Switching cat to wet food

Ladies, I have to be honest, I am about ready to give up trying to feed wet food to my male cat Brandon. I've had him since last April, he's about a year and a half old, and he's addicted to dry. He weighs 16.4 pounds and needs to lose at least two pounds according to the vet. The only wet food he will sometimes take a few bites of are Meow Mix pouches and Natural Balance Tuna, which are both fish and that concerns me. I am presently slowly switching him to Evo dry from Nutro, hoping that will help the weight issue. I've read some great posts and articles linked to this website about taking away the dry food completely and for some reason it scares me or maybe I just don't have the heart to watch Brandon walk away at feeding time without eating. The articles say that usually the cat will become so hungry they will eat the wet. Has anyone on this forum succeeded in changing their dry food junkies over to wet completely? If so, how long did it take? I am also concerned that since I am away at work 9 hrs 5 days a week, if he didn't eat what is offered, he would have a long wait for the next attempt. Any advice or input would be much appreciated.

I was successful getting my cat and kitten to eat Natural Instinct from healthypetnet.com However its a mail order only. They will send you a sample for just shipping . Really good food and all my friends that tried it....their cats love it.

I suggest looking in the phone book and finding the mom and pop shops ( pet stores )..


It may not be possible for a dry food kitty to accept wet only but you should get to 50/50 with trial and error...

EVO wet is good and just an FYI the dog and cat are exactly the same in the wet

Originally Posted by sharky

EVO wet is good and just an FYI the dog and cat are exactly the same

in the wet

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Have you confirmed this with NaturaPet? Just because the ingredients list is the same doesn't mean that the food is the same--the last ingredient listed is vitamins/minerals, and those could vary for the cat and dog formulas. In particular, I would be concerned about the dog food having enough taurine to feed to a cat.

There are lots of idea on how to get dry food junkies on to wet food here. There may be something you've not tried! All you can do is try - if he won't eat wet he won't eat it.

http://www.catinfo.org/#Transitionin...o_Canned_Food_

Originally Posted by cloud_shade

Have you confirmed this with NaturaPet? Just because the ingredients list is the same doesn't mean that the food is the same--the last ingredient listed is vitamins/minerals, and those could vary for the cat and dog formulas. In particular, I would be concerned about the dog food having enough taurine to feed to a cat.

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I confimed it via the % are the same and every ingrediant is the same .... my vet called the company and said fine to give the cat the dog formula... Do a little research it is fairly Obvious... I have difficulty getting Natura to answer anything but the vet has success http://www.naturapet.com/display.php?d=nutrition-facts&pxsl=//product[@id='1305']
http://www.naturapet.com/display.php?d=nutrition-facts&pxsl=//product[@id='1304']

Originally Posted by sharky

I confimed it via the % are the same and every ingrediant is the same .... my vet called the company and said fine to give the cat the dog formula... Do a little research it is fairly Obvious... I have difficulty getting Natura to answer anything but the vet has success

http://www.naturapet.com/display.php?d=nutrition-facts&pxsl=//product[@id='1305']
http://www.naturapet.com/display.php?d=nutrition-facts&pxsl=//product[@id='1304']

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I just wanted to be sure that someone had confirmed that the vitamin and mineral content were the same too.

No problem you arent the first to ask about that

Originally Posted by Crt

Ladies, I have to be honest,

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I am about ready to give up trying to feed wet food to my male cat Brandon. I've had him since last April, he's about a year and a half old, and he's addicted to dry. He weighs 16.4 pounds and needs to lose at least two pounds according to the vet. The only wet food he will sometimes take a few bites of are Meow Mix pouches and Natural Balance Tuna, which are both fish and that concerns me. I am presently slowly switching him to Evo dry from Nutro, hoping that will help the weight issue. I've read some great posts and articles linked to this website about taking away the dry food completely and for some reason it scares me or maybe I just don't have the heart to watch Brandon walk away at feeding time without eating. The articles say that usually the cat will become so hungry they will eat the wet. Has anyone on this forum succeeded in changing their dry food junkies over to wet completely? If so, how long did it take? I am also concerned that since I am away at work 9 hrs 5 days a week, if he didn't eat what is offered, he would have a long wait for the next attempt. Any advice or input would be much appreciated.

