Alternating Wet / Dry - possible?

Hello,

Is it possible to alternate wet / dry foods, on a regular basis?

My plan is to get an adult male cat within about 2 weeks.  Feed him wet during the week, but if I need/want to leave for the weekend, would dry food be doable for a couple days? Or, would he go on a hunger strike?

Also, I'm just astounded by the sheer number of people having issues with feeding their cats.  Jumping from one brand to another because kitty gets bored with their food, or allergies happening.  Granted, I grew up with a dog and dated women with cats who fed kibble, but I don't recall food choice/brand/flavor etc. ever being an issue.

Since your getting an adult cat you can never know. I for one have a kitten and started her off on a rotation diet where she gets dry 1-2 times a week since I'm a college student and have to cram sometimes. So shes use to it. An adult cat that is already preset to certain things you can never know, I would say try it after you have had him for a while because he will already be stressed with a new environment. too much change is not good for cats. After you've had him for a while (where he isnt stressed about his surroundings anymore) I suggest trying the wet a couple of days and then dry and see if he will take to it.Do it while you will be home so you can see how he react to it.

I would make sure you get a months supply of whatever food the adult cat is already eating because he will be stressed enough moving to a new home that you don't want to go changing his food right away.  I just did this with a 5 month old kitten i brought home. I started mixing his old dry food in with my dry food of choice (Orijen) to slowly transition him to it. He would not eat any wet food the first two weeks but now he is eating very well and hasn't refused any of the canned or freeze dried raw that I feed. 

Hopefully your new cat has been eating at least a little wet food and isn't a dry food addict.  It is possible to get him/her to transition to it but it's a long process.

To answer you question though, as long as it's a dry food that he/she likes then no your cat shouldn't go on a hunger strike.  I feed 20% dry everyday and I add extra water to the canned food or freeze dried raw to compensate for the lack of moisture in the dry.  I had a urinalysis done on my cat and his urine was very dilute so I proved that this strategy works for him.    

This is going to depend so much on the cat you adopt. Cats, as a rule, tend to hate change so you may have a cat who used to kibble.  It seems like that's what many shelters feed. My daughter's cats have been on kibble for all their lives (well over 10 yrs.) and she says they won't touch wet food. It's safest to make dry food changes quite slowly to avoid digestive upsets.

Now Buttons, our outdoor cat, has eaten dry food and her prey for 13+ years and immediately took to eating the wet food that Dandy wouldn't.

Something that some our us do is to give them a bit of dry at night to tide them over.  This isn't quite the recommended thing here, but there really isn't any Kitty Welfare Group waiting to arrest you for feeding your cat dry food. I would think it would be easier to do it a little regularly than suddenly switch.

There are a fair number of dogs on prescription/allergy diets too.

Is it an option to have someone come in a couple times a day when you're away for the weekend to feed your cat? An adult cat will only need to be fed morning and evening, so it wouldn't be too much of an inconvenience for a neighbor or friend in the area.

That said, I agree with those above. Oliver had been fed mostly dry with the occasional wet. He came with a full bag of kibble and one can of wet (with no label!). I gradually offered less and less dry. He did well with the transition, but he's a kitten. If you get an adult that's been eating dry all their life, it may be more difficult to get them to the wet food. Though I do hope you'll still try. It's so much better for them. 

We just adopted two different cats from two different foster moms on two different diets using two different cat litters and proceeded to experiment with getting them from a mostly/all kibble diet to mostly a canned diet and they've adjusted just fine. 

Both cats are 6-7 months old and one was on a kitten chow. Since she'd have to transition off that soon enough, we made the decision to transition her to what the other was eating. It was some kind of Purina kibble supplemented with Fancy Feast canned food. So I bought a big bag of the kibble and some cans of the FF. 

Then I discovered one of the cats was overweight and started doing some research to find out how much she should be eating and decided they would be better off on a mostly canned diet. I still wanted the convenience of kibble sometimes and also wanted to feed raw sometimes. 

So for the past two weeks I have been visiting all the local pet stores and buying 1 can of every food that meets my standards and some pouches of raw too. Which means I have fed them a different food every day. So far they have eaten everything I have fed them except 1 time when they turned up their noses at some leftovers. Now some of it they eat with gusto and some they pick at. But they do eat it.

The % of kibble and Fancy Feast keeps going down and the amount of healthier canned goes up as I settle in on which canned food to order in bulk. My next step is to start transitioning them to a healthier kibble.

My reasoning for having some kibble in the rotation is similar to yours. If we do go away for the day or are just gone longer than planned, I don't want them to starve. Also, I have an idea of how much canned/raw to feed them, but I know some days they are more active than others, so I like the idea of having kibble available for them to supplement as they need to. One of the cats self-regulates very well so having kibble out isn't an issue for her. For the overweight one, I'm hoping the switch to canned with will help her feel more satiety and getting off the high calorie kitten chow should also help. If it doesn't, I have some ideas for how to limit her access to the kibble so it truly is only for emergencies.

I know cats have a reputation for being picky eaters but my experience with both the cats I grew up with and these two has been the opposite. I'm sure a few are born picky (like my son!) but most cats eat what you give them as long as you don't set up a situation that brings the pickiness out of them.

I alternate wet and dry food daily. I feed her wet in the morning, again at night, and she gets a kibble snack during the night or during the day whenever I'm gone. I like her to have dry food available in case I'm late for some reason coming back. If I need to stay over somewhere or travel, I leave her dry and there's never been a problem. I'd love to only feed wet, but unfortunately my schedule doesn't allow it and I prefer not to have people come in to feed her because a) there's no one I'm super close with/trust enough in my immediate area to be coming into my home while I'm gone, and b) I feel like people coming in would freak her out more than necessary and also create the possibility of her getting out the door ( I can see her panicking and bolting, and let's face it, friends are never as careful with your pets as you are). If you alternate enough, kitty will learn that sometimes dinner is dry and eat it.. I would make sure he eats dry a few times willingly before you try leaving it for a longer period.

This is what I do as well.  With outdoor ferals, I'd feed one can of wet per day, and then supplement with kibble.  With my newly adopted semi-feral, she was already used to both kibble and wet food, so I have continued with that regimen.  I find the kibble is good for training and socializing sessions, because it is a good treat that she likes.  Unfortunately, you may find it takes awhile to find the "kind" of wet food your cat will enjoy.  Mine don't like anything but the "classic pate'" style of wet foods.  i've wasted many cans of wet food that they just don't seem to like.  Kibble tends to be a bit easier for them to appreciate.  But yes, you should be able to get your cat used to eating both, so you can leave kibble if you'll be away awhile.

My cat always has a full bowl of dry food, and I give her 1/2 can of fancy feast in the morning and the other half at dinner time. The more moisture the better!