Phoebe is Making Me Crazy

[AlbertaGirl]

I wasn't sure if I should put this in the Feeding section or the Behaviour section, but I really think it's more of a behaviour issue.

To quickly recap the situation... Phoebe is just over a year old and in good health. Shortly after I got her last summer, she was diagnosed with Fatty Liver Disease. I syringe fed her and gave her meds and she recovered. However, now she will only eat canned food - no kibble! I've tried all different types of kibble, from the crappiest "fast food" sort of kibble right up to prescription. I've tried all different shapes. I've tried chopping it up or offering it whole. I've tried grinding kibble to a powder and mixing it into the wet food to get her used to the taste. I've tried mixing the powdered kibble with chicken broth. I've tried offering it straight alongside her wet food. Nothing works! If she so much as thinks there is kibble contaminating her canned food, she stops eating altogether and I have to start from scratch and syringe feed her again.

I'm really worried that if I don't get her eating kibble she'll have dental issues later on. I'm also worried that she's getting a bit fat. I've tried giving her "light" canned food but she won't touch it. She does wheel enthusiastically every night, so it's helping, but she's still getting a bit fluffy.

If anyone has any suggestions on how to get her eating kibble, I would love to hear them. My vet has vetoed just waiting her out, as this could cause her FLD to come back. Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated!

 

[smhufflepuff]

Is she interested in things like mealies or crickets? I wonder if those might serve as stepping-stone foods.

Beyond that, all I can think to do is to feed her a little less of the canned food to help her from becoming overly fluffy.

Edit: This might be absurd with hedgies, but I'll toss it in there anyway... can Ronnie model appropriate kibble eating behavior for Phoebe?

 

[AlbertaGirl]

She likes mealies - I could try mixing some mealies in with the kibble. I'll give that a shot... thanks! I'll try to cut back a bit more on the canned food as well. I'm such a sucker though... I can't stand the thought of her being hungry!

Unfortunately Ronnie can't model anything for Phoebs, except how to be super spoiled. Ron's gums have grown down to cover her teeth, so she can't eat kibble very well any more. I syringe feed her twice a day. I do leave a bowl of kitten kibble in Ron's cage so she can snack if she wants to, but it's getting more and more difficult for her.

 

[Nancy]

I've gone through that a numerous times and it can be a challenge. What I do is give kibble in a separate dish and give increasingly smaller amounts of canned food. With luck, she will get hungry from not getting enough canned and will start eating the kibble. Sometimes you have to do a bit of tough love. You can also try mixing up some powdered kibble into the canned and give her a dish of both the mixed and plain. Give the amount she would normally eat, just divided.

Good luck. It's frustrating.

 

[Melissa]

Have you mixed the hard kibble in with the wet food?

Ill keep my fingers crossed for you and Phoebe.

 

[Kalandra]

Pheobe sounds like my Bianca. Bianca would only eat canned cat food. She had been fed one variety by her previous owners and I was never able to switch her to anything else. She was also so picky that she would only eat 1 variety, Iams turkey & gravy, and if there wasn't enough gravy she wouldn't eat it. If there was kibble crushed in the food, she would not eat for the night.

I wish you luck. Keep trying kibbles. you might try softening some with a low sodium chicken broth to see if you can entice her to eat... but you may find she will only eat that canned food. Bianca would starve herself instead of eating... reducing the amount of food only yielded weight loss.

 

[AlbertaGirl]

Kalandra, did Bianca ever have any dental problems due to her refusal to eat kibble? I feel like Phoebe is going the same way - I've tried things like giving her wet food only at night but leaving kibble out all day, and even skipping a day of wet food altogether... but she would rather go hungry than eat that horrible kibble. I have a dish of RC Baby Cat in her cage right now. I've tried it before and she's turned her nose up at it, but I'm hoping that she might give in and try it this time because of the higher fat content. I will try your suggestions and Nancy's suggestions, but I have a feeling that Phoebe is going to win this one. :banghead:

 

[Kalandra]

Nope, no teeth issues. I tried many things and discussed her eating habits with doc several times. He took a good look at her teeth and mouth for me when he had her knocked out to remove a mammary tumour. Said her teeth and gums looked great. We looked again during her necropsy (died of colon cancer) and again her mouth looked fine.

Doc's opinion was that her diet wasn't ideal but she was doing fine with it and it was better that she ate it than to have her starve herself when we tried to change her diet. I finally just let her win the food battle.

 

[Nancy]

When I watch the difficulty some of them have crunching the kibble I totally understand why the canned food appeals to them. Our Nemo RIP was on a soft diet for most of his life because he struggled so much with the hard food.

Is it possible that she likes being syringe fed which is why she holds out for canned food? Both Abby RIP and Maggie May would often quit eating and I know they did/do it just to be syringe fed for a few days. I got in the habit that whenever someone needed syringe feeding, I'd give them a syringefull too just as a treat. Canned food in the cage was not what they want, it's the syringing.