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Well, I am not a lady, but I hope to keep my cat on dry food only for the rest of his life as he has never tasted wet food whatsoever. He has never been to the vet for sick problems, he is lively and robust, his litter box does not get detected by anybody, his stool is always wonderful and never soft or hard, his coat is filling out beautifully, and at eight months, he is a perfect nine pounds. I feed him dry food freely, his bowl is full at all times, his breath always smells so sweet, I can think of no reason why I would ever want to change him to wet food. I know this is a constant lively discussion on this forum, but I have never once seen an indication why I would ever consider changing my cat over to wet food. Oh, the one reason most people seem to quote is that their cat does not like dry food. My cat has never tasted wet food so he loves his dry food just great and eats it freely and does not beg at the table. Guess I should thank the great Cat God above, Leaving wet food out also attracts flies and bugs and other stuff that leaving dry food out does not do. Just one man's opinion.

I agree with Persi. A good dry food is better than a bad wet food.
My cat nearly died last week from turkey and potato 'wet food' that was supposedly better for her than the rabbit kibble she eats and loves.
She's going to stay on the rabbit kibble for the rest of her life since she is healthy, does not smell (her litter box also de-stank as soon as I got her off chicken) and you're right, it's a lot easier to leave dry food out for a free feeder.

First of all, I apologize for the "ladies" blunder. Sorry about that. Obviously, I wasn't thinking when I posted that.

I appreciate all the responses and I will try the Evo wet. If that doesn't work, then I'll have to make a decision. I don't mind the expense if he likes it, but I am throwing out can after can of good food. I have tried most of the other quality wet foods, Calif. Natural, Nutro , Eagle Pac, Natural Balance, Merrick, Innova, Wysong,etc. etc. If they only made a wet food that has the same taste and consistency as Gerber baby lamb meat, I would have it made. I'll also read the thread urbantigers posted.

Thanks again for your input.

I agree that a good dry food is better than a bad wet food, but IMO a good wet food is better than ANY dry food. Of course in the case of allergies or other medical problems, you have to go with what your cat needs, whether it's dry, wet, or homemade.

Originally Posted by Persi

I can think of no reason why I would ever want to change him to wet food. I know this is a constant lively discussion on this forum, but I have never once seen an indication why I would ever consider changing my cat over to wet food. Oh, the one reason most people seem to quote is that their cat does not like dry food.

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Well the reasons I feed wet are outlined in this article

http://www.catinfo.org/

I just don't feel comfortable feeding a food that's high in carbohydrates to a carnivore - just doesn't feel right. I also worry that if my cats developed kidney problems later in life (very common among cats) water would be crucial and I'd have little chance of switching them over to wet food if they'd spent all their lives up to that point eating only dry.

But it is a personal decision and some cats do absolutely fine on dry food all their lives. I agree that a good quality dry is better than a poor quality wet, but it does depend partly on the cat. I never saw Jaffa drink water when he was on predominantly dry (he did when he was younger but he seems to have stopped somewhere along the way) so getting water in him with his food is vital - therefore I'd consider some poor quality wet better than no wet at all simply for getting water into him.

Originally Posted by urbantigers

Well the reasons I feed wet are outlined in this article

http://www.catinfo.org/

I just don't feel comfortable feeding a food that's high in carbohydrates to a carnivore - just doesn't feel right. I also worry that if my cats developed kidney problems later in life (very common among cats) water would be crucial and I'd have little chance of switching them over to wet food if they'd spent all their lives up to that point eating only dry.

But it is a personal decision and some cats do absolutely fine on dry food all their lives. I agree that a good quality dry is better than a poor quality wet, but it does depend partly on the cat. I never saw Jaffa drink water when he was on predominantly dry (he did when he was younger but he seems to have stopped somewhere along the way) so getting water in him with his food is vital - therefore I'd consider some poor quality wet better than no wet at all simply for getting water into him.

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I agree with you.

I bought at least 8 different kinds of wet food before I found one our cats would eat. They will only eat Merrick - naturally it is probably the most expensive at $1.69 per 5.5 ounce can. They would only eat Thanksgiving Day Dinner and Granny's Pot Pie, but I snuck in a couple of others recently (Cowboy Cookout and Turducken Dinner) and they ate them so I'm happy about that.

I keep a close eye on the litter boxes to ensure I get nice big clumps of pee. I got them a pet fountain as well and they really do drink more water with the fountain.

I wouldn't want to eat "cereal" for every meal my whole life and just feel the wet food is best and helps to prevent crystals.