Cat won't eat new prescription food
Prescription diets can cause cats to reject their food entirely or eat only a small fraction of their meals, leaving owners worried when the vet is closed for the weekend. This sudden refusal to eat stops cats from getting the nutrition they need and leaves owners feeling helpless without guidance.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Adding Purina Hydration packs to enhance tasteDid this help you?
- 2Adding Churu treatsDid this help you?
- 3Trying different flavorsDid this help you?
- 4Giving very small portions like a tablespoon at a timeDid this help you?
- 5Feeding in a quiet and comfortable locationDid this help you?
- 6Heating the food up very slightlyDid this help you?
- 7Letting the cat get hungry enough to eat the new foodDid this help you?
- 8Mixing the new food with something the cat likes and slowly changing the ratioDid this help you?
- 9Wetting the foodDid this help you?
- 10Giving extra favorite snacks to compensateDid this help you?
- 11boiling a small piece of chicken for lunchDid this help you?
- 12feeding human canned tuna as a substitute for regular wet foodDid this help you?
- 13giving tuna churus or specific limited ingredient tuna productsDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“My boy Loki is getting real picky with eating and it's starting to worry me. He is still slightly eating but not to the amount that I feel comfortable with.”source ↗
“When it is feeding time he fully wants to eat and follows me as I prepare and place his food. He'll eat maybe a quarter of it then have no interesting at all.”source ↗
“Of course this happens going into the weekend when my main vet is closed. I feel like this is food aversion or he doesn't like any of it.”source ↗
“Ever since shes been diagnosed, she doesn’t eat at all.”source ↗
“I just wish she’d eat.”source ↗
“Our cat is 20 and has largely stopped eating wet food”source ↗
“He was previously on a kidney care prescription diet, but will no longer entertain earing it.”source ↗
“we were giving him Applaws chicken in broth occasionally, the as the primary wet food, but then he stopped eating that too.”source ↗
“we tried canned/human tuna which was a treat on rare occasions, and of course he ate it all.”source ↗
“so I'm looking for some somewhat healthy-ish brands without a bunch of junk that we can try.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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- 12Why is my kitten always obsessed with food?
- 5How to get a cat with food allergies to eat