Picky unpredictable eater

[Moggieslegacy]

Thanks for your reply and knowledgable input Patti. Having some names of stuff that could cause his symptoms that I can look up and ask the vet about is helpful. He has been immunized against Feline Lukemia, both the first and second shots and has not been in any fights where he has been bitten, which from what I read makes FIV unlikely, unless he got it from his Mom. Also I seem to recall the vet saying this is relatively rare in this area, and not a big concern, but I will ask about this to make sure I am remembering correctly. (looking this up I found several news articles from April this year saying FIV had been seen detected in 4 cats in a town 60 miles away on another island, so probably I am remembering correctly and it is not common here) He looks to have normal pink gums so the anemia that sounds like it is associated with haemobartonellosis isn't an obvious problem, but I will also ask about this. Sorry if my weight explanation was convoluted. If the most frequent weight I see on a given day is correct, in 2 weeks he has probably dropped from 7.2 to 6.6 lbs. which is still a concern, and I am arranging for him to see a vet on Tues. when things open after the long weekend.

 

[Rafiki]

A bathroom scale used by measuring both and then yourself and subtracting is insanely inaccurate. I have one that has a tolerance of .1 lb and trust me, it is no where close to being accurate as I have found by weighing the cats right after coming back from the vet.

Looking up symptoms on the internet will lead you down the path to misery. When kittens go thru a sudden growth spurt, they can look really skinny for a period of time. Heck, all kittens (just like humans) go thru that awkward stage. The answer could be as simple as this.

He is a kitten. He needs to eat as much as he wants during the first year. Yes, being finicky is an issue. I always have things on hand such as turkey baby food and lots of freeze dried meats for when my little darlings become unreasonable. Fresh shaved parmesan is a favorite for Rafiki. Other cats here love weird things like spinach and cucumber. The challenge is to find what your baby craves....other than unleavened bread! When Jammu was a kitten, he would get tired of his food very quickly and I had to mix in a spoon of canned cat food every few days just to give him variety. He would not eat the rest of the can.....but the spoonful was enough to give his regular food a bit of variety.

Get him to the vet and get him checked out.

 

[Moggieslegacy]

Thanks for suggesting the more optimistic possibilities Rafiki! It is appreciated! I will make arrangements for him to see a vet ASAP and until then try to stop speculating the worst...And I will try to get ahold of some turkey baby food...

Yesterday Moggie caught a medium sized bird. He only manages this every couple weeks, but he does like to eat them. He brought it in to his food bowl area and astounded me by enthusiastically eating it ALL, legs, head, and wings including long wing feathers. And then an hour later he appears to have puked it all back up. Which I am under the impression has happened every time he eats what he catches, but never happens when it is stuff I feed him. (Why?) Anyways, the puked up bird laid in the grass in the hot sun being eaten by a dozen wasps all day yesterday, and this morning Moggie decided that looked like what he would like to have for breakfast. I grabbed him and brought him up to the house and he had a bit of Orijen instead. We obviously have very different ideas of what is yummy....

 

[Moggieslegacy]

After posting about the puking I got to thinking that this actually "regurgitation" and could be a cats way of preparing food with a lot of roughage. Chewing is the first part of digestion, so if it is all nicely chewed and regurgitated and left to sit a while maybe it is then easier to digest when eaten the second time? Sort of a cats idea of cooking?

It would be a long story to tell all the details, but last night Moggie took me and my flashlight on an amazing full moon tour of the yard and pond and he showed me what he does at night. He was purring a lot and sticking close to me, leading me around to the good hunting spots and I felt he was intentionally showing me what he does while I am sleeping. I wonder if he knows I have been worried? He is so much more in his element at night. His night life involves some very alert energetic coordinated leaps and burrowing in tall grass after stuff I could not hear at all, and a surprising amount of enthusiastic eating. I need to figure out what is going on with his weight and make sure he is healthy, but he did not seem at all unwell in the moonlight or like he was having a hard time enjoying his food, and in this context him snoozing most of the day and only nibbling at the food I offer makes a lot better sense.

 

[Rob1984]

pretty risky letting him eat birds never know when one will have a disease

 

[Moggieslegacy]

Rob there is small risks involved in lots of things. Letting our kids ride a bicycle, go swimming, or play contact sports are examples I can think of off the top of my head. Whether a risk is acceptable or not depends on how likely a problem is and whether it can usually be remedied. And I agree each of us needs to be responsible and assess our own environment and situation and weigh the risks. In my situation our neighbourhood needs cats for rat control. Nothing else works and without cats the damage to structures and food crops is serious and can even be life threatening. A friend a couple miles away had their house burn down because rats found a way in and chewed some wiring. And a 10 year old pricey waterfront home a block away has had to be totally gutted because of rat damage. The rats here also climb trees at night and eat entire nests of baby birds. I don't like my cat catching birds which is why I have encouraged him to be nocturnal, but with the pond as a lure he still catches them occasionally. As I understand it the most likely disease besides worm type parasites a cat may encounter eating wild birds or mice is Toxoplasmosis which usually does not make the cat ill and is just as easily picked up from contact with soil, meaning taking your cat for a walk on a harness is also a risk. I am not an irresponsible person, I just think life is often like one of those rubric cubes, from one point of view we come up with a solution that seems like everything is right, but then looking at it from a different angle we realize we just created a different problem. As long as my cat gets regular de-worming in my situation the other small risks of him hunting are acceptable.

 

[Rob1984]

you said earlier your cats pukes up small animals i just dont understand why you let him continue to do it if its making him sick ?

its your cat do whatever you want

 

[Moggieslegacy]

Oh Ok now I follow you and see your reasoning. When I thought my cat was puking up the small animals he occasionally ate I also thought his body was solving the problem - which was not anything serious. But I made a mistake when I used the word puke, when actually what he is doing is eating a small animal, regurgitating it in a sausage like tube, and I think, now I watched him in action last night, and based on rarely finding remains, he is usually eating it again... Regurgitating for cats, and then re-eating it is not necessarily pathological and from some reading I did last night it sounds like it is something Servals and Siamese cats do regularly. Moggie only does it with whole prey he hunts himself, and never with anything I feed him.

 

[John Popp]

From my vantage point, you have a sick cat and a lot of uncontrolled variables. I'd place a huge premium on getting them sequestered, complete control of what's being eaten and remove any exposure to outdoors until they are back in full health.

 

[Rob1984]

i just think a cat vomitting/reguritation is not normal