Cat will only eat the "bad" stuff...

Hi guys! New here, and I've got a little bit of a problem... well, maybe it's a problem, I'm not sure.

I've got a three year old rescue, Bug, who was 14 pounds at his last vet visit in March. He's a big boy, so the vet said he could stand to lose only a pound or two and I should try to have him on wet food because it's healthier anyway. He's been eating Blue Buffalo Wilderness dry food for most of his life, with no ill effects. Since then, I've tried every wet food on the planet, and it's a crapshoot seeing what he'll eat. Price is a factor, and the only inexpensive wet food he eats with any gusto is Authority shredded salmon flavor, which I'm hesitant to give too much of as I've heard about the dangers of too much fish. I'm looking at a picked-at-but-mostly-ignored plate of the turkey flavor right now. He eats that sometimes. Won't touch anything beef or chicken flavored, and half the time only licks the gravy off of the turkey anyway.

So I hope you see my conundrum here. I can't keep throwing out all this food, and I'm worried that he's not eating enough (he HAS lost a little bit of weight, but is still pretty solid). I still supplement with the dry Wilderness, which he eats fine. But a diet of wet salmon food and dry kibble (even a higher quality grain-free) seems like the opposite of what he should be eating. Does it matter that much, or should I just feed him what he'll eat? I should note that he has a water fountain that he really enjoys--he's always been a drinker, haha.

Thank you!

An all dry food diet isn't ideal but if that's all your cat will eat, then feed it. Don't feel like a horrible person for feeding dry food

Have you tried the various tips and tricks on how to get stubborn dry food addicts to eat canned food? I'm not sure if the tips will help change your cat's mind about meat based canned foods but they're worth a try.

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

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

Have you tried crushing up stinky freeze dried fish treats and sprinkling it over canned food? It may disguise the taste and smell of meat based foods. Stella and Chewy's freeze dried raw foods are super super stinky, especially the fish ones, and many people have used it to transition their cats to raw food or to hide liquid medicines in food.

Have you given any of the Weruva foods and Tiki Cat a try? Both are shreds/chunks/etc in gravy or jelly type foods.

If you mix a little meat based canned food into a can of Authority salmon, will your cat eat it? Or will he pick out the salmon and lick the gravy and leave the rest? Does your cat snub pate / loaf style foods?

You can start off by mixing mostly dry and then adding a little bit of wet. This website has great info: http://catinfo.org/

I second the tiki cat and stella and Chewys! Works for me. Also, have you tried chicken baby food? It's not a complete diet but many cats go crazy for it. Maybe you can use it to mix with the canned food and gradually wean him off of it. Good luck!

I agree with LTS3's suggestions! I might also suggest crumbling Pure Bites treats on foods: those and Stella & Chewy's work great to get our cats to eat just about anything. Pure Bites and Stella & Chewy's aren't cheap but a little bit goes a long way.

About Weruva: our cats like their moderate-priced Cats in the Kitchen canned foods best and there are several shreddy chicken-based foods that are fish-free. Although maybe feeding foods with both chicken and fish would be a way to start introducing more chicken into Bug's diet and you could gradually move him away from the fish? That said, most of the Weruva foods are tuna-heavy, which I'd definitely avoid. The same goes for Soulistic, which is made by Weruva but sold only at Petco. As others have said, Tiki is great food, though I remember you mentioned budgetary concerns!

And if all else fails and Bug will only eat dry food, it's worth looking for the meatiest food with the lowest carbs... that might help with the weight.

I'm looking at an empty dish, where there was once a can of salmon Authority. That entire can is now in Bug, and got there in record time. Sigh.

Thank you so much for the advice, especially the tip about the freeze-dried treats. When I mix the dry Wellness in with the wet food, he picks through and just eats the dry bits. Mixing flavors doesn't work, as his interest tends to diminish proportionally with the amount of the undesirable food I mix in, and he won't go near any pate-style food. He's stubborn! But he's also absolutely adorable, so I keep forgiving him.

Oh, and he HATES chicken anything. Absolutely hates it. I once gave him a piece of plain cooked chicken--small bite-sized piece--and he backed away like it was a hand grenade.

Try sprinkling fortiflora on it maybe? Theres animal digest in it so i heard its good for stimulating appetites.

kittyluv387 said:

Try sprinkling fortiflora on it maybe? Theres animal digest in it so i heard its good for stimulating appetites.

Click to expand...

Animal digest is extrememly appealing in smell to cats, even sick ones, so it's worth a try. https://www.purinaveterinarydiets.com/pet-food-nutrition/feline/products/fortiflora/ You can buy FortiFlora online. Amazon has it as well as many other places.

I'm surprised your cat didn't like cooked chicken. Maybe he smelled something "bad" about it? A cat's nose is pretty sensitive to smells that we can't detect.

Is the Blue Buffalo dry food a fish based one?