cat won't eat whole bowl of food

by John

I free feed my cat dry food. I put food in her bowl and she will eat about the first half of it. Eventually she starts crying for more food even though there is still plenty in the bowl. As an experiment, I dumped out the remaining food, put in new food, and sure enough she starts eating, leaves half, and refuses to touch the remaining portion as if they are nasty leftovers. The food only sits there for like a day before she won't touch it. This is a brand new situation that I can't figure out. She has never before done this. Any suggestions?

Answer by Kate
Well what you describe is nothing new to me, in fact my own cat has spent her whole life doing this. Put fresh food in her bowl, she eats half, then asks for more. But if I pretend to put more in and just stir the remaining food around she will quite happily finish it off.

I have always put it down to either habit or cat fickleness. I think they like to feel as if they are getting more. I don't think it has anything to do with anything being wrong with the food.

Also as you know cats eat only really smelly food and i find that by stirring the food kind of revitalises the smell of the food. Dry food in particular can loose its smell quite quickly, that's why I only pour a little out of the box at a time.

I wouldn't worry about this recent occurrence with your cat, just put it down to either she may be finding it harder to smell her food so it has to be really fresh for her.

best wishes Kate

---