The Diva and the other two Diva's in Waiting

Have a 9 year old female who had bladder stones three years ago and a horrible surgery - it took seven months to get her to eat about a 50 - 70% wet diet - Mimi is a hard core kibble addict and it didn't help that I was buying the best I could find. So here we are three years later and she has had a bladder full of struvite crystals, went to the vet got flushed out and his not helpful advice is feed Hills or SD (NOT!). So, in the meantime two relatively new additions to my household Raffles & Nefra, I was feeding them 1/4 c of kibble and wet food, Nefra has gotten fat! I just realized that she was eating hers and muscling Raffles out of the way and eating his, another "hard core" kibble addict. Both of them were feral and living in a MacDonald's parking lot eating french fries, they don't seem to recognize what is actual cat food. Started feeding 1 tbsp. of kibble on top of wet this weekend. Very sad eyes and much moaning about starvation, I finally just left the house. I have tried adding forti flora, parmesan cheese and tuna juice. How long should this take?  I can't use too much fish because of Mimi.  First I bought a lower grade of kibble which they didn't initially like very much but are now of course gobbling down, I have given the rest of the bag to the neighbour as his cat will always eat wet food first. Will a cat actually starve itself? I am somewhat worried about them not getting enough calories. I have purchased some raw chicken/turkey and rabbit which is sitting in the freezer in anticipation that someone might actually eat it one day. And of course there is still Mimi, who is the most stubborn animal in the known universe and has been offered at one time up to four different cans in order to get her to eat something.  Is there anything else I can do?


The Divas in Waiting


The Diva

LOL, kibble addicts are tough to transition. And yes, cats will starve themselves (or not eat enough) which can lead to fatty liver disease, so it's best to be slow and careful with any food transition.

Have you seen the transition tips here?

http://www.catinfo.org/docs/TipsForTransitioning1-14-11.pdf

Also, there are other great tips here: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/264675/transitioning-free-fed-kibble-kitties-to-timed-meals-and-new-food

I have had a kitty with fatty liver disease and it's not something you want to have to go through.  It's a long slow recovery and will probably leave behind liver damage.  My kitty quit eating because of illness but they will go on a hunger strike and end up with fatty liver disease.  It takes a long time and you will throw out a lot of canned food unless you divide it up in small amounts and freeze it.  It has taken a long time to get my hard core kibble addicts to about half canned and half kibble.  I think I probably could have had them completely on wet by now except I got lazy.

Yes thanks, have read the transition tips, maybe I should stop buying premium brands and try some stinky Friskies!   Am contemplating buying a small bag of SD kibble or maybe that Purina One Special UT, and just keeping everyone one a very small amount - of course then I can't feed them raw - I think all three of them are plotting against me.

A lot of kitties prefer the grocery store brands.  Some of the Friskies pates and the Fancy Feast classics aren't that bad.  The very best food isn't any good if kitty won't eat it.

Thanks will give some of those a try and see how it goes.

Honestly, with my one cat Wiggies, I would rather that he eat the lower quality wet instead of going through the huge frustration of trying to get him to eat the better brands that he turns his nose up at. We've kind of given up with him, and he eats only about a third of his diet as wet food. It's better than all kibble.
And he's recently taken to the all meat "kibble" that I make for our other cat. It's various freeze dried 100% meat (chicken, duck, beef etc dog treats) and I cut them up into really small kibble sizes. This is was for Pushy when Wiggies gets some kibble, we didn't want him to get any if possible, but he'd cry if he got left out. Although expensive, they last a while and right now we've managed to introduce about 1/4 of Wiggies kibble as the pure meat. Maybe this is an option for you?

Well, last night I tried something a bit different, put small portion of dry on the same plate as larger portion of wet - success not a thing left on anybody's plate.  So, will gradually try to phase out the kibbles!  Wish me luck!

Maybe I can try something like that, thanks.

catdancing1 said:

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Well, last night I tried something a bit different, put small portion of dry on the same plate as larger portion of wet - success not a thing left on anybody's plate.  So, will gradually try to phase out the kibbles!  Wish me luck!

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You can do it! The diva and divas in waiting don't have a chance.

Well, it worked yesterday . . . opened another can of a premium brand today and it was pretty obvious NO ONE was going to eat it, will give to the neighbour.  Cleaned off the plates and opened something else.  Am going to buy Friskies on my way home today!

Oh the joy of picky cats, I have two of them.  I've read here about kitties that will eat whatever is put down for them, even eat the same thing day after day, mine aren't like that.

Denice said:

 
Oh the joy of picky cats, I have two of them.  I've read here about kitties that will eat whatever is put down for them, even eat the same thing day after day, mine aren't like that.

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We can only DREAM what that would be like, huh?   I told Tinky just this morning that he is giving me ulcers because of his eating habits, or should I say his NOT Eating habits .  And Callie is a whole other story, but I'm used to her, and she's sick, so she has an excuse.

AAAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHH.  The transition is not going well . . . Mimi won't eat the fancy feast, Raffles eats some and licks of the gravy, Nefra eats everything and then some.  Will finish carton of fancy feast and am going to break down and by some SD kibble, if that doesn't turn everyone off I don't know what will!

I can't even find one food that they will all eat without complaint aside from tuna which Mimi really shouldn't have at all!