what you mean by fish sauce? The article you linked to mentions mashing up the fish, which suggests it is a lot thicker than the Asian condiment I am thinking of.
You can also entice a cat with a little clam juice. A couple capfuls splashed on it have turned a non-favored turkey flavor (the only one currently available due to the f’n cat food shortage) into something my guys willingly eat.
I’ve found that my cats have different tastes in food. I had one who loved fish, and went nuts if I ate lobster. Our current cat doesn’t care for fish, and is much happier with the non-fishy flavors. I think her favorite is chicken.
So I’m going to second @Qadgop_the_Mercotan , and suggest you ask your cat what he likes. You can put out a small quantity of two foods, and see which he prefers. Keep doing that until you find some he seems happier with.
yeah, I have started doing this, and so far haven’t seen any clear preferences. As I said, he eats everything, but only a little. I figured that I would try to save some time by getting suggestions here.
Tiki Cat sounds great, but isn’t available here. I will give the fish sauce a try.
