Questions about a mixed wet & dry diet

ozziegt

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So part of my attempt to stop hairballs is to start feeding the kitties wet food. I feed them natural balance dry so I am going to add natural balance wet, indoor cat formula.

What I am wondering is, what is the best way to do this? I am guessing that in the morning I should put enough food in their bowls to last them until late afternoon. Then by the time 9-10pm comes around, I can give them the wet food and they should finish it pretty quickly. Does this sound like a plan?

The second question is: how much to feed them? The can says 1 can / 8 lbs / day. So I am thinking I can give our little one (6 lbs) about 1/4-1/3 of a can and the larger one (12 lbs) about 1/2 a can. The rest of their diet will be the dry food that I feed in the morning.

Today I tried this. I took away their dry food around 7pm (later than I would ahve liked). Just now, I put down the wet food but neither one of them finished it. Should I just leave it out? Will it go bad?
 
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ghostuser

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They had the dry available for awhile, so they may just not be hungry enough to finish it. I've had no problems with leaving wet food out for awhile, though. I leave it out for about an hour. Sometimes I don't bother picking it up at all. Neither of the cats that live with me will touch it after that long anyway.
 

littleraven7726

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I feed my cats 2oz wet each in the morning, 2oz wet in the afternoon, and I'm cutting them back to 1oz before bed. I was doing 6 oz per day for each cat but I think it was too much cause they aren't eating it all.

I give them 1/2 c. dry (total for the day) split into 2 bowls and 2 feedings. My big guy eats more dry food than the other 2, and eats a bit more than them. If I cut him back too much he gets cranky.
 

mschauer

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I'm trying to get my guys to eat more wet also. I give them dry in the morning and wet in the evening. They obvously prefer the dry so to "encourage" them to eat more of the wet I only leave the dry down for 1 hr. Then when the evening meal time rolls around they should be hungry enough to eat as much of the wet as they need. I also only leave the wet down for 1 hr. It will go bad.

With this schedule I figure however much they eat at each "meal" is the amount they need. I found when I left the dry down all day they would keep nibbling on and would overeat.

Hope this helps...
 

beandip

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mschauer and I had the same idea. LOL ..she beat me to it, though.


I would cut the dry back until they start eating the wet reliably. Cats are crafty...and dry food tastes like meat flavored CANDY to them.
So as long as there's enough candy to fill up on, they will be hesitant about the wet food. That's been my experience with my gang, anyway.

If it's possible to just put the dry down for a certain amount of time in the morning, then I would do that. Say, an hour maybe. Then when it comes time for a wet dinner, they should be hungry. Mine eat twice a day like that (no snacks). They may act weird the first few days but they should adapt fairly easily.

My smallest cat is 7lbs, biggest is 12lbs. They all eat the equivalent of about 1 can a day each (of NB or comparable food)..no dry. So I think 1/2 can for each of your cats (plus their dry) sounds good. The dry portion they are getting might be too big.
 

mschauer

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beandip - Your post, as usual, was so much more articulate than mine though.
 
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