Adding Inexpensive Wet Food Into an All Dry Diet

For several months now, my cats have been on all dry food since the three year old male cat barely touches wet food and the kitten will eat it for a while but then loses interest and starts to ignore the wet food. We adopted the older cat in March of this year and the kitten was adopted in June.

I really would like them both to get wet food in their diet (probably a can a day), especially since I am trying to help my three year old male lose weight. He is currently 13 pounds, down from 14 (probably should go down to 12 at least, but its winter so I don't expect that weight drop now). 

Currently both the three year old male (Carrot) and the 8 month old (Angua) are eating a half cup each of Nutrisca chicken flavor all life stages food. There are often kibbles left over in the bowl so these roll over into the next day if they aren't all eaten. I also don't have a clear idea of who is eating how much since the food is given to them in two bowls at specific meal times and they will trade bowls back and forth until all food is eaten. Neither seem hungry after though.

I am only even bringing the idea of wet food into play at all since I gave them a Thanksgiving can of turkey and potato cat food yesterday. Angua ate half of the 3.5 oz can. Carrot ate three bites of it (much more than normal), then let Angua finish the rest of his can. I am assuming that any amount of wet food that I can get into Carrot would be a benefit to him since it would add moisture that he might need even more as a male cat.

I cannot switch to an all wet food diet because my fiance and I are gone at work for 12 hours or more during the day. I wouldn't want to leave the cats without food that amount of time. Also my fiance is not a fan of the extra cost associated with wet food and hates the smell of it so feeding the cats a can a day would already be a major compromise. Getting them on the healthier grain free food was already a jump for him since the cats he grew up with were fed on extremely low quality cat food.

I would like to find a couple of brands and flavors of canned cat food that would be relatively cheap. Does anyone have suggestions for canned food to use (keeping in mine money)? Is it better to use low quality wet food then no wet food at all? I would like to make it so that with two cats we wouldn't raise the price too significantly to feed them each month. Are certain types or flavors worse for cats to eat?

Considering past problems with wet food is there a way to get them interested in eating it more? How should I change up flavors/brands to keep the kitten from losing interest again?

Also how would the amount of wet food effect the amount of dry food they should be getting each day?

Lots of questions. Thank you ahead of time for any answers. 

Carrot and Angua thank you too.

See these threads for healthy and affordable canned foods:

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/308964/healthy-but-affordable-canned-food

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/309608/cheap-grain-free-cat-canned-food

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/306956/new-affordable-petsmart-brand-d

NewYork1303 said:

 
Currently both the three year old male (Carrot) and the 8 month old (Angua) are eating a half cup each of Nutrisca chicken flavor all life stages food. There are often kibbles left over in the bowl so these roll over into the next day if they aren't all eaten.

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I would just throw the uneaten kibble away at the end of the day instead of adding more food to the bowl the next day. Cat saliva will be all over the food and bacteria will grow in the food.

A lot of the the premium brands smell really good, like a meal you would cook for yourself - Weruva, Tiki Cat, etc But these are likely out of your budget. There's nothing wrong with Fancy Feast Classic / Gourmet. But those 3 oz cans isn't a lot of food so you would need to buy a lot of food all the time. It's better to buy a brand that is available in 5.5 oz and larger sized cans and to buy in cases than individual cans. Friskies is good as well and there's one variety that is available in a 13 oz can size. Generic store brands may be suitable as well, just be sure to read the label if you want something grain-free and / or with few to no fillers.

Stick with pate foods so you get the most of your money. Gravy based foods tend to be mostly water with very little actual food. You can always add water to pate food to make "gravy" and to get extra water into the cat.

Try toppers on top of canned food to make it more yummy. Crushed up freeze dried meat treats and freeze dried raw works for most cats. FortiFlora is always popular. A little gravy from a can of cat food can be used.

LTS3 said:

 
See these threads for healthy and affordable canned foods:

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/308964/healthy-but-affordable-canned-food

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/309608/cheap-grain-free-cat-canned-food

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/306956/new-affordable-petsmart-brand-d

I would just throw the uneaten kibble away at the end of the day instead of adding more food to the bowl the next day. Cat saliva will be all over the food and bacteria will grow in the food.

A lot of the the premium brands smell really good, like a meal you would cook for yourself - Weruva, Tiki Cat, etc

But these are likely out of your budget. There's nothing wrong with Fancy Feast Classic / Gourmet. But those 3 oz cans isn't a lot of food so you would need to buy a lot of food all the time. It's better to buy a brand that is available in 5.5 oz and larger sized cans and to buy in cases than individual cans. Friskies is good as well and there's one variety that is available in a 13 oz can size. Generic store brands may be suitable as well, just be sure to read the label if you want something grain-free and / or with few to no fillers.

