Nursing very skinny cat back to health?

[zboyet]

A cat that looks to be in its late kittenhood wandered into my garage last night. It is very very skinny. It ate a bit of my cats hard food I gave it and offered it some water but it did not want any. It has been about 12 hours and it has not eaten any more. I am not sure if it is just not hungry or if there is problems with how skinney it is.It is a super friendly cat so I do not think that it is feral.

I am about to make a trip to the pet store and need suggestions for the best kind of food to get it.

[Elizabeth A]

Look for a high-calorie food. Most reputable brands will list this on the packaging... or you can view their product information online. Kitten and grain-free foods tend to have a higher caloric content. Also if the kitten still won't eat you should take it to a vet to get it checked out, just to be on the safe side. If you don't want to spend a lot of money on a vet I'm sure you could look up some kind of low cost clinic in your area.

[renaelock]

I would get it kitten food and feed it small amounts at a time. I would get the canned kitten food so the cat is more interested in eating it. Starving cats gorge on food and water usually, if this cat isn't eating, there may be something wrong with it and you may need to bring it to the vet or find a shelter that is willing to nurse it back to health. If you have any other questions, please call your vet, they will know more and the phone call is free. Good luck

[Anlina S]

If you are going to take responsibility for this cat then taking it to the vet would be a good idea. If he has been living out doors then he may have worms or other parasite which will impede his recovery.

Since he is not drinking water, you'll want to go with a canned food to make sure he's getting lots of moisture - dry food will further dehydrate him.

I don't know what kind of foods are available in your area, but look for a high quality, grain free food where meat is the top ingredient (it might be the second one, after broth or water sufficient for processing, but you want to avoid foods that are primarily made from meals, digests or by-products.) Innova Evo and Orijen both make grain-free cat foods.

Kitten foods tend to be higher in fat and protein than adult cat foods so you might want to choose a kitten food to help with the weight gain.

Anlina
http://abnormalloveofcats.com

[Katie J]

maybe leave some milk out and put it in a room with a bowl of milk on the floor..and maybe eventually it will drink it!

[Nikki Lynn]

If you think that the cat is still fairly young, I would get the canned food. We hand fed 3 boys from about 4 weeks old and had to buy the Milk Replacer and we fed that to them up until around 3-4 months old I beleive. If you think the cat is still fairly young I would recommend that to start with. It is a little pricey, you could always get some that comes in a small little juicebox and start with that. Then try the canned food. I would also get a kitten chow, but wait to feed it that.