Why is my cat so picky? Uncovering the reasons and solutions for picky eaters!
Why is my cat so picky? The Cat Owner's "Food Anxiety"
Some kittens cause their cat owners a lot of trouble when it comes to eating. They won't eat cold food, hot food, hard food, or unfamiliar food. They won't eat new food, they won't eat familiar food, they won't eat canned food, and they won't eat dry food. What do you want to eat? Don't worry, cat pickiness is not insurmountable. As long as you find the reason, you can make your cat eat deliciously!
1. Finding the reason behind pickiness: Is it the food itself, or is the cat feeling unwell?
First, we need to find the reason for your cat's pickiness. There's a simple way to test if it's the food itself or if your cat is feeling unwell.
- Offer your cat their favorite treat and observe their reaction:
- If they accept the treat, then it proves that your cat still has an appetite, so it's just the new food you're offering that doesn't suit them.
- If they're not interested in their usual favorite treat/throw up, then it may not be a food problem, and you should consider illness or stress.
If it's not because of a health issue, then we can rule out the following points:
2. Cat's Taste and Smell: An Instinctual Pickiness?
Compared to humans, cats have a very dull sense of taste. The tools used to distinguish food flavors, taste buds, are about 10,000 in humans, while cats have less than 1,000. So when they eat food that isn't rich enough in flavor, they find it bland. This is because their ability to taste flavors is much weaker than ours.
So what do cats rely on to choose their food? The answer is smell. Their powerful olfactory system makes up for their shortcomings in the taste system. This is a genetic advantage for small hunters.
When choosing food, cats also choose food with a stronger smell. We can also see this when feeding cats, as they usually smell before eating. Overnight cat food and canned food that has been open for too long have already lost their aroma for cats, and in hot weather, they may even smell spoiled. Of course, they wouldn't eat such food.
3. Cat's Taste Preferences: Not all meats are welcome
Like humans, cats have their own taste preferences. We need to experiment and find the meats that our cats like.
- Online surveys show that most cats have the following preferences for meat:
| Meat | Preference |
|---|---|
| Chicken | ❤️❤️❤️ |
| Beef | ❤️❤️❤️ |
| Fish | ❤️❤️❤️ |
| Lamb | ❤️❤️❤️ |
| Pork | ❤️ |
| Duck | ❤️ |
| Venison | ❤️ |
| Sea fish | ❤️ |
| Ostrich meat | ❤️ |
- However, some of the meats above are not actually in a cat's natural diet. Cats are small and usually hunt alone, so their prey is usually small. Common prey includes wild rabbits, rodents (rats, mice, etc.), birds, insects (cockroaches, grasshoppers, locusts, crickets, moths, etc.). While there is a wider variety of cat food now, with more and more meat varieties added, many meats are actually not in a cat's natural diet, so it's not surprising if cats don't eat them. For example, pigs, cows, sheep, deer, sea fish, and ostrich are not prey that cats would normally hunt in the wild. So many cats don't accept these meats the first time they try them... and there's a chance they might be allergic to them.
4. Taste doesn't match the cat's preference: Texture, temperature and cooking method matter
- Taste doesn't match the cat's preference. This could be because of the food's texture, temperature, or cooking method.
- Wet food has a higher acceptance rate than dry food.
- Stronger tasting foods (such as offal and seafood) may be more stimulating to a cat's appetite.
- Frozen/refrigerated food can be heated to release aroma and attract cats.
5. Cat food gets boring: Change the flavor, arouse the cat's interest
Cats are really unique creatures. They get bored with food they eat for a long time, but they are also wary of unfamiliar food. Changing the flavor of the cat food every once in a while, or buying some small snacks that your cat hasn't had before, are all good ways to arouse their interest.
6. Illness-induced anorexia: Be alert to your cat's health
When cats have gingivitis, ulcers, or other oral diseases, the pain of chewing can make them dislike dry food and prefer soft foods like canned food. When cats have upper respiratory problems, their sense of smell is affected. Only food with a stronger smell can stimulate their appetite.
If your cat is picky because of illness, they may also become lethargic. We need to observe carefully. Don't just think "they'll be fine if they go hungry for a couple of meals." Because cats can really eat themselves into trouble!
7. Do cats really starve to death? The risk of fatty liver disease
While cats don't do it on purpose, they can actually starve to death. If a cat goes without food for a long time, after its small reserves of glycogen in the liver are depleted, it will start using the stored fat in its body as a source of energy. However, if there is too much fat at once, the liver cannot process it efficiently, so it can only be stored in large amounts in the liver, which prevents the liver from functioning properly. Liver function is impaired and eventually fails.
Fatty liver disease in cats has a mortality rate of up to 78%! From this perspective, cats can really starve to death.
