cat-feeding condrums...

We have three indoor cats (and one outdoor cat, but he's not immediately relevant to this topic)... one of our cats, our 6-year-old matriarch Jasmine, has had urinary-tract problems twice now; the second was kidney stones, requiring $1700 in surgery. 

The vet prescribed Science Diet C/D (of course), and we've been giving them that several months now.  However, in addition to the cost, and the inconvenience of obtaining it, I've been reading about feeding issues, here and on catinfo.org.  It sounds like C/D isn't the greatest thing to give our cats, nutritionally, but I have some problems with the other suggestions.

So, I wanted to describe our situation here, and see what advice folks might have in our situation.  I've gotten wonderful advice on other problems in the past here, so have come to trust your inputs.

The arguments for switching entirely to wet food are pretty compelling.  However, all our cats share the same spaces in this house, and ironically, Jasmine is the least interested in soft food!!  I know this because in the past we were giving medications to the outdoor cat via wet food, and we gave the others a little at the same time... but Jasmine would typically take a few licks of it and then walk away, leaving it to the others.  The only way I can think of to get soft food into her regularly, would be to lock her in the garage all day, but she doesn't like the garage that much, and I'm sure my wife wouldn't go for that much more than Jasmine would...

So for now, I'm thinking of switching them to a Urinary-track dry food such as Purina One Cat Adult Urinary Tract Formula Cat Food (or Purina UR; I don't know the difference between them).  That is more readily accessible, and in reading various messages on this forum, a number of you seem to lean toward those specific brands (that is, those of you who didn't vote for sticking with C/D !!).

Anyway, what do you think about my thoughts on this?  Is there some simple solution to the soft-food problem that I'm not aware of?  If not, is the Purina an adequate solution for all of our babes???

Derell Licht

Fremont, CA

owned by: Rocket (age 15), Yoda (age 7), Jasmine (age 6), Alana (age 3-ish)

Is there any problem with switching ALL the indoor cats to wet food? There are ways to convert a stubborn kibble addict.

Mix dry and wet and use that as a transition. Maybe that'll help. I had to do that with my cat but backwards.

Oh, converting them all to soft food is *no* problem!!!  The only problem occurs if I want Jasmine to get any food!! 

She's the only one who will hem-and-haw over the issue... The others will scarf hers up the moment she steps away!  8-{O

First off, when feeding all canned food, you don't want to leave it out all day, so there would be no need to lock Jasmine in the garage.  What you need to do if you want to go that route (getting her on canned food only) is to get ALL of them  to start eating on a schedule.  This includes Jasmine!  Once she realizes that dinner is served at a certain time and that's it, she will eat then.  It may take several frustrating weeks for her to realize this, but it can be done

Maybe this article will help:  http://catinfo.org/#Transitioning_Dry_Food_Addicts_to_Canned_Food_

I went thru the very same thing.  All of my cats had only been free fed kibble their entire lives until just a little over a year ago.  Callie is 12 years old!  But she finally got with the program.  It just takes a lot of patience on our part , and, of course, you have to find a canned food or 20 that THEY like.  It helps if you can find some that they REALLY like.  But in that article they give tips on how to make it all happen.  Even with picky cats