Trying to break Kitty from treat addiction.

[grasswire]

Last edited Thu May 26, 2016, 07:37 PM - Edit history (1)

Beautiful kitty Rose Noel came to us from the shelter with a severe addition to treats. That is all she really wants to eat. Will not touch wet food, will not touch chicken or fish. She's picky about her dry food -- only will touch it if it's a brand new bag.

She just wants treats. She will beg about half a cup a day, and just eat a couple of tablespoons of dry food.

Now I am trying to totally wean her off. And it's going to be hell. She comes and puts her claws in my leg and begs, begs, begs.

Any ideas? Shin guards?



oops......typo corrected!

[trof]

1. Breaded and fried?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. Mix a little dry food in with the treats.

Gradually change the ratio of treats to food until there are no (or very few) treats in the bowl.

Good luck - some cats get to be treat junkies. I think you can get vitamins for cats so she gets better nutrition in the meantime.

[sl8]

3. Have you looked at breadedcat.com?

http://breadedcat.com/

Seems like a cruel way way treat treat addiction, but Nick probably knows what he's talking about:

[MH1]

4. Some of the Temptations treats say they can replace a meal.

I have a 17 year old female who got very finicky and was losing weight. The vet said, "feed her whatever she will eat". Basically I mix Science Diet Oral Care with Temptations, and Feline Greenies dental treats for actual treats (they LOVE those). Since I have another cat I don't know who's eating what, but I have seen her chomp some of the Science Diet when she's really hungry. And the other one seems to prefer it. But anyway I comfort myself with the knowledge that the Temptations do have the AAFCO statement on them and say how much should replace a meal. And since both of my cats tend towards being skinny I don't worry about the weight gain.

Anyway, try the temptations, and mix in small amounts of the tastiest "real" food you can find.

[grasswire]

5. could do that with Temptations.

But she is on the plump side. She came that way.

I put the last empty treat bag on the floor for her to check out, hoping she will get the point. LOL.

Just feeding Temptations would also be costly.

[redwitch]

6. Was doggie sitting last week. A sweet little Bichon who loooooves treats.

And who knows I am a soft touch. Her mom told me she wouldn't eat for several days when her routine was disrupted. Except for treats. I gave her lots of treats, poor wee abandoned thing! She plays me like a fiddle.

[MH1]

7. Well if she's plump, you can get away with only giving her treats for half her caloric needs

for a little while, anyway.

My cats like the Meow Mix wet food the best. (They like it very juicy). It's cheap, and since they mostly eat the dry stuff (roughly half temptations and half science diet), I figure they're doing relatively okay. Mostly I'm trying to fatten up Her Highness so I can relax a little about whether she's eating enough.

Anyway, good luck. Sounds like you have a challenge.

[ailsagirl]

10. If you go to chewy.com you can get wonderful discounts

https://www.chewy.com/s?query=temptations&nav-submit-button=

[blogslut]

8. I've been wating for an excuse to post this.

My cat (the meanest cat in the world) has become an insanely picky eater. I have spent untold dollars on foods to please her. I did it because when she decides she doesn't like her current food, she won't eat. Despite her meanness, I love her dearly and do not want her to starve. So I buy whatever food she chooses to like for five minutes.

Through all this, I still buy her dry cat food for emergency purposes.

Recently I saw some thing about a guy that hides treats in different places all over his house and then films his kitty finding them. There was some blah blah commentary about how treat-hiding appealed to the hunting instinct of felines.

Aha!

I put some of mean kitty's dry food in a little dish and placed the dish in the closet, with the door slightly ajar. Now, once every two or three days, I have to replace kitty's "sneaky food".

Mind you, I still buy wet food in all the flavors and still dress that up with yummies so mean kitty will finish at least a whole can before I throw it out.

But she is not starving. Every time she plays her food dominance/mind game with me, I go in the closet to see if her sneaky food has been eaten - and it has.

I can't begin to tell you what this has done for my sanity.

So, maybe appeal to your cat's hunting instinct and place small dishes of dry food in hidden spots. If kitty takes "the bait", then you won't feel so bad about denying it nothing but treats.

[grasswire]

11. I will try it. :-) nt

[TuxedoKat]

9. FYI

There's a Facebook group called Catcentric. They will no doubt have some helpful ideas for you. Wet cat food would really be the best for her. Cats are prone to kidney disease which eating only dry cat food may exacerbate. Good luck transitioning your kitty.

