And it starts! Stinky wet food - looking for light smelling ones.

Hi!

It has been one week since I've undertaken the dry food to wet food journey, and my Mario is just as stubborn as ever!!

I've presented her with at least 5 different wet food flavors, and she high tails it out of the room at the sniff of each one (accompanied by a little half sniff / half sneeze and a head shake).  But tonight I presented her with the Soulistic pumpkin & chicken.  To my human nose, the smell is faint compared to the others.  And Mario didn't run away once!  (Yes - she did walk away several times, but she also hesitated like she might actually think about considering eating it. (BIG MIGHT).  But also a big step for her!!!

I'm sure the strong meaty smells of most wet foods are very enticing to most cats, but poor Mario is just overwhelmed!

Does anyone have any suggestions for some light scented canned foods?  Mario has allergies so I need to look at grain free ones.  I do not know the brands well since I've never fed her wet food before so I've been opening them one by one.  But I feel like I'm just kissing another whole $ goodbye when I open a new "stinky" can!

Thanks

LOL, you need to be caring for a colony of feral cats. They love it when I have lots of "leftovers."

Sorry - I don't know what you have access to or what your budget allows. And I haven't fed much other than the canned foods I had in rotation when I was feeding them canned... but I do remember noticing thinking the higher quality ones had less smell than the stuff I'd been feeding before. I was using Instinct: rabbit, turkey, and chicken; Before Grain chicken, chicken & quail, and... ??? and EVO - I don't remember what flavors: the 95% or 96% meat ones. :nod:

That said... I'm sure they'll still smell meaty to her.

What you might want to consider is investing in some Fortiflora. It is a probiotic - but you don't need to use it that way. It's not a very good probiotic - not the best ingredients. In fact, one of the worst: animal digest. BUT - it does (to a cat) smell like KIBBLE. Most kibble is sprayed with something akin to animal digest to enhance "palatability." And Fortiflora helps turn "canned cat food smell" into "kibble smell." :nod:

In our switch to raw, we've found that the #1 thing is smell. And I use various "toppers" to get them to taste the raw food. You can do the exact same thing, just with canned food!

Ideas she may like: dried liver. It's sold as a treat pretty much everywhere. Those little cubes crush up between your fingers into little sprinkly crumbs VERY easily. :nod: Dehydrated chicken. Again - if she likes the treat, worth crushing (it powders very easily) on top of the wet food. If there's a hard treat she likes - some are using temptations. Crush them with a hammer in a baggie, sprinkle them on top. You can even just crush up her kibble with a hammer in a baggie, and sprinkle it on top.

But overall, even though it's kind of expensive, I think Fortiflora may be the best "topper" to "change" the smell of the canned food. :nod:

Good luck and discovering her "key" to canned! Keep us posted!

Honestly - at this point I wish I had more kitties in the house!!

At least when I had two cats Mario would fight for her food!  Now that it's just us girls she is so spoiled that she knows she can get away with just about anything - spoiled brat!

I will try some Forti Flora!  It's usually a 3 - 4 day transition period when I've switched her dry food brands.  She has this deep fear of trying anything new.  Last night I put her kibble on top of the Soulistic chicken and pumpkin and I think what made her not run away was that she could smell the kibble.....or the chx & pumpkin was pleasing to her - not sure which!  I went to Petco last night but they didn't have the dehyderated chicken which seems like a lot of people like here, so I'll order it online.

I opened one of the NV Instinct this morning and I have a feeling she won't touch it - it has a pretty strong smell.  But I've read good things about that brand so I would like her to end up eating one (at least).

The only treats she eats are the Greenies pill pockets.  I used to pill her with the pill pockets for a few weeks until she got used the taste, and now she gobbles them up!  Now I only have to pill her when I open a new bag - she won't eat them unless I let the bag sit open for a day or so they lose the "fresh" smell...then she goes crazy over them!  So I think the only way may be to syringe feed her - I think once she tastes it and gets comfortable with the flavor she'll be fine.  I just really don't want to do that.  I don't want her to think I'm punishing her.

Have you ever had to syringe feed before??  I feel like it would be so traumatic!

Brandy Rowe said:

Does anyone have any suggestions for some light scented canned foods? 

