My cat stopped eating wet

[kedilar]

Hi,

Some background:
I have a 3 year old domestic short hair. She seems pretty healthy with no health issues.

I feed her twice a day :

Nulo - grain free - indoor - chicken and turkey - 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp

Weruva: chicken or chicken & turkey in the afternoon. 1 small can

She decided that she no longer wants to eat Weruva. Mixing wet and dry together did not work and she just rejects it. I even tried not feeding her for 18 hours to see if she will eat Weruva but she did not.

I tried finding her another carraggeenan free crammed food or something that has decent ingredients. , but she rejected them all.

She however eats this super market canned food I found. It does not have the best meat ingredients. It has carraggeenan and meat by products, animal liver. There are no corn or gluten in the receipe and it's really low carb ( which is good. ) and the first ingredient is chicken despite having meat by product and animal liver as 2nd and 3rd ingredient.

I do not know what to do now. I hate giving her canned food that is not very nutritious, but I want to make sure she gets moisture by eating wet.

Should I continue giving her the not so perfect canned food and continue with the same schdule ?

Or should I give her dry food one day and the next day wet for breakfast and dry for dinner. Total of 3 small cans a week. This way she will eat Nulo dry which is a pretty decent receipe I think. It has lentils like many other dry recepies, but the first 3 ingredient is : chicken, chicken meal and turkey meal.

What are your thoughts?

To continue with the regular schedule and replace Weruva with super market wet

Or give her more dry and super market wet 3 times a week only?

Please note she once had urinary issues after being on dry only diet.

Thanks.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. When Feeby started 'rejecting' her canned food, I bought Fancy Feast pates and mixed it with her food. That did the trick to get her to eat the original food - but I still continue to add FF to it because I don't think the pate version of that food is all that bad and it gives her a bit of variety in terms of flavors.

 

[minish]

Even when I feed minish with only dry, I give her 1/3-1/4 cup of warm chicken, bone or meat broth in addition to her regular meals since she doesn't drink enough to compensate. If it's a bit thick and has meat particles, she never refuses.

 

[She's a witch]

if this new food is low carb and high protein, I'd keep giving it despite the meat-by products. Carraggeenan would be my concern as one of my cat does indeed reacts badly to it, but if yours is ok, this doesn't necessarily is bad, although who knows. You can always try to find some different palatable food, Feeby's Owner mentioned Fancy Feast Classic pate (but I'd avoid other FF).

 

[cataholic07]

I find cats get bored of wet food, that's why you want to have different brands or flavors on hand and switch daily. Try mixing the wet and dry food.

 

[zoes]

Should I continue giving her the not so perfect canned food and continue with the same schdule ?

Yes. I don't mind feeding my cats poor quality canned food if that's all they'll eat; I prefer poor quality wet to high quality dry. Also, try mixing cheap stuff with expensive stuff. And try various kinds and brands and flavours of good quality wet food. My cats, for example, will only eat red-meat-based wet food. Experiment with styles (strips in gravy vs pate) and water content (my cats prefer a sloppy mix with warm water as opposed to a solid puck from the fridge.)

Or should I give her dry food one day and the next day wet for breakfast and dry for dinner. Total of 3 small cans a week.

My preferred approach is to feed a SMALL portion of dry food in the morning (like 1 tbsp). That way I know my cats are eating something every day. Alongside the dry food, give a portion of wet food that you're not sure if she'll like (like a new flavour, or a cheap/expensive mix.) What my cats did when I was transitioning was eat all their dry food, walk away, then a few minutes later they'd come back and express interest in the wet food - not necessarily always eating it, but they would sniff it, or take a few bites. I found this worked better than trying to force them into eating wet food by withholding all other food altogether. You want to get them into "eating mode" by giving them a little bit of food, but leave them wanting a little more.

Leave the food out all day.

In the evening, feed a can of wet food you know she'll eat, the cheap stuff. Leave it out overnight.

Some people may not agree with leaving the food out for 8-12 hours but I've found it crucial to getting them to eat all their wet food, and I've never had an issue with digestive upset. Canned food is sterile when it comes out of the can and whatever bacterial growth happens in the few hours that it's on the floor is fine - wild and stray cats eat garbage, rotting food, guts and gut contents etc.

Anyway, I'm not too concerned about your kitty - your cat knows and sees wet food as food, which is really 90% of the battle. It's not unusual for cats to stop eating a certain kind of wet food. I always get a bunch of different kinds when I go to the pet store and just make a mental note of those they really like or really don't like.

 

[kedilar]

thank you everyone for your help. I will start by mixing the cheap stuff with the fancy one and see how it goes.