Food problem. Advice?

Okay, so, I have two cats- a one and a half year old (Simon) and a 2 year old (Lyra). I need to find a food they'll both eat!

Simon:
- shorthair, no hairball problems
- eats and eats if you leave food out, will eat until he's sick and then keep eating. CANNOT be free fed.
- loves wet food and dry food equally but eats dry slower so he never pukes- occasionally eats wet too fast and pukes

Lyra:
- longhair, has NASTY hairballs
- very picky, doesn't like wet food
- picks at her food, doesn't eat it all at once, seems to have been previously free-fed but if we leave food out for her Simon will eat ALL of it

Neither of them have any current health problems but Lyra did once have a UTI a year ago. My ideal food would probably be a dry food, as Lyra won't eat wet, that is good for control of hairballs (though I'm going to try a new brush and see if that helps... and I might get some hairball gel). ANY advice would be appreciated! I was feeding Simon Iams wet and he loves it and is very healthy but Lyra will NOT eat it, she just picks at it, so Simon gets all her food and he's already looking a little pudgy so we don't want him to do that anymore.
Please help!

what foods have you tried ??

Originally Posted by sharky

what foods have you tried ??

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Well, we haven't tried much yet, because we only got Lyra last Sunday. We had her eating some samples that we had of Purina Naturals (dry) and she loved that. Simon likes it ok too, but I don't think it's the best brand. We were thinking of trying Natural Balance dry because I've heard good things and the ingredients look pretty good. Other than that, for wet she's tried Iams wet, Fancy Feast (the really fancy kind with silly names- we had a sample), and Nutro Natural Choice. She just picks at all the wet foods. She'll lick at them a bit, and then clean her face vigorously, and sniff at the food, and repeat. She doesn't seem to like the messiness/texture of it.

If you only got her last week it will take some time for her to calm down and get into an eating habit. Feed them scheduled meals in different rooms and eventually they will eat what they are given in one go.

I agree slow down on the switching... give her the naturals for a few weeks till she is settled .... Naturals is a decent food ... it is chicken based with some salmon so you may want a dry that is chicken based with some fish ...

With a history of Uti ... watch the magnesium , calcium and phosphorus levals...that later two often you have to call the company to find out in a adult / all stage food ..

where do you shop????

as for wet keep trying .... when you can pick up a new flavor or a new brand ( wet you do not have to switch over )