Wet Food Recommendations for the Cat that hates Wet Food

[TardisDance]

Hi, I am new to this forum. I have had my cat Sango for nearly 9 months. She is a 3 years black tuxedo that came from the county shelter. At the time of adoption, she was in an isolation room being treated for an upper respiratory infection and had just finished up her antibiotics. I don’t know much about her history, only that she was in the shelter for a month and came from a hoarding situation. There were at least 10 cats in the isolation room.

The shelter didn’t tell me much about her history, but suffice to say I‘m pretty confident she was only on a dry diet. The shelter recommended 1 cup of Purina Cat Chow Dry Food and 3 oz of wet food - they never specified which brand of wet but I think they were giving her Friskies pate of some sort. At the time of adoption, I noticed she ate next to nothing of her wet food in her shelter cage.

I have been trying for months to get her to eat wet food. I’ve tried American Journey minced (chewy.com brand), Wellness Complete, Wellness Core, Purina Beyond, Sheba, Fancy Feast Natural, Fancy Feast Classic, and Fancy Feast Creamy Delights. She takes a few bites of the food and scratches and walks away. I’ve tried encouraging with play time, mixing with treats/dry food/nutritional yeast. For the most part, she might take a few bites and then scratch and waste the rest. I tried splitting into 2-3 meals with a 3 oz. can, but she hates leftovers even when reheated in a microwave.

I gave up on the wet food and switched her to NV Instinct Ultimate Protein Chicken dry food. I had her on American Journey Turkey & Chicken, but I wanted to reduce the carbs and the amount of plant protein. I bought a cat fountain and she does drink a least a cup of water a day from that plus drinks a little bit from 2 water bowls that are around the house. Her dry food is fed from an automatic feeder. She kind of sticks to the morning feeds but she’s really all over the place in the afternoon and picks at food. I think the picking part is one of the problems of why I can’t get her eating wet food. However, since she gets stressed so easily, I really don’t want to take her food away completely. She’s a super timid, shy cat and it took her several months to stop hiding . . any change in the house stresses her out a ton and she‘ll hide.

Is there any hope that I might be able to get her to eat some wet food? Or am I overthinking this? Is dry food fine since she does drink water? She pees about 4 times a day now with the fountain which is good improvement from the 2-3 she used to do without the fountain. She had occasional constipation before, but she doesn’t have this anymore.

I’m mostly curious of what others have tried for the difficult cats. I noted that she tends to like foods with Salmon a bit better than the rest (but she hated the Sheba Salmon Pate with a passion). She dislikes tuna. She really hates Chicken and Turkey plain anything but was okay for a time with Turkey & Chicken minced by American Journey.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. A couple of ideas -
1.) Take some of her dry food and add just a touch of water to it, to see if you can get her to eat it that way. If so, add more water slowly over time. The goal is to get her to like softer, moister food through the dry she likes now. That might help her to acclimate to wet foods eventually.
2.) Not sure if the Sheba you are talking about is the Perfect Portion ones, but if not, give those a try as well. They are only 1.32 oz for each pack, so if she won't eat a lot in one sitting, you are not wasting as much food or having to try to feed her left overs. Nutro has a similar packaging arrangement with many of the same flavors. Feeby eats some of the flavors of each, but not all, so it is worth trying the same flavors in both. Both of these have other textures than just pate (e.g.; cuts in gravy) in case you might want to try that as well.

It might also be that she is used to the automatic feeder and is less sure how to 'handle' eating from something other than that. Just another thought to consider.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

If you have not read these articles, maybe something in them will be helpful:

Transitioning Free-fed Kibble Kitties To Timed Meals – TheCatSite Articles

Transitioning Your Cat From Kibble To A New Type Of Food – TheCatSite Articles

Since you mentioned that she doesn't really eat specific "meals", that very well may be a lot of the problem. But since she is very skiddish still, you may want to wait until she is more secure in her new surroundings before you tackle this, especially since she is drinking what sounds like plenty of water. Many cats live their entire lives without ever even knowing what wet food is. Not saying that's good or bad, it just is.

I have an extremely picky wet food eater, and have tried just about every brand, and every flavor and texture available. Right now he will only eat a mixture of two different foods. He won't eat either one of them by themselves, only if they are mixed together. Who can figure cats out????

 

[sivyaleah]

Some cats are very picky about texture in what they eat. None of my cats, for instance, will eat anything shredded no matter what the protein is. A couple of them dislike chunky food but one loves it. My feeling is feed the cat what they will eat. I'd try heading to whatever pet store is near you and buy 1 can of a whole bunch of things from different companies, textures, proteins, etc and see if you land on something he'll enjoy. Rabbit is a huge hit in our home.

 

[TardisDance]

If you have not read these articles, maybe something in them will be helpful:

Transitioning Free-fed Kibble Kitties To Timed Meals – TheCatSite Articles

Transitioning Your Cat From Kibble To A New Type Of Food – TheCatSite Articles

Since you mentioned that she doesn't really eat specific "meals", that very well may be a lot of the problem. But since she is very skiddish still, you may want to wait until she is more secure in her new surroundings before you tackle this, especially since she is drinking what sounds like plenty of water. Many cats live their entire lives without ever even knowing what wet food is. Not saying that's good or bad, it just is.

I have an extremely picky wet food eater, and have tried just about every brand, and every flavor and texture available. Right now he will only eat a mixture of two different foods. He won't eat either one of them by themselves, only if they are mixed together. Who can figure cats out????

I think you’re right, she needs more time. She hid in our bathroom for the first 2 months and another month in her cat bed in our living room. She’s come a long way but the poor thing still has a lot of issues to get through. I have to keep telling myself that. I have to go incredibly slow with her for even the simple things . . .I bought her a heated cat mat as an early Xmas gift and she’s even scared of that. New things are very scary for her.

NV Ultimate Protein seems decent enough. My worry has been the ash content since I know this can cause urine crystals, but this food doesn’t have animal meal in it. The carbs could be lower, but it’s better than most on the market. The tapioca on the ingredient list is questionable, but I’ve seen a lot of wet food containing this thickener (not saying it’s right or wrong, but it is what it is). The only one I could find a little better is Dr. Elsey’s but NV UP is much better in price since it’s sold as a 10 lb. bag.

I would be feeding her mostly wet food if she wasn’t so picky about it.