In this breed, appetite and personality travel together
A Japanese Bobtail is normally one of the household's most animated members: athletic, interactive, and famously conversational, with a soft voice it uses constantly. That makes appetite loss easier to interpret than in a reserved breed, because the food refusal rarely travels alone. A Bobtail that skips meals but still plays, greets you, and comments on the day is likely dealing with something minor and passing. A Bobtail that goes quiet, stops joining in, and ignores the bowl has changed in two systems at once, and that combination deserves a faster response.
Begin with the routine, because this breed runs on one. New food, a different feeding place, a rearranged room, a visiting dog, or even a changed work schedule that shifts mealtimes can unsettle a cat that organises its day around predictable events.
Physical causes to keep on today's list
Nausea sits high on the list: lip-licking, drooling, hunching, or approaching food and then walking away are the visible hints. Hairballs can produce a day of reduced appetite, particularly in the longer-coated Bobtails, though repeated retching without producing anything should not be filed under hairballs for long. Dental pain is the quieter culprit: watch for chewing on one side, dropping dry food, or enthusiasm at the bowl that dies at the first bite.
Check the litter tray before you conclude anything. Normal urination alongside a skipped meal is reassuring; straining or repeated unproductive visits are an emergency regardless of eating, and diarrhoea alongside appetite loss shortens every timeline.
How long to watch, and what to do meanwhile
Keep the arrangement boring and familiar: the usual food, in the usual place, at the usual times, with fresh water available, and no procession of novel alternatives that muddies the picture of what has actually been eaten. Warming the normal food slightly can make it smell more inviting without changing what it is.
Set the limit in advance. If your Japanese Bobtail has eaten nothing for a full day, contact the vet; contact the vet the same day if the cat is a kitten or a senior, or if refusal comes with vomiting, lethargy, hiding, drooling, diarrhoea, or breathing changes. Cats tolerate fasting poorly compared with dogs, so a wait of several days is never the right experiment, particularly for a cat carrying extra weight.
Arrive with the story already written
The vet's first questions will be chronological: last normal meal, last normal behaviour, what changed at home, and what the tray has shown since. Owners who jotted times down as the day unfolded answer those questions precisely instead of approximately. Keeping that dated record in a KinsLe Pet Passport means a Japanese Bobtail's off day is documented clearly enough for the vet to judge whether it was a blip or the start of something.