No one will eat the same thing.. Erg.

Hi, I'm new as of right now lol. We just brought an amazingly tame feral into our home to join our other 2 rescue cats (and the rest of our menagerie, but that another post lol). We've known Katniss since August of 2012 when she started coming to our porch. Her ear was docked, so we knew she was spayed (we live across from a college that has a colony and rescue group) and was definitely not full grown. After watching her shiver all last winter, I made it my mission to get her inside. Long story short, had her vetted in August and in right before thanksgiving Yay! She's a sweetie, much nicer than our other 2 put together. She chooses the basement for now, but wanders around some, avoiding the dog.

My question. She a crazy fussy eater! She eats both wet and dry Friskees, although she might inadvertently get some of the other cats Wellness by mistake. I've been mixing the two to wean her off, but that means my other girls are getting junk food. It wouldn't bother me, but the Wellness helps my barfer with her hairballs and my allergy girl can't do grains.
So... Should I make poor traumatized Katniss go cold turkey or suffer through the Barf and diarrhea a little longer? She's been in about a month now.

I'm so sorry that got so long! Just wanted to give a little background.
Happy holidays!
Tiffany

My rescue cat doesn't eat the same thing as the rest of my cats.  And actually, those all don't like the same things. Is there any reason to not feed your newbie the Friskies? It could be that she will never like Wellness. Not all of my cats will eat it. And the ones they will eat are pretty limited. You could buy various cans of other foods like Wellness and try them out, but it's okay if they like different things--although a pain in refrigerating some food and then hoping they will eat it after you warm it back up.

I was looking for a way to get more water to Boo Berry who will not drink water and tried a bag of freeze dry raw because I could put more water into each serving and provide a soupy broth for him to drink. He loves that so much he now won't eat any canned. Also I have to break up a piece of Cat-Man-Doo freeze dried chicken breast on the food. I spoiled him. Before he was a committed Friskies Pate guy.

My theory, for what it is worth, is that what you fed them as visitors is looked upon fondly because it was the one point of kindness in their day--what you gave them. So they love it because it filled their tummies.

After Boo Bery came in, I tried many different kinds of canned for him and he loved them all until he had the freeze dried. Sigh...Now I supplement it with cooked meat for the evening snack. Last night at 11 PM I was cooking up chicken hearts and chicken thighs for him (spoiled!)

He also is a fantastic cat. Smart, sweet, affectionate, and easy going.

The Friskies pates aren't a horrible food.  I would try to drop the dry Friskies though.  If she ate the Friskies pate exclusively it wouldn't be a bad diet.  My cats would only eat the Wellness chicken and not for more than 2 or 3 days in a row.  One of my cats have developed a chicken allergy so no more Wellness at all here.

Thanks! Katniss likes the Turkey in cheese sauce shreds, because of course that's what she caught outside, right?
My other 2 eat about a tbsp of the Wellness chicken pate twice a day, but that's all I can get into them. I'm most concerned about the dry stuff, since I can't get them to eat enough canned.
Thanks!

My cats like the turkey with salmon and the turkey wellness which tends to be softer. I do alter it with some Friskies pate and Fancy Feast which they gobble up making snarfing noises while they eat. I've added a few cans of the Nutro Naturals, Evo, Wellness Core --which is met with irritated sighs of discontent and pouting--but they eventually eat it because there is no dry offered during the day. 

They like a few of the Merricks.

I know that everyone hisses and spits about Science Diet, but I looked at the ingredients of Science Diet Ideal Balance and the ingredients don't look bad--expensive though.

So basically... I should get rid of the dry altogether?

Tcbemis said:

So basically... I should get rid of the dry altogether?

Click to expand...

Ideally, yes. Check out this site: www.catinfo.org

Since the kitties already eat some wet, I'd try to slowly convert them to 100% wet. Dry food really doesn't have a place in a cat diet. The reason we have dry food is for convenience and the economic short-term budget of the owner. Otherwise all it does is potentially cause health problems further down the road.

http://www.littlebigcat.com/nutrition/why-dry-food-is-bad-for-cats-and-dogs/