Getting a cat to eat canned food (kitten, eating, weight) - - City-Data Forum

kakers · 07-31-2010, 10:38 AM

Hey all... I am trying to have my cats eat more canned food than dry, but so far it's a bit slow going. My two adult cats will eat canned food, though they don't between the two of them finish a can (usually even a small one) before it needs to be tossed. My kitten on the other hand (he's about 8 months old now) just doesn't touch the stuff. He'll go sniff at it real goo, but doesn't even taste it. I've tried mixing in some of their dried food with it, so he at least gets the message that it is food...and still no luck.

For the past day or two all I have fed them is canned food, and some dry mixed in. Any suggestions for how to get the kitten to eat the canned food or will he eventually give up from the dry food alone not being an option?

~Katy

Jill61 · 07-31-2010, 12:52 PM

Have you tried different canned foods, or are you sticking with the same one that they are refusing?

If you can afford it, go for a high quality, grain-free, like Wellness or Blue Wilderness (btw, cats digest chicken protein better than any other, so start with chicken first).

pitt_transplant · 07-31-2010, 01:02 PM

Feed them a light dinner the night before and go canned only. They won't refuse to eat when they actually do get hungry. My cat prefers certain flavors though still. You can also heat it up. When its warm, its more smelly and they are drawn to that. Just watch you don't burn them as it heats up pretty fast in the microwave. I only put a heaping tablespoon down at a time and the rest goes in the fridge. If you don't already, you need to wash the dish with every wet food serving time.

My cat is liking castor pollux turkey and spinach today. It smells like real turkey, not cat food.
Castor & Pollux Organix Feline Formula, Turkey & Spinach, 5.5-Ounce Cans (Pack…

I also mash it up so its not like a food log. The cat seems to hate any wet food when its just a chunk and ends up playing with it more than eating it. LOL

He also loves fancy feast but he is allergic to something in it. (makes him throw up)

kakers · 07-31-2010, 01:49 PM

I've tried a whole variety of brands and flavors and consistencies from pate to the newer gravy lovers ones. I know my oldest cat likes the seafood flavors the best. I admit the highest end foods I have not tried, they just aren't in the budget right now.

Eventually I want to feed them both, because to be honest my oldest cat WILL, if she hasn't eaten in a few hours, inhale a half of a can and then promptly puke it back up. She does this with all foods, canned or dry, if she hasn't eaten in a few hours. Not something I like to keep cleaning up after, never mind being a complete waste of food.

So inevitably I will need to use dry food as well, so there is food left out at all times. But I'd like them to at least eat SOME canned food as well.

~Katy

zitsky · 07-31-2010, 02:07 PM

I had a cat who would eat only dry food. This was a problem because he had developed medical problems related to crystals in his urine etc. We switched him to a good quality dry food but he still wouldn't touch the wet food we put out for the other cats. One day I discovered that he would go crazy if I fed him the beef version of a specific cat food. He still eats mostly dry but at least now I know something else he will eat.

It could be that your cat is just very picky about what he will eat, both in terms of brand name and in terms of variety (beef, chicken etc). My cat would eat the small Fancy Feast cans and ignore the better quality Blue Buffalo canned food. Go figure.

Jill61 · 07-31-2010, 02:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zitsky

My cat would eat the small Fancy Feast cans and ignore the better quality Blue Buffalo canned food. Go figure.

It's actually not hard to figure. Given the choice, who wouldn't rather have potato chips than liver? I'd go for the bad-for-me snack food in a heartbeat, and that's basically what the cheaper foods like Fancy Feast are.

Marylandkitten · 07-31-2010, 02:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kakers

my oldest cat WILL inhale a half of a can and then promptly puke it back up. Not something I like to keep cleaning up after, never mind being a complete waste of food.

Just think, if you had a doggy to follow your eldest cat around, you wouldn't be wasting all that money. Puked up cat food is dog heaven! lol Vroom vroom. Recyclin' the food!

On a more serious note, I feel all of your pain. If Twix needs to change her diet, I have to get her to begin eating wet. All the other kitties scarf down the wet... she won't touch it!!!

PantherPride · 08-01-2010, 03:53 PM

The best thing you can do is keep at it, stiuck to it and all will be well, hunger is a strong motivator.

kakers · 08-01-2010, 08:07 PM

As far as dry food goes my cats definitely prefer things that aren't the grocery store stuff... Right now they are on a mix of Purina ProPlan and Blue Buffalo. I have had various foods for the stray cats in the neighborhood, and was cat sitting my friends cats at my house a while back who ate Cat Chow (though, after a few days I mixed in the good food for them too, their litterbox was something else YUCK!) If there was any spilled food from filling the bowls with the grocery store food my cats wouldn't even touch it... and I was hoping they'd clean up after me. Guess not! LOL They also didn't eat the food belonging to the visiting cats.

Still just giving canned food. My older 2 are happy as clams, the kitten still doesn't appear to be eating it.

~Katy

FiveHorses · 08-02-2010, 07:17 AM

One of ours who was probably about 6 or so months old when we got her (about 2.5 years ago), has been offered wet and dry on a daily basis. She'll always eat the dry (which has never varied and only comes in one "flavour") - wet... some days yes, some days no, some days just a few mouthfuls. Then she might go totally off wet for a week or more, and then, just as suddenly, she'll lick her bowl clean.

It isn't flavours as she'll eat one flavour one day and not a day or two later. It isn't texture, it isn't brand. It isn't anything I can quantify, so... quite frankly, I've given up trying to. She gets offered what she's always been offered and she can eat it or not as she likes. If she doesn't like, there's no shortage of little helpers that would be delighted to assist her.

She just isn't a very food motivated cat - but she's wonderfully healthy, her weight is fine and very stable, and she's perfectly happy so... I leave well enough alone.