Pudding and Sunrise – absolutely not fussy about food

Dear Readers, those of you who have felines in your life have no doubt experienced the sense of frustration that occurs when your cat turns up his/her nose at a food that they’ve previously enjoyed. This usually happens after you’ve bought a whole tray of the stuff. But why? Scientist Masao Miyazaki, of Iwate University in Japan has been investigating, and thinks that it’s likely to be because of the smell of the stuff.

12 cats – 6 males and 6 females – were each offered dry food for ten minutes, and the amount that they ate was measured. They had a ten minute break, and then a further ten minutes when either the same food was offered, or a different one. This was repeated six times. As you might expect, the cats ate less as time went on, but the cats offered different food ate more – nearly twice as much, in fact.

A similar effect was produced when cats were offered the same food, but with a different food in an inaccessible but permeable chamber beneath the food, so that the cats could smell the new food, but only eat the familiar stuff.

Interesting! Masao wonders if, in the wild, cats change to birds after eating a mouse or two. Presumably wanting novelty might mean that cats vary their diet in order to get a full range of micronutrients, but that’s me speculating.

Masao also wonders if the smell of all the different kinds of cat food is encouraging cats to eat more than they actually want to, because they are so hyped up with all the variety. There is an epidemic of feline obesity after all, and cat food is particularly smelly stuff.

So, the advice if you have a ‘fussy’ feline is to vary food, but to keep it within the recommended volume for your weight and age of cat. I’ve found that gently warming food in a microwave for a few seconds can often bring out the smell and encourage a cat who isn’t well to eat. Also, making sure that any cat bowls are properly washed so that they don’t contain the smell of the previous food is also advised.

But cats, as we know, can be very contrary, so if your puss is pernickety, you have my sympathy. My main advice is to never buy large quantities of tins of a particular variety, however much the cat seems to enjoy it. And if your otherwise healthy cat has lost his/her appetite, don’t delay taking them to the vet – food is a highlight for most cats, so a change to disinterest is likely not  a good sign.

If they’re trying to break into the food cupboard, though, you probably don’t have a problem…

The New Scientist article is here.

The research article is here.