Switching foster back to dry only

[julieh]

I have a foster momma and her kittens. When I first got her she was pregnant and ate fine for the first few days. Then about a week into in, she stopped eating. 4 whole days - not a bite... I bribbed her with everything I could think of: canned food, tuna, gravy on her kibble. At a loss for ideas and worried about her health and that of her tummy full of kittens, I finally force fed her KMR. She started eating after that but prefered the wet stuff. I compromised by mixing her kitten kibble in with some canned food. That is what she has been eating for the last 2 months. Morning and night, 1/2 a can of wet and 1/2 cup of kibble mixed it.


Here's my problem: eventually she will go back to the shelter when her kittens are big enough for adoption. They only feed kibble and I'm sure won't bend to her wishes to feed her canned mixed with the kibble... How can I wean her off of the canned food for her return ? Right now, she won't eat any kibble that's not surrounded by "enough" canned food - picky little thing...

Any suggestions ?

Julie

 

[littleraven7726]

can you donate canned food for her, and make them aware of her feeding needs? when i worked at a shelter, we fed kibble to probably 95% of the cats, but there are always exceptions. some cats were not used to dry, or wouldn't eat it. so they got canned if they wouldn't eat dry (and the shelter i worked at did get donations of canned foods, i would suspect many others do too. most of what i donate personally to our local shelter is also canned). we also had the exceptions of cats on prescription foods, so some shelters do make exceptions. maybe you could talk to a manager?

 

[ktlynn]

I like littleraven's idea, hope the shelter will agree to it. Canned food is so much better for cats than dry. Dry food is cheap and easier to deal with (as far as clean up) so that's probably why the shelter uses it. It's a shame, though, since it isn't good for cats to be on a strictly dry food diet.