Switching from dry to canned: the epic Battle of Wills between well-intentioned human and royally PO

the3rdname · Sep 24, 2014

Yes, I admit it, I have a dry food addict living in my home. I've enabled her bad habit for years now and, after realizing there was no way in heck she was going to lose weight on her favorite food, Orijen (which, in theory, shouldn't contribute to weight problems with normal portions), I've decided it's time to make the switch. Not a small consideration is that my brood of kittens love their wet food, Instinct, and their raw food, Stella & Chewy's, and I'd like to keep them on a strictly wet diet. They also love the Orijen...so you see my predicament. I can't keep them out of Vivi's food

The Battle of Wills began today, when I mixed maybe 1/8th teaspoon of Instinct with around 1/8 cup of Orijen. The response this meal elicited was as follows: *intense stare* *tail thumping* And I received a message telepathically: Clearly you have given me the wrong cat's food. I will now permit you the opportunity to correct your error, slave.

I had to toss the mixture several hours later and tried again, this time using even less Instinct. The current situation is that I have a bowl of untouched food and a hungry cat leering angrily at me from in front of my monitor. (I am bobbing my head around, trying to read what I'm typing, rather than attempt to move the cat. I think this is the wisest course of action.) Of course I'm not going to let her go the entire day without food. She's not obese, but I know what happens to overweight kitties who don't eat for 24 hours or thereabouts.

So today has been an epic fail and I'm soliciting advice. How do I win this darned battle? Or rather, how do I win the war because she's clearly already won this battle.

Edit: The title should end with "royally PO'ed cat". I didn't know I'd gone overboard there.

xcourtney3 · Sep 24, 2014

Have you tried switching to scheduled meal feedings of the dry? I had to do that with my kibble addicts before they would consider wet food. (I guess it teaches them "This is when you eat, this is what you eat")

the3rdname · Sep 24, 2014

xcourtney3 said:
Have you tried switching to scheduled meal feedings of the dry? I had to do that with my kibble addicts before they would consider wet food. (I guess it teaches them "This is when you eat, this is what you eat")

No, it never occurred to me that scheduled meals might ease the transition. I'd figured that if she was going to eat dry food, she might as well free-feed (as long as she didn't overeat). I thought I'd let her free-feed on the wet/dry mixture during the day, since she's used to having food available. I guess it's worth trying another strategy.

How long should I leave the dry food out? And how long do you think I should wait before trying a wet/dry mixture again?

Thanks for the advice

I'm still open to suggestions, of course...

lokhismom · Sep 24, 2014

Not sure if you've read this. It might be helpful to you.

Good luck!

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

lisahe · Sep 24, 2014

Perish the thought since it sounds like you want to feed everyone Instinct but it's possible Vivi doesn't like Instinct foods... our cats will eat them but they're far from favorites and I've noticed that some other people on TCS say their cats are picky about them. It might take another kind of wet food -- maybe something especially smelly? -- to entice her to eat.

For what it's worth, I weaned our cats off dry food about a month after we got them as underfed 10-month-old kittens: I started by only giving them dry food at night then gradually reduced the amounts until they were just getting a few kibbles on top of their wet foods. Then we all completely forgot about it, about a month later! The cats were initially malnourished and hungry and they had a strong preference for dry food -- they would initially wait for it during the day, though they would eat some wet food, too, particularly after they realized they weren't going to get dry food until later. They've been happily eating only canned and commercial raw foods ever since.

Good luck!

the3rdname · Sep 24, 2014

LisaHE said:
Perish the thought since it sounds like you want to feed everyone Instinct but it's possible Vivi doesn't like Instinct foods... our cats will eat them but they're far from favorites and I've noticed that some other people on TCS say their cats are picky about them. It might take another kind of wet food -- maybe something especially smelly? -- to entice her to eat.

Orijen is a super stinky food, so I was wondering if perhaps the Instinct didn't have enough of an odor.

The thing is, I did tons of research before deciding on Instinct for the kittens and I really don't want them eating anything else. Not right now, anyway. I like being able to rotate proteins, and the only other brand I don't object to with novel proteins is Hound and Gatos. I guess I could try some of their flavors on Vivi...though I really prefer the Instinct.

