My kitten is 13 weeks old and does not eat her wet cat food. Ideas?

 This title was/is on Reddit.com. This is my response on that social media website:

Dry cat food is sprayed with tasty stuff which can make it addictive almost. Without this covering it is like cardboard. I think it is fairly important that she eats some wet. What might work is trying best quality wet and heating it very slightly in the microwave. Also try wet food for elderly cats for a short time as it is smellier. Just some thoughts. Eating dry all the time might make her slightly dehydrated. It can cause urinary tract issues. If she is a rescue cat, she may have got used to dry food at the shelter.

I am not sure I am completely right but the gist is correct. 

Here is the sweet, young, grey cat. Photo by Reddit user: u/Coke900lp.

I will add a little bit of detail. It is not unusual on my research for domestic cats to become almost addicted to dry cat food because it appears to be tastier than some wet cat foods. It must depend upon the quality of the food as well but they do spray tasteless dry cat food with a fatty spray which makes it very tasty. And it probably smells better than some wet cat food as well. And they get in the habit of eating dry cat food only as this cat has.

I think a possible solution is to buy high quality wet cat food for elderly cats which is smellier than your typical wet cat food and then microwave it for a very short time say five seconds on full power. This will ensure that the food is smellier which is important as smell is how cats judge the palatability of food initially.

As stated, I think domestic cats should eat wet cat food as a default and then some dry cat food when appropriate perhaps at night for grazing. And the odd treat. But to feed dry only can, on the say-so of some veterinarians, cause mild dehydration because domestic cats don't compensate for the dryness by drinking more than they would normally drink. 

And if a cat is mildly dehydrated it can affect their urinary tract and it might predispose them to urinary tract health problems especially if they might, for some reason, become slightly stressed. Stress can cause to cystitis when combined with dry cat food only.

Vet tech lost her cool when she provided advice on Reddit and it was justified

Male cat with serious urinary tract disease. Pic: Reddit.com

I like this response from a vet tech on the Reddit.com website to the question: "My cat has kidney problem, he is urinating blood, does anyone know how I can help him?" - serious urinary tract disease and they are fiddling around on social media!

Can you believe it? A cat owner looking for advice on a social media site/forum on a serious illness suffered by their male cat. It is madness. The only thing to do is to call the vet and by the looks of it they have already delayed doing this. But this either didn't occur to them or they shunned the thought because they wanted to save money at the expense of seriously jeopardising their cat's life.

There is a terrible resistance to taking cats to vets. It is not quite the same for dogs. Some cat owners will do all they can to avoid going to the vet. This must lead to unnecessary deaths from time to time. 

The post is indicative of a section of cat owners who don't have the financial resources to discharge their responsibilities as a cat caregiver to a necessary standard. Or to put it another way: they can't afford to keep a cat. Perhaps there should be a mandated threshold by law. Only people with X amount of money can have cats. That's dreamland as it will never happen but it would save the lives of cats.

Note: This is an embedded Reddit post. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

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Should male cats eat wet food?

This is silly question but Google seems to think that people ask it, but I can't understand why. Of course, male cats should eat wet cat food. Male and female domestic cats have the same basic dietary requirements except for when the female is pregnant (see: How do I know if my cat is pregnant?). This post is bound to be short as the answer is so obvious.

This male cat is from somewhere in the galaxy and does no eat standard cat food but Martian foods. :) Photo in the public domain.

Perhaps there is a more pressing reason why male cats should eat wet food: they are more likely to have a urinary obstruction and the more fluids they can ingest the better to help flush the system. In fact, dry cat food is probably more likely to cause a UTI (urinary tract infection) in male cats than females.

• 3 diabetic cats cured with an exclusive wet cat food diet

The response to the question is to say that male cats must eat wet cat food at least as a major component of their diet.

Cat Urinating and Defecating in the Wrong Place

Dealing with a cat who poops and pees in the wrong place is largely a matter of common sense. There is, however, a difference between the reasons behind defecating and urinating in the wrong place.