Therefore, if you want to see if your cat will be hungry enough to eat new food, please do not exceed 24 hours! Sometimes, even if a cat isn't completely starving, just a decrease in appetite, eating much less than usual, can also lead to fatty liver disease, and it can take about two weeks for this to happen.
8. Tricks to Make Your Cat Stop Being Picky: Gradual Change, Patient Guidance
1. Correct your cat's eating habits: Set times, locations and amounts
Put the food in a fixed place, take it away after 15-30 minutes. Offer the food again for another 15-30 minutes at the next meal, and also fix the feeding time for each meal. 4-5 times a day, repeat this cycle. This applies to:
- When you need to force your cat to switch to new food (such as prescription food, prescription canned food)
- When the previous food had too many tempting ingredients and you need to switch to a healthier, "lighter" food.
2. Choose the flavors your cat likes: Find your cat's "food code"
Cat food is relatively balanced in terms of nutrients. You can buy smaller packages to find out if your cat prefers poultry or fish. Sometimes, you don't have to force your cat to eat meats they don't like. You can feed them some raw meat freeze-dried food to increase their protein intake.
3. What if my cat doesn't accept wet food? Gradual adaptation
Many cats who are used to eating dry food do not accept canned food, because the taste and texture of the two types of food are very different, and cats may find the new food too strange... You can try:
- Sprinkle a little dry food on the wet food, allowing the cat to get used to the smell of the wet food when eating dry food.
- Grind the dry food into powder and mix it with the wet food.
- Add some small treats that your cat likes to the wet food.
However, it is not recommended to do this for a long time, because dry food and wet food are generally not recommended to be mixed, and you need to be aware of spoilage issues.
4. Add natural "flavoring agents": Enhance appetite, more delicious
As mentioned above, cats rely on their sense of smell to distinguish food. When switching cat food, cats who are used to eating heavier cat food will not eat the "lighter" cat food. We can make some natural flavoring agents to help cats gradually switch food. For example, freeze-dried liver, freeze-dried egg yolk, catnip, these are all usable natural flavoring agents. There are also some pet-specific "meat floss" that can be added to cat food. (But you can't rely on your cat's liking to feed them a lot, as this could lead to another extreme of picky eating.)
5. Other little tricks: Enhance your cat's dining experience
- Buy small portions of canned wet food.
- Feed at a set time, place and quantity.
- Warm up the food slightly.
- Wash your cat's bowl frequently.
Hopefully all cats will stop being picky eaters and eat anything delicious.
Some kittens cause their cat owners a lot of trouble when it comes to eating. They won't eat cold food, hot food, hard food, or unfamiliar food. They won't eat new food, they won't eat familiar food, they won't eat canned food, and they won't eat dry food. What do you want to eat? Don't worry, cat pickiness is not insurmountable. As long as you find the reason, you can make your cat eat deliciously!
1. Finding the reason behind pickiness: Is it the food itself, or is the cat feeling unwell?
First, we need to find the reason for your cat's pickiness. There's a simple way to test if it's the food itself or if your cat is feeling unwell.
- Offer your cat their favorite treat and observe their reaction:
- If they accept the treat, then it proves that your cat still has an appetite, so it's just the new food you're offering that doesn't suit them.
- If they're not interested in their usual favorite treat/throw up, then it may not be a food problem, and you should consider illness or stress.
If it's not because of a health issue, then we can rule out the following points:
2. Cat's Taste and Smell: An Instinctual Pickiness?
Compared to humans, cats have a very dull sense of taste. The tools used to distinguish food flavors, taste buds, are about 10,000 in humans, while cats have less than 1,000. So when they eat food that isn't rich enough in flavor, they find it bland. This is because their ability to taste flavors is much weaker than ours.
So what do cats rely on to choose their food? The answer is smell. Their powerful olfactory system makes up for their shortcomings in the taste system. This is a genetic advantage for small hunters.
When choosing food, cats also choose food with a stronger smell. We can also see this when feeding cats, as they usually smell before eating. Overnight cat food and canned food that has been open for too long have already lost their aroma for cats, and in hot weather, they may even smell spoiled. Of course, they wouldn't eat such food.
3. Cat's Taste Preferences: Not all meats are welcome
Like humans, cats have their own taste preferences. We need to experiment and find the meats that our cats like.
- Online surveys show that most cats have the following preferences for meat:
| Meat | Preference |
|---|---|
| Chicken | ❤️❤️❤️ |
| Beef | ❤️❤️❤️ |
| Fish | ❤️❤️❤️ |
| Lamb | ❤️❤️❤️ |
| Pork | ❤️ |
| Duck | ❤️ |
| Venison | ❤️ |
| Sea fish | ❤️ |
| Ostrich meat | ❤️ |
- However, some of the meats above are not actually in a cat's natural diet. Cats are small and usually hunt alone, so their prey is usually small. Common prey includes wild rabbits, rodents (rats, mice, etc.), birds, insects (cockroaches, grasshoppers, locusts, crickets, moths, etc.). While there is a wider variety of cat food now, with more and more meat varieties added, many meats are actually not in a cat's natural diet, so it's not surprising if cats don't eat them. For example, pigs, cows, sheep, deer, sea fish, and ostrich are not prey that cats would normally hunt in the wild. So many cats don't accept these meats the first time they try them... and there's a chance they might be allergic to them.