It's great that you were able to transition your kittens in such a short time. I would be beyond ecstatic if I could transition Vivi in a month (but I'm not banking on it). If cats can be transitioned to a virtually odorless food with a strange texture (raw food), then I'm hoping it's not mission impossible to get Vivi on Instinct. Maybe a flavor enhancer would help? Hmm.

slykat12 · Sep 24, 2014

I am so going to jump into this as I too struggled to transition my kibble addict and I too used Instinct canned. ( chicken and duck. ) The answer for me was my cat HATED Instinct. REALLY! And I bought two cases on sale. I gave cans away to other families with cats and they hated it as well and refused to eat a bite. I fed it to the local stray who only reluctantly ate some. I threw away tons of the stuff.

The Lisa Pierson page is great I used it too but I still needed a different brand. Weruva has these amazing pouches that are super healthy and I never saw a cat reject those. They are expensive but a starting point. Also maybe someone already mentioned it but adding some warm water or a 10 sec ride in the microwave-med setting really makes wet smell more enticing. (check for hotness)

the3rdname · Sep 24, 2014

Slykat12 said:
I am so going to jump into this as I too struggled to transition my kibble addict and I too used Instinct canned. ( chicken and duck. ) The answer for me was my cat HATED Instinct. REALLY! And I bought two cases on sale. I gave cans away to other families with cats and they hated it as well and refused to eat a bite. I fed it to the local stray who only reluctantly ate some. I threw away tons of the stuff.

Lisa Pierson page is great but do try a different brand. Weruva has these amazing pouches that are super healthy and I never saw a cat reject those. They are expensive but a starting point.

Ah, Weruva. I was feeding the kittens the chicken/duck/beef Weruva until I discovered that it's a low-fat food. The really head-bangingly frustrating thing is that Vivi would eat a little of it! It's the first non-fish canned food she's nibbled in ages. I would totally be down for Weruva if the kittens weren't kittens and didn't need to eat the fattier foods. Sadly, Vivi would definitely benefit from the lower fat food.

If I could only keep them separated at mealtimes. Maaaaaybe if i can get Vivi to eat at scheduled times instead of free-feed, it might just work.

Newsflash: Vivi took a little nibble of the Orijen/Instinct mixture. Hunger wins! Time to reward her with her beloved dry food.

slykat12 · Sep 24, 2014

Ah forgive me I read it fast . Weruva is an adult maintenance food. But there are still other brands to try. The choices on good wet kitten food is minimal. I had to go to all life stages right away for my beast.

xcourtney3 · Sep 24, 2014

Another thing you could try is sprinkling the canned food with Purina FortiFlora. It's a probiotic but a lot of people use it as a "flavor enhancer". It's made from animal digest, which is the stuff they coat dry food with. Supposed to be very tasty.

It's on Dr. Pierson's list of transition tips:

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

Try a product called FortiFlora. This product can be obtained from your veterinarian or online. Most
cats love FortiFlora and this has recently become my favorite trick. This is a probiotic made by
Purina but you are not going to use it for its probiotic properties. You are just going to use it as a flavor
enhancer. The base ingredient in FortiFlora is animal digest - the very substance that makes
dry food so very enticing to cats. The directions say to use 1 package/day - and you can use this
much if you want to - but this amount is not usually necessary. You may only need ~1/4 of a package

bonepicker · Sep 25, 2014

the3rdname said:
No, it never occurred to me that scheduled meals might ease the transition. I'd figured that if she was going to eat dry food, she might as well free-feed (as long as she didn't overeat). I thought I'd let her free-feed on the wet/dry mixture during the day, since she's used to having food available. I guess it's worth trying another strategy.

How long should I leave the dry food out? And how long do you think I should wait before trying a wet/dry mixture again?

Thanks for the advice

I'm still open to suggestions, of course...

Scheduled meals is key. Pick up after 30 minutes to hour. I would try tempting with a tastier wet food initially like nuto natural choice chunky chicken loaf or minced chicken, they also have fish if she prefers. Some cats like wet and dry next to each other not mixed.

bonepicker · Oct 4, 2014

bonepicker said:
Scheduled meals is key. Pick up after 30 minutes to hour. I would try tempting with a tastier wet food initially like nuto natural choice chunky chicken loaf or minced chicken, they also have fish if she prefers. Some cats like wet and dry next to each other not mixed.

