Again food issues - not eating canned food

I have posted here before and thought that I had Calvin and Hobbes' feeding under control. But does not seem to any more.

I am at my wit's end as they are turning their nose up on all wet food. I have tried all premium/ ultra premium brands available at 4 stores in my vicinity.

Background:When they were young they used to have different variety of wellness brand canned food and then suddenly 1 day they refused that. I diversified to other brands and that was ok for a bit. Right before I left for a 6 week trip, they only wanted Nutro canned food - chunks with gravy and I did not want to change things before I left and so that's what they were getting but they do not want that too. Also they both had their 1st birthday last month and from around June their food intake has decreased a lot, which was expected but what has happened as a result is that it is their wet food intake that has decreased and dry increased.

The boys love California Natural Chicken and Brown Rice and with Calvin's inability to digest complex dry food, this works for him. But the moment his dry vs. wet ratio changes, he gets mushy poop - which is the problem we are having now. They have not lost any weight and seem to be doing well and they drink quite a bit of water but it is not easy dealing with mushy poop daily, especially on a fuzzy kitty and more so since I will be moving to a different city for part of the week in the future. But with them not eating canned food and begging for food, I see myself giving them more dry (they currently eat about 1/2 -2/3 cup each of dry per day and maybe 1 oz of wet)

Goal: To have them eat more wet food and not as much dry

Option 1: I withhold dry food and give them only wet. I tried this a bit but did not sustain it but they went on hunger strike. With all the health issues that Hobbes has(asthma, suspected heart murmur, herpes and related URIs), I am really scared to enforce this strictly.

Option 2: try brands like Fancy Feast (they have fish and shrimp which is wheat gluten, by products free but they have refused that, too) and Friskies - maybe the ones with "not so good ingredients" which kitties like a lot and see if they will eat it.

Option 3: Continue the way things are going now with me opening 2 3 oz cans a day and having them consume 1-2 oz total and just hope they change their minds soon

I am looking for any suggestions that anyone may have.

Thanks, aprilyim. Calvin, from the time he came to us had this problem with dry food. He has a sensitive tummy and we had to move him from Kitten kibbles to adult ones when he was 6 months old because of the richness of the food. But even with that, Calvin had mushy poop. I had posted here and had got a lot of advice and then Sharky suggested California Natural since it is 1 protein and 1 grain and that clicked. However, we realized that 1/4 cup is the max that Calvin can have of that. The vet hearing this suggested a mostly wet diet and a little bit of kibbles for snacking and that's what we did from Feb to June (1/8 cup dry and rest wet) and then this issue of rejecting wet started. Our vet is fine with the kitties getting any wet food but I think that's part of their "not trying to promote any brand" policy but they strongly recommend some canned food in their diet. We have tried "commercial raw" since i do not think I am well equipped to prepare raw for them, but Calvin would not touch it. To be honest, I am not sure if my vet will be able to help me too much in this regard (getting to him with such issues is not easy - I will be advised by the front desk on friskies I do love them but I do not agree with their food suggestions usually).

We do take Calvin to the vet's for a trim - they do it for free and Calvin and comfy there. I have baby wipes at home all the time and do a butt check when they come out of their box and clean if required but I can do this since I am home now. In a month I will be gone for 4 days a week and I would rather not have any accidents then, especially with the in laws visiting for a month.

So we figured after trying various kinds of dry food and doing some priliminary investigation into allergies, Calvin does not do well in a mostly dry food diet. Hobbes has no issues eating more dry and he drinks a lot of water but I want to keep them on the same food regimen. And now they do not want much canned (have tried all varieties of Wellness, all of Nutro, many of avoderm, all types of Blue, many of Authority, many of Tiki, a few of Weruva, Nature's Variety, all Merricks, Soulistic etc. etc. - phew). Hence the dilemma.
Fortunately, I think I am patient and want to try to find the right balance for Calvin - his mushy poop is not only an issue for us, but he hates it too, just that he cannot relate that to eating dry food.

Thanks, Ducman69. We do have a fountain and multiple bowls of water which they drink from. At this point I am not as concerned with the dry for UTI reasons - but rather Calvin's inability to digest it properly. He does insist on dry but does not do well on it, and that's the issue. It has become a struggle of his palate (does not want wet) vs. his ability of digest, unfortunately.

Thanks so much for sharing. I had briefly discussed a specialized food for sensitive tummy for Calvin but since it could be very nicely controlled with increasing the wet food ratio to dry, we did not want to pursue that route. Plus I am not too fond of giving the kitties wheat gluten and corn (which many of the "special diet" food have) if I can avoid it, since they are common allergens and we were not sure if some of them could also contribute to Calvin's issues. Basically when I 1st tried to tackle his tummy issues, those were what we eliminated and although some of their wet have wheat gluten, we limit it to 1 feeding. However, things are a little different now and we will have to reevaluate if they continue to avoid wet food.

I am so glad that you have found a system that works well for your kitties. I wish I could put out food for a week at a time - Calvin will gorge on it the 1st day and will have severe diarrhea the next. My little piggy. But I can see how that would induce them to eat more wet after the 1st day.

Also, just for my future reference, is it ok to leave out food in a bowl for a week? I see that when they eat they leave back quite a bit of saliva on the food/ bowl and this may cause bacteria to grow. I was afraid of this and stopped using a feeder (not a timed one - which are very convenient) and instead when gone for a while, I leave out multiple slim-cat balls.

