Is my cat well and happy? She eats only jelly of food and mice

Question

Titch is four years old. I have had her for just a week and she loved her Whiskas tuna in jelly. I have tried new flavours, and she ate some meat, just some. She was fat, still is. Maybe she is just on a diet of her own instictive choosing. But still, it is concerning me.

Maybe she misses her previous owner (my friend died, but I am OK) so I took Titch in, as she had suffered enough, and I was going to get a cat anyway, and Titch knew me already.

Just before I adopted her, she had been in hospital, for sadly, she had been taken in by my friend's neighbour and then kicked out. So she ended up in hospital needing antibiotics, having been wandering around the hall of my friend's building for some days. So one week out of hospital tells me her health must be good. I hope!

She has run the length of my large living room, twice now - she's getting confident. She sleeps OK. An indoor cat, for she is rather fey.

She was fine when I checked up on her which I did because I heard two cat-attack shrieks (in two days) so maybe she is eating the mice that she caught She loves the kitchen. Our building has mice, which is kitty heaven. But I am only guessing. She eats the jelly and then licks around her mouth.

We exchange blinks all the time, she comes to say hello, up onto my desk. I loved her and petted her from the start. Always I get the purrs and nose kisses. I stroke her.

Does Titch's behavior sound OK to you? I will be trying some chicken breast, but want my cat to be ok.

Answer 1

Cats generally love gravy or jelly... even if they're indifferent to the chunks of solid food in it. This may be due to their having bedn desert creatures before they adopted us; they "expect" to get most of their moisture from their food rather than by drinking water directly.

Re hunting mice: There are some risks there, from parasites to neighbors putting out mouse poison... while I'm sure the cat loves having all those toys to chase (until their batteries run out or ghey get broken), you might want to consider discouraging that game, or at least keep a close eye on her health during hunting season.

If the cat is maintaining its body weight, it is probably getting enough to eat somehow. (I'd still worry about exactly what it was eating.) If it starts losing weight that wasn't just fat, that's an immediate health risk and needs to be addressed.