Does your cat adore wet food but won’t eat it anymore all of a sudden?
So, what to do if your cat won’t eat wet food anymore? You can try giving her another brand or switch to another diet gradually. You could also introduce her to various textures like stews, pates, and shredded wet food. Your cat’s avoidance of wet food may have something to do with factors other than the food itself including illness, stress, anxiety, or even her food bowl.
Read on for a more detailed discussion on the possible reasons why your cat won’t eat wet food anymore.
Benefits of wet food for cats
First off, let’s get to know why wet food is the preferred and vet-recommended food for your furry pets. Here are the known benefits of wet food for your pets:
- good for hydration
- helps prevent urinary tract issues
- provides more protein and fewer carbohydrates
- good for weight loss or maintenance
- good for over-all feline health
A look at these benefits makes it obvious how important wet food is for your pet cat. But then the problem is she won’t eat it anymore. What might be the probable reasons for it? Here are the things that you can do to resolve the issue.
What to do if your cat won’t eat wet food anymore?
1. Visit your vet and have your cat checked.
One major reason why cats suddenly won’t eat or lose their appetite is that they’re not feeling well and may have an illness. Or, there was something in their wet food that didn’t sit well with their taste buds or stomach making them upset and uncomfortable. If this is the case, visit your vet right away so your pet cat will be thoroughly checked.
Here are some of the health issues that could hinder your cat from eating her food:
- dental problems like a broken or abscessed tooth
- urinary obstruction
- digestive obstruction
- constipation
- pancreatitis or an inflamed pancreas
- kidney disease
- upper respiratory infection or kitty cold
- stress and anxiety
If the issue is based on anxiety or other mental issues you can also try Chill Paws CBD Oil which works very well for many cats.
2. Try to change the food brand.
Your cat may be suffering from boredom with her wet food especially if it’s more or less just the same brand every single day. What you can do is a change to other brands for more variety. Brands offer a wide array of recipes and flavors. For instance, if your pet is so used to eating tuna-based wet food, try to give her recipes with other meat types like turkey, lamb, chicken, and beef.
Some of the more known wet food brands include Hill’s Science, Purina, and Koha wherein they offer various recipes in varying textures like stews, pates, shredded, and also meat mixed with gravy. Let your cat explore and try various tastes and textures to make her love wet food again.
3. You may try giving her mixed food.
By mixed food, we mean a combination of dry and wet food. But wait, does it guarantee that your kitty will eat with gusto again? Before we can assume that, here’s a quick rundown of the benefits of dry food for cats.
Benefits of dry food for cats:
- it’s mess-free and very convenient; it’s easy to feed, measure, and store
- it’s high in energy and ideal as part of a growth diet
- it’s good for the cat’s dental health
- it’s safe and doesn’t spoil easily
By mixing dry and wet food your pet will be able to have variety in her meals and be able to enjoy the benefits of these two food types. Needless to say, not all cats are equal. There will always be cats that will prefer wet food, there will be cats that will stick to dry food only, and then there are those cats that will prefer both dry and wet food.
A trick you can try in mixing her food would be to place chicken or tuna broth on the dry food or kibbles. Try to observe if this works for her. If not, then you can alternately give her dry food and wet food at varying times of the day, whichever may suit her best.
4. Keep your pet’s food bowl clean and odor-free.
Oftentimes, wet food residue is left on your pet’s food bowl after meals. If not properly and regularly cleaned it results in an undesirable smell. Cats, aside from being picky eaters, are also ultra-sensitive when it comes to smell and once your pet detects foul odors in her food bowl she’ll most likely stop eating the food placed on it. So, always make it a point to regularly clean and sanitize your pet’s food bowl and stick to ceramic or metal ones as it’s easier to clean compared to plastic bowls.
Whisker fatigue and why it may be one of the reasons your cat won’t eat wet food anymore
Aside from health issues, a dirty food bowl, and lack of food variety, another reason why your cat loses her appetite for food may be whisker fatigue. What exactly is this? Let’s check out some information about whisker fatigue.
A cat’s whiskers, also called vibrissa, are coarse touch receptors that are connected to their nervous system. Any movement and touch that affect the whiskers send signals to the brain and sensory system. Surprisingly, the whiskers act as an antenna that collects information on a cat’s surroundings such as how close she is to a wall or if she’s in danger.
Whisker fatigue is the over-stimulation of the sensory system of a cat’s whiskers. This happens when the whiskers are touched too much resulting in an overload of sensory messages which are transmitted to the brain. The fatigue makes cats agitated, and stressed, may tend to have erratic moods, and lose their appetite for food.
Here are the symptoms that your cat is experiencing whisker fatigue:
- pacing in front of the food bowl and meowing consistently
- your cat refuses to eat or drink from her food bowl
- pawing at food and water and trying to pull it from the food bowl
- becomes aggressive around food or treats when given out of the food bowl
So, how can you prevent your pet cat from developing whisker fatigue? The solution: whisker-friendly food trays and bowls with a wide but shallow shape. This bowl type doesn’t brush or come in contact with a cat’s whiskers while she eats wet food or drinks water.
Final thoughts
If your pet cat isn’t eating wet food as she used to keep calm and don’t panic. Identify the reasons why she won’t eat wet food anymore and then try to experiment using the options available such as mixing her food and trying out other brands, flavors, and textures.
Providing a shallow and whisker-friendly food bowl can also do the trick as well as thorough consultation with your vet. Hopefully, by trying these methods, your cat will be able to rediscover her love for wet food again.