he nibbled just a tiny bit ( you can barely see the little missing pieces on the edges of leaf) and now he is just sitting on the leaf. he looks skinny, and weak, like his skin looks all baggy and wrinkly. but he did molt successfully, because I saw his old skin and head capsule. So strange, he was fine before the molt, and now it seems like he doesn't "like" orange leaves anymore and is looking for something else. I truly think something is wrong with his mouthparts, since he appears to at least try to nibble, then it is like he gets frustrated and starts pacing around again, his behavior is almost exactly like that of cats that are looking for a place to pupate. and he is about 3 weeks old, i think, the other two hatchlings from his "group" died when they were like two of three days old, one hardly ate at all, the other was eating normally and when I went to change his leaf and picked it up, he rolled off, i waited a while to see if he startedmoving again, but he died on the leaf. I guess it is survival of the fittest so to speak, even when they are indoors. I used to keep them separated according to size, but i decided to keep all of the cats in their own individual containers after I had one cat die when trying to molt, I am almost positive that the cat he shared a container with, ate the leaf he was attached to and knocked him off before he molted, even though he had his own new leaf, because he was fine when i checked them before i went to bed that night, and when i woke up he was lying on the floor of container trapped in his old skin, and the other cat was on the leaf eating it, they had shared a container since they hatched, but apparently this particular cat didn't like to share, he is one of the few I have that still "stinks" me when I change his leaf and clean his container, he is super aggressive, most of them seem to be used to me and don't get defensive when I clean and give new leaves, but this one almost EVERY time, sticks his little horns out at me, I dread fooling with his container because i cannot stand that smell, lol. I lost one more cat due to an unsuccessful molt, it was a first instar, not sure what happened but he was all tangled up in his old skin. But the first one I lost due to molting was on his 3rd molt, and completely healthy, so the only thing I could think of that may have happened was that the other cat forced him off of the leaf, but idk, I felt so sorry for him, all that work and time, and he had made it through the more delicate stages and survived. Hopefully this one will perk up, I thought about putting him outside on the tree, it is nice and sunny today, and letting him wander around to see if he finds a leaf that suits him, I have some tulle fabric I can tie around the tree to keep predators from getting him, does that sound like a good idea? thanks everyone!!

What anguish I read these comments with. My beloved Maine Coon Cat at age ten gradually stopped eating after his requisite vaccinations. He gradually lost a third of his weight. I took him to the vet. Blood work was done. Palpations were done. He stopped eating, or, as far as I could tell, drinking. I was distraught, and, finally, on a weekend took him to the Pet hospital, where he is now. After reading many of these comments, I am very afraid. He is ten years old and we have had him since he was three weeks old. He is laid-back, thoughtful, and has command of much vocabulary. How can we get along without our beloved cat? He is to have an ultrasound tomorrow, and I shudder at what the news might be. . .

Many thanks for your comments. I should have made clear that liver and kidney function were checked satisfactorily - no lipidosis. Our very senior Vet (he is Cruft's Chief Veterinary Officer - yes, dogs, I know) saw Sam again today. He was not in favour of either an Xray or ultrasound - he reckons that there is no evidence that anything they might reveal is amiss. However, he did force-feed Sam some Hills A/D by syringe, then Sam licked more off his fingers. Having got Sam home, he ate a treat stick by himself and we've syringe-fed him twice more - he wouldn't eat off our fingers (maybe after 14 years he's trying to tell us something). He is still unwilling to feed himself from a dish (you wouldn't believe all the stuff we've bought to try to tempt him - liver, chicken, haddock, beef, tuna, etc, besides a variety of cat-food) but has drunk a fair amount of water. We're happier that he has got some food and drink inside him now but will be much happier when he's back to feeding himself. We will be even happier if we ever discover what stopped him eating/drinking in the first place. For the benefit of anyone else who reads this with a similar problem, we had read elsewhere about putting honey on a cat's gums - some people had apparently had success with this as a starter to get their cat eating normally again. We tried it last night and syringed about 4ml of watered-down honey directly into Sam's mouth. He licked around and swallowed all of it but, sadly, I can't report that he restarted eating.

I'm sorry this is happening, but at 17 years old, your cat's problems probably have nothing to do with the new kitten, but are most likely old age related. Have you taken the older cat to the Vet?