Wet food suggestions for a picky eater

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JenniferH

JenniferH

Member Since 2018
So today's attempt at giving Skittles m/d as recommended by the vet was a fail. He has been a dry food eater for 11 years. He was eating some A/d since his mouth surgery but not enough for his size. Any advice on what to buy and try? My other two cats have always eaten wet twice a day and he has never been interested in their food which is 9 lives beef and gravy and ff ocean fish in gravy. I'm thinking it's probably going to have to be some type of pate...maybe in chicken? Thanks for any advice.
 
It's hard to know what to suggest without understanding why a cat would refuse wet. I used to feed Bama a couple of spoonfuls of wet mixed with a little water so that it was really soupy. He would lap that up then eat his dry food. Transitioning him over to all wet has proven to be a problem, I think, because of it's texture. Coming out of the can, it is too thick. Adding water to 3 oz. of pate to make it soupy like he is used to eating turns 3 oz. into 5 or 6 and he just doesn't want to "drink" that much. Could it be that Skittles just doesn't like the texture? Has he ever shown any interest in tuna or tuna water? Maybe try 9 Lives Tuna with egg or cheese bits.
 
I've never seen him like tuna. Now my cat Ariel can sniff it out a mile away. I think it might be a texture and smell thing. The texture of the m/d is lumpy and the smell is more potent than the a/d he was just on.
 
JenniferH said:
So today's attempt at giving Skittles m/d as recommended by the vet was a fail. He has been a dry food eater for 11 years. He was eating some A/d since his mouth surgery but not enough for his size. Any advice on what to buy and try? My other two cats have always eaten wet twice a day and he has never been interested in their food which is 9 lives beef and gravy and ff ocean fish in gravy. I'm thinking it's probably going to have to be some type of pate...maybe in chicken? Thanks for any advice.
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We don’t advise using the prescription food as it is high in carbs, most of us use fancy feast classics NO gravies
Here is a food chart with the carb amounts
http://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf
 
Also maybe add chicken broth to the wet food, I got Stella and chewys bone broth today everyone loved it except for the one I got it for or Parmesan cheese as a topping
 
I feed three different 9 Lives pate flavors a day (chicken for breakfast, turkey/giblets for lunch, and bacon/liver for dinner) so my cat eats and doesn't get tired of his food. He never eats all of his food and he knows if it's leftovers/been frozen/been refrigerated, so splitting a can isn't an option. Through trial and error, I found out my cat needs 3 flavors per day not to get bored and stop eating, and routine (same flavor at the same time each day) works best.

I also give him freeze dried meat dog treats (zero carb) so he eats more of his canned food and doesn't cry from hunger or lose weight.

He didn't want anything to do with wet food when we started, but he's doing OK... chicken is his favorite, followed by liver/bacon :)
 
Bellasmom said:
We don’t advise using the prescription food as it is high in carbs, most of us use fancy feast classics NO gravies
Here is a food chart with the carb amounts
http://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf
Click to expand...
I agree with not using the prescription food. And I fed Fancy Feast for a long time. For my cat, it did not help regulate her blood sugar.

Now I'm trying natural foods without the synthetic junk and fillers. I've used Lotus and it is a good food but not the best for my cat. Now I'm using Nature's Logic canned food. All of their canned cat foods are low carb. It IS expensive but no worse than prescription food.
 
JenniferH said:
So today's attempt at giving Skittles m/d as recommended by the vet was a fail. He has been a dry food eater for 11 years. He was eating some A/d since his mouth surgery but not enough for his size. Any advice on what to buy and try? My other two cats have always eaten wet twice a day and he has never been interested in their food which is 9 lives beef and gravy and ff ocean fish in gravy. I'm thinking it's probably going to have to be some type of pate...maybe in chicken? Thanks for any advice.
Click to expand...


Is Skittles FD? Is he still recovering from his surgery? You may want to try Royal Canin Recovery. It is 3% carb, a very light pare, stinks and cats seem to like it.

That isn't a long term solution but may help while he is healing.
 
It's going to be quite a process to get a life long dry eater to switch to wet. It's definitely not going to happen over night or even in a week. You'll probably need to give him half and half. Mix his dry in with the wet.

Fancy Feast Classic is pate style, low carb, high protein, one of the most popular because of how affordable it is. 9 Lives isn't a very good food and it doesn't surprise me if your cat doesn't care for it. Try out the FF Classic, coax him with some kibble thrown in. If he doesn't like that try some different textures. Chunky, sliced, diced, etc.

