Need help with a dry food snob

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JackieVendetti

Member Since 2013
Hello,

I am editing this post because I have a complete dry food snob who is hardly eating any of the wet and he doesn't really like the Young Again food. I just put food down for him because he hasn't been out in 5 hours :(

I am beside myself here. I have tried shaving all kinds of dehydrated meats on the wet food and putting his old food on the wet food, but he usually turns his nose up.

He likes deli turkey, but he'll only eat a few bits and only when it's on it's own. He loves ham, but I know that is bad for kitties.

He doesn't like parmesan or the fortiflora or raw food. I am at my wits end (it's been two and a half weeks).

I would just like to go back to putting his dry food down and keeping it down and have him eat whenever he wants. I am stressed out beyond belief :(

Any help you can all give would be really appreciated.
Thanks, everyone!!!
Jackie + Petie
 
Re: Young Again Dry Food - has Herring Meal?

Fish is just generally high in phosphorus, which is harder on the kidneys...and male cats are just more likely to have urinary tract problems than female cats are.

The amounts aren't really high enough to worry about unless you're cat is in kidney failure or has chronic kidney disease, where the amount of phosphorus is more important.

The YA is probably about the only dry I've ever seen used with some success in treating the diabetes in cats that just refused to transition to wet foods, so as long as he's not a CKD cat, you should be ok.

We have lots of tips on things you can try to get stubborn kitties to tempt into moving to wet only if you need some more help
 
Re: Young Again Dry Food - has Herring Meal?

Chris & China said:
Fish is just generally high in phosphorus, which is harder on the kidneys...and male cats snip
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A high phosphorous food is not harder on kidneys. The problem with high phosphorus food is that the kidney of kidney-compromised cats just cant filter out the phosphorous. Cats with good kidneys filter the high phosphorous out fine and no detrimental effects on the kidneys.
 
Re: Young Again Dry Food - has Herring Meal?

I stand corrected, and you're right, I could have been clearer in my reply Larry.

Thanks for the back up!
 
Re: Young Again Dry Food - has Herring Meal?

Thanks you guys. This really helps. He does not have CKD, but I don't want him developing it either. Ok, he doesn't really even like the Young Again on it's own - he'll only eat it mixed in with his other dry food - which is Taste of the Wild. Sigh.

Yeah - if you guys have any other suggestions or tricks to get him to eat wet food, it would be great. I usually have to sprinkle some kind of dehydrated meat or fish on the food and sprinkle his dry food mixture over it. To get him to take some pills, I use deli turkey and put some chicken in it.

He doesn't like parmesan cheese or the fortiflora. So basically, he's pretty much eating dry food only at this point and only licking the wet. But, it has only been two weeks.
 
Re: Young Again Dry Food - has Herring Meal?

Hi again Jackie..and extra sweet Petie too!

You might want to go back to the first post here (the one that you originally started with your question about the Young Again) and "edit" the Subject....Change it to "Need help with a dry food snob" ...or "Kitty Crack addict...need help switching to wet" :lol: ... (or something like that) so when people are scanning the message board, they'll see you have a new question about tips on transitioning to wet. ("need ideas! switching to wet with dry food lover" works too..whatever)....LOL

The only post we see without opening each thread is the first one, so if you change your question, or add to it, go back to that first post and "edit" (you can also start a new post but we ask that you keep that to once/day or so)

The other thing you can do is while you're "editing" the subject line, tick the ? in the line of icons above the "Subject"...it'll put the ? on the main post and let people know you have a question!!

Since it's the last day of the holiday here, the people who have the most experience have either had their own plans (but have still been around I've noticed) or are doing the best they can while still doing their holiday things...I'm sure once the day is over and everyone's recuperated from their party's, they'll be more people around to help with the ideas. I do know we've had some pretty tough cats...some took months to convince that momma wasn't trying to poison them with wet food, so I'm sure they'll have some ideas for you!
 
That list of tips that Wendy gave you in the above post? I probably used about 70% of them, trying to get Wink switched over from dry to wet food. Took me 3 weeks to get him from all dry to 3/4 wet and 1/4 dry and then I simply took away all his dry food and only offered him wet.

Be patient and persistent is my recommendation. It can take weeks, sometimes months. You do the best you can.

The most important aspect, is that your cat get enough food to eat. Wink did end up losing about 1.5 to 2 pounds, but he needed to because he was a bit overweight.
 
My cat Trouble (GA) had ever had dry food, so wet food was not food to him. He tried to bury it like it was something that belonged in the litter box. hah. It took me a month to get him to realize it was even food. I had to start by feeding him low carb dry, and putting the little spoonful of wet food off to the side. I did that every day and he just left the wet stuff on the side. And then, one day, he ate it - after he ate the dry stuff. Then, I tried mixing a little of the wet with the dry (sort of like letting the mashed potatoes touch the peas). Once he was OK with that, I started gradually adding more wet and giving less dry - VERY slowly - waited a week each time for him to get used to the change.

I don't want to discourage you, but I do want you to know I understand - this is not an easy thing to do.

Have you looked at the hints on www.catinfo.org? They are helpful.

We started Trouble with Evo dry and then gradually got him to realize that wet food was, really, food. All in all, it took three months to do the transition.

Don't despair - it can be done.

But yes, it is a long process. Be patient - with yourself, and with your cat. Laura
 
Hi Wendy, Deb & Laura,

You guys are so sweet. Yes, I actually went to catinfo.org initially, but I think I may have gone too fast. What I have been doing is getting him to eat off the plate with lots of wet food - but he only licks it and doesn't eat much of the wet. I put dehydrated meats on top and sometimes he still doesn't like it. He doesn't like tuna water, he doesn't like parmesan, he doesn't like the forti=flora.

