Looking for tips on switching cat to wet food

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ItsMeAngie

ItsMeAngie

Member Since 2015
Bandit is not diabetic, but he's extremely overweight. Our other cats (3+2 fosters) have successfully transitioned to wet food because one of those three, Devo, is diabetic.

Bandit will NOT eat a bit of soft food. I feed all the other cats and have Bandit smell the food, but he won't touch it. Yesterday I rubbed a bit on his foot and he had to give himself an entire bath. Ironically, Bandit loves salad, especially cabbage.

Anyone have any success in getting a picky eater to switch to pate from kibble? Not only do we need to switch Bandit for health reasons, but playing food monitor is not easy.
 
I have had good success with Stella's & Chewy's Tum Ticklin Turkey crumbled over the top. It's a dehydrated freeze-dried food. I just crumble a few pieces on top of a plate of food.

I've also used some of their dry food on top of the wet.

Flat plate style dishes work better than bowl usually.

Just keep trying different foods, different ways.
 
There are exactly 2 low carb dry foods you might switch to as a first step towards improving his nutrition - Evo Cat and Kitten found at specialty pet stores, or Young Again 0 Carb online.
 
I've known some people that have had luck with the switch by sprinkling fortiflora on the canned food (you can get some here). It has the same type of flavoring that they put in dry food to get cats to eat it, so it works with some dry addicts. A little Parmesan cheese can also be a good enticer.

Good luck! Keep trying different foods, and don't give up! The tips Larry posted are great.
 
With a couple of my cats that were die-hard kibble eaters, it took several weeks to convert them. I started by adding about a teaspoon of the food or juice to the dry food. Once they started eating it that way, then I slowly over the next few weeks kept increasing the amount of canned food in the mixture. Eventually, I was able to get them to eat the canned food with a few pieces of kibble on top.
 
Thanks for all of the great information! I'm going to read through and start with some of the tips. Will let you know how it goes, and keep the tips coming if there are more.
 
Great news! I have been dropping kibble on top of soft food - At first Bandit simply turned his nose up, but as time has gone by he now nibbles at the kibble but seems to really be going after the soft food. He won't touch the soft food without a bit of kibble on top, but the need for the kibble has become less and less. There is a light at the end of the tunnel!
 
I was going through the routine this morning, which means I set wet food in front of Bandit then went to test Devo. Finished with the test and turned to add the kibble to the wet food in front of Bandit to find that he was gobbling the soft food! NO kibble!

It was like I was talking another language to myself and struggled to process what I was seeing. MAJOR breakthrough!
 
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