Chicken Hater !!

Hello everyone ,

Looking for a little bit of advice ppl if possible ..

We have had our little nutcase for just over 3 weeks now ,it is our first MC ,we have had rescue cats previously but never a kitten so we are trying to do our best for the lil girl to give her the best start we could

When we got her she was 13 weeks old and weighing 1.3kg and felt like a broadbean with legs to be honest .the breeder was feeding her royal canin 36 kitten so i continued with this but she didnt seem that overjoyed with eating it and would just graze here and there, so i also got a bag of the rc 34 babycat which with higher fat content i thought would help put a bit more meat on her bones ,after reading so many posts about wet being better for them and conflicting arguments ,like many others i supose i felt it was wrong not to try her with some ,i bought some natures menu kitten chicken flavour which is the only real flavour for kittens i could find ,but she looked at the bowl then back at me as if i had given her a bowl of slugs i then tryed some boiled chicken breast which got the same reaction ...:S i then mixed it with the kibbles which she would eat but if the bowl of kibbles alone was next to it she would eat just them

I was in the kitchen 2 days ago and opened a tin of tuna for kids and out of nowhere came a very excited puss who rounded me up until i gave her a taste ,i think at that point i created a tuna monster ,i have been giving her a small amount mixed with kibbles 4 times a day 15g kibbles mixed with 5g of tuna & she is loving it and cleans up the bowl ,my concern is that i have heard tuna isnt great for kittens and also the only wet tuna cat food seems to be for adults ,is small amounts like this ok tho & would giving her small amounts of adult tuna wet food mixed with her kibbles be ok ?,i would like to feed her both wet & dry food eventualy

I think my problem is that i looked at the weight comparison charts on the forum and realised she was behind all the others posted and with her feeling so lean we should be doing a better job of giving her food she would enjoy, her weight has been increasing but seems still to be behind the others posted and with her being so long & boney she needs fattening up for lack of a better word

13weeks 1.3kg
15weeks 1.54kg
16weeks 1.7kg

Does this seem normal and will she catchup or always be behind the others ,or am i just fussing over nothing and should relax :)

many thanks in advance
Grace & willow

Hi Grace,

We did a bit of research on tuna and our vet also told us that tuna has a high oil and "metal" content which can disagree with the kittens tummy.
Apparently (I may be corrected), the Tuna in tinned cat food is processed differently to "human" tinned Tuna.

We looked into this after giving tuna to our previous cat and it gave him a "runny bottom" every time!! We have also discoverd that if we gave tuna based cat food to our younger girl kittens they suffered the same problem.

As for the weight issue, when we had Little Dot at 26 weeks old, in May, she was 1.8Kg. She now tips the scales at just over 4Kg!!

Hope this helps.

If she really loves tuna then for sure deff.go onto the proper cat food ones.You might be lucky & she will eat the tinned Felix etc ones or you might find you have to go for the smaller more expensive ones that look & smell more like the human version.You may not find these in kitten form but I have always put my babes onto adult wet pretty quickly,the first ones went onto them as soon as they arrived here & the last two were changed over pretty quickly too.They all had nutri plus gel as well for some extra vitamins seeing they were not on kitten food,by the time I had gone through a tube of that I then started on SF-50 powder & continued with that until they were about 18 months old,might be good for your little girl if you feel she is a bit underweight anyway,especially the nutri,could just give her a boost. Feed her little & often so she doesn't overload & give herself the runs,make sure her worming program is right up to date & then just keep giving us updates on her progress along with photos please....x

Thanks very much for reply's ,i did read a bit about dot's story unfortunately couldnt get link to work but i got the gist of the story ,she is a little miracle and a credit to you steve ,as for the runs since her wormer and jab at 13 weeks i have struggled with soft to soft/little bit runny poos over last 3 weeks ,they are formed but dont half smell ,not 100% sure tho that it aint the royal canin causing this and maybe it is a bit too rich for her, but she is very active and at most i get 2 poos a day but i have been messing about with her food a bit adding some wet and chicken breast etc ,i will continue with the little and often feeding and will definately buy some extra nutri powders ,i will introduce some fish based adult food as she seems to favour the fishy varietys and let you know how i get on and i will add some pics ..

thanks very much again for help guys much appreciated
Grace & willow

Hi Grace
My 3 refuse point blank to eat chicken too, and have done since they took over the house last March! I really struggle to find good quality wet food that they like, they always seem to prefer our old fella's food & will try to nick it if they possibly can - no good for them as it's for seniors. About 6 months ago I tried Schesir Kitten food from Zooplus ... they refuse the chicken but adore the tuna. It looks and smells like 'human' tuna, but obviously has added goodies for kittens. They have at least a sachet a day with kibbles and rarely leave any... perhaps worth trying some of that for your little girl?

I would try to get her eating good quality adult wet food.
The best stuff is on Zooplus, a lot of it made in Germany, and grain-free.
There is a lot of grain in kibble which just goes straight through them, hence smellly poos.

