Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Welcome to kingsnake.com's message board system. Here you may share and discuss information with others about your favorite reptile and amphibian related topics such as care and feeding, caging requirements, permits and licenses, and more. Launched in 1997, the kingsnake.com message board system is one of the oldest and largest systems on the internet.

Click here to visit Classifieds
Click for ZooMed
Click here for Dragon Serpents

She only wants dog food

Ravyn11 Dec 05, 2003 09:51 AM

I'm the Mum of four cats. One who will be four in January, and three young kittens. The smallest kitten was found under a car by my coworker and given to me. She had worms, mites, fleas, and ringworm, and had no idea what a litterbox was.

She's doing much better now, her parasites are taken care of, she's had her first round of shots, and she's a real love. The only problem is she only wants to eat the dog food. She refuses the kitten food and if she can't have the dog food simply will not eat. I do my best but I can't keep her from accessing the dog food all the time. Whenever I catch her eating it I remove it to the counter and show her to the kitten food. The other two kittens eat it voraciously but she will not. She's starting to lose weight because she won't eat.

I don't want to totally switch kitten foods because the other two like it and I don't want to cause stomach upsets. I know mixing their old food with the new in increasing degrees helps with this, but I'm afraid she won't eat the new food if its mixed with the old.

I'm thinking of buying some cans of wet cat food, mixing it in with the dry for a time for all of them, then slowly decreasing the amount of wet until they're all eating only the dry again, in hopes this will help her out. Her losing weight is a big deal, because there isn't much to her anyway. She only weighs about a pound and a half, and the vet estimated her age at six weeks, making her eight weeks now.

Any other suggestions? Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Here's a picture of her just after she got in my trash and found a kleenex. She's had a lot of fun shredding it.

Replies (3)

PHMadameAlto Dec 05, 2003 06:23 PM

First of all talk to the vet about getting some sort of suppliment with taurine in it. She is being shortchanged on this when she eats the dog food and it is essential to her health. Then you can at least know she's getting the needed nutrients while you work to shift her from the dog food.

I suggest that you mix some wet high-premium kitten/cat food in with the dog food and feed it to her. As you said, gradually increase the kitten/cat food and decrease the dog food.

If you are feeding premium dog food, then this may be the stumbling block. It just might taste more "natural" to her than the kitten food. Very often premium cat foods have more than adequate nutrition for kittens and so you might just go ahead with an adult formula.

If all else fails, you might look into the BARF diet - bones and raw food diet.
-----
Smile, it will make them wonder what you are up to!

Ravyn11 Dec 05, 2003 11:23 PM

Weh-ell, I guess that solves that! I didn't even think of trying my older cat's adult formula. I took a little handful and picked the kitten up to see if she liked it, and as soon as she caught a sniff she about took my finger off trying to get to it!

When I put her down again after she scarfed the few bits, she jumped onto my leg and hung there yelling at me, demanding more.

I guess that solves that little problem Thanks for the advice!!

PHMadameAlto Dec 06, 2003 06:58 PM

I guess she was just ready for the big girl's food. Just in case, do contact the vet and ask if she should be taking any suppliments because she isn't eating the kitten food.

BTW, I was feeding my neighbor's cats and one had kitten food and one adult - guess who ate who's food. Cats are contrary. Gotta love 'em!
-----
Smile, it will make them wonder what you are up to!

Site Tools