Temperature can affect cat food

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By John Koch, DVM ~

Question: Lately my cat has been giving me fits with her eating. We leave dry food out for her all the time and give canned food a couple of times each day. She normally eats the canned food immediately. She has this one favorite brand that has been a mainstay with her for years. All of a sudden she looks at it like it was poison and follows me around meowing like she is hungry. I have tried other brands with similar luck. During a recent physical exam, she checked out perfectly normal. Do you have any idea what might be wrong?

Answer: It may be the food rather than the cat. Studies have indicated that when a cat food gets real cold, its texture changes. That can be a problem this time of the year. Pet food is shipped on trucks that do not have climate control. In other words, during shipping, whatever the temperature is outdoors will be the temperature of the food. If the food gets real cold or perhaps even freezes, it is not going to taste the same.

In some ways, it is like fixing fresh food and then refrigerating it. We may warm it up and serve it the next day, but it just does not taste the same. Cats have refined taste buds and are capable of recognizing even the slightest change in the culinary delights that are served them. Low temperatures probably do not affect dry food, but they do affect moist foods. During the winter, it is likely that the shipping process has refrigerated canned pet foods before they reach grocery store shelves. Cats recognize the less-than-stellar flavor and prefer to not partake of such insults to their gourmet tastes.

There are other possible explanations. Perhaps the pet food company changed the formula or ingredients in your cat's favorite food. Perhaps your cat's tastes have changed. Perhaps your cat has an obscure health problem that has yet to be diagnosed. There are times when it would really be nice if you could just talk to your pet and ask them, "Exactly what is the problem, anyway?"

Dr. Koch is a Cape Girardeau-area veterinarian.