As for her weight vs. the comparison charts, don't worry about how 'far behind' she is. As long as she's putting on weight steadily, which she clearly is doing, she's fine. Looking forward to seeing pictures! x

Little bit of a break through today i hope ,went to pets@home which due to where we live it is the only petshop within miles and is still a 20 mile round trip ,but bought a small bag of hills science plan dry food mainly because it had tuna in it ,lil willow seems to like it a lot more than the rc36 & rc34 which i still think is the main problem with slightly soft/runny poo and with her not that keen on eating it ,i have also ordered a tube of nutri plus gel as a supplement hopefully should be here start of next week by which time i hope to have her weaned over to the hills and see how that fairs before we start looking for a wet diet to compliment a kibbles food she will enjoy ,i have not heard many great things about hills science but at this stage i would be so happy to just see her enjoying her food a bit ,hopefully the fish route is the answer & a wet diet would possibly be even better again ,starting to feel like im operating a science lab here with digital scales, round bowls & bags of different food everywhere ,i can see a growth graph chart on the horizon as well (hides head in shame) :)

many thanks for all your replys ive posted a few pics taken just now while i could get her to sit still
Grace & willowAttachment 4487Attachment 4488

She's absolutely beautiful Grace! The second pic is adorable :-)

Wow, she's utterly gorgeous! What a beautiful smiley expression she has. Such a pretty girl - bet you are smitten!

Thank you so much for the lovely comments ,she is spoilt rotten by us all, my 7 year old adores her and my OH goes all gooey around her it's very funny ,im working on him and maybe a companion for her in the very near future looks promising ,i have been showing him the stunning guy's & gals in the members gallery and he laughs at the thought of a massive male to scare the postman with (typical bloke)
Had a bit of a set back this evening tho and had a poor little kitty who needed a bath after a runny bot ,we are convinced now that this rich dry food isn't agreeing with her and as we are already in the crap so to speak its time to switch to a wet diet ,sent OH to get some Hi-Life ocean variety the high meat content one and will be introducing it over next few days until she is on it solely then possibly try adding small amounts of dry as a filler later on once her lil tum has settled down ,as like many others i have read about hanging around the litter tray with a baby wipe and a possible visit to the washing bowl aint much of a life for the poor thing or us :(

Hate seeing her with an upset tum altho you would never know it she tears around the house and is full of energy ,hope this fixes the lil lass

Grace&willow

You could try Encore / Applaws (supermarket / pet shop different branding) they do a tuna one with rice in it. They do other fish ones as well, seem to remember a shrimp one for some reason. If she has a runny bum you could try her with some steamed white fish and rice for a few days first til her tum settles again. I know what your going through I had ti with Buddy and ended up going to a complete raw diet for months and only recently introduced cat food again xx

Had an awfull last 12 hours :(

after giving willow a few of the new hills kibbles i was going to change her on to just to check she liked them ,and introducing some hi-life ocean variety we had 2 very runny poo's last nite about 2 hrs apart ,decided to take away any food and just leave water down over nite ,this morning after running round the house with my 7 year old before school like a pair of lunatics she has been sick :( a lovely yellow greasy consitancy with a couple of very small pieces of the fish in it ,i feel like such an ogre ,she seems all fine and is jumping all over the work tops looking for food now ...........

Should i not feed her till this evening do you think and maybe small amounts of her normal kibbles or is it time to boil a bit of chicken or whitefish & some rice ?,its definately a food issue and even tho she aint thrilled with the royal canin babycat 34 she does graze on it ok during the day and the poo's altho soft are quite formed ,should i maybe try introducing wet foods when she is a little older ?

totally confused & feel like crap at mo and feel like im doing more harm than good for her..........:(

Grace & willow

Plain rice with a small amount of white fish in very small amounts but often for 3 days; then gradually reintroduce normal food. Last time I had to do this with Buddy someone on here suggested adding an egg to the fish and rise mix and he lapped that up. Has a furball put in an appearance? Buddy is terrible for a couple of days before he produces one, sloppy poops and throwing up undigested food and stinky yellow gunge; furball appears and he just sleeps for the next 24 hours and is then fine. If you worried a trip to the vets might be worth it xx

Sorry to hear about Willow's - and your - predicament.
Has she been checked for Giardia? Or any other medical issues?

Well willow has made me look like a complete liar today ,we kept her away from food all last nite and this morning till midday i then boiled a chicken thigh after removing the bone and skin (i wanted 1 last try with the chicken before i went into town to buy a lump of cod ) i then weighed out some of her usuall kibbles which i added some warm water too and made into a sort of paste, i then weighed out 5-10 grams of chicken thigh meat with a very small amount of the kibble paste and gave her that amount every 2 hrs ....to say she absolutely went mad for it is an understatement bowl was being cleared in no time and was getting very excited at me dishing it up and best of all no sickness and no poo as yet to inspect but its been over 24hrs since her last poo so we are hopefull it could be normal ,and she seems full of energy in fact we cant even hold her for more than a few minutes before she gets bored and fights to get down to attack the nearest toy or just do the wall of death around the living room ,it is such a great feeling to see her enjoying life ,we are going to continue with the little and often advice given and increase ammounts and time between feeds but keep it to t least 4 times a day i think this has helped a lot she deffinately has a more eager appetite for some reason

Have oredered some fortiflora today to possibly help with her digestive system and we have a visit to the vets next week for a booster jab so will ask vet to give her a good once over then ,but fingers crossed things are looking very good tonite

Will keep everyone updated ,and thanks again for all your advice & support we are so gratefull :)

Grace & willow