Wet Food

I have tried so hard to get my little Dita to eat soley wet food. I am currently feeding her Iams pouches as she has a corn allergy and can't eat the Fancy Feast tins.

My only concern is that according to the feeding instructions, it says to feed approx 2 pouches per 5 pounds of body weight. Well my girl weighs about 10 lbs. She will not even eat 1 pouch a day. I have tried giving her a whole pouch at a time and she will eat only a bit.

I have tried to feed her Natural Balance wet, she currently has the Natural Balance dry food (Venison and Green Pea), I have also tried Merricks and the result is the same. She will only eat about half the tin, or pouch in one sitting.

Any suggestions on how to encourage her to eat more wet? She can't possibly be full on a half a pouch of food

I tried to get Harley to eat Iams, but he wouldn't. I finally switched to Meow Mix wet pouches, and him and Davidson both love them. Meow Mix's wet food isn't as bad as their dry - but its main ingredient is fish, be sure your cat doesn't have a fish allergy as well

Have you tried mixing a bit of the wet food with the dry food? Maybe you'll just have to wean her into it for a bit.... she'll soon realize its good stuff!

This article contains some tips on how to transition to wet food which might help (scroll down to the "Transitioning Dry Food Addicts to Canned Food" section).

http://www.catinfo.org/

OK now I am really confused!

I was reading the article on the transition from dry to wet food and it indicates that the average cat will eat between 4-6 ounces of wet food per day. The Iams pouches are 3 oz each and there feeding instructions state 2 pouches per 5 lbs of weight. So in a day that would be at least 12 oz of food and double what the article states.

Oh man, no wonder she wont eat all the food I try and feed, I am trying to feed her twice what she is too normally eat!!

Is this correct??

Well the amount needed will vary depending on the quality of the food - you need less of the better quality foods than cheaper foods.

Hmm.. trying desperately to do some mental arithmetic here and convert grams into ounces - is it 25g=1oz? Jaffa eats 2 100g pouches of wet food per day (8oz?) plus about 15g dry food. He weighs just over 5kg (about 12lbs I think?). He's not overweight or underweight but a tall, small boned but muscular cat who's fairly active for a 9 year old indoor cat (but probably inactive if compared to an outdoor cat or a younger cat). According to the Iams guidelines he'd need to eat nearly 5 pouches (assuming no dry) which I doubt he'd manage. Yet he eats more than 4-6oz mentioned in the article, though not a lot more given that he's bigger than an average cat.

I guess the right amount is simply the amount that maintains their body weight, and it will be trial and error to find out exavtly how much that is. It's also going to vary depending on the quality of the food, activity level, age etc. Guidelines on food packaging and in articles can only be very generalised. I think the 6-8oz sounds nearest to a sensible amount, given how much Jaffa eats. However, half a pouch can't be enough for your cat. Maybe she just doesn't like it and is eating the minimum to satisfy her hunger. If you put dry down does she eat that?

I think the amount recommended on the pouches is much too high. That would have my 9.5 pound cat eating 12 ounces a day! She actually eats about 4-5 ounces per day, plus a tablespoon or so of dry food. I've never known any cat to eat as much as the pet food manufacturer recommends.

She LOVES her dry food!! I am feeding her Natural Balance Venison and Green Pea currently.

As for her not liking the Iams, I would say out of all of them, she likes that the most. I have tried Merricks, Natural Balance Wet, Nutro (which she absolutely refused!). I have to be careful though cause she is sensitive to Corn. She likes the Fancy Feast Beef pate, but its hard for her to eat cause she mushes it the bowl and then can't pick it up with her tongue. So I have to feed her the formed pieces or the chunky kind. As for the Fancy Feast that is Grilled or Chunks, it all has Corn Starch in it which is a no-no for Ms Dita.

I just can't seem to get her past either half a tin or pouch per feeding (she is fed once in the morning and once when I get home from work) no matter what brand I try.

i think half a pouch per feeding is fine, is she eating dry food too or just the half pouch of wet in the mornings and evenings? if not you could leave a little dry out during the day. some animals just dont like to eat a lot all at once.