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Weruva, which actually makes Soulistic, is great for not being stinky. Stick with the chicken flavours though, the fishy ones of course smell strongly of fish! Unless Mario likes fish, in which case maybe you can use that to your advantage.

Brandy Rowe said:

Have you ever had to syringe feed before??  I feel like it would be so traumatic!

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I have and it's a nightmare. I personally wouldn't do it unless there was absolutely no other option. But maybe Mario would be more tolerant than the cats I've done it with? I just think it's too easy for the kitty to develop negative associations with the food you're syringing if the experience is unpleasant. Much better to slowly get her accustomed to new foods in a gentle manner, IMO. Have lots of patience! It took me many many months to convert one of my cats over to wet food, but I also had to take it pretty slow cause he had medical issues. It was sooo worth the effort though, as that was 9 years ago and he'll be turning 19 in 3 months.

Have you seen these videos discussing a couple ways to make the switch?

http://healthypets.mercola.com/site...nsition-your-cat-to-raw-food-diet-part-1.aspx

http://healthypets.mercola.com/site...nsition-your-cat-to-raw-food-diet-part-2.aspx

19!!!  That's why I want to switch Mario over!! She's a healthy girl despite her IBD vomiting issues  - 12 lbs right now and she stopped shedding - her coat is nice and shiney.  I'm itching so badly to take her off the prednisolone, but I know I have to be patient with her and I'm positive the syringe-ing will NOT go over well.  These are great videos - thank you!!  I do hope it doesn't take 6mo - a year to move her over!!  But I want her to live long and happy!!

Syringing REALLY depends on the cat. I never used it until I had to, because Lazlo had cancer and wasn't eating on his own. But he LOVED being syringe fed, and would purr while I was doing it. I took it real slow, and he actually enjoyed it once he understood what I was doing. I had to syringe feed another kitty, Flowerbelle, because she needed pumpkin and wouldn't eat it. I mixed it with a little wet food. She did NOT like being syringe fed, but we worked out an agreement LOL. I'd give her 2 ml, and then a couple of pieces of kibble as a treat. She'd tolerate being syringe fed as long as she got the kibble treat after 2-3 little squirts into her mouth.

That said... I think you should continue to work on it without the syringe feeding. :lol3: But you just never know. If you're calm and think of it as a positive thing, she may be receptive after that first squirt or two and she gets what's happening. :dk: Of course... if she doesn't like the food, she will NOT be happy. :lol3:

BTW - have you tried just putting a small touch of it on your finger and swiping it on her mouth? After chemo treatments, Lazlo gets VERY sensitive to smell. He usually rejects food. But once we were on the road to recovery, as soon as I "swiped" a little on his mouth, he'd pull his head back, make a face at me, but lick it off instinctively. And then it "registered," and he'd start eating. He had his last chemo treatment Monday, and the smell problem kicked in yesterday. I had to swipe his food last night and today. Mario may get upset and run - or Mario may decide it IS actually food. But I just remembered that one. For a while there, I had to let him lick it off my finger. Yes, I would feed him almost entire meals, pulling little bits up on my finger for him to lick off. But just another thought... sometimes the method of delivery makes a difference. Carolina fed one of her kitties from a spoon for a while. :dk:

Ok - Just a little update.  It's been one week and 4 days since I started the transition from dry food to wet food.

Mario can only eat about 20 pieces of kibble (about a 1/16 of a cup) at a time or she'll throw it back up (the way she's always been) so the 2 meals a day recommended feeding schedule is a bit tricky for us.  So here is the routine I've started.

I give her about 20 pieces of kibble before I leave for work at 7:30a & at 8:30a.  I don't feed her while I'm at work from 9a - 8p but I've been putting out the Soulistic Chx & pumpkin on a plate next to her kibble bowl so Mario smells it all day while I'm gone.   I don't like the idea of leaving the wet food out for a long time if she's going to eat it eventually, but right now I'm not really worried she'll eat it so I leave it for her to get used to the smell.  On the weekends I'm home so I can give her a fresh half can every few hours.  I heat it up in the microwave for 5 seconds so it's not cold.

