My cats are picky eaters and 9-lives sliced beef or chicken is all they want!?

Question

I do keep 9-lives hard food on hand for them but for their morning meal it is the soft food or nothing at all for them. They meow or "screech" is more like it if I try to get them to eat something else. They will eat the hard food during the day as they run in and out but for morning and before bedtime, they want the 9-lives. I have tried other brands, no go - they will leave it in the dish and meow. Yes, my animals are spoiled - including the stray dog I took in plus my farm animals. I have one peacock that only eats in a certain place and when I go the farm to feed, he goes to "his" spot and will not budge until I bring the food to him. But as for the cats, I am concerned because they eat 2 cans of soft food a day - is this bad for them? The vet says feed hard food but they will not eat it unless they have their can of soft food in the mornings. I tried not feeding them soft food at all but they would not touch the hard food for about 3 days & I gave in and gave them the soft food.

Answer 1

Hi...

a friend told me she recently read that soft/canned foods are recommended for cats these days over the hard foods.

it won't hurt them to have their soft food... and it's probably good for them. you can still leave a bowl of hard food for your kitties though.

i found an old yahoo answers topic that might interest you below.

take care!

Answer 2

No, it's not bad! Many people STILL think of canned food as bad and think that cats who eat it are getting a rare treat and are spoiled. And that it will rot their teeth.

That couldn't be further from the truth. Canned (or wet in general) food is far superior to dry food.

Dry food is just plain bad in so many ways. There is absolutely no reason you should feed it. It doesn't clean the teeth.

However, it's ok that they get some because you are providing at least 50% of their total daily meals in wet form. So that's fine. Your cats are smart!

While I don't believe that 9-Lives is good food, we'll leave that discussion for another day. Keep on with what you're doing.

I would just keep an eye on quantities - you don't want to deal with a weight problem! You're more likely to get fat cats from eating dry food, but if they're both getting a can per day in addition to the dry, you might want to cut that back a bit.

Answer 3

Give your kitties what they want!
To eat is better than not to eat, as long as they are happy and HEALTHY.
I have a cat that will ONLY eat dry, turns up nose to any can,... although at times I prefer canned (had bad experiences with some dry, even though quality costly brands).
Another cat will eat dry (but pukes up) and loves only certain can brands, licks the top gravy and leaves the rest.
Having a multi-cat household, this stressful, costly and a big pain YOU KNOW WHERE! (darn cats would rather go on a 3 day hunger strike than eat and start to even look 'thrifty'!).

I remember years and years ago when I was very young, dry foods were just a few brands and relatively a revolutionary new product. Cats seemed healthy and fine then eating just canned foods or prey!

So feed what your kitties like, it's all nutrition!

Answer 4

I agree just keep mixing dry food in with the can more dry every day or puy a little water in hte dry food let it sit for a half hour than it becomes a mixture of dry and wet my cats love it

Answer 5

I would try to slowly wean them over to hard food by mixing hard food with the can food. This would be better that they are slowly changed to the dry food any ways because if you change them all of a sudden it might upset their stomach.

Answer 6

I think they will be fine. They sound about as spoiled as my cat and he is 14 years old.