Wet to dry food ratio - should I worry about this?

Hi folks...firstly, I'm not sure what happened to my old user name; it used to be Lucky Luke but then was "locked" (for lack of a better term) and then Captain Feline was created...

Anyway, my cat Tiggy's food habits are changing and I'm not sure why (I often joke around calling him a fickle eater).  The Vet agreed with me that monitoring his food intake would avoid problems such as feline obesity and diabetes, so I've been tweaking his food portions.

It was 3/4 cup of Nutro Natural Choice Healthy weight dry and one 3 oz can of wet (I'd rotate Performatrin Ultra, Royal Canin Ultra light and Weruva) per day.  

He used to polish off the Royal Canin Ultra Lite with gusto, eat most of the RC Ultra and only a few bites of the Weruva regardless of the kind (chicken or fish).  As a kitten it was almost 50-50 wet to dry ratio but now he's gotten me at the point of wondering if I should bother getting him wet food at all: even his favorite Royal Canin Ultra Light only gets a few bites and is left to dry!

I want him to get proper nutrition and hydration (he does have a water fountain too that he inherited from my prior cat Sasha) so I don't want to neglect the wet...but he hardly eats it!

If you're at the point that you're concerned with calorie intake (not a quick growing kitten) then IMO you should be schedule feeding.

If you stick to an exact schedule, where the meals are spaced out far enough (two or three a day), then kitties should be hungry enough to chow down on what is presented.    And as long as your house isn't super hot and humid, its OK for the wet to sit out for an hour possibly two tops if you have a nibbler.   

Cats will always eat what tastes best, and so the other option if you want to alter the ratio is to find wet food that is highly palatable and dry food that is less so.    Is there a particular reason you are going for "diet" foods though?  IMO they should be avoided when possible, as while it is true they are lower calorie  they are also often full of cheap fillers and tend to be pretty high carb.   Thus its better I think to get lower calories by simply feeding less, but less of a good quality high protein and fat diet.    We do a plethora of reasonably low carb wet foods, and for dry Blue Wilderness Duck (not the lowest carb, but a nice quality grain free food with attractive protein sources).   

Hi Captain Feline,

The best way to avoid Tiggy getting diabetes is to ditch the dry, especially any dry with the words "lite" or "diet" in them. Excess carb intake is what causes most cases of feline diabetes, so like Ducman said, it would be better to feed a higher protein/fat, lower carb food. Here are some great links for you to read with more detail on why that is:

http://www.catinfo.org/

http://catinfo.org/?link=felinediabetes

http://www.catinfo.org/?link=felineobesity