Things you need to do the first 48 hours when your cat wont eat. After 48 hours not eating, do go and see your vet immediately.

My advice is based on our own experience. When I came back from holiday and picked up my cat from the pet care hotel, she didn’t want to eat anymore. We all know that cats don’t drink that much, but when an obese cat like mine stops eating all together, it’s twice alarming for her cat health:

1. because any time your cat stops eating, something is wrong
2. fat cats start using up their fat when not eating, which leads to death caused by fatty liver disease.

First we thought our cat was healthy but only grumpy because we dropped her of at the pet hotel for 2 weeks. So we gave her some extra loving care but nothing changed.

• We noticed our cat going into hiding mode, only to pretend very healthy when a family member dropped by. This is typical cat behavior: they retreat when they are sick but when they are spotted, they will pretend that they are as healthy as ever as a surviving tactic not to get attacked by other predators.
• We also noticed that her fur looked a but strange and that she had a little wound on top of her head.

So we took our cat to the vet.

Luckily our vet is a real cat lover, so she noticed on the spot that the wound was a bite-mark of another cat.

After more examination, the vet found some critters in our cat’s fur and our cat’s skin was reacting in an allergic manner to the critters.

She prescribed antibiotics and gave us a can of Hills A/D prescription diet food. Reason that our cat was no more eating was the amount of stress she had undergone: attacked, out of her usual environment and allergy to the critters.

As usual, our cat couldn’t resist the A/D food but for sure we are not going to put our cat at that particular pet care hotel anymore.

Learn what to do when your kitten wont eat or drink and understand what is happening with your pet.

Why your kitten doesn’t have thirst nor appetite

Although there could be many reasons why,
the solutions to get it eating are all the same. Let’s think kitty for now:

• some kittens just are fuzzy, our Siamese kitten in particular
• some are stressed out after been "kidnapped" away from their mother, stressreduces appetite
• some pets only touch the food their previous owner was giving to them
• some don’t know what food is, especially the ones that are taken away from their mother too early

What to do?

When you just got your kitten, try to make it at least stressed as possible. Give your kitten a room to herself shut off from the rest of the house with food and water and a litter box.

• Find out from the previous owner what they were feeding.
• Mostly kittens prefer wet food to dry food, so if you only have wet food, then make it mushy adding some water.
• Some pets still need to learn what food is. Mix the wet food with a little bit of water and try putting a little bit in his mouth by the gum. Try putting a bit of canned food on his nose and see if he licks it off. After tasting the food, your kitten might want more.
• Some baby cats will be ok when you bottle feed them wet food with water.
• Buy kitten milk from your pet shop when the animal is not weaned properly yet.
• Try getting Purina Kitten Chow in the yellow bag. Some people call it kitty candy. Try softening some in a little warm water until soft. Leave in the water so it will have a crunchy flavor.

Your last resort: try Hills A/D wet prescription diet, I call it cat miracle food.

What not to do?

If your kitten is less than 6 months old: don’t feed it any dairy products, don’t feed your kitten regular milk: it is really bad for your kitten’s digestive system.

Summary

Most kittens won’t eat for the first 24 hours when you bring them home. They are stressed and trying to learn the new environment. If your kitten wont eat or drink after 2 days, call your vet or an experienced kitten lover.