4. Taste doesn't match the cat's preference: Texture, temperature and cooking method matter
- Taste doesn't match the cat's preference. This could be because of the food's texture, temperature, or cooking method.
- Wet food has a higher acceptance rate than dry food.
- Stronger tasting foods (such as offal and seafood) may be more stimulating to a cat's appetite.
- Frozen/refrigerated food can be heated to release aroma and attract cats.
5. Cat food gets boring: Change the flavor, arouse the cat's interest
Cats are really unique creatures. They get bored with food they eat for a long time, but they are also wary of unfamiliar food. Changing the flavor of the cat food every once in a while, or buying some small snacks that your cat hasn't had before, are all good ways to arouse their interest.
6. Illness-induced anorexia: Be alert to your cat's health
When cats have gingivitis, ulcers, or other oral diseases, the pain of chewing can make them dislike dry food and prefer soft foods like canned food. When cats have upper respiratory problems, their sense of smell is affected. Only food with a stronger smell can stimulate their appetite.
If your cat is picky because of illness, they may also become lethargic. We need to observe carefully. Don't just think "they'll be fine if they go hungry for a couple of meals." Because cats can really eat themselves into trouble!
7. Do cats really starve to death? The risk of fatty liver disease
While cats don't do it on purpose, they can actually starve to death. If a cat goes without food for a long time, after its small reserves of glycogen in the liver are depleted, it will start using the stored fat in its body as a source of energy. However, if there is too much fat at once, the liver cannot process it efficiently, so it can only be stored in large amounts in the liver, which prevents the liver from functioning properly. Liver function is impaired and eventually fails.
Fatty liver disease in cats has a mortality rate of up to 78%! From this perspective, cats can really starve to death.
Therefore, if you want to see if your cat will be hungry enough to eat new food, please do not exceed 24 hours! Sometimes, even if a cat isn't completely starving, just a decrease in appetite, eating much less than usual, can also lead to fatty liver disease, and it can take about two weeks for this to happen.
8. Tricks to Make Your Cat Stop Being Picky: Gradual Change, Patient Guidance
1. Correct your cat's eating habits: Set times, locations and amounts
Put the food in a fixed place, take it away after 15-30 minutes. Offer the food again for another 15-30 minutes at the next meal, and also fix the feeding time for each meal. 4-5 times a day, repeat this cycle. This applies to:
- When you need to force your cat to switch to new food (such as prescription food, prescription canned food)
- When the previous food had too many tempting ingredients and you need to switch to a healthier, "lighter" food.
2. Choose the flavors your cat likes: Find your cat's "food code"
Cat food is relatively balanced in terms of nutrients. You can buy smaller packages to find out if your cat prefers poultry or fish. Sometimes, you don't have to force your cat to eat meats they don't like. You can feed them some raw meat freeze-dried food to increase their protein intake.
3. What if my cat doesn't accept wet food? Gradual adaptation
Many cats who are used to eating dry food do not accept canned food, because the taste and texture of the two types of food are very different, and cats may find the new food too strange... You can try:
- Sprinkle a little dry food on the wet food, allowing the cat to get used to the smell of the wet food when eating dry food.
- Grind the dry food into powder and mix it with the wet food.
- Add some small treats that your cat likes to the wet food.
However, it is not recommended to do this for a long time, because dry food and wet food are generally not recommended to be mixed, and you need to be aware of spoilage issues.
4. Add natural "flavoring agents": Enhance appetite, more delicious
As mentioned above, cats rely on their sense of smell to distinguish food. When switching cat food, cats who are used to eating heavier cat food will not eat the "lighter" cat food. We can make some natural flavoring agents to help cats gradually switch food. For example, freeze-dried liver, freeze-dried egg yolk, catnip, these are all usable natural flavoring agents. There are also some pet-specific "meat floss" that can be added to cat food. (But you can't rely on your cat's liking to feed them a lot, as this could lead to another extreme of picky eating.)
5. Other little tricks: Enhance your cat's dining experience
- Buy small portions of canned wet food.
- Feed at a set time, place and quantity.
- Warm up the food slightly.
- Wash your cat's bowl frequently.
Hopefully all cats will stop being picky eaters and eat anything delicious.
This article is original, please keep the link when forwarding:https://www.5zo.net/showinfo-2-88102-0.html