Dry food and my new kitten

Hi everyone,
I'm new to this list and look forward to sharing precious moments with cat lovers.
I have a 6 1/2 month old pure white Oriential Shorthair, female. Her name is Ms. Tiggy. She was a week short of five months when I bought her from the breeder at the Cat Show in January. The breeder weaned her on 'canned' food and there-in lies the problem!! Ms.Tiggy will not eat dry cat food. She's very small, only two lbs., so with- holding food is not an option... she can't afford to lose an ounce of body weight.
Not eating Dry food is a problem... if we want to go away for a week-end, little Ms. Tiggy will starve and lose the small amount of body weight that she has.
I've tried three different kinds of dry kitten food and she won't even try it. I've mixed the dry with the canned and she won't eat the dry, just eats "around it" and eats all of the canned... the dry pebbles are left in the dish.
Can anyone offer suggestions??
Kindest Regards,

Welcome to the site and congratulations on the new kitten!

I will move your question to the Health and Nutrition Forum where our experts can help you out and give you more things to try for the little girl. She sounds beautiful!

How about watering down the dry food, so there is a broth? Then mixing with the canned food? Slowly, keep decreasing the canned food and water till your left with the dry. Have you tried different dry foods?

Also, some cats refuse to eat dry food. Others refuse to eat wet food. You really have to experiment slowly with different foods and see which one your cat will tolerate.Since the cat was fed only wet in her early years, she may only stay with wet. Try my suggestion above, it won't hurt.

Some cat's can be such finicky eaters. I have the opposite problem with my cat Nakita. She only eats dry, and is really finicky with canned food!

Good Luck!

Good suggestions from RUSSIAN BLUE (aka not Blue Russian).

You can also try to heat up the dry food (once it's moistened) a little bit and see if your cat will eat it then.

What dry foods have you tried?
I think for just about every cat there will be some brands out there that they will and will not eat.
How long have you given her to try and eat the dry food?
Perhaps you could give her just a little wet a day, but if she's hungry the rest of the time you can offer her dry food (in various ways.) Sometimes it takes about 3 days of little amounts of food offered to get my gang to eat a new brand. Once they get hungry enough they do eat it, and then they keep on eating it.

In the mean time, how is your cat with treats? Try and find a treat that is crunchy and comes in a BIG size, so that she will have to chew it to eat it and can't just swallow it whole. That would be better then nothing.
If you worried about her teeth, have you considered just brushing them every day?

Thanks for the suggestions on feeding dry food to my new kitten. I'm looking forward to try-out your ideas.
The brands that I've tried with Ms. Tiggy are Nutro-Max, Royal Canin Babycat 34 & Kitten 34, and Iams(all kitten food). Time wise, I've given her 1 day, then gave-in to canned because she was so hungry and skinny... I had to put some weight on her and she's still only two lbs. at almost seven months old.
Something has-to work soon... we're going away for the week-end in two weeks.
Thanks again everyone!
Kindest Regards,

I know you said your cat is small, but has a vet told you that she is TOO small? Is it possible that she is the proper size for her breed and that's just the type of cat she is?
What about having a friend or pet sitter come over while your away to take care of the cat, they can feed her however you so wish.

Originally posted by Seeker
......I had to put some weight on her and she's still only two lbs. at almost seven months old.

Click to expand...

Wow, I don't think I've ever know a cat to be that small at 7 months. My cat Nakita is a small breed and she is between 4-5 pounds at 9 months old. Personally, I would contact the breeder and find out what the average weight should be (since her parents may also be small).

Have you checked her teeth? She could be teething and that is why she is staying away from the hard food. The vet can tell you whether or not her adult teeth are in yet. Many times certain breeds mature at a slower rate (like my cat) and do not gain their adult teeth until later on.

Just another thing that you might want to check.

=O!
Asim was 6.5, and Isha was 6 lbs at 4 months.
Tage is the smallest cat I've ever had, but he's not really all that small anymore!

try adding sardine oil to the dry, or cod liver oil, try yogurt (plain) shredded cheese, chopped hardcooked egg, cottage cheese, even try minced, good green beans, and sprinkle just a tiny amount of garlic on the dry food to tempt her. Good luck!

Other than that, I would hire a cat sitter while you are gone to feed her wet if you are that concerned about her weight.

There is also a product called "dinner party" made by Halopets that is supposed to entice picky pets to eat..not sure if it works though because Ive been lucky enough not to have to try it.

If none of the above tips work, and you can't get a catsitter, there are also automatic feeders that work on a timer and supposedly keep the food fresh for two or three days. I've never tried them, but I imagine you'd have to get one right away to make sure it works okay and that Ms. Tiggy will eat out of it. A lot of kittens seem to like the Hill's Growth formula, which comes in different flavors. An adult male Oriental only weighs about eight lbs. Ms. Tiggy still has a bit of growing to do, but it sounds as if she'll be quite small.