How to make her eat wet food? Scared and frustrated about this

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Carina Josefine

Carina Josefine

Member Since 2018
Kitty has now tried every low carb wet food I can find in this country, with no luck. She will eat a portion of it the first time I serve it, but only once. I think we have gone through them all now, and getting her to eat is hopeless. Hwe numbers have been great on wet food, and it has worked out - but now I'm running out of new flavours to offer.

She has always loved her dry food, and I am so close to caving in. This is the most stressful part of the diabetes. She won't eat, and I don't know what to do.

I tried all these types of food, I tried serving it as it is, mixing with water, running it through the blender, sprinkle wth cheese or dry food, I tried set meal times, i tried free feeding. The darn cat just wont eat wet food, and I am losing my sanity over it. It is dangrous to not eat, and at this point I feel like I got two options:

1. Caving in and giving her dry food (I have the RC diabetic, but if it comes to that I'll get her Orijen (the lowest carb dry food in this country) when stores open monday)
2. Syringe/force feeding her wet food (which I fear will give her bad assosiasions to wet food and make the transition even harder?)

All the other cats LOVE the wet food. Just not Kitty.

What do I do?
 
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There are such things as dry food addicts but as Kris said, she does need to eat if she's getting insulin. Have you heard about Young Again Zero Carb? There is also a Mature formula, which I probably should switch to. You can only order it online but they will send you some free samples to try. My boy is similar but he will eat his half can every meal but then he would cry because he was still hungry. When I tried giving more wet food, he just looked at me like "I don't want more of THAT". I don't follow the free feeding instructions or stopping insulin as the food suggests. He gets 1 tablespoon with each meal, twice a day, and it's also in his timed feeder for his snack while I'm at work or sleeping.

Don't let the price overwhelm you. Before Maury became diabetic, I used to buy a 28lb bag of Purina indoor formula that lasted about 3 months. Since using Young Again Zero (YAZ), the 8lb bag lasts almost 6 months due to the nutritional density :).

One immediate option for wet food. Have you heard of FortFlora? It's sold as a probiotic but you can also just sprinkle a little on wet food to make it more appetizing to kitty. I had to use it when Maury wouldn't eat much during his P-flare; he about ate the packet when I wasn't looking one time:rolleyes:.

Good luck :cat:
 
Kris & Teasel said:
There might be hints here: https://catinfo.org/docs/TipsForTransitioning1-14-11.pdf

You're right - she has to eat. I wouldn't use syringe feeding in this situation. If dry is all she'll eat right now, give that. Keep trying the wet and she might surprise you down the line.
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I will definitely keep trying. She has done well on wet food, and that is what I want her on. Not giving up, but for the time being I might just give in - for now.
She just ate a bit of Sheba, when she got to eat off my hands and my sweater...


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Yong said:
There are such things as dry food addicts but as Kris said, she does need to eat if she's getting insulin. Have you heard about Young Again Zero Carb? There is also a Mature formula, which I probably should switch to. You can only order it online but they will send you some free samples to try. My boy is similar but he will eat his half can every meal but then he would cry because he was still hungry. When I tried giving more wet food, he just looked at me like "I don't want more of THAT". I don't follow the free feeding instructions or stopping insulin as the food suggests. He gets 1 tablespoon with each meal, twice a day, and it's also in his timed feeder for his snack while I'm at work or sleeping.

Don't let the price overwhelm you. Before Maury became diabetic, I used to buy a 28lb bag of Purina indoor formula that lasted about 3 months. Since using Young Again Zero (YAZ), the 8lb bag lasts almost 6 months due to the nutritional density :).

One immediate option for wet food. Have you heard of FortFlora? It's sold as a probiotic but you can also just sprinkle a little on wet food to make it more appetizing to kitty. I had to use it when Maury wouldn't eat much during his P-flare; he about ate the packet when I wasn't looking one time:rolleyes:.

Good luck :cat:
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Young again is not an option. It does not exist in Norway and I checked around about importing it, but due to regulations, food is not allowed to bring in. Here, Orijen is the lowest carb option, when it comes to dry food.

I have FortiFlora (also not sold in Norway, but I bought it in Spain). She is not falling for that :p
 
Oh, sorry. Focused on reading the post and forgot to read that you were in Norway :facepalm:. In that case, have you heard of Bozita? An old member from Norway mentioned in their thread about 4 years ago.
 
Yong said:
Oh, sorry. Focused on reading the post and forgot to read that you were in Norway :facepalm:. In that case, have you heard of Bozita? An old member from Norway mentioned in their thread about 4 years ago.
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Yes I have read up on Bozita as well. I have been reading up on different dry foods all night (bet I'll be dreaming about it). Orijen is listed as lower on carbs thank Bozita. Could recipies be different from 4 years ago? I'd love another option, as Orijen is dead expensive.
 
Rough 24 hours!

I wrote yesterday that Kitty did not want to eat. I assumed it was because I had no more new flavours of wet food to try, as she still wanted her dry food. I reality I think she has gotten a bad tummy from me trying all these different type of wet food in an attempt to find something she likes, and therefor doesn't eat (she still doesn't).

Anyway, less eating = lower blood sugar. I gave a very skinny .5 and after syringe feeding her (yes, I did resort to the syringe :( ), I kept syringe feeding her every third hour (She has food available, but she never eats wet food without me sitting there anyway). A few hours later she dropped from 4.1 to 3.8, and I got scared. I KNOW this is not a bad number, but I am not familar with how this all works yet. I rubbed some honey on her gums, but didn't see results fast enough for my worried mind. So I took her to the vet's. By the time we got there, it was rising, but the vet still gave some glucose. We have been okay in numbers since, but I only gave a very tiny dose last shoot time (.1-.2)

I wonder if I should stick to this very very low dose, as long as her tumy is upset + I will keep syringe feeding her. It breaks my heart to do it, but Kitty is such a forgiving cat, that holds no grudge. Once we are done, she is over it. We have been through rough syringe feeding periods before, and we can again. Only this time, we also got the diabetes to deal with.

She had blood tests last week, and it was all good, but of course I will contact vet if it does not get better. At this point it makes more sense that it is the food. In my eagerness to get her on a proper diet for her diabetes, I forgot to do slow transitions of food for her stomachs sake. Out of my 5 cats, only one cat has NOT reacted to the sudden change in food. The rest has bad tummy's. They still eat though, but Kitty has also tried more types than they have, so it makes sense that she is reacting the most.

Do you have any input on my thoughts on how to handle this?
 
My kitty started insulin on Tuesday and suddenly she’s not very interested in eating either. She won’t even really munch on dry food either. I switched her over to the low carb fancy feast a couple days before insulin and she ate the whole thing now she’s like “ no thanks” today I broke down and bought Friskies chicken in gravy and to my surprise she ate it. Hopefully it’s just the transition of getting use to the insulin. My cat has been very inactive and just wants to sleep on me most of the day. But if I bring out the treats she perks right up and eats it. Good luck
 
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Pure Bites freeze dried chicken treats in/on top of/instead of canned food. (Hint: The dog treats are the same as the cat treats except bigger pieces and lower cost per ounce).

Since we quit 9 Lives and still OTJ, now kitty gets 3 cans of ff a day 3 different flavors a day, so nice 2-day rotation of the 6 non-fish pâtés. I feed am, afternoon, and late evening... all the cans stay out till next am. Am can actually stays out 24 hours, pm around 18 hours, and late evening around 10 hours. Kitty grazes and some days eats all and some days about 2/3. But now it's winter and he's eating more, so may have to go back to 4 cans a day :(

When we did 9Lives, kitty got chicken am, turkey pm, and bacon/liver late night every day, but can only stayed out until the next one opened. We quit 9 Lives because of MOLD :mad: :arghh:
 
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