My kitty wont eat hard food. I am sick of her eatting just wet food because it its costly. Help?

Question

We have tried everything. We went to the vet to see what else we could do and they said she was fine as long as she was eatting.

Also we got her from the Humane Society and she was very skinny and boney. So I think her previous owners just gave her wet food too and then when she got to the Humane Society she just had dry food and lost weight because of it. Ever since we got her the only thing she ate was wet food. We do leave dry food down for her and we do change it often. We even switch between different brands and flavors. We have tried adding water and adding different flavorings to it. We also try adding water then adding wet food with that. But she still wont eat it. We tried just leaving the dry food down and not giving the wet food at all, but then she begged and begged for our human food and she NEVER does that. We even tryed moistening it with the juices from the canned food, that didnt work either. We are not going to give up. But maybe your cat had the same problem? And you finaly got her/him to eat dry food and you could share some tips and tricks?

Answer 1

My cat prefers wet food too, but we make her eat hard food. We do that by only giving her a can of wet food a week. We leave the hard food out all the time.
We learned to do that the hard way. Our older cat was the same way and we let her live on wet food the first 4 years we had her. Now she's 7 and we've had to have about 11 teeth pulled because they turned rotten. The vet told us it was because she never had hard food. She's learned to adjust to hard food as well, which was not an easy feat, but her tooth loss has slowed. She still gets bad teeth once in a while, and the extraction expenses are huge.

Answer 2

Try soaking the hard food in a little bit of warm water, so it is easier for her to chew and digest. She probably likes wet food more, because it's easier on her teeth and is more flavorful. Maybe mix in some tiny cut up chicken or something into it, but not alot because you don't want to hurt her digestive system. What I would do is mix in a little wet food into her new dry food, and then each day give her less and less wet untill you have just dry, so she isn't deprived of the food she loves right away. Since it isn't so sudden, she probably wont notice it and if she does she won't be so stubborn.

Answer 3

I am so glad that your cat is smart! I am sorry that the expense is a problem but Dry foods contrary to what you hear
can cause major problems down the line like diabetes, kidney disease, stones, crystals obesity just to name a few. Most dry foods are loaded with carbohydrates which many cats can have trouble processing. Also, most of the moisture is zapped out of the dry food in the processing and a cat cannot drink enough to make up for the water lost and sorely needed by the body. I lok at it this way, I spent over 5 grand treating my cat with diabetes that would not have been spent if I had fed an all wet diet. I would feed the worst wet food over any dry. Please read about cat nutrition
http://www.catinfo.org/

Answer 4

She needs a combo of both. Hard food alone is mostly starch and much filler... no matter what the brand. Cats need a high protein diet, and canned food has been developed to provide that. Ideally, she should have both. Buy kitten formula and moisten the dry food a little. Then when she has adjusted, do give her both so she will have a balanced diet. Also, dry food will help her teeth and gums.

Answer 5

theres been a lot of anecdotal evidence that wet food is better for cats than dry food, but wet food does cause a more tooth decay. The wet food closer approximates what a cat would eat if it was hunting.

Although, I do give my cats dry food. To get her to eat dry food, you can do a number of things : mix the dry food with warm water so that your cat will smell the food better.

Or try going 10% dry food, 90% wet food - just mix it up. Keep raising the percentage of dry food 20% then 30%, etc... so your cat starts getting used to dry food. This is standard practice anytime you switch food on a cat -

But, I wouldn't completely give up wet cat food. My two cats get each get 1.5 oz of wet cat food a day, plus about 1.5 oz of raw food a day, plus 1/4 cup of dry - having a varied food sources are good for a cat.

Answer 6

You're cat isn't going to starve herself, so I suggest simply giving her the dry food without another alternative. Once she's hungry enough, she'll eat it! If that seems a little too abrupt for you, try mixing dry food into the moist food for a period of time, upping the amount of dry you put in and lowering the moist food over a couple of weeks, until eventually it's just dry food. It's not going to work like magic, but she'll get used to it.

Answer 7

Take away the wet and put out a quality dry. They will eat when they get hungry.

Cats can get addicted to wet food, especially if it contains tuna. It is a great treat and has its benefits but can cause bad tarter build-up costing $$$ to get cleaned.

I use a can of Fancy Feast in the evening, split among 5 cats. It brings them all in for the night and is just enough to make it worth their while. I ring a small bell and they come running.

Answer 8

try mixing the wet food with the dry food. after a while add more dry food than wet food. eventually she'll get used to eating just hard food. But give her wet food as a treat or as one of her meals.

Answer 9

I hear what you're saying.

If I had it all to do over again I would use dry food only. Cats really don't need wet food. Dry food is easier to manage, especially when you're going away for a couple of days or longer. Self feeders are really neat.

Well, here I am 25 years later and "Kitty" (really original name) is still eating wet food. I have always put a bowl of dry food down so she could nibble if she got hungry between feedings, one in the morning (Ms 5:30 AM alarm clock) and then again (Ms 3:00 PM alarm clock).

At her age I finally took the dry food away as she wouldn't touch it anymore. Could have something to do with her teeth at her age. My daughter brought over some of her dry food just to give it a try. So I put a small bowl back down, and low and be whole she began to nibble again between meals. Not much, but it held her off for a little while.

Have you tryed weening her off the wet food? You say you try ed everything and I believe you have. Who knows she just may go for it. Think it will take some time and you better brace your self for a lot of nagging. Their are Seven Wonder's of the World, maybe you could add another.

"Kitty" is still on wet food (along with dry), but now it is costing us $1.00 per can because it's not as rich. So consider yourself lucky in some ways.

Keep plugging away. I don't believe your cat with starve her self and may eventually take to the dry food only. Your Doc was right, but that doesn't mean you can't keep trying

Good Luck, but also remember we put them on their schedule's. Having pet's does cost.

Answer 10

Have you tried to soften the dry food by adding some water or feline milk to it? This may help. If she eats then, then maybe you can slowly get her to eat solid food by decreasing the amount of liquid on the food.