How do I get my cat to eat better wet food?
My question seems to be the reverse of some others... I just adopted a fantastic 1.5 year old feline from an animal shelter. He was fed a combination of friskies and/or 9lives wet food at the shelter. I am agasint these products as they contain terrible ingredients; however my cat won't eat the Nutro or Wellness wet foods that I've bought.
Should I try mixing some friskies or 9lives into the other wet foods and wean him off that way? I'd hate to do that as I'd prefer him to not eat any of that stuff... but if I have to...
Figuring how to feed a cat depends on the age, activity level and health status of your cat. I will address your concern by giving you advise base on the assumption that your cat is generally healthy and have no special dietary or medical needs.
If you have been feeding your cat dry food around the clock with a food dispenser, the first thing to do is to stop slowly. Kibble addict resist changes and it's not a good way to cut them off dry immediately. They are used to the smell of dry kibble - where food manufacturer trick their senses with addictive coating to entice them to eat. Also, your cat is used to the crunchy texture of dry kibbles and will resist eating wet.
What you need to do is a gradual transition - introduce her to wet food slowly. Start off with a mixture of what she is eating now and mix it with the wet food.
If your cats eat both wet and dry, you can eliminate the dry almost immediately. On the other hand, if they are kibble addicts, you need to go slow. Feed more times, less quantity because kibble addicts are used to having food around 24/7 (if you free fed).
A normal healthy and active adult weighing at about 6-8lbs would need about 6oz of wet food a day. For kibble addicts, you need to upped the number of feedings at the beginning but each time, serve only a smaller portion. Since they are used to eating all the time, you can try feeding them up to 6 times a day. This is just a very extreme recommendation because once your cat has established a wet food appetite, you can greatly reduced the number of feeding and increase the quantity.
Once you got your cat to eating wet food, you can now feed either 2-3 times a day. Always monitor your cat's reaction to the food. If after four weeks or so, you find that your cat seems to have grown a little more chubbier, reduce and the opposite is correct if she seems to be hungry at all times.
Sometimes, when switching to all wet using scheduled and portion control feeding method cat owners feel bad when they see their cats begging for more food. Resist the temptation to give in. Cats can very well go a few long hours without eating. Stick to your routine. But never starve a cat into eating.
The decision to switch to wet food is the correct one and I am glad that you have taken a step forward in ensuring your cat gets all the proper nutrition and species appropriate food.
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