When he walks away, I then give him a bowl of just his dry. But maybe I need to do less wet and more dry for now. It's been 2 1/2 weeks and he is just not happy with the situation. He never voluntarily eats the wet except once he ate the whole plate of chicken and turkey by EVO but he hasn't touched it since.

I think I am driving us both nuts over here. Sounds like I just need to go more slowly and just keep introducing wet food to him. And I really really need to stick set times. I have been pretty close with my times, but sometimes he doesn't come out to eat in the afternoon.

This is really, really, really hard. Sigh. This is why I never had kids. I would make us all nuts!
 
troublelaurak said:
And then, one day, he ate it -
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troublelaurak said:
it took three months to do the transition.

Don't despair - it can be done.
Click to expand...

Deb & Wink said:
Be patient and persistent is my recommendation. It can take weeks, sometimes months. You do the best you can
Click to expand...

These comments are key to success. You can not give in, you must show your cat that you are in charge of what he eats because... well you have to pay the vet bill. You also have to let him be a little hungry - not too long. Maybe only a day and a half. Make sure he eats something even if it is some cooked chicken - just not the dry. He needs to know that that is gone for good. I too had a stubborn girl and the dry was gone so she licked here and there, lost some weight and "And then one day, she ate it"

I know it may seem like never and there are bad behaviors that cats will use to manipulate you but you have to be in control and eventually they get tired of being hungry and give in. Remember they are dry food addicts because we conditioned them to be that way. It's hard to undo that but it is possible.
 
I had to teach Maui to eat wet food. It took several weeks of my spoon feeding and syringe feeding her wet food and a lot of mess before she one day took a lick off the spoon and that was it. She then ate the wet.

It wasn't easy, I got frustrated and felt horrible that she wasn't eating and I was forcing dry food on her.

Once she was convinced and started to eat it, my civvie went on a hunger strike and refused to eat canned food that she did eat previously, but it was along with dry food being available. She was much tougher to convince and I tried many of the tricks from Dr. Lisa - the one that seemed to work was kibble counting and placing it on top of the canned food. I started with 20 pieces and each day reduced it down. I pushed a few into the wet food to force her to eat wet with her kibbles and she didn't like it so much, but it did seem to work.

She did another hunger strike and someone suggested I try the Stella & Chewy's freeze dried raw food. It's a dry raw food that is meant to have water added, but I put in a dish and both of my cats eat it dry like kibble. There is uncertainty as to actual carb content, because they wouldn't give information to Dr. Lisa, but it doesn't affect Maui's bgs and the ingredients read low carb to me.

It may be worth trying this too as a kibble alternative.
 
You guys are AMAZING. It really is a battle, isn't it.

I feel like I tried the tough love approach by only putting his dry food on top of the wet. However, that wasn't working, so what I have been doing is putting a couple of dollops of wet next to the dry and believe it or not, both times he ate a few bites of the wet first, then he just ate all the dry. But maybe that's a step? What do you guys think?

I also tried the Stella and Chewy's and Petie went nuts for it the first time, but then he never touched it again. But that doesn't mean I won't keep giving it to him!

I also gave him some Nature's Variety Raw freeze-dried rabbit and he licked all the water and had a few bites of that. Will try that again, too.

I wish you could all come over to my house and help!!! But at least there are these posts that give me encouragement :)
 
You are in it to win it!!! You are doing great! Keep trying to see what he will do and go with it. I love that he is eating the wet even just a little. I have a sugarfoster who won't even go near the bowl if it has any wet food contaminating it. I am going to follow your lead and just keep putting it in there.

What you are seeing is good because he recognizes the wet as part of his food source and is accepting that. Then when you start to put more of the wet food in the bowl next to less of the dry food in the bowl, he will just have to accept that or not eat it and be a little hungry that day. Don't let him eat the dry and then give you that look... you know the one that will cause you to put more dry in his bowl. Don't let it...

So one day he will quickly eat up the two morsels of dry food and switch over to the wet food and then the next day there will only be one morsel... You are doing a great job!! Relish every bite as a victory. It really does take time and patience as you are seeing.
 
and then give you that look... you know the one
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I think we ALL know "the look"....the slight head tilt, the eyes that have that peer through your soul saying "I'm starving to death here...don't you love me anymore Mom?" look.....yeah...we know THAT look :lol:

Stay strong..a little hunger goes a long way...even if you have to leave the house to get away from "that look"
 
JackieVendetti said:
I feel like I tried the tough love approach by only putting his dry food on top of the wet. However, that wasn't working, so what I have been doing is putting a couple of dollops of wet next to the dry and believe it or not, both times he ate a few bites of the wet first, then he just ate all the dry. But maybe that's a step? What do you guys think?
Click to expand...

Yes, this was one of the methods I used with Wink. A dish of dry, and a dish of wet right next to each other. I kept cutting back on the amount of dry food left out each day and gave him more wet food. That helped.

I also did the "chip and dip" method. Dip the pieces of dry food into the wet food and place these on a separate place. Sort of like you would do for a potato chip and a dip for a person.
 
Try about 15-20 minutes of active play before feeding. It may trigger the "hunt - catch - kill- eat" behavior cycle. Get him chasing something he can catch - a rope or a toy, etc - not just the laser pointer unless you land it on something he can pummel. A pinch of catnip may wind him up a bit to do this.
 
The look is the WORST. Mostly Petie just comes and circles my feet over and over again - saying, Why haven't you fed me yet?

Yeah - he doesn't always take a bite, but most of the time he does. Fingers crossed!

I like the chip and dip method, too!! And the playing - all GREAT ideas.

Thank you all soooo much!
 
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