Cat only eats dry food?

kmh039

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I have a cat with food allergies. She's currently on a limited ingredient dry food, but I've recently become aware of how bad dry food is for cats. We normally free feed with the dry food and I've tried offering small amounts of wet food as treats in the evening. She just sniffs at them and walks away. Would removing the dry food and only feeding wet food solve this problem? I'm concerned she just wouldn't eat then.

Thanks in advance for the help!
 

hbunny

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My younger cat did the same when I first brought him in to live the inside life.  He was a former feral, used to eating cheap-quality dry cat food across the neighborhood at various houses.  We had even seen him 3 miles away eating on someone's front porch with a bunch of other cats.  Because of his scavenging ways, it took me forever to get him changed over to wet food. 

This may not work for you at all if she has food allergies, but maybe you can adapt the transition with something that she CAN eat.

I started off by buying the blandest dry cat food available--honestly, the one he hated the most,which oddly was Hill's Science Diet.  Apparently the cheap stuff is like kitty crack, because he would down a whole bowl of dry in one session of hogging.  Anyway, I started putting out a half a cup of dry that he hated, along with a bowl of wet food that had been watered down.  And I got the stinkiest wet food I could find, which was a fishy flavor that gagged me, that I normally do not feed my older cat ever never ever.  But hey, whatever it takes...I swear it gagged me when I opened the can though.

Eventually he began eating the wet more and more.  I experimented with different flavors and brands just to get him moved over to a wet food.  I'd start off with the stinkiest kind you can find, since apparently stinky=appealing to cats, --then move to a better, higher quality food.  I did that then went to non-fishy wet foods with tuna juice over it.  Then to just the non-fishy wet food.  I have finally gotten him now to eat only the Fancy Feast classic pates, the beef, turkey & giblets, and the chicken.  It took a while to move him off the fishy stuff!  It must be like crack as well.

I do still keep dry out all day and all night because I have a cat that needs to free feed due to digestive issues, but I feed Royal Canin sensitive stomach, and the younger one doesn't really care for it at all, so it isn't that big of an issue anymore.

Maybe you could transition her by choosing a limited ingredient dry that she doesn't find appealing, in combination with a wet food that is limited ingredient, so that she will lean more towards eating the wet.  The methodology I used worked for us, doing it slowly...but I did cut off the cheap stuff and only offered him the choice of the unappealing dry and the wet cat food.  He never went without eating, although I am sure some cats would.

You might also try a topper, like those cat-man-doo bonito flake sprinkles (although my cats refused them).  Lots of cats like toppers on their wet food.  Also, have you tried sprinkling a bit of dry kibble on top of the wet as an enticement??
 
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