When I get home at night I give her 20 pieces of kibble every hour - 9p, 10p & 11p, & 12a and I have the cat feeder ding to wake us up at 2a and 4a.  But the feeder spits out too much (an 1/8 of a cup - only 3 tablespoons, but that's still too much for her) so I have to get up and take a little away before she eats.  Before, I've always let the feeder going during the day, but often I come home to some lovely kitty vomit on the carpet.  I'm really afraid of her vomiting now since it's (A) It's so critical she get all of her calories, and (B) I can't chance any food aversion now!

So good news!!

Last night I tried coaxing her to eat the Soulistic Chicken (it was about 8pm - the time she is hungry and anxious to eat!)  She still wouldn't eat it so I put a few pieces of her kibble on the plate beside the wet food.  She tried eating the kibble, but once it pushed into gravy in the wet food it was tainted and she refused.  So I got her to pull some pieces of kibble off the plate onto the floor with her paw and ate them.

Anyway - it's a huge step for her! To even try eating near the wet food so I'm hoping this is a good start!!!!  Baby steps right??

(I did, by the way, buy 5 different bags of cat treats hoping I can use them to coax her, but she would not have any of them!  I ordered some Forti Flora - it will come in within a few days.  I'm not too hopeful she will eat that mixed with anything, but we'll see.  At this point I will try anything.)

I'll keep trying...thanks for all of your help and support!

Hi there! Why two meals a day and not 3? That's too little..... too much....
I feed raw to mine, and I do 3 meals - one breakfast before work, one meal at 6pm right after work, and on meal at 11pm right before going to bed..... No way my cats would eat enough in just 2 meals. 3 is already pushing!

I wish I could give her two meals!  She's a pukey girl so I have to give her about 8 or 9!

Absolutely!!!! Baby steps! Just eating the kibble on the same plate as the wet food is something to celebrate with some kitties, and Mario is obviously one of them. :rub:

I'm hopeful the Fortiflora will help, now that she's taken the step of eating kibble off the same plate. What you might want to try first, is taking just a little of the wet food - like the size of a pea. Make it a little ball, and just tear off a small corner of the Fortiflora so it doesn't all plop out, and just kind of "fluff" it on the outside, rolling the little pea-sized ball of wet food around so it all gets coated on the outside. Stick it on the plate with the kibble and see if she'll maybe lick at it.

That's how Carolina got her kibble-addicted kitty to eat not kibble. :nod: The first step was the same as yours - eating the kibble near the food. :lol3: Then she made little pea sized balls of the food - and rolled it in a treat her cat LOVED. Lucky progressed from eating the kibble on the same plate to trying to lick off the outside of those pea sized balls. Over time, she licked a little more and more than just the stuff on the outside. :nod: This may be a way to go with Mario. :dk:

Thank you Laurie.   Last night Mario would not touch the Fortiflora.   I put a little on my finger tip to see if she would lick it off.  She sniffed, shook her head and walked away.  "Take that mom servant!"  What a snooty little girl!  I think I will try what Carolina did crushing up some of her kibble with a hammer and wrapping it around some of the shredded chicken.

If that doesn't work I may 'pill' her with a tiny shred of chicken once a day until she gets used to the taste.  When I pilled her with her pill pockets for her pred it was about a week before she got used to the taste and since she has gobbled them up every time.

I've been reading so much lately about kitty GI issues, and I must say I'm very sad that my vet never mentioned anything other than putting Mario on prednisolone.  She mentioned once about switching foods and I said the usual "Mario won't eat anything but her dry food" (at this time I knew nothing about anything).  The vet didn't argue and suggested the pred.  Wow - I guess they get a lot of that; she didn't even try to convince me otherwise!

Have you any experience with digestive enzymes?  I have been looking at this, but a I don't want to purchase anything before I know more about it.  I am not sure how they are administered or if they expire.  Do you mix it with food?  If so I don't think it can be mixed with Kibble?  It will be a while before I can convince Mario to eat wet food so I don't want to buy it now and have it expire before she decides to eat wet.  http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/digestive-enzymes-for-pet.aspx   Also, what are your thoughts on Dr. Becker's site?  I like her videos.

I also thought about probiotics.  I noticed Carolina said the FortiFlora isn't good so I don't want to try and wean Mario on that if she won't be on it for the long haul.

Does anyone have any experience with kitties on pred and giving probiotics?  Is it dangerous?