 

[AlbertaGirl]

He he... she loves being syringe fed. I have a video of her eating from a syringe that's pretty funny. But I already syringe feed Ronnie, as well as my leopard gecko (she's off her food until she lays her eggs) and my bearded dragon (a rescue who needs a little extra TLC). I don't want to have to syringe feed Phoebe too unless its unavoidable. I think what I will do is take her into the vet and have them check her teeth and just make sure everything is OK there. I'm pretty sure there aren't any problems - her teeth are nice and white, gums pink (not red), and she doesn't have bad breath - but it's best to be sure. She is quite the little diva - I blame it all on Courtney's hogs! Phoebe lived there for a few days and obviously got used to being spoiled rotten! (j/k) :neener:

 

[AlbertaGirl]

Have you mixed the hard kibble in with the wet food?

Ill keep my fingers crossed for you and Phoebe.

Sorry, I meant to reply to this... yes, I tried this. She was so insulted that she went right off her food. :hair:

 

[Nancy]

I can say from experience that just because their teeth check out fine, doesn't mean that they can eat hard kibble. For example, last summer newly pregnant Lexie went off her food. She would eat no problem when I syringed her so I assumed it was possibly a tooth issue so off to the vet we went and even though she was pregnant, we had to risk sedating her just to make sure there were no rotten teeth, abscesses or tumours. She had the best looking mouth I've ever seen. Perfect white and very sharp teeth, healthy gums and nothing to indicate she would have trouble eating. Yet, she continued to avoid hard kibble not even wanting to eat RC Baby Cat. Her mouth is still fine and she continues to eat nothing but dampened food. She will try hard kibble if its the only option but she really struggles with it.

Peaches was totally different. Even with gum overgrowth often to the point of having no teeth visible, she would still try and crunch her hard kibble rather than eat any type of yucky wet food and that included not wanting to be syringed. lol

 

[Sasha]

I have no advice for ya Sandi, but I wanted to say I feel your pain, girl! As you know I had a similar situation with Penny - well now she's eating kibble, but everytime I try to ween her off the kitten kibble, she'll stop eating both the kitten and the acana light! arg! I've tried only removing one kitten kibble a week.. or mixing their foods so that the acana light tastes like the kitten.. no such luck. I swear she knows when I mess with her food. They are just so picky! I do wish you the best and I hope by some form of a miracle she snaps out of it and you can get her on kibble soon!

 

[smhufflepuff]

Is it possible that she likes being syringe fed which is why she holds out for canned food?

He he... she loves being syringe fed.

Hmmm... I'm wondering if it's the attention she craves, what happens if you try to hand feed her kibble? You know, keep all the variables except for the food itself constant?

 

[AlbertaGirl]

I tried handfeeding her the kibble yesterday and today, and she has no interest in taking it from me. Rats! I was really hoping that would work.

With all the focus on her food, she's decided to quit eating again, so I'm back to syringe feeding her. She loves it, as always. I just don't know what I'm going to do with this silly girl! :banghead:

 

[Kalandra]

What are you syringe feeding? If you aren't, try crushing her kibble to a fine dust and syringe feeding her that. It may get her used to the taste again.

 

[AlbertaGirl]

I tried it... no dice, unfortunately. She started pushing the syringe away with her paws and basically acting like I was offering her cyanide. Then I tried mixing some of the ground up kibble mix with her normal food. Another refusal. So I gave in and offered her just her normal food. She wouldn't even take that, the little brat! I had to offer her normal food mixed with some of Ronnie's high-fat stuff to even get her to taste it. She took a very small amount and had enough. I think I'll just leave her kibble in overnight and tomorrow morning, and tomorrow night I'll try offering her regular food again. Hopefully she'll take it. She is the master of the power play. As my boyfriend said to me earlier... "You know you have no chance of winning this thing, right?" :hair: :wacko:

 

[Kalandra]

She sounds so much like Bianca. Bianca was so bad that if there was kibble in her cage she wouldn't eat the canned food. She'd even fast the entire night even if I took the kibble out. One of the reasons I went ahead and gave in, because if I tried anything she would fast.

 

[Courtney]

She is quite the little diva - I blame it all on Courtney's hogs! Phoebe lived there for a few days and obviously got used to being spoiled rotten! (j/k) :neener:

LOL! Now, now... don't you be blaming my brats on this. Phoebe learned how to be a diva all by herself. :tease:

I wonder... have you tried putting some Baby Cat in her bag with her? Kismet has her stints when she prefers having breakfast in bed. If I leave a handful of food in her bag over night, she eats it all. If I don't, she'd rather just not eat because, well... the bowl is an awfully long walk away.