If a cat is urinating in the wrong place there are two equally important reasons that this. The first thing to do is to check whether your cat has a health problem. Typically a health problem that results in a cat urinating in the wrong place is an infection of the urinary tract. Cystitis is a typical feline infection that causes him or her to urinate in inappropriate places. Cystitis is a bacterial infection of the bladder. You should, therefore, see your veterinary surgeon first before taking steps to try and stop your cat from your urinating in inappropriate places. You need to make sure that your cat is healthy before moving on to the next phase.

On the basis that your cat is healthy, you should then make sure that her litter tray is always clean. That invariably means cleaning it daily at least. Then you should check that the material used is acceptable to your cat. That will mean changing it to see whether it makes any difference. Then you should check that the tray is in the right place. The tray should not be in a busy location. Choose somewhere quiet and out of the way. Change its position and see what happens.

On the assumption that you have the right material in the tray, the right position of the tray and the tray is clean, if your cat still refuses to use the tray you should ask yourself whether declawing your cat is a factor. We know that declawed cats, because of tenderness in their claws, can have difficulty in using conventional material. This problem probably goes away after a while but it is a point worth checking.

Urinating in the wrong place is not the same thing as spraying which is marking territory. I'm sure you are aware of what that means. Normally male or female domestic cats do not spray vertically against objects in the home. Cats that have not been neutered are more likely to mark territory by spraying horizontally. A cat owner should accept it as normal. If they cannot accept it they should get their cats neutered. Therefore, owners should be aware of the difference between marking territory through spraying and urinating in inappropriate places.

Cats also mark territory by defecating at a certain place. This happens less often than urinating against a vertical object. Incidentally, cats also mark territory by rubbing their bodies against objects including very typically the sides of their face where there are glands that secrete a liquid that is then deposited on the object.

However, a cat may defecate on places such as your bed. This is a form of marking territory and an expression of stress because marking territory is a reassuring process. Accordingly, if your cat is defecating in inappropriate places you should ask yourself whether there are reasons why your cat is stressed. This may be because you are absent a lot. Incidentally, stress is also behind urinating in the wrong place due to cystitis.

There are also health reasons why your cat may defecate in inappropriate places. For example, your cat may be incontinent. You will clearly need to take your cat to your veterinary surgeon for a health check before asking yourself whether things that you do, your behaviour, is causing the problem.

These then are, in basic terms, the underlying reasons why a cat may defecate and urinate in the wrong place. There are many articles on this website which deal with this subject, which is one of the most typical so-called behavioural problems that people complain about in relation to their cat companion.

The key to resolving these problems is to check health first then your behaviour and patterns of behaviour second, particularly in relation to whether it causes your cat to be stressed.

It is important to do one's best to avoid resorting to drugs such as Valium and Prozac, mood enhancers that can help cats, before dealing with simple a more healthy issues first. Using mood enhancing drugs is a last resort for both people and cats.

Cats naturally look to a litter tray to defecate and urinate before using any other area in the home. Therefore, you could argue that if a cat defecates or urinates on household furnishings it is because he or she is being forced to do so. It will be a natural consequence of the circumstances under which he finds himself and therefore we could logically say that it is not inappropriate from the cat's perspective.

Kibble Kats

There have been three recent cases of famously obese cats: Meow, SpongeBob and now Garfield. Meow was 39lbs. SpongeBob started off at 33lbs and Garfield is just 40lbs in weight. He's the latest in this line of large cats. He is a big boned cat anyway so that extra size puts him above the other two. Both Garfield and SpongeBob are New York state cats.

Garfield weighing in at 39.75 lbs.

The interesting bit for me is what the shelter people say. They believe that Garfield was fed a diet of kibble constantly. I suppose that means there was always a large bowl of dry cat food on the ground for him to graze from. It must have been very tasty kibble. As you know it is the high level of carbs in kibble that causes weight gain - and potentially other health problems such as urinary tract problems and diabetes. Garfield, though has been checked out and is in good health, except for his weight which could cause bad health.

