Tips needed for eating soft food without teeth

[Maria & Suzie]

Am trying to transition my 15 year old diabetic Suzie to soft food. The challenge is no teeth... She actually finds it easier to take a flat-shaped piece of dry food and sort of "throw it back".

While she shows interest in soft food, the type that is like a "mousse", sort of a fluffy pate, like Fancy Feast (Gourmet Gold in Europe), she licks and sort of manages to get some down.

The soft food that has pieces of real fish in it, or the one that is like a firm pate, sort of the consistency of corned beef, is the stuff that really gets her interest, she's really keen on it, which is great, but she licks & licks, tries to get pieces in her mouth that fall out, so sort of ends up licking it till there are some well-licked pieces left and gives up, missing about half of the portion!

I've had a few suggestions already - to add water, but that doesn't work for the firmer soft food, it gets left behind anyway...

Any experiences with shape of bowl - rounded at the bottom with slight angles (so she can sort of "corner" the food against the side of the bowl and get it in her mouth that way?

All ideas welcome ! Suzie's clearly willing to give the soft food a go, but we need some help to figure out how to work around the not having any teeth left!

Also - Suzie is a small cat, she can't manage big portions in one go, but often when I take out the second half of the food (and I'm talking just a few hours later, not the next day even), she's less interested in it (it's all about smell for her I suspect). Any tips on storage, keeping it fresh, making it more interesting, etc????

Not only does she need to transition to soft food, she lost a lot of weight pre-diagnosis, so she needs to keep up the eating to gain weight!

Thanks!

Maria & Suzie

 

[dian and wheezer]

I have 2 fosters who only have 3 little front teeth and they managed soft food without difficulty.I smooch it up for them and you can always mix in water to make it more soupy

 

[Bonnie Dune]

Our Bonnie is fangless and likes her food soupy... we got a baby food processor and puree any canned food with a little extra water. She is liking raw food more and more - the turkey one the most.
We also put it out on large paper plates in small spread out dollops - she doesn't like a big pile of food either.
After ten or so hours we toss what's left ( you might find she'll go back every hour or so and lick a little more all day), we put the left over tossed stuff in a bag in the freezer till garbage day - no ants or flies or smell :0)
I've heard cats don't like bowls because their whiskers are very sensitive and so have found she really likes a flat plate - and they do have a bit of a rim so the food doesn't get pushed off.
We also found a hard plate the paper plates fit on top of so she can't push the paper plate around the room
All our best,
Bonnie's folks ~

 

[Hillary & Maui (GA)]

Lots of water! My girls have their teeth, however, for other reasons, I add 1/2-2/3 cans of water to their food. It makes it very soupy and puree like and of course makes lots of pee in the LB!

 

[Hope + (((Baby)))GA]

You could also try rolling the food into tiny little balls that might be easier for her to pick up.

 

[Nicole & Baby]

Hi! I can think of 2 things which others have already mentioned:
1. Roll into little balls & maybe add a drop of water with a dropper to each ball to help with water intake
2. Get a Blender & mix water with a can of cat food, to make a kitty shake, so she can lap it up like gravy?

Lots of Luck & keep us posted!!