I want to wean the cat’s off dry food because I think it is less healthy than wet food. Eventually I want them all to be eating raw food but Chris has to make things difficult. He eats very little of the wet food, forcing me to keep some dry food out so he doesn’t go hungry.
I thought if I let the bowls go empty a couple of hours before I open a can of wet food, Chris would be hungry and eat more wet food. That didn’t happen. I gradually started letting the bowls stay empty longer and longer, sometimes as long as eight hours, but Chris still won’t eat more than about a quarter of the wet food I put down for him.
The funny thing is, when I first tried feeding them the raw food diet in 2010, Chris was the only one who would eat it. Does anyone else have a dry food addict?
Bad Cat Chris 
Yes, our Kosmo. He just licks the dravy from the wet foods. And he loves the most expensive Royal Canin Exigent dry food.
Are the boys healty now?
They are mostly better now. Thank you for asking.
Yep – Sam has been a kibble addict for almost 17 years now so there’s no changing him! HOWEVER, he does eat wet – especially if I make it very soupy with extra water. I’ve been wondering about the eye infections too – how are the guys doing?
Pam
They are mostly better. Puck’s eye still needs a little attention though. Thanks for your concern Pam.
Hello Chris,
I’ve been following your blog for some months and I love it. Me and my hubbie have 4 cats – all indoors – because we have a busy road in front of our house. Already lost 2, with a lot of heartache, and Frimousse was run over by a car in 2012 but survived. I have 1 cat, SUKI, who will eat a tiny bit of wet food but always goes for the dry food. GUIZMO will only eat tuna/crab/shrimps. Bizarre because when we have sardines or mackerel they are always on our laps!! They are all between 4 to 5 years old, and all rescued. Frimousse,5 yrs from a shelter, Guizmo and Suki,4 yrs, because their mother died, and Sacha, 4 yrs, because he was being terrorised at his home with a nasty man that hates cats. Typical French hunter that only thinks dogs are useful.
I would like my cats to eat just raw but very difficult, they will sniff and then leave which means that they don’t get to eat anything, and then I feel guilty and give them what they like. Hubbie always protests!!
By the way I live in the south west of France.
Best regards, this is the first post that I have sent.
First, thank you for reading the blog. I am so sorry about your loss. It is difficult to live near a busy road. I have two cats that want to try to escape all the time. Fortunately, our new home it’s not very close to a busy road like our old home was. It seems you and I have similar problems with the dry food. Don’t give up and best of luck to you.
Thank you Charles, and as you say, we have to try to forge on. Our cats don’t appreciate it but then they’re supposed to be adaptable!! Hope your cats are on the mend. It is so worrying & expensive when they are ill. Not so much the expense but the anxiety…
Thank you. Our cats are not 100% