Former feral w/no teeth

Hi, I usually read more than I post. We have a former feral, we had a colony but want to move so thankfully homes were found for all but this one - she had periodontal disease so bad her teeth were removed. Agency asked us to foster her during her antiobiotic stage, but we decided to keep her, thinking: a farm isn't going to feed her wet food.

While we had this colony: we fed them: Large bowl of either Friskies, Whiskies, etc. - and put out two plates (they shared) of canned Friskies, 9Lives, Whiskas. Then we would have "stuff" trimmings of chicken, pot roast, whatever, etc. - would cook that up and put on a plate inside the house.

Some of the "cool" cats would come in to eat that. This cat we have now, it's been just over a year is SOOOOOOO picky. She will scarve down people food scraps - but I want her to eat kitty food. If she gets desperate enough, she'll swallow some dry (she has 3 varieties to choose from).

This cat will sometimes/mostly eat the morning feeding, but snubs her nose at dinner (unless it's a pouch/cup - she'll scarf those up). She also wants to smell whatever we're eating and is especially attached to REAL chicken cut up tiny for her.

WHAT to feed? Can't afford these really expensive diets... she seems (I guess) healthy, a bit underweight, but that is due to her development growing up w/the disease. She won't touch most dry, some she will (at most 6-8 pieces) of tiny food occasionally.

I'm used to my previous kitty - she made it 24 or so yrs.

If she has no teeth,then I don't think she needs dry food,unless its mixed with wet and allowed to get mushy. How old is she?

My Twitch is a toothless darling! Cats swaloow most of their food without chewing, that is why dry food does nothing to clean teeth. Twitch eats mostly dry as she is "too good" for wet. I found that Twitch can only eat the smaller round bites, the "odd" shapes bother her. Maybe try Purina ONE? Or Nutro? Depending on the cat's age, select the appropriate food(kitten, adult, hairball, etc). I know Twitch likes the shape that the ONE kibble is in. BTW-In the long run, more expensive diets save money. Cats poop less, eat less, etc. on higher quality food.

I feel like a moron sometimes, but I keep a bag of the kibble that is the appropriate size in my purse, & then when I go cat food shopping I whip out my bag & say I need the kibble to be this size. No "X"s, or other cute shapes, round, small, easy to swallow.