For cat caregivers who allow their cat to go outside unsupervised – which still happens in the West despite a trend for keeping cats indoors – I have found that placing a bowl of wet food outside encourages reluctant feline feeders to eat because they feel that they have discovered a deceased prey animal which promotes feeding as a scavenger. Cats are not great scavengers but it does happen which I argue is why you never see dead birds. They are mopped up by wild predators and feral or stray cats.
The food should be picked up after feeding to deter wildlife if that is what you want. Personally, I like to feed wildlife and I find that the bowl is scaped clean of all food by a variety of wildlife down to the bugs and slugs. There is almost no need to clean the bowl afterwards. This won’t suit most people. I understand that.
If appropriate try feeding your cat outside occasionally to encourage feeding by Michael BroadSome individual domestic cats are renown for being finnicky eaters sometimes. A change in feeding location can also help. Perhaps change is an important aspect of domestic cat life as it is what they’d expect to happen if they were wild cats. Perhaps boredom turns them off sometimes. It sort of shuts down their brain. I suspect that most finicky eaters are full-time indoor cats.
I think caregivers need to try and avoid feline boredom. That’s the big challenge for caregivers of full-time indoor cats.
I actually put the food down for foxes as it was cheap cat food. I feed foxes. I have a family living two houses down in the backyard which is a jungle. I know there will be people who think I am mad but I am not. And foxes don’t bother cats. In fact, my cat scares the shit out of foxes. 😎😱
