my cat is depressed?

I definitely agree with the "give her something that smells like DH" idea - I do the same thing with my kitties when I go out of town.

And I totally sympathise with the never-ending cat food trials - you're lucky she'll at least eat dog food, as mine are so picky that the only wet food they'll eat is from the US - and it's not even anything good, it's Meow Mix!    The amount of suitcase space that I *COULD* be filling with chocolate chips and cornbread mix....

sometimes we just have to make sacrifices:) that is so nice that u bring ur kitty food:)

Hope your kitty is back to normal soon!!

Our cat, Einstein, won't eat wet food at all.  We just ran out of dry food and I wanted to see if he'd eat the wet food, but he won't even consider it.  He just looks at us and meows. 

Guess I'm off to the shop!

i have tons of dry food yael if u lived me i would give it to you if u wanted  i think i will donate it to the local rspca thanks guys..

You've gotten some good replies already, but my cat has been depressed before. We had to put her on kitty prozac for a while (new roommate and cat she didn't like moved in).

My Chloe used to not eat wet food at all, but I slowly introduced it with the dry and now she eats both! She won't eat the paté style, but that's ok with me as long as she eats some wet food.

Yes, cats can get depressed.

She will probably feel better when dh is back.

Keep an eye on her food, if cats go too long without eating, they can develop fatty liver disease, which is deadly. But that probably won't happen if she is only feeling bad for too days.

Does she normally eat only dog food, or is she only doing that now because she is depressed? Dog food does not provide enough protein for cats.  Cats have a higher protein requirement than dogs.

The protein is worrisome but the biggest thing I would worry about is the lack of taurine...

Taurine is an amino acid that is really important for cats as they have limited means of synthesizing it and they need it for multiple functions of the body. Dogs don't have the same issues, so while cat canned food is supplemented with taurine dog food isn't. Cats that aren't getting enough taurine will develop Feline central retinal degeneration and dilated cardiomyopathy.

Cats really shouldn't be eating dog food - its terrible that she won't eat anything else but have you tried maybe mixing her dog food with some canned cat food and then maybe slowly phasing the dog food out?

Cats are obligate carnivores and dogs aren't - so their diets are vastly different and commercial pet diets reflect that.

As for your original post, sorry your kitty is depressed :-( I think the t-shirt with your DH's smell is a good idea. Good luck!!

He was a pain in the ars* when it came to cat food..he would eat the jelly or the gravy and leave the meat!

Haha :-) Kitties aren't stupid - the reason he wouldn't eat the "meat" but would eat the jelly and gravy is probably because those chunks that look like meat - aren't actually meat! They are usually some sort of texturized soy.

hi Reinadeluz thanks for ur advice:) daddy comes home tonight! YAY! about the food issues, i got her some duck and heart ewwk! anyways, she ate it,  so i will be giving this to her and maybe mixing the dog food with it. and phasing it out like u suggested!  she will eat some chicken livers.  thanks for all the advice we appericate it!

hi Reinadeluz thanks for ur advice:) daddy comes home tonight! YAY! about the food issues, i got her some duck and heart ewwk! anyways, she ate it,  so i will be giving this to her and maybe mixing the dog food with it. and phasing it out like u suggested!  she will eat some chicken livers.  thanks for all the advice we appericate it!

Thats excellent!!!! I really have a huge soft-spot for kitties :-D I'm glad you're going to be able to get her to eat something kitty-friendly!