Isn't it crazy how the kitties want to drink out of faucets? Calvin had a major phase after he came when he wanted to faucet on all the time. He's again been doing it. He actually gets fully drenched trying to "catch" the water after he's done drinking.

Also, I do give them lysine. That was 1 of the 1st things I learnt in this forum and has worked very well for us. However, if I withdraw their dry and then just give them wet and if they stubbornly reject the wet food, then they do not get their lysine. That's the reason I do not want to change their eating habits too agressively.

I just came from a significant baby wipe clean up session with Calvin. Poor thing - hates it so much and hates me for it

Thanks, Aprilyim. I hope I find a solution, too.
It is funny how some cats love water and others don't. Hobbes drinks a lot of water but he does not venture into drinking from the faucet. He does not drink from the flowing water of the fountain but rather the accumulated water. He sits near the sink but won't drink from the faucet but will want me to collect some water by cupping my palm and he loves to drink from there. I figured this out since he wanted to lick my wet palm. Go figure! Calvin on the other hand screams for me to turn on the faucet and then loves to get drenched. Crazy boys

Thanks, Minka. This plan is like music to my ears. I can afford to feed them all wet. they eat way less now than they did in their first year and I know how that works with my budget. I was feeding each of them 6-8 oz of canned and 1/8 cup dry when they were growing up. My logic for continuing to feed them dry was that in case there was ever an emergency (and this happened once when I had to leave them suddenly and I could not get in touch with the petsitter immediately) and they have to eat some dry food. Then when I was travelling for 6 weeks, DH gave them more dry since he was gone for long periods of time some days (about 1/4-1/3 cup each) and he was also leaving canned in a timed feeder. This was the time when they decreased their food intake (were 11 months) and the victim became the canned food. So they ate the whole dry and hardly any canned. Currently I am giving them a 3 oz can divided amongst the 2 in the morning and and 1 can in the evening with dry in the afternoon. They hardly eat any of the wet, which I am throwing away. But your plan sounds way more reasonable. My fear would really be, as I mentioned above, that they go on a hunger strike. Guess if they can be stubborn so can I

Am so sorry about the late reply. I was checking posts on my cell phone but was not getting a chance to get on the computer to respond.

Thanks so much for all the suggestions. What would I do without all of you???!!!

Let me respond to the suggestions here as best as I can (I simply cannot figure out how to quote multiple people in a response)

@ Laurie
I have tried different toppings - they love freeze dried shrimp as treat and I have given them that but it's crazy how stubborn they are as they will totally refuse to have it when in their canned food. Also I have mixed boiled chicken since they love it so much and the same result. Maybe a different treat like liver, but to be honest, I am less confident about that approach.
But the texture thing is definitely worth trying. Do you remember the Wellness recall that we had earlier this year? That was when both boys were on Wellness canned (different flavors) and Merrick and loved the pate style. Then suddenly around the time of the recall they rejected all pate and went for exclusively chunks and flakes. Sometimes all Hobbes wasnts is gravy and so it just maybe a good idea to try something soupy with him. I will definitely have to give that a try.

@valanhb
That's a great suggestions. Oh how I wish I could get kitties that would eat all the canned food that I get, but as you rightly realize, it does not work that way for many of us. And just imagine if I bring a couple more kitties and the ones that I have end up corrupting them? Unfortunately sprinkling "treat" on the canned food is just not working

@MiLu
I am giving them the dry and wet separately. I have not tried mixing the 2 though. However, I am decreasing the amount of dry they get slowly with the hopes of them being more hungry in time for their canned food.

@Auntie Crazy
With time I am also thinking of removing the dry food and just letting them be on the canned. I have nearly halved their dry food and I do see them eating more of the canned. But I do hear you about the variety and I have given them tons of choice actually and they may lap up something 1 day and just not touch it the next. It's been a struggle.

@Turks rule!
Thanks for sharing. Like you I am feeding them multiple times - it was 2 canned and 2 dry feeds and now its 2 canned, 1 combo and 1 dry. Maybe I should, as others suggested, just try doing away with dry and see what happens.

But, touchwood, the last couple of days has been slightly better. I have decreased the amount of dry they get. They generally get wet food in the morning (6:30 ish), a little dry at noon, wet again at 6:30 ish in the evening and then a little bit of dry at about 11:30. Nowadays, I am giving them a bit of canned at noon and then a tiny bit of dry and I want to slowly make that all wet. On the other hand I am thinking if I really need to keep feeding them 4 times a day but since they do not eat much at a time, I am reluctant to change the feeding times.
As far as variety goes, they get tons and tons of variety. DH sometimes tells me that that may be the problem: they just get too much variety. But who knows. But they really may eat something 1 days and then next day (or in a day or 2) totally refuse it. I have recently added Grandma Lucy's that you have to prepare with warm water and they generally like the chunks of meat in it. They do not get that the chunks of fish and meat are in the soupy thing and i have to literally spoon feed them a little chunk and a little of the "rest of the stuff" for them to eat. Don't know how long they will like it. I also got the new petsmart Simply Nourish and on days they just love the Salmon and Chicken and on other days they will not touch it. Go figure!

But thanks everyone for the suggestions - I am really leaning towards phasing out dry and experimenting with different texture. And I am still open to any suggestions or anything you think I am doing wrong.