Stick with pate foods so you get the most of your money. Gravy based foods tend to be mostly water with very little actual food. You can always add water to pate food to make "gravy" and to get extra water into the cat.

Try toppers on top of canned food to make it more yummy. Crushed up freeze dried meat treats and freeze dried raw works for most cats. FortiFlora is always popular. A little gravy from a can of cat food can be used.

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warm salt free broth is great as a gravy too and they like it

NewYork1303 said:

 
I cannot switch to an all wet food diet because my fiance and I are gone at work for 12 hours or more during the day. I wouldn't want to leave the cats without food that amount of time. Also my fiance is not a fan of the extra cost associated with wet food and hates the smell of it so feeding the cats a can a day would already be a major compromise. Getting them on the healthier grain free food was already a jump for him since the cats he grew up with were fed on extremely low quality cat food.

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Wet food won't necessarily add more to your food budget, especially the lower cost wet food. If your fiance cares about the health of your pets he needs to be more open to feeding them wet food. It's okay to leave wet food out when you're gone for several hours, many of us do that no problem. Unless your fiance is sticking his nose in the wet food, there isn't a lingering "smell" associated with it. Rinse out the cans and toss them in the recycle and you won't have any issues. 

Thank you. Thank you. I will read those links when I get a chance for everything to calm down around here.

Alright. So after looking at all of that and talking it over with my fiance, we agreed that we'd start slow with adding cat food to their diets. We know Carrot will be our problem more than Angua since she at least eats canned cat food, but can be picky about what flavors and becomes less excited about it over time. Carrot eats three or four bites at most with it generally (I consider this better than zero). 

We have purchased the Wellness turkey and salmon in the 12 oz cans (since Carrot shows more interest in fishy canned food than in other types). We will be starting with replacing the meal that they eat right when we get home from work with a meal of canned food instead. This will make it so that Carrot is more hungry. He will still have another meal of dry food later on so if he doesn't eat the wet food he won't starve. 

The idea would be to add more of the wet food and more flavors as we start transitioning them over more to try and get them eating about 50- 50 wet and dry food. 

My fiance says that feeding our cat babies some wet food is far cheaper than feeding and clothing real babies so we're still getting a great deal.   He doesn't mind if we start feeding them canned cat food as long as he doesn't have to be the one doing the feeding.

Problems already (as expected I suppose). Carrot is turning his nose up at the food. He eats two bites of canned food or none at all and then waits till his later meal for dry kibble. Angua eats it gladly but doesn't eat very much. She is a nine pound cat at this point and only eats maybe 2 oz of food for  the meal? 

Any ideas for what I can do to encourage them to eat? I tried mixing wet and dry food for Carrot, he is having none of that. Sniffs it and walks away. Also tried adding treats to the food, he wouldn't touch it. 

How long can I leave the wet food out without it growing bacteria?

Butting in to ask that you please add your reviews on the products mentioned here! You'll be helping us raise funds to help cats in need this month!

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That sounds like a good deal. I will definitely check it out.

NewYork1303 said:

 
That sounds like a good deal. I will definitely check it out.

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I think I'll grab a few cans for the kitties to try, too

Kat0121 said:

 
I think I'll grab a few cans for the kitties to try, too

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 My cats favorites are  Mixed Grill & Turkey & Giblets but they do like the other flavors too ..

2Cats4Me said:

 
 My cats favorites are  Mixed Grill & Turkey & Giblets but they do like the other flavors too ..

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Turkey & giblets is usually a winner with mine too

I'd like to add my recommendation for Tractor Supply Company's canned foods. Their brand is called 4Health. I love their grain free turkey and giblets pate. It's good food and doesn't have vegetable fillers. At $0.69 per 5.5 oz can, it greatly helps to balance out food costs in my home.

Have you considered purchasing a timed feeder and placing a serving sizes chunk of frozen canned food in it? It could be set to dispense at a set time, after the food has naturally thawed.

The feeder is a good idea, but they're kind of expensive. I'm not going to be able to transition to all wet anyway. At most wet for breakfast and dinner, with dry left out through the day and possibly at night.

My adult cat is still giving me a hard time with switching. He'll eat maybe four bites of the food now, but only if I let him share a plate with the kitten. I have purchased a bunch of different textures of food to try to see if he is just against the pate style. But they haven't arrived yet, so for now he is stuck with pate. He seems to be willing to just wait until his bedtime meal for food if I only serve wet for supper. He eats a few bites than walks away, content to pester me for dry food up until bedtime or to just ignore the fact that he hasn't really eaten since 6am.