Basically, with Ruki she was eating out of boredom and jealousy that my Sugarcat, Simba was getting all the attention. She would get mean to him, and otherwise destructive to the surroundings. Kitty in the china cabinet. She had been free-fed dry food since she came to live with me, and if she couldn't get my attention to play, a bowl of food would quiet her down. When Simba was diagnosed I took him off dry food, but Ruki was a hard sell.
I started with making the dry food a reward for eating the wet food. If she didn't eat it, no dry food. She caught on pretty quick. She knew where the bag was and any dry food she didn't finish got picked up, so Simba couldn't get into it. I even had it inside a little toy she had to bat around to get the food out. So little by little she got less and less, then I introduced the fresh pet semi-moist, which she liked but it had to be along side the dry food. Little by little I would make it half and half, then make more Fresh pet as we went. Then when the fresh pet was empty, I took a can of FF Shrimp and Fish Flaked and sat down with her, and handfed her the little chunks as if it was a treat. Then I started rolling the FF classic pate into little meatballs and pretending it's a treat. This also works for Simba and is a decent way of measuring how much he eats pre-shot. If I'm in a hurry, sitting down with her while she eats, seems to do just fine for her now. The key was not giving in to cabinet rattling and getting her to associate wet food with good things. Kind of similar to the shot treat. I also do a whole ritual and test her ear (without a lancet) and give her a shot treat too.
Now we have "Ruki-mommy-time" where I put a specific blanket she likes on my lap and she knows it's time to hang out. She gets brushed and all the attention is on her. I thought she was a heavy eater, but it turns out she was just super bored and lonely.
