How do I get them to eat more wet food? and a few other ??'s

Ok, so my four are currently free fed. I know this isn't the best but they are all young... Nemo will be one later this month and Bentley will be two next month ... and none of them are overweight. That being said, they need to eat more wet food and currently they turn their noses up at most of it. I have started to put their wet food up during the day and offer them wet food then, but even with doing this, they still aren't interested in the wet food. The boys will eat some, but Trinity, even though I make her a personal plate, usually doesn't touch it. I did just find one food that they will eat better then any others, it's Sheeba's tuna fillet dinner with sauce, is this a good wet food?

They are currently eating authority food and I know that this isn't the best food available but they all like it and they are all in great shape. That being said, I would like to switch their food, but I am not sure what I should try... I have all the petstores by me, what would you guys suggest?

So I guess my questions basically are.
What is a good schedule for feeding four cats?
How much would I feed them if I was measuring it out and how do you make sure that each cat eats it's own food? Or do you just not worry about that?
What are some good wet foods you've found entice picky cats?
If I change their dry food, what to?

Sorry this one ended up kind of long... thanks in advance for your advice!

Some cats don't like wet food. Seems like you have some that just don't - so don't push it. If they are eating well on the dry and are healthy, I'd let it go.

Personally, I don't free feed - the cats have scheduled times - morning breakfast is dry (measured) and evening is canned. I only have two right now. My two eat at about the same rate, and they know their bowls. Once in awhile one of them might push the other out, but that's not a regular thing. Easiest way is to do scheduled meals and put one or two cats in a room and the other in another room and watch till all are done eating.

When we get the kitten we will have to arrange a little different as the kitten will be on kitten food for a few months and we'll probably lock him up with the food at night or for awhile during the day so he can eat as much as he wants without the other two eating kitten food.

Once they are all on the same food, then we can arrange the feeding bowls together.

So I guess my questions basically are.
What is a good schedule for feeding four cats?
Morning and night if you work all day
How much would I feed them if I was measuring it out and how do you make sure that each cat eats it's own food? Or do you just not worry about that?
Ages?? You said all are in good shape thus all must be getting the food they need if so no worry
What are some good wet foods you've found entice picky cats?
meow mix
If I change their dry food, what to?
What do you want out of the food??

Originally Posted by sharky

So I guess my questions basically are.
What is a good schedule for feeding four cats?
Morning and night if you work all day
How much would I feed them if I was measuring it out and how do you make sure that each cat eats it's own food? Or do you just not worry about that?
Ages?? You said all are in good shape thus all must be getting the food they need if so no worry
What are some good wet foods you've found entice picky cats?
meow mix
If I change their dry food, what to?
What do you want out of the food??

Click to expand...

Bentley is the oldest, he will be two next month, Trinity will be two in June, Mercury will be two in September and Nemo will be one this month. They all weigh between nine (Nemo) and twelve (Bentley and Mercury) pounds.

I am basically just looking for a better food to feed them because I have been told that Authority is not really that good. They were on Royal Canin before the Authority and they really liked it but I switched to the Authority because the ingredient list is almost the exact same.

authority is a good food and if it aint broke

Originally Posted by CalicoPrincess

I did just find one food that they will eat better then any others, it's Sheeba's tuna fillet dinner with sauce, is this a good wet food?

Click to expand...

Well, it's better than no wet food at all...But it is not nutritionally complete. It's only supposed to be used for supplemental feedings, or as a treat. If I remember correctly, this is stated on the packaging.

They eat Authority, which is loaf/pate style and which BTW is a pretty good food, especially for the money. Have you tried different styles of canned food, with different textures? For example, a lot of the Merrick flavors and Spots Stew are very soupy. Tiki Cat and a lot of the Weruva flavors are very dense, with pieces of real unprocessed seafood. Nutro Max Cat Gourmet Classics (3 ounce cans only) and Nutro and Wellness pouches are square/rectangular chunks with lots of gravy. And Solid Gold tuna and some Fromm Four Star flavors contain shredded pieces in gravy. Maybe one or more of those would go over better with your crew. One of my cats loves canned food; eats very little dry...but he really does not like the loaf/pate style at all. The other one will only eat some of the Fancy Feast grilled varieties. So, they can certainly be picky when it comes to all aspects of the food.

If you PM me with your e-mail address, I can send a lengthy article that talks about how to get finicky cats to switch from dry to wet. It's too long to post here.