Another interesting thing to come out of this is that some cats simply can't regulate their intake of food. They eat like humans, for pleasure. That is not a wild cat trait. It is a domestic cat development. And it does point to the fact that dry cat food is designed to be very tasty. Although cats can't taste sugar (sweetness) they perhaps can be addicted (is that too strong a word?) to a taste - the pleasure of eating. Boredom may also play a role in cats becoming obese. The experts say 30% (or is it a third - 33%?) of American domestic cats are obese.

The shelter people who cared for SpongeBob also mentioned the health risks of dry cat food. There seems to be a consensus. Are vets coming around to the idea that kibble does carry health risks if not managed properly? What are vets doing to manage this? They have a role to play too, I believe.

Garfield's caretaker sadly died. That is how he was discovered. Perhaps the elderly "owner" had difficulties engaging Garfield and exercising him etc. Dry cat food is incredibly convenient. That's what makes it so marketable. From the standpoint of profitability it is the perfect product. It stores for a long time without any particular requirements and stays edible in the bowl for a long time too. The ultimate convenience food: cat fast food.

Kibble Kats are modern cats. I don't want to over do this. But these famous Kibble Kats are a nice bit of promotion for wet food manufacturers and raw diet makers. Both products are better than dry cat food. Kibble has a place in cat's diet as part of an overall varied diet of mainly wet food that mimics a cat's prey better but let Garfield and the Kibble Kats be a warning. Full-time kibble is not suitable as a cat diet.

Feline Cystitis Warning

There should be a warning about feline cystitis and its association with stress. What I mean is we should look at stress in our cat if she has cystitis. Cystitis is a feline urinary tract disease and Urinary Tract Infections (UTI) are one the most common feline diseases. It makes you think actually because there may be more stress problems in the domestic cat than we think. We know that cats don't openly show their distress. Our cat can't communicate with us on the issue of stress. We have to look for signs. One possible sign is cystitis. It might not be the only cause - another could be a diet of dry cat food - but being sensitive to the possibility that your cat might be stressed should be a consideration.

It appears that stress aggravates symptoms of cystitis rather than being a single direct cause. A scientific study by Cameron and associates in 2004 found that "several stress factors were found to be associated with FIC" (feline idiopathic cystitis -- cystitis with no obvious cause). It was concluded that the outstanding stressor or stress factor was a cat living with another cat or cats with which there was some form of conflict. People managing multi-cat households should probably look at how their cats get on and whether anything can be done to alleviate compatibility problems between cats. Also the "lack of adequate provision for normal feline behaviors" should be assessed¹. In multi-cat households there may be competition for litter trays, food and water. The competition should be reduced because someone is losing the competition regularly. Also if a cat has limited access to water due to the presence of a dominant cat the submissive cat may develop a UTI. A safe area for submissive cats might help.

On a personal level my experience informs me that another stress factor can be separation anxiety for a single cat whose only companion is the human caretaker. This does not have to be for long individual periods of separation. To put that in different terms, a cat left alone all day, every weekday, in a flat while the owner goes out to make a living and comes back late having left early can cause stress. Day after day of that may greatly exacerbate urinary tract problems leading to cystitis.

Normally, you won't know your cat is stressed until you see spots of bloody urine on the carpet in the corners. This form of inappropriate elimination can be caused by your cat forming an association between the pain of urination and the litter tray driving her to go elsewhere. Or perhaps and in addition your cat simply has to go anywhere. Cystitis creates a strong urge to go to the toilet.

You might be able to detect stress through separation anxiety by the behavior of your cat on your return. Was she by the front door when you opened it?  Sometimes cat with FIC will over-groom in the area of the lower abdomen and thighs. This is probably due to the discomfort felt in those areas.

Note: 1 page 111 The Welfare of Cats ISBN 978-1-4020-6143-1 - excellent book. Buy it on Amazon for the best price.