Feeding issues

Ok, so we just added a cat to our family two weeks ago named Sweetpea. We already had a cat, a cornish rex named Bijou. I'm having a bit of a problem with feeding them. Sweetpea will not eat dry food at all. I talked to her previous owner (my SIL) and she said that she tried all different kinds and Sweetpea would rather just have wet. I always free fed Bijou dry, but have come to realize that she needs wet food too. I have to feed Sweetpea in a seperate location when I give them their wet food in the morning or Bijou will steal hers. Bijou LOVES the wet food and she also loves her dry. Heck, she just loves to eat, period. I give Sweetpea as much wet as she will eat because for one she is skinny as can be, and also I haven't seen her drink even once. Meanwhile Bijou gets just a little bit, which she snarfs up as fast as possible, and she gobbles her dry too. She is becoming a little butterball and I'm getting worried. She is supposed to be on perscription food for her teeth, so I really don't want to take her off the dry. Sweetpea has gained maybe a little weight, but not much. But then again, it's only been two weeks. I guess my question is, is there a way to "entice" Sweetpea to eat dry food? Or drink water? Also, are there any low cal wet foods that I can feed Bijou? I can't take away the wet food now that she has had it. She wouldn't understand why Sweetpea gets it and not her. I've never tried anything for wet but what my grocery carries because for the past nine years, Bijou has been on dry. I now realize that she really needs some wet food but her weight gain has me worried. Should I doll out her dry each day so that Bijou doesn't overeat? But if I do that, when I'm at work she WILL eat Sweetpeas share. What should I do? Need some help here!

If she doesnt like dry she shouldnt have to eat it ... Contrary to popular thought DRY doesnt help with dental care... Wet food is very good for a kitty ..Most companies make a light wet food but I would suggest against that and use the highest protein and fat you can get as this is what a cat is able to digest ... Wet food has the right amount of moisture so cats dont drink much ..WHat Foods are you currently feeding??.. SLow down

My vet is the one who wanted Bijou on the dental food. Do you think he is pushing it because that is what the clinic carries? Right now for wet, they are eating iams and fancy feast. Should I completly take Bijou off of the dry? If I do that how much should each cat get per day? I don't want them to be hungry. Also Sweetpea doesn't drink water PERIOD. I'm thinking maybe if I get a water fountain this will help?

Water fountain s do help.... I am not a vet but I would advise you to research about dry food is it an RX like T/D or is it regular food the vet sells??

I was told 1 ounce( tablespoon) per lb of wt .... some Eat just half that and maintain others eat more... most cat cans have a guideline of 5-6 ounce per 6-8 lbs

She is on Hills perscription T/D.

I have finally, (thank goodness, after years of addiction to it), gotten my crew off of Friskies canned and they are eating Felidae, Innova Evo and Eagle Pack canned. They eat much less of the better quality foods than they did the grocery store junk food.

Perhaps if you upgrade your canned foods they wouldn't eat so much. All those people that said it is cheaper in the long run to feed higher quality food are quite right. I'm going through nowhere near the amount of food I was with the Friskies.

I don't know anything about the prescription foods and wouldn't presume to tell you your cat doesn't need it, but for the regular diet I say dump the grocery store stuff and upgrade.

Oh those vets are always pushing that Hill's T/D dental diet. It's their biggest seller. It's great for teeth but too bad the ingredients are poor quality, like corn bread with just a small amount of chicken by-product meal, in fact compare the T/D to Purina Cat Chow from your local grocery store and the ingredients are very similar. You're feeding an expensive Cat Chow. Do you really want to be paying so much money for Cat Chow? (If T/D was high quality it would be the perfect dry food and everyone would be feeding it). On top of that the Hill's company wants you to feed the Hill's T/D as the sole diet, no canned or other cat food. I was once persuaded by vets to feed my cats T/D and I fed it for a while, at first by itself with canned as a supplement and then mixed with another dry food as many do this to save money. Then I noticed my cat Spotty wasn't doing very well on it and he threw up a lot. And I haven't fed T/D in years and am constantly rejecting offers from veterinary receptionists to "try the T/D."

You can if you wish, make the T/D work for you by feeding predominantly a high quality canned food and just giving 1/4 of a cup of T/D at night. T/D really isn't very high in calories(265 calories per cup) but it's very high in carbohydrates. Or you can mix it with another dry food that is high quality. Or you could decide once and for all that the T/D's ingredients really isn't worth the expensive price you're paying at the clinic and do away with the T/D altogether like I did, especially when I saw how many times Spotty threw up eating it. This cat had to eat more just to get the nutrition he needed so he was constantly eating and gaining weight from the carbs and then leaving me frequent presents of regurgitated kibble.

Now my cat Spotty doesn't eat a lot of wet food so I have to feed him some dry but I've found that ever since I've switched to feeding him wet food first in the morning, then leaving out some high quality dry such as California Natural and then giving him wet food first in the evening and leaving out some dry, he hardly ever throws up and he's much more satisfied.

As far as whether to feed only canned food and take away the dry, it's really up to you. Do what works out best for you and your cats. Cats that love their canned food and won't eat their dry food should be fed wet food(and that's a good thing with wet food being more similar to their natural diet) and cats that don't eat all their wet food or eat only a small amount of it will need some dry food as a supplement. And if you want to switch all of your cats to an all wet food diet, it can be done but it will take time and persistence.

Also, with multiple cats it's almost impossible to prevent each cat from eating the other's food. You just have to figure how much your cats need and feed only that amount. A little competition may reduce the risk of weight gain. My cats are somewhat overweight in spite of one cat eating another cat's food and one cat sometimes getting a bit less than his/her share. And if you have cats that require a special prescription diet that the other cats cannot eat you may need to feed them in separate rooms. Fortunately you don't have to do that yet.

Sharky is right - dry food really doesn't do much for their dental health. A great many (if not most) vets know very little about nutrition. They tend to push the stuff that the sales reps leave at their office with the spiel that it's the best! Not so.

Most of us (and I include myself) feed dry food because it's just easier to leave it out when we are out all day or on the weekends. We've changed Bijou's diet to mostly wet (fed twice per day) with only a bit of dry left out for grazing between morning and night wet feeding.

if you are worried about Bijou's weight i would suggest putting Bijou on Royal Canin's Dental diet it's not as fatty as the T/D and you can leave it out for the both of them, you never know the other one might come round to it in time if left to surf. a lot of people will try to feed their cats dry food and claim the cat wont eat it. but if they get hungry enough they will eat it eventually. cats can be picky and know your buttons and will push them. even if it means them starving themselves for three days to get what they want...