You did mention he had some mouth surgery, so that could be a factor as well. Maybe eating causes him discomfort and might be indifferent to it while he's recovering. If that's the case maybe try watering the wet food down so he can lap it up rather than chew it
 
Mango hates wet food. He has had dry since he was 3 months. I put parmesan cheese on it and it helps but he has lost weight because he refuses to eat wet.I recreated a dry food monster by giving him Dr. Elseys. I do mix dry with wet to get him to eat it. Working on getting him on all wet again.
 
After dental surgery my cat went on strike for his kibble, even though he usually eats both wet (FF pates) and dry (mostly Dr Elsey's, some Evo as a treat). But kibble was banned while his gums were healing. What finally worked was to grind up some kibble and sprinkle on top of wet food. I didn't grind it to a powder, more like mini-nuggets under 1/8".
 
I was lucky mine have always had dry with the very occasional wet but they love wet food! Have you tried Tiki cat? Mine love it
 
Tom & Thomas said:
After dental surgery my cat went on strike for his kibble, even though he usually eats both wet (FF pates) and dry (mostly Dr Elsey's, some Evo as a treat). But kibble was banned while his gums were healing. What finally worked was to grind up some kibble and sprinkle on top of wet food. I didn't grind it to a powder, more like mini-nuggets under 1/8".
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I just tried grinding up a little bit of dr. Elsey's and put it in with his wet food and he seem to start eating it. I told him too bad so sad you better start eating it he just looked at me like yeah right.
 
I tried 3 different kinds of low carb, high protein pate flavors today and he refused them all. I even offered him the a/d that he was on after surgery and he refused it. I think he is still sore from dental surgery but he wants dry food even though it's hard for him to eat. I don't want to starve him trying to get him to eat the wet. He lost over a pound the week after surgery. He doesn't need to lose anymore that rapidly. I'm just afraid he isn't getting enough calories because he refuses all wet and I'm limiting his Dr. Elseys dry. :(
 
JenniferH said:
I tried 3 different kinds of low carb, high protein pate flavors today and he refused them all. I even offered him the a/d that he was on after surgery and he refused it. I think he is still sore from dental surgery but he wants dry food even though it's hard for him to eat. I don't want to starve him trying to get him to eat the wet. He lost over a pound the week after surgery. He doesn't need to lose anymore that rapidly. I'm just afraid he isn't getting enough calories because he refuses all wet and I'm limiting his Dr. Elseys dry. :(
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Have you tried running it through the blender to make a "smoothie"? I had to do that for a while with Bama. I added maybe a tablespoon of water to help it blend better.
 
Bellasmom said:
We don’t advise using the prescription food as it is high in carbs, most of us use fancy feast classics NO gravies
Here is a food chart with the carb amounts
http://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf
Click to expand...

The info I received on carb % from Sheba yesterday does not match this catinfo PDF. Which should I trust? The info Sheba gave me seems to say it is low carb, so I thought that meant it should be ok. It is the only wet food she will eat. She hates FF. I don't know what to do.

Sheba email -
Dear Christina,

Thank you for contacting SHEBA®.

I am happy to provide the carbohydrate amounts for our SHEBA® PERFECT PORTIONS™ Cuts in Gravy cat foods:

SHEBA® PERFECT PORTIONS™ Cuts in Gravy Delicate Whitefish & Tuna
3.06% of carbohydrates, as fed
SHEBA® PERFECT PORTIONS™ Cuts in Gravy Gourmet Salmon Entrée
3.26% of carbohydrates, as fed
SHEBA® PERFECT PORTIONS™ Cuts in Gravy Roasted Chicken & Beef Entrée
1.9% of carbohydrates, as fed
SHEBA® PERFECT PORTIONS™ Cuts in Gravy Roasted Chicken Entrée
3.07% of carbohydrates, as fed
SHEBA® PERFECT PORTIONS™ Cuts in Gravy Savory Mixed Grill Entrée
2.98% of carbohydrates, as fed
SHEBA® PERFECT PORTIONS™ Cuts in Gravy Savory Salmon & Chicken
3.26% of carbohydrates, as fed
SHEBA® PERFECT PORTIONS™ Cuts in Gravy Signature Salmon & Shrimp Entrée
2.2% of carbohydrates, as fed
SHEBA® PERFECT PORTIONS™ Cuts in Gravy Tender Trout Entrée
4.02% of carbohydrates, as fed
SHEBA® PERFECT PORTIONS™ Cuts in Gravy Tender Turkey Entrée
3.51% of carbohydrates, as fed
SHEBA® PERFECT PORTIONS™ Cuts in Gravy Tuna & Shrimp Entrée
4.48% of carbohydrates, as fed

I hope this helps!

If you have additional questions or comments feel free to give us a call at 1-800-525-5273, Monday through Friday, between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Central time.

Sincerely,

wilsosh4.png

Sheri
SHEBA® Brand
Consumer Relations
1-800-525-5273
 
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