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It would be using the hunger tactic, but in a gradual way.
Just feed the old stuff, but not as much, and gradually continuing to lessen the amounts. When she
lets you know she's 'still hungry', offer some of the wet, using the warming and adding water method I mentioned above.
So, she'll still be getting nourishment, but also she will be getting more hungry.
And. . .the cold-turkey method Would work: it's just traumatic for you! When a cat gets hungry enough, he will eat!
When Carly was outdoor/very little indoor, she thrived, but I had no idea at all how much she was getting. The vet said she was one of the healthiest cats he'd ever seen.
I would try mixing in water with the wet food, and then heating it in the microwave, just to fingertip warmth.
When Carly had to become "indoor only" after having always been an outdoor, voracious huntress, this is what I did. And my reasoning was that I wanted her food to resemble as much as possible the newly dead birds, squirrels, rabbits, everything she'd been feasting on.
I feed her three small meals a day like this, and in between times, if she leads me to her dish, I'll give her 3-5 pieces of high quality kibble.
That is inspiring! If Carly can do it ...
I am a terrible pushover! She's so new to our family and I haven't been willing to change things on her too soon, knowing that coming home has been change enough.
My 8yr old female long hair Bridgett would throw up wet food. So she has been on mostly dry,then i got George and brought out the fancy feast again and now they both eat it. they get 1/4 can once a day and the dry is there all the time.they get treats. The favorite is hearing the can opener knowing I am opening tuna and they get all of the water in the can. Is wet food better for them?
Carly loves the tuna water...I get the solid white albacore (Kirkland brand) from Costco.....the tuna is for me, unless Carly talks me out a few shreds, but I do give her the tuna water.
I think that wet food is better for those cats who are not good at drinking water; Carly refuses plain water, and believe me, I've tried everything. But with the wet food I know I don't have to worry about dehydration, which is a major issue with some cats.
As to amount, I feed her 1/3 of a 5.5 oz can of plain old Friskies three times a day. (She loves the fillets and meaty bits and I have the idea that this texture is more like what she's be tearing away from the bones of the recently caught critter, were she still able to be the Huntress! ) I don't leave the kibble out for her, but give her several pieces whenever she leads me to her dish
Carly loves the tuna water...I get the solid white albacore (Kirkland brand) from Costco.....the tuna is for me, unless Carly talks me out a few shreds, but I do give her the tuna water.
I think that wet food is better for those cats who are not good at drinking water; Carly refuses plain water, and believe me, I've tried everything. But with the wet food I know I don't have to worry about dehydration, which is a major issue with some cats.
As to amount, I feed her 1/3 of a 5.5 oz can of plain old Friskies three times a day. (She loves the fillets and meaty bits and I have the idea that this texture is more like what she's be tearing away from the bones of the recently caught critter, were she still able to be the Huntress! ) I don't leave the kibble out for her, but give her several pieces whenever she leads me to her dish
Both my babies love water and they don't care where they get it from
Cats are obligate carnivores. That means that they don't have the ability to obtain complete nourishment from vegetables or grains; they can only get the nutrients they need from animal-based proteins. So a 100% meat food is important, for starters, and most dry foods are not 100% meat.
The other thing that's tricky about cats is that many of them lack a strong sense of thirst. This is an instinctive trait, because felines in the wild get most of their liquid needs from the animals they eat, but it means that a cat who eats only dry food is likely getting less fluid than is healthy. In male cats, particularly neutered males, this can get nasty in a hurry. Urinary tract infections are the least of their worries; many develop kidney disease, crystals in their urine, and in dire cases, wind up needing what is essentially gender reassignment surgery to prevent them from dying in terrible pain of a burst bladder.
And then there's the other stuff, like obesity and diabetes, both of which are unfortunately very common among cats that are fed only dry food. Some experience problems with their teeth and gums as well.
In my experience with my own cats, they've been far healthier and more lively, far more likely to be at their optimum weight and less likely to get ill, when I've fed them a high-quality wet food. I know that doesn't work for everyone, and certainly cats are pretty stubborn about getting what they want. But stubborn or not, the feline members of our household eat wet food, and we benefit by their longer, healthier and happier lives as a result.
In my experience with Carly, when I began feeding the wet food (when she could no longer be outdoors to hunt on her own) the sheen and quality of her coat actually improved and she doesn't shed so much. She's a mid-length Calico with the softest hair...
Right now she's in my lap with her left paw and leg stretched out possessively across my left arm....and now she's purring. One would think she knows somehow that I'm talkin' about her....
My cat Sneakers was dry food only until one day she stopped eating and drinking...vet said renal failure. Reading on causes I discovered dry food and the ingredients were the culprit all carbs. (Like me : cookies vs veggies...not a difficult choice) Cats are meat eaters and should not eat carbs as it stresses their system. My kitty is now on sub q fluids twice a day to keep her alive. Along with that she eats wet food with water added approx 3 times a day and one of those meals I also add aluminium hydroxide gel to her food (phosphorus binder) since she would not touch the renal diet food. That is supposed to help her body get rid of the excess phosphorus. In retrospect I would have fed her a combination of dry and wet her entire life but I was uninformed on dry foods. I thought I was feeding her good dry (Nutro). I am learning. :-)
Dry food is terrible for cats however if you are moving/ having life transusions as I am it may be cheaper and okay for a short time.
That being said I feed wet now 100% to Bindi, Innova EVO and Wellness grain free. Leopalorn and the other cats get 100% dry Innova EVO until after christmas when I will maybe bring him over and switch him to 100% wet, he's a bigger wet food eater so it wont be as hard. I will buy some canned along with Orjen dry to last until after the holidays.
We have two cats. Raoul prefers dry food. I buy premium brands such as Wellness, Eagle Pack, Innova Evo. He's 4-1/2, super-healthy and has a gorgeous coat. He used to eat wet food more when he was a kitten, but as time went on, he gravitated increasingly to the dry food. He is a BIG water drinker, always has been. I keep a largish bowl of fresh water out for him at all times (he likes to play in it as well as drink it). He's not overweight and has good strong teeth. He's more of a grazer than a gorger, so dry food is good for him in that respect.
Mia is my gorger. She is a piggity! She likes wet food better than dry food, perhaps because she has terrible teeth (we got her as an adult and her teeth were already rotten). She eats the dry food, too, though, and also drinks plenty of water. Not as much as Raoul, but I do see her drinking every day. She's a bit of a fatty. She also has a more delicate tummy and tends to throw up from time to time - possibly because she gorges her food. She is basically healthy, though; I had her checked out at the vet last summer b/c of some litterbox issues, and she got a clean bill of health.
For me, the dry food is the better alternative because neither cat will eat the so-called "healthy" wet foods. They go for Fancy Feast and Meow Mix, which I hope are not terrible, but certainly not the best. They really like the wet Meow Mix, but it's hard to find. Generally, I give them a small can of wet food 1-2x per day. Most of the time, Mia eats it all and Raoul can't be bothered. He just sticks to his kibble.
I do supplement their diet with people food, mainly deli turkey slices, from time to time.
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