Peanut Butter and Tiger Tabby were dumped and rescued at around 3-weeks old. they are 6 months old now and healthy and loved by my 2 daughters. The problem is that they won’t eat dry food and keep getting into the kitchen and on the table looking for other food.
They have 24 hour access to dry food and table scraps in their bowl.
Turned up their noses at FRESH LIVER!
Howl and miaow at me all the time (they think I’m mummy cat as I fed them as kittens from a dropper) for food - they stand on their back legs and tap my face with outstretched paws when I sit down.
They have been sprayed with a water squirter to persuade them not to climb on tables or onto kitchen benches but won’t stop.
I have had cats for decades and have never had this problem before.
Any suggestions?
When I was weaning my kids off wet food, I added some water to the dry food till it got just a bit mushy, but not so much that it was like cereal.
And ignore them when they beg for food until they have no other choice but to eat the dry food.
Another thing you can try is mix just a spoon of canned food amongst the dry food, mix well, so they have to eat the dry food to get to the canned food.
Very reluctantly, dry food mixes of varous brands, flavours and prices.
I’ve tried the little bit of soft food in with the dry but they eat that and leave the dry stuff. If I try to get them
really
hungry they howl all night! They even get into the kids school bags and try and eat left over sandwiches…maybe I should just give them a peanut butter sandwich too :s
Changing foods constantly is pretty rough on a cat’s stomach. Are they showing any outward signs of illness like vomiting or diarrhea? Is there a particular brand that they tend to eat more? Has you talked to your vet about this problem?
As for talking, if they have some siamese, maine coon (do they have those here?), or other certain breeds, they may just be instinctively talkative. My kitty meows all the time and likes to paw at me for attention although he shows little interest in my food, unless I’m opening a can of tuna. I know that it’s just his personality since I’m sure he’s got some Siamese in him.
It could just be that it’s too hard for them. Cats don’t really have the back teeth to grind hard food into small pieces so that might be a cause for their preference for softer foods. Someone suggested water, but I have a trick that works even better than that. If you get canned tuna, you could drain a little of the water over the food to entice them to eat it. Lessen the amount (not sure where you’d want to store the leftover water), and wean them off it. Unfortunately in Taiwan, canned tuna is expensive whereas back home it’s dirt cheap. It’s an expensive option, but probably cheaper than buying all sorts of food to see which one they like best and it’s an option that just may save you headaches in the long run.
I agree with ImaniOU that you may just have very vocal cats. All cats will steal ‘tasty’ smelling food, unless they are completely overfed. My cat talks to me all the time, and she loves her food. Sometimes she just wants me to come find her; other times to lift her up to a high shelf. Try seeing if they have different sounds for different situations.
Re. the diet, actually, cats have great teeth for crunching the RIGHT stuff. My cat is only 3.5 kg but she can munch her way through most of a raw chicken wing or, if I chop it up, a chicken leg. They may just need some supplements. Try searching on Google for B-naturals and see what they have to say in their newsletters. I think you can e-mail them for advice, too. Great resource; great supplements.
If you want any advice on feeding a natural diet to your cats (very easy; EXTREMELY healthy), PM me and I’ll answer all your questions, or join the BARF (biologically appropriate raw food) thread in this forum.
Feel free to PM me if you have any questions, but cats are even easier than dogs: they require meat and bones almost exclusively. It’s kinda cool to see your little tigers chowing down on a chicken foot or crunching their way through a rabbit rib.