Personally picking the right tasting canned food is half the battle, you should only have to sprinkle a bit on dry on top, but no free dry feedings or it will not work. Been there done that.

caltritwiamb4 · Oct 4, 2014

Funny the same thing happened to me tonight. So I will be reading the suggestions to your post as well. I tried to give my kibble addict named Trinity canned Merrick that I bought for the first time today. My kibble addict I rescued when she was 1 y/o. My 2 1 y/o old cats Twilight and Amber I have had since they were babies so they devour can food and loved the Merrick tonight. I put the merrick next to the kibble on Trinity's plate and she walked away from both. I tried hand feeding her a little of the can food and she turned her nose up and walked away. This cat won't even eat cooked chicken breast. I'll try again in the morning when she tends to be hungrier.

the3rdname said:
Yes, I admit it, I have a dry food addict living in my home. I've enabled her bad habit for years now and, after realizing there was no way in heck she was going to lose weight on her favorite food, Orijen (which, in theory, shouldn't contribute to weight problems with normal portions), I've decided it's time to make the switch. Not a small consideration is that my brood of kittens love their wet food, Instinct, and their raw food, Stella & Chewy's, and I'd like to keep them on a strictly wet diet. They also love the Orijen...so you see my predicament. I can't keep them out of Vivi's food

The Battle of Wills began today, when I mixed maybe 1/8th teaspoon of Instinct with around 1/8 cup of Orijen. The response this meal elicited was as follows: *intense stare* *tail thumping* And I received a message telepathically: Clearly you have given me the wrong cat's food. I will now permit you the opportunity to correct your error, slave.

I had to toss the mixture several hours later and tried again, this time using even less Instinct. The current situation is that I have a bowl of untouched food and a hungry cat leering angrily at me from in front of my monitor. (I am bobbing my head around, trying to read what I'm typing, rather than attempt to move the cat. I think this is the wisest course of action.) Of course I'm not going to let her go the entire day without food. She's not obese, but I know what happens to overweight kitties who don't eat for 24 hours or thereabouts.

So today has been an epic fail and I'm soliciting advice. How do I win this darned battle? Or rather, how do I win the war because she's clearly already won this battle.

Edit: The title should end with "royally PO'ed cat". I didn't know I'd gone overboard there.

caltritwiamb4 · Oct 4, 2014

LisaHE said:
Perish the thought since it sounds like you want to feed everyone Instinct but it's possible Vivi doesn't like Instinct foods... our cats will eat them but they're far from favorites and I've noticed that some other people on TCS say their cats are picky about them. It might take another kind of wet food -- maybe something especially smelly? -- to entice her to eat.

For what it's worth, I weaned our cats off dry food about a month after we got them as underfed 10-month-old kittens: I started by only giving them dry food at night then gradually reduced the amounts until they were just getting a few kibbles on top of their wet foods. Then we all completely forgot about it, about a month later! The cats were initially malnourished and hungry and they had a strong preference for dry food -- they would initially wait for it during the day, though they would eat some wet food, too, particularly after they realized they weren't going to get dry food until later. They've been happily eating only canned and commercial raw foods ever since.

Good luck!

What commercial raw foods to you feed them and how do you feed it to them? Also have you found canned foods that are especially smelly?

caltritwiamb4 · Oct 4, 2014

Slykat12 said:
I am so going to jump into this as I too struggled to transition my kibble addict and I too used Instinct canned. ( chicken and duck. ) The answer for me was my cat HATED Instinct. REALLY! And I bought two cases on sale. I gave cans away to other families with cats and they hated it as well and refused to eat a bite. I fed it to the local stray who only reluctantly ate some. I threw away tons of the stuff.

The Lisa Pierson page is great I used it too but I still needed a different brand. Weruva has these amazing pouches that are super healthy and I never saw a cat reject those. They are expensive but a starting point. Also maybe someone already mentioned it but adding some warm water or a 10 sec ride in the microwave-med setting really makes wet smell more enticing. (check for hotness)

Chewy online has a case of the Weruva Cats in the chicken pouches for 9.99 for a case of 8. What do you think of the Weruva BFF pouches they are 7.99 for a case of 12? Also what do you think of the Weruva BFF canned. My kibble addict turned her nose up at poked chicken breast so I am wondering if she would eat the variety that has the shredded chicken in it.

slykat12 · Oct 4, 2014

Every cat is different with what they like. My last cat did not care for Weruva BFF cans plus I recall me not liking something about the ingredients-maybe too much fish- so I don't buy it. I never saw BFF pouches.