[Major Nikon]

12. Will power

[grasswire]

13. eek

I would give that dog whatever it wanted.

[mopinko]

14. make her work for them.

i know cats are known to be pretty untrainable, but i think most animal are susceptible to operant conditioning.

pick something she does all the time anyway, and condition her to do it for a treat. expand from there.
maybe make her jump up on a footstool, or some such, to get the treat.
at least you might be able to turn her begging into something fun.

[grasswire]

15. well, we ran out of treats yesterday...

...and I did not buy any more. She's whining a lot. LOL.

[mopinko]

17. i predict she will get over herself.

they can go a few days w/o food, but then they fold.

[Kashkakat v.2.0]

21. Just posted below before seeing this - cold turkey can work but be sure to pay attention to her

food intake - measure and be sure she's getting at a minimum a tsp.of food a day & if she's very overweight be sure she doesn't drop too much weight too fast . Reason: cats prone to feline hepatic lipidosis which can be fatal in a short period of time. Depending on her history she may or may not decide she's willing to go on a complete hunger strike. Probably not since she is already eating some dry food - but still I wanted to bring it to your awareness.

Helps for you to find other things to do outside the home for a few days (that whining can be like the proverbial Chinese water torture - drip drip drip.)

[WolverineDG]

16. Maybe her sense of smell is off?

I had a vet tell me to feed my old lady kitty (who had cancer & got incredibly finicky) baby food because it smells. (Oh yes, it does.) It worked.

Maybe that's why she wants the treats---she can smell them better than the other food.

[mopinko]

18. hmmmm.

maybe get some fish oil caps, and break one on the food and see how that works.

[oldandhappy]

19. Good luck! They sure do wind us up, don't they??!!

Mine wants what I am eating and I give that to her once a day. Otherwise kibble. She eats the kibble at night while I am asleep so I will not know, smile.

[Kashkakat v.2.0]

20. Are we talking the highly flavored high fructose kitty crack - or natural dehydrated fish and

stuff w/ no additives? If the latter you should be able to get her eating other foods, but I suspect you are talking about the former. Ughhh ... a half a cup of that stuff is not healthy. I say this as someone who once had a diabetic cat. Cats are particularly in danger because they evolved to eat very little if any carb and even the grain in dry food can be enough to mess with their ability to process sugars. And the kitty crack is far heavier carb load

Look into Purina Pro plan Fortiflora - it is probiotic for cats that happens to be highly flavored with animal digest (eg some of the stuff in commercial dry food and kitty treats that makes it so addictive to cats ) Sprinkle that on good quality wet food and the pure meat treats to get her used to eating the good stuff, then taper down on the flavoring. Or not, it is probiotic and nutritionally good for the cats.

Also I suggest being VERY scientific about measuring exact amounts and do a very gradual tapering off over the course of a couple of months (instead of a couple of days). Reduce the treat by a very very tiny amount per day (or every 2 or 3 days even) while at the same time increasing the volume of the other stuff. I mean very small amts - like only 1 or 2 pieces of treat at a time.

The only way tapering off will work is if you are very diligent and methodical about decreasing the undesired food while increasing the good stuff. If you start just throwing down more treats some days because youre not paying attention or whatever then she's going to keep holding out and refusing to eat the good stuff Good luck with that!!!!!!!!!!

I can relate, having a dry food junky Im trying to get onto wet food & meat with supplements. Actually were doing pretty good - down to just a small handful of kibble at night. Its taken about 6 months to work down to where he now happily eats his wet food readily during the day & early evening - but still likes a little bit of crunchies at night. I know how easy it is just to throw down food when you're in a hurry but then the thing is, that really does set you back. Cats have nothing better to do all day than closely observe you and their environment and if they know they can get their crack by holding out - they will!

[Hatchling]

22. I ran out of treats once before payday.

I fooled the cat by offering her a few bits of her regular dry food as a treat. Might try that?

[grasswire]

24. yeah, it worked at first.

Now, she has been treatless for two days. So far, so good!

[alarimer]

23. I'm trying to switch my cat to wet food.

I bought a few kinds to try and it turns out he prefers Fancy Feast, or, as it's also know, kitty crack.

I hope to transition him to higher quality food, but in the meantime, at least he's eating. And he no longer touches the dry food.