Why won't you eat your dry food???

chromium blues

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My foster kittens will eat most canned food but are terrible when it comes to dry food. I've tried many different kibbles (Royal Canin, Science Diet, Go!, Earthborn, Now, Performatrin) and no takers. I'm having some luck with Solid Gold, but Kazuri will only eat it if it has had boiled water poured over it, and Winnifred will only eat it if she's sitting in your lap and you hand feed her every few pieces (and she wants it softened, too). They must be eating dry food reliably before they are adoptable, because nobody wants a cat who will only eat canned food. If I mix it with their canned food, they won't eat any of it.

Any suggestions?
 

chwx

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Most owners here would be thrilled to have that "problem". ;)

How old are they? If they're still pretty young then I'd keep softening the kibbles. Some really young kittens take awhile before they can comfortably eat hard food. My boy Pinball was probably 11-12 weeks before he started to accept hard kibbles.
 

lisahe

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Most owners here would be thrilled to have that "problem".
Indeed! I sure would have loved to have skipped the "wean the cats off dried food" stage after adopting our two last December!
 

raintyger

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I don't have a kitty right now, but I was thinking if I go looking I'd want a kitty that doesn't eat dry or at least one that has no problems with wet. I don't know that you have a problem.
 

catpack

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Chromium Blues, I totally sympathize with you! We have several kitties that *require* a canned only diet (currently only Nature's Variety...no chicken) or diets that consist primarily of canned. I even have 1 young adult right now that may require a home-cooked diet.

It has proved to be a daunting task placing these kitties in homes with people willing to provide them the food they need to thrive. Many around here simply want to feed the cat dry food (and mostly grocery store brands!)

Our rescue is thought to be "high end" simply because we feed Instinct kibble AND canned food (NV, Holistic Select, Simply Nourish and Nulo) to our cats. Everyone gets canned at least twice a day. But, it's what keeps our cats healthy and our overall medical expenses down.

We are lucky that we are able to provide a month's worth of food for each cat that is adopted out. THIS has been our best tool for placing some of our more food restricted kitties. We also let people know about sites that food can be ordered in bulk to cut down on expenses (Chewy.com is my fav so far.)
 
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red top rescue

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I always give adopters the "cats need wet food, in the wild their prey comes with built in liquid" talk.  If they don't want to do wet food only, i.e. if they already have a dry food addict at home, then I do suggest wetting the kibble to increase the water intake.  The only down side of that is that you can't just leave it lying around all day, so fine, if they want to leave some dry down if they will be gone a long time, but otherwise no problem with just having regular mealtimes.  Cats do not need to GRAZE like cattle, and that leads me to the READ THE LABELS lecture because most of those supermarket foods like Meow Mix and Friskies have as their primary ingredient GROUND YELLOW CORN.  That's great for cattle but not for cats.  Most of them are amazed, never read a label before, just assumed "meaty bits" are just that.

Our biggest and most important job in rescue is EDUCATION, and I'm doing it constantly at Petco during "kitty play time" -- it amazes me still how much people just don't know and don't even KNOW they don't know!  Awareness is growing very fast thanks to Jackson Galaxy;s show and fans going to his web site and his videos on YouTube etc.  Kids are actually educating their parents.  That's fun to watch, actually.  Anyhow, my advice to everyone here is to educate people whenever you get a chance.  If you see them buying a ground yellow corn food, mention it, have them look at the label and compare to a better food that starts with meat.  If you see them contemplating buying dangerous OTC flea medicine (Hartz for instance), tell them, warn them, they can now get both Advantage and Frontline without a prescription, more expensive but SAFE! 

I do claw clipping demonstrations every weekend for those who don't know how.  I also recommend they get the BIRD claw clippers at Petco because they are the simple kind, also less expensive than those in the cat section.  Most people who are on The Cat Site know a lot more about a lot of things than the average person, so go ahead and teach, teach, teach!
 
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lisahe

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Our rescue is thought to be "high end" simply because we feed Instinct kibble AND canned food (NV, Holistic Select, Simply Nourish and Nulo) to our cats. Everyone gets canned at least twice a day. But, it's what keeps our cats healthy and our overall medical expenses down.

We are lucky that we are able to provide a month's worth of food for each cat that is adopted out. THIS has been our best tool for placing some of our more food restricted kitties. We also let people know about sites that food can be ordered in bulk to cut down on expenses (Chewy.com is my fav so far.)
This is great to hear! The shelter where we adopted our cats also fed canned food (Friskies) twice a day, along with dry food (Iams and some sort of Purina, I think), and they sent us home with a small bag of dried food and a few cans of Friskies so we had what the cats had been eating. The adoption information packet included a list of "quality pet foods we use and recommend" (it starts with Wellness and ends with Blue Buffalo) that has an asterisk saying "Low cost option= wet food of any brand."
 

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Bonepicker, I'm sorry but that statement "If they can't afford canned food, they can't afford a cat!" is extremely harsh, arrogant and very narrow minded in my opinion.  There are hundreds/thousands of cats that are starving to death on the streets every day because someone dumped them without caring what happened to them or they were born out there feral to fend for themselves.   To me, having a cat fed the worst dry food on the grocery shelf is 100% more humane than having it dying a slow death of starvation or abuse.   That statement to me is exactly like saying if they can't afford 100% fresh and organic food, they can't afford to have a child....tell that to the vast majority of low income and many middle income folks who dearly love their children but have to fed them canned vegetables and fruit with pesticides!   Good for you...you can afford to shop at all the high end organic stores and  spend thousands of dollars on food and vet bills and whatever.....but maybe there is a 75 year old woman out there all alone living on nothing but social security and she has a cat that she loves more than life itself and that cat is her only companion and she splits her food budget with her cat but that's still not enough to feed 100% canned food.....maybe she can't afford the cat....maybe she can't afford to even be alive herself.
 
