Response to wet food

Ever since I got Kizzy, I've been trying to get him to eat wet food.

I noticed something today. I have Kizzy in a room by himself, which I go into to play on the comp, etc. to keep him company and get him to trust me.

He ate more dry food yesterday, so I decided to try the wet food again.

I put him by the bowl of wet food and he sniffed at, tasted it a little bit, then started scratching the floor. I took some wet food and wiped it on his chin, he licked it off, went back to the bowl sniffed and started scratching the floor again.

He paws at the floor, like they do in the litter box....trying to cover up their waste. He seemed to be trying to bury the food.

Ya'll think this was his way of telling me he didn't like his food? LOL


I had an idea, I don't know if it will work....I was going to buy a bunch o different canned foods, and lay them out like a buffet, and see if he eats any of them. Like a taste testing.

do u think that would work? or would the smells all mix in together and he wouldn't choose any because the smell of one he doesn't like overpowers the others?

Jack often tries to bury his dinner when he doesn't feel like it eating it--normal cat behavior.

As for the buffet--it may work. Is Kizzy on scheduled feedings? Ive heard sprinkling parmesan cheese on wet food will attract a cat and then you can slowly take away the cheese.

Leslie

I wouldn't give them to him all at once, but if you are willing to buy a variety of brands/types of wet food, you can try them individually to see what he prefers.

My former cat lived on Fancy Feast to 20+, but I decided to try to switch my current boy to a better quality canned food. I tried 5 or 6 brands, and some of them he wouldn't touch--e.g., Wellness and Merrick. Others he liked a lot. Interestingly, he was hospitalized recently, and they told me that he was fed Pro Plan and ate it well, so I bought some for him. Here he ignores it! I think he might be a little spoiled and waiting for the food he prefers.

I doubt that your guy hates wet food so much as the particular type you're feeding him at the moment. Cats can be incredibly finickey about food, as I'm sure you know.

My cats will try to "bury" their wet food when they're done eating. They all leave a bit of food for later, and I think they're trying to hide it.

My kitties get the same canned food every day (due to a kitty with allergies) and a different food was not an option. When I was transitioning from dry, I just kept offering wet, and even the kitty who'd never eaten wet food in her life started snacking on the wet food after a few days. I think a little bit of competition and "peer pressure" helped a bit, too. During the transition, I still offered dry and offered wet twice a day. After a couple weeks, I removed the dry and every kitty started eating wet only with no problems. It was really a non-event!

Originally Posted by Jack31

Jack often tries to bury his dinner when he doesn't feel like it eating it--normal cat behavior.

As for the buffet--it may work. Is Kizzy on scheduled feedings? Ive heard sprinkling parmesan cheese on wet food will attract a cat and then you can slowly take away the cheese.

Leslie

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No he is not on scheduled feedings yet. He's a kitten.
Thanks for the parmasean suggestion, it is definately something worth trying.

I wouldn't give them to him all at once, but if you are willing to buy a variety of brands/types of wet food, you can try them individually to see what he prefers

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yes, I'm willing to try a few different brands to find one he will eat.

I'm doing the same thing right now, I bought a whole bunch of brans and am spending my time seeing how they react to them. I only feed one a night. i tried the buffet thing once but it failed. The thing with cats is that they rely very heavily on their food smell to decide whether or not to eat it. if they don;t like the smell of one food in the buffet they may not eat any food near it.

My luck has not been great so far, I have found ONE food Willie likes which I'm proud of but Neko is rejecting everything.

Originally Posted by Maxy24

I'm doing the same thing right now, I bought a whole bunch of brans and am spending my time seeing how they react to them. I only feed one a night. i tried the buffet thing once but it failed. The thing with cats is that they rely very heavily on their food smell to decide whether or not to eat it. if they don;t like the smell of one food in the buffet they may not eat any food near it.

My luck has not been great so far, I have found ONE food Willie likes which I'm proud of but Neko is rejecting everything.

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thanks for letting me know. I didn't think the buffet idea would work but thought I'd ask anyways.

I picked up another couple of brands to try today. Keeping my fingers crossed as I would really like to get him onto some wet food.

The good thing is, he does drink alot That much I've seen...and he is eating more dry food now, so that's good. Now we'll just battle the wet.

Instead of throwing out what he doesn't eat, I've been giving it to my dog.... it's just a little bit, serves as her treat. Since I don't have any other cats.

what brands are you trying?

Leslie

i read somewhere that scratching near their food is a normal kind of instinct for them, trying to bury the food to protect it for later.

my kitten used to do it too, especially if i put out food when she wasn't heaps hungry and she'd go back later and eat it.

Originally Posted by Jack31

what brands are you trying?

Leslie

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The previous owner had him on Friskies, so I bought 4 different flavours of that... tried 2 no go.
The vet gave me a sample of their food, no go.
Tonight I'm trying IAMS kitten.

What I did differently tonight is take away his dry food. He'll get it back later... but for now I don't want to give him a choice LOL.

I exercised him pretty good today, so he should have a good appetite. We shall see in a few hours I suppose.

If I'm going to be away from the house for the majority of the day and won't be home to give them their scheduled feedings I feed them each half of a 3oz can of wet food in the morning when I wake up. When they are finished with that I then put their dry food down for them to free feed until around 5:30, at which time I put it back in the cupboard. At around 9:30 or 10 I give them another 1/2 can each. I did it today and it worked well. They are 13 weeks and 7 months.

I just bought a variety of quality food and kept trying until I found only two they would eat - Merricks Granny's Pot Pie and Thanksgiving Day Dinner. They will also eat Purina Pro Plan Chicken and Liver but since it's not a "great" food, I only give them a can maybe once every 2 weeks for a change.

I wouldn't use parmesan cheese only because it's a dairy product and if your kitty is lactose intolerant (which many cats are) it could give your baby diarrhea. But then again some cats can tolerate lactose. I had one cat that loved ice cream and would go so far as to try to pull the dish down from my hands to get some.