Cats in the kitchen canned looks good and Whitney likes it. Some pouches and canned are shredded others chunky. Cats love the juice. I love the no bpa, no grain, no carragean

Today Whitney ate "Primal" raw for the first time mixed with Weruva Cats in the kitchen Pumpkin and Tuna. She ate it all!!!

Shipping wise it makes more sense probably for me to just buy at my local store but I will check it out!

goholistic · Oct 4, 2014

@the3rdname, if you haven't already read through these two TCS articles on transitioning, perhaps they may help:

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/transitioning-free-fed-kibble-kitties-to-timed-meals

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/transit...-to-a-new-type-of-food-canned-raw-or-homemade

Several months ago, I transitioned my Boo from 60/40 wet/dry to all wet due to chronic constipation. He's super fussy and stubborn in his old age, so a little trick I like to use to get him to eat what I want him to eat is to put a small amount of dry food in a coffee grinder. It works for Boo when I sprinkle the kibble powder on top of the wet food, but you could also try mixing it in with the wet food, too. Because grinding the dry food lessens it's shelf life, store it in the fridge in a covered container and use up within a few days. I only grind up about 2 tablespoons at a time. By the way, I did try putting whole kibble on top of the wet food or mixing it in and he didn't go for that at all. It remained untouched.

caltritwiamb4 · Oct 5, 2014

GoHolistic said:
@the3rdname, if you haven't already read through these two TCS articles on transitioning, perhaps they may help:

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/transitioning-free-fed-kibble-kitties-to-timed-meals

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/transit...-to-a-new-type-of-food-canned-raw-or-homemade

Several months ago, I transitioned my Boo from 60/40 wet/dry to all wet due to chronic constipation. He's super fussy and stubborn in his old age, so a little trick I like to use to get him to eat what I want him to eat is to put a small amount of dry food in a coffee grinder. It works for Boo when I sprinkle the kibble powder on top of the wet food, but you could also try mixing it in with the wet food, too. Because grinding the dry food lessens it's shelf life, store it in the fridge in a covered container and use up within a few days. I only grind up about 2 tablespoons at a time. By the way, I did try putting whole kibble on top of the wet food or mixing it in and he didn't go for that at all. It remained untouched.

Thank you, thats a terrific idea I am going to try that for Trinity's breakfast. I have a small coffee bean grinder.

caltritwiamb4 · Oct 5, 2014

Slykat12 said:
Every cat is different with what they like. My last cat did not care for Weruva BFF cans plus I recall me not liking something about the ingredients-maybe too much fish- so I don't buy it. I never saw BFF pouches.

Cats in the kitchen canned looks good and Whitney likes it. Some pouches and canned are shredded others chunky. Cats love the juice. I love the no bpa, no grain, no carragean

Today Whitney ate "Primal" raw for the first time mixed with Weruva Cats in the kitchen Pumpkin and Tuna. She ate it all!!!

Shipping wise it makes more sense probably for me to just buy at my local store but I will check it out!

I think you might be right about the fish content in BFF. I am going to try the Cats In The Kitchen canned as well as the pouches. The only problem I can't find it in the stores and at chewy online I don't think you can mix up the case for a variety. What store do you buy the Weruva. my earlier post I meant to write that Trinity turned her nose at pieces of a cooked chicken breast . The other two love chicken breast . Some times I cook it especially for them some times I give them left over from my plate buy Trinity will not touch it. I requested a coupon for instinct raw so I am going to try it as well.

bonepicker · Oct 5, 2014

B

CalTriTwiAmb4 said:
I think you might be right about the fish content in BFF. I am going to try the Cats In The Kitchen canned as well as the pouches. The only problem I can't find it in the stores and at chewy online I don't think you can mix up the case for a variety. What store do you buy the Weruva. my earlier post I meant to write that Trinity turned her nose at pieces of a cooked chicken breast . The other two love chicken breast . Some times I cook it especially for them some times I give them left over from my plate buy Trinity will not touch it. I requested a coupon for instinct raw so I am going to try it as well.

I buy cats in the kitchen and weruva online but petco carries SOULISTIC, that Weruva (who makes cats in the kitchen) designed just for petco. Chewy. Com and Amazon sell weruva and cats in kitchen (same stuff)

Switching from dry to canned: the epic Battle of Wills between well-intentioned human and royally PO

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