My cat stopped eating the wet food the vet recommended

Hello, everyone!
My 3 year old male went to the vet a week ago, and she found crystals in his urine, so the vet prescribed him royal canin urinary s/o wet food. He resisted eating it at first, as he's been on kibble for as long as I've had him, but I convinced him to eat it by putting tuna juice on it and microwaving it. He started to eat it without the tuna, but not the two cans per day that the vet said to feed him. Keep in mind that he is a 16.5 lb cat. Not overweight, just a big boy. Now, today, he decides he won't eat it at all, no matter what I do to it. I worried that he hadn't eaten all day, so I put some of his old kibble on top out of desperation, but I don't want to aggravate the crystal situation, so I didn't put too much. He promptly marched over to the food bowl and ate the kibble, but not the wet food. I'm trying to switch him to wet food, as I know that is best for cats with crystals, but I'm having a really hard time convincing him. Please help!

Hi Juliet, If he loves kibble, of course anything else will quickly be boring for him. Going back to the kibble resets the whole process though. That said, why not try a good raw meat diet? It is the natural way to eat for cats and could clear his crystals up too. Many vets don't like this, they also make money on selling you the special diets, so I don't know how honest that is. On this site and many others on the internet you can find information on the raw meat diet discussion. I feed it to my cats and even the old one that has CKD does really well on it, no meds. Look into it for your buddy. Being condemned to a lifetime of special food is no fun. 

The S/O may not be necessary at all. Here's a thread: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/254489/alternatives-to-expensive-urinary-so-food

Many prescription canned foods are heavy on liver which some cats don't like. Did the vet specifically find struvite crystals in your cat?

Many cats prone to urinary issues can eat any comemrcial brand of canned food just fine. You should ask the vet about this but keep in mind that some vets will push prescription food no matter what.

Thank you so much for the info! I offered him another type of wet food, and he ate it no problem, so I guess he just doesn't like that kind. I bought 4health grain free for my other cat from tractor supply co after reading some good reviews on it. He seems to like it, and I know that any wet food is better than dry for cats with crystals. My vet didn't tell me what type of crystals he had, she just said to feed him the urinary s/o food for 2 weeks, but I want to change his diet to prevent it happening again. I wanted to feed them halo brand, but I live in a rural area, and I don't have access to a store that sells it. I don't want to order a whole case only to find that my cats won't touch it. So, hopefully this 4health grain free will do the trick.

Update: I spoke with the veterinarian, and she said that he had to eat the royal canin for now to dissolve the crystals. I have since had some success getting him to eat it mixed with another kind of wet food. She told me to slowly increase the royal canin and decrease the other food, and see if I can get him to eventually eat only the royal canin. I'll try, but otherwise he'll just have to eat the 4health grain free wet food. Hopefully this will be ok?

Hi Juliet, Sounds really good! Good approach with the mixing. You could also try to have the daily play session right before his main meal. After 'hunting' they are motivated to eat. Give it a try?

He is indoor/outdoor so I let him run around, and when he comes back in he's usually hungry. The cold weather seems to be helping too. He's still not eating a ton of the wet food, but the vet said as long as he eats some of the royal canin, that's better than nothing. It also won't hurt him if he were to lose a pound or two! apparently, he IS overweight, I just didn't see it. He just looks like a big cat to me! He's spunky and seems happy, so I don't want to fuss over him too much and stress him out.