The cat refuses to eat: why and what to do?

Cats are small predators with a good appetite. They eat, as a rule, often in small portions, or rarely and very much. Owners of home Fluffies must observe their food.

The main indicator of the health and well-being of a cat is a good appetite. However, there are times when you can see that the cat stopped loving the usual delicacies, or even started to refuse any food. In cases where the volume of food consumed by the cat has noticeably decreased or the pet refuses to eat at least something - time to sound the alarm, because the consequences of delay can be very sad. To provide timely assistance to a cat that refuses to eat, you need to assess the condition of the animal and understand the true causes of what is happening.

The reasons why cats refuse to eat

If the main reason for the refusal of the cat to eat is a disease, then it is not surprising, but the pet may not want to eat, being completely healthy. Most likely, this is due to the fact that the cat does not like the food that it is fed. However, this behavior may indicate that the animal expresses its protest. Therefore, you need to carefully follow the pet to understand the reasons for this behavior.

If the cat often walks on the street, then, most likely, it simply finds food on the side and simply does not feel hunger at home. On the street, cats often succumb to the hunter's instinct, catching rodents or birds.

Metabolic disease
As a rule, urban cats living in apartments and never going outside suffer from this. Obesity is a fairly common problem in felines. Cats can eat a very large amount of food at one time and cannot control themselves. Therefore, the main task of the owner - to build the correct diet of the animal and prevent its overfeeding.

Fasting days
Sometimes cats at a purely instinctive level arrange for themselves the so-called fasting days to cleanse their body of harmful substances.In these cases, starvation of the animal can be caused by the following reasons:

1. Problems in the gastrointestinal tract. This happens in cases where, after eating, the animal immediately began to show high physical activity.
2. After overeating, the animal may also need to unload the body.
3. The cat ate indigestible food.
4. The animal thus protests against someone from the owners, or thus tries to draw attention to itself. Such behavior is subject to, as a rule, sociable cats who love to be in society and be the center of the universe.

If the pet refuses to eat the day, then you do not need to sound the alarm. Just watch. If it lasts much longer, then a visit to the veterinarian is obligatory and you should not delay it.

Starving cats should not be more than 24 hours. Even during this time, some animal organs may begin to malfunction. For example, a liver. This is especially noticeable in obese cats. They have a fatty dystrophy. Therefore, it is important for the pet owner to remember that, even putting your cat on a diet, it is impossible to completely interrupt food in any case.Everything should happen gradually, and food should remain regular. In the opposite case, when the cat suffers from anorexia, it is forced to eat it.

Animal instincts
Cat's appetite may well be reduced for physiological reasons during the period of sexual activity. Usually during the rut, the animal is concentrated on the object of the opposite sex and hardly thinks about food. And cats during the period of heat or a few days before her, also do not have a particular passion for the usual sweets.

Stress
Cats are animals that love a certain way of life. They are very skeptical of any changes. An animal can get used to a rearrangement in the house for a long time, and also feel a deep insult when the owners decided to have a new pet or even get a child. If the beloved master is not home for a long time, the cat may well become depressed and refuse to eat.

Cats are also very sensitive to any mood changes in the family. If there is a quarrel between the household, you can be sure that the animal will be far from indifferent. It is quite possible that in a couple of hours you will make peace, and your favorite fluffy will move away from the shock for some time. Often the animal begins to feel sad while moving to a new place of residence.But, as a rule, after a while, the animal returns to normal. The main thing is to have loving owners nearby.

The most interesting thing is that a cat’s refusal to eat can be caused even by changing the usual bowl of an animal or moving it to another place. Cats also do not like to eat in bright light, noise and a large number of people. All this can lead to a rather severe stress of the animal. To save your pet from the shock, you can just play with it or caress. Positive emotions will benefit him, and soon the cat will feel good. To hunger of an animal you need to be very attentive, because it can be a witness to serious health problems.

How pregnancy affects cat's appetite

Owners of animals need to be extremely attentive to the condition of a pregnant cat, because in the early stages, toxicosis is possible and the appetite will worsen by a couple of hours. Before giving birth, a cat may also refuse to eat.

After the birth has passed, the state of the cat will slowly recover. It is not worth alarming if she doesn’t eat anything for a day after giving birth, but at the same time the kittens feel good. In this case, you do not need to force feed the animal.Refusal to eat can be caused by the following reasons:

• the cat does not want to leave newborn babies alone;
• stress to the cat's body, especially if it is the first birth;
• giving birth was very hard, and the animal needs a certain time to recuperate;
• if during birth the cat ate one or more.

Also, the refusal of the animal from food may be due to postponed before the operation. Since in the process of surgical intervention had to resort to anesthesia, a discharge from it can take 1 or even 2 days for an animal. During this period, coordination of movement is disturbed, and the appetite may be completely absent.

If you decide to change the animal feed, then be sure to see how the cat will accept the new food. If the pet does not like the new diet, then it is necessary to make a replacement, but in no case try to feed the animal by force.Also, the rejection of food can be caused by stale or low-quality food.

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