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bonepicker

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I feel very strongly that some people think of pets like a piece of furniture and really do not think about how can they afford to care for them properly , both nutrition and medical care. I am not rich believe me. I just think you have to take things into consideration before you take on a pet. They are your responsibility till death. If you cannot afford to pay your bills you cannot take on a pet and give proper care.
 
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chromium blues

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The kittens are ten weeks old to-day. I'm starting to have more luck with the Solid Gold, though Winnifred and Kazuri are proving very difficult to win over. I completely agree that all cats should have canned food in their diet, but for these babies, it can't be their entire diet. Most people seem to feed mainly dry food and give canned food a couple times each day. Usually we send them home on Royal Canin and more often than not, their new families keep them on it, but that isn't going to work for these guys. They may end up going home on Solid Gold, which irritates the person I foster for because it can be difficult to find that food. I'm still supplementing Winnifred with Nutri-Cal because she's been a poor eater ever since we had to put Rassy down. She was mama's girl.
 

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They are your responsibility till death. If you cannot afford to pay your bills you cannot take on a pet and give proper care.
While I agree with this,
If they can't afford canned food, they can't afford a cat!
This I have to object to. Many members feed dry and their cats live long, happy lives. Not feeding canned food does not equal not giving proper care. Please be careful when making sweeping generalizations such as this. There are many reasons people may not feed canned food, but feeding dry does NOT mean that they don't care about their pets at all.

I don't feed dry, because my cat is thankfully not picky so he is pretty open to whatever I give him. But to say that canned food is the only way to feed is a fallacy. We cannot pretend to know every cat owner's circumstance to reliably say "this way or the highway". 
 

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 Many members feed dry and their cats live long, happy lives. Not feeding canned food does not equal not giving proper care. Please be careful when making sweeping generalizations such as this. There are many reasons people may not feed canned food, but feeding dry does NOT mean that they don't care about their pets at all.

I don't feed dry, because my cat is thankfully not picky so he is pretty open to whatever I give him. But to say that canned food is the only way to feed is a fallacy. We cannot pretend to know every cat owner's circumstance to reliably say "this way or the highway". 
 I completely agree with this.  Not everybody can  or will feed dry. Not every cat will eat canned foods. The bottom line is that you feed what your cat will eat. Every cat is different. And, as I stated in another thread, the best cat food in the world won't do a cat any good if he or she won't eat it. 

To automatically say that if somebody can't afford canned food, they cannot afford a cat is a very broad statement and doesn't take many things into consideration.  
 
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chromium blues

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Okay, so...

Rupert, Noah, and Margot will eat the Solid Gold if nothing else is available and they're starving. Solid Gold is the only dry food that Margot hasn't buried. Kazuri will eat it if I hold onto one side of the (huge) kibble and let her chomp on it. If its in the bowl, she's not interested. Winnifred won't eat it unless its been soaked in boiled water and then only under duress. They'll be eleven weeks old this Thursday. I can't figure out Winnifred and Kazuri's aversion to dry food!
 

catpack

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Not that you want to try a different dry food; but, even my finnickiest kitties like the new Pride by Instinct dry food (we use the Diva's Duck formula.)

The kibble is small and is likely the softest dry food I have found. It also has freeze dried raw ingredients in it and appears to be very palatable.

The only place I have found this particular food is via Chewy.com. The Diva's Duck formula is $19.99 for 5 lbs. There is also a chicken formula and a rabbit formula.
 
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chromium blues

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I've tried the NVAR Raw Boost and found that the raw pieces were too big for them to handle unless I poured water over it, and then it was like pulling teeth to get them to try it. I haven't seen Pride dry food, only the canned, but I'll look around. I've had picky kittens before, but this is incredible...
 

raintyger

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Some of the higher end stores in my area have free samples of dry food towards the back, there may be some different brands to try.

Fresh Pet Select is an in-between food, maybe you can use that as a transition. Shaped like kibble, refrigerated and moist. Note that it is very low-calorie food.
 
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chromium blues

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I saw Kazuri eating Solid Gold out of the dish last night. Winnifred still waits for the "cooked" kibbles. They all hold out for canned, but I'm more stubborn than they are. They have to eat the kibble before they get any canned. Over the next few days I'm going to reduce the amount of water added to the "cooked" kibbles and see if Freddie figures out that she can eat this stuff.
 

thehistorian

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 I completely agree with this.  Not everybody can  or will feed dry. Not every cat will eat canned foods. The bottom line is that you feed what your cat will eat. Every cat is different. And, as I stated in another thread, the best cat food in the world won't do a cat any good if he or she won't eat it. 

To automatically say that if somebody can't afford canned food, they cannot afford a cat is a very broad statement and doesn't take many things into consideration.  
^ I third this. Bonepicker might want to get off the high horse he or she rode in on. 

 
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chromium blues

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Furry Ms. Kazuri is eating the Solid Gold well now. She crunches away on it without hesitation. Winnifred still waits for the cooked version...
 
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