How can I get my cat to gain weight?

[sophistacavy]

Hi there! My almost 9 year old cat, Charlie, needs to gain a little bit of weight. However, he is a very very finicky eater, and we (my mom and I) are having trouble getting him to eat enough of something that is higher calorie/fat, in order to gain the weight he needs to.

Right now, we have him on Wellness brand Kitten food dry, which I don't think he cares for that much. We do add a skin/coat supplement liquid to it, but I noticed that when I don't add that, the amount of food gone in the morning doesn't change much versus when I do add the liquid.

We've tried mixing in the Wellness canned kitten food, but he doesn't like it, and he eats more when that is not in there. We've also been trying his favorite flavor (tuna) in the Wellness pouches, and mixing those in with the dry kitten food instead, but even that doesn't make him finish or nearly finish his food.

Another very weird thing about that Wellness kitten dry food, is that my shih tzu dog, Lexie, won't eat it either. I know she loves cat food, as many, if not most, dogs probably do, and sometimes I use pieces of cat kibble for a high-value training reward, but I offered her a piece of this Wellness dry kitten food, and she simply won't take it. I put it in her mouth for her one time, and she spit it out promptly.

Do you guys know anything that he might decide to fall in love with and chow down on? I'm open to any form of food, dry, canned, raw, whatever. He normally loves canned food, but I think he's just being quite stubborn lately. Also, he does not like salmon, so anything with salmon in it is out. I think even salmon oil will turn him off from a food too, if they put that in there for the omega 3 & 6 content.

I was thinking that I could buy some raw tunafish from some local independent place (if they have any), and offer that to him. I haven't been successfull in getting him to eat raw food in the past, but I've never offered him raw seafood/fish. In the past I've tried to get him to try some raw green cow tripe, and the Nature's Variety brand raw chicken formula, but he didn't really care for either of those at all.


And finally, he isn't losing any weight, so at least that's good, but he does need to gain about 1-1.5 lbs.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks in advance!!

[Paula]

First of all, I'd suspect your vet might be a better resource for finding ways to help him gain weight. S/he might even be able to give you a better idea on foods that might be higher in protein or whatnot.

There could be a medical reason he's not gaining weight - something like a thyroid problem, for example.

In any event, a simple Google search might help you get ideas/answers to questions like this faster than waiting for people to reply here.

[Toadies]

Weight loss in older cats can be a sign of kidney issues, as can picky eating. Perhaps a blood test is in order and if the results do indicate that there are kidney problems, your vet can steer you in the best diet direction.