Thread: 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