Cat doesn't like any canned food

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rmattox1

rmattox1

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Hi guys, I am brand new to this. My cat, Jasper, was diagnosed with diabetes on the 26th. He used to be a big eater, but the vet has switched him to canned food with less than 7% carbs or Innova Evo. He won't eat any of this. It isn't that he is not hungry, he still gets excited when he hears any rustling that may sound like a food bag. We have visited Binky's page and looked at the canned food that he can eat and have tried a good deal of it, but we currently have about 5 cans of cat food open, none of which he'll eat more than a tablespoon of before walking away or expecting something else. He is supposed to be on 2 units of Lantus twice a day, but we have been giving him one unit twice a day due to him not eating enough. He is acting normal, but we can't afford to keep buying canned food that he'll just turn his nose up at. Has anyone else had this problem? Any suggestions would be much appreciated! Thank you!

Rebecca nailbite_smile
 
It can be frustrating when they don't want to eat the wet food. There are good tips for transitioning on this website:http://www.catinfo.org. Sometimes it helps to heat it up till stinky. Add some finely ground up dry food on top. Get some FortiFlora - available on line or from the vet. It's the animal digest that makes dry food so irresistible.
 
Welcome, Rebecca!

Binks is a confirmed Friskies guy...
and he will eat Wellness...

a lot of folks add Fortiflora to their cat's food...it is a probiotic that is quite tasty to kitties, and aids digestion.

many use bonito flakes, or freeze dried chicken treats (Purebites is a favorite brand, and you can crush it up
and sprinkle the dust on wet food...my 3 LOVE it) :-D

Welcome to the greatest place you NEVER wanted to be :-D

celi & binks
 
the only way I got my civvie to switch to wet was to use magic bullet, puree it, and dropper feed her for about 1 month.... finally she ate the wet.
Unfortunately, it was script a/d as she was ill.

Now, we have done another transition in the last month... again magic bullet, puree and dropper feed. I would do this with 2 droppers at night. This process was for about 4 wks. with chicken f. feast. She now eats f.feast chicken only but at least it is not script food or dry. I would have told you that I would loose my right hand before this girl of 15 yrs would ever ever eat wet....she was a dry baby only all those yrs. and does not like any change.

Something else is babyfood, meat only or use tuna. I would dulute a can of tuna with water, refrigerate, and use just the water in the food. I was trying anything and everything to get her to eat. She did not like the dropper feeding and with the help from here, I had a few hands on lessons on towel burrito-ing her to do this. Now, when we switched to f. feast, no burrito-ing needed. Sometimes she would take it off my finger or from a spoon instead of the bowl??? dont know why??

Hope some of this will help as Jasper needs to eat before insulin and should be eating low carb wet....we know that, he just dont know it yet ;-)
 
Thanks so much for the welcoming words everyone as well as all of the helpful tips! We are definitely going to try some of these out. I have heard a lot about the Fancy Feast so we may try that as well as the Bonito and Fortiflora! Whatever works to get Jasper eating again and away from the Science Diet dry food will make me happy! I will let you know how it goes. We have ordered some Fancy Feast, flakes, and Fortiflora. Hopefully we will see a difference when they arrive. I'm feeling pretty confident about it after reading your replies. :-D
 
This might not help much but thought I'd share just in case.

When Poopy was diagnosed and I switched all the cat food to wet, my civvie kitty Mia was not too pleased. I'd only fed wet prior as a treat and dry was out 24/7. Having wet offered only twice a day took some getting used to for her. (Poopy will eat anything not nailed down.) The first couple of days she only nibbled at it, like it was a treat. After she realized canned was all that was being offered, she started eating with gusto.

I know we have to get our sugarbabies to eat so we can give them the insulin they need so something like this may not be the greatest idea...but I was wondering if Jasper is offered the same thing over and over, perhaps he'll eat more than a tablespoon (nibble) and start eating with gusto??????
 
I will definitely try oregano. I just got him to eat some Fancy Feast turkey and giblets so that's good. I will also try to keep offering him the same thing and maybe he'll get used to it. He has never had canned food before now. Hopefully he'll start eating more soon!
 
I feel like sometimes cats that are used to dry food have trouble with the "mechanics" of eating canned. My Saima was one of those. She still never really liked it, but she would eat a little better if I added water to the canned food so it was more like a "soup." Then she could lap it up without having to bite at it, which she didn't really have the hang of. I know you are worried about your kitty's weight, but you could try using Cat Sip milk (you can get it at the pet store) as some of the "watering down fluid" to entice him if he likes it. All of my cats have loved this stuff.

I also used to mix the dry food with the wet, or put dry on top and press it down into the wet a little so she would have to eat some of the wet in order to get at the dry. This also worked sometimes.

Good luck! I think between FortiFlora, parmesan cheese, tuna juice, and all the other good stuff people here recommended, we'd have eventually gotten Saima to eat wet. I just didn't have enough time with her to make it work, unfortunately.
 
Have you tried different canned food textures? Some cats will only eat pate/loaf style while others like chunks. Many chunked canned food are in gravy/sauce or are seafood based, though. What brands have you tried so far?

I'm throwing this thought out there: have you tried raw food? Sometimes a cat who won't eat canned food will go for raw food. This can be either homemade raw, commercial frozen raw, or commercial freeze dried raw. If your cat likes freeze dried meat treats, he may like freeze dried raw food. Stella and Chewy's makes a nutritionally complete freeze dried raw cat food. There are brands of freeze dried out there that are not. You can rehydrate the freeze dried raw with water to make a sort of canned food like texture and feed that. And you can put crumbled up freeze dried raw (or treats) on top of canned food to make it more appealing.
 
I'm glad I am not the only one to use Parmesan cheese. Jasper LOVES that stuff, but mostly he'll just eat a little of that and walk away from the rest of the food. I tried watering it down this morning and he just stared at me. Hopefully, the stuff I ordered will come in soon so we can try that, but he seemed to like the turkey and giblets and was even playing a little after he ate it so that is good. We have tried shredded, chunks, pate, etc...I also tried putting a few nibbles of Science Diet on top since that is what he is used to eating to try to get him to eat, but again, he just stared at me like I wasn't fooling him. We have done Friskies, BFF, Avoderm, Nutro, and now Fancy Feast. He seemed to like BFF Tuna and Chicken Chuckles the best so we ordered more of that as well as BFF Tuna and Bonito. I got some Newman's grain free, FF, and 9 Lives this morning so that may help. I ordered some Nature's Variety Raw Instinct as well for him to try since it is a low carb dry food. We tried Innova Evo in the dry food department as well and he was not digging it. My other two cats seem to like it though. I may have to try raw if it gets really dire, but I want to try what I ordered first before I go that route! I will definitely keep it in mind though!

I got a ton of good advice, so thanks everyone!
 
Does Jasper like bites of human chicken, turkey or tuna? When I was switching all 13 of mine over to canned food, I would water it down some to make it kind of a gravy and then put bite size pieces of chicken, turkey or tuna in it. Once they figured out that the new stuff was yummy they started thinking they hit the jackpot when mom adopted those two extra sweet kitties.

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang
 
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