How to work up to feeding just dry food to my cats

[angelbaby123]

I have 2 male cats, 1 has prescription wet & dry food he eats. I am going away for 2 days the end of next month and I need to have both of my cats eat dry food for those 2 days. Right now they both eat wet food although the 1 that's not on prescription food won't eat the dry prescription food. He does eat Blue Buffalo that I give when the other 1 is sleeping. How can I start training him to eat the dry prescription food? I have no one who can come by to feed the wet food.

 

[paiger8]

They make cat bowls with sensors that you put on your cat's collar. The bowl only opens for that specific cat, so you could keep the cats out of each others' food. 

They also make automatic feeders with ice packs so you can leave wet food out. I would freeze both the wet food and the ice pack, so they'd stay cold longer.

Out of curiosity, what prescription food is the one cat on?

 

[angelbaby123]

Hill Brand

 

[angelbaby123]

Is there a way to try to get the cat not on prescription dry food to eat it? I am single and on a limited budget

 

[paiger8]

What specific Hill's prescription food is the one cat on? I don't have a very high opinion of Hill's food. The ingredients are pretty crappy for the price. If it's for urinary issues, I'd recommend switching both to all wet and ditching the prescription food all together. Even Friskies or Fancy Feast pate foods are better than Hills. It would actually save you some money also. (I realize this won't work for your 2 day trip, just in general this might work for you)

You could also keep one cat in a bedroom for the weekend (with a litter box, food, water, and toys) for the weekend. Then you could just leave a bowl of food out for both of them in their own rooms.

If you're determined to get the other cat to eat the prescription food, you need to slowly mix the prescription food with the old food over the course of a few weeks at least. Start with 1/4 new (Hills) with 3/4 old food for a week, then move to 1/2 and 1/2 for at least a week, then 3/4 and 1/4... etc. If you switch him over too fast, he'll have diarrhea. 

 

[angelbaby123]

Thank you so much for your advice. The cat on prescription has had urinary issues, I did try other wet food before but he still had problems. He was actually hospitalized & had a catheter for a few days.Since he has been on the Hills we have had no problems. I think I may just have to put them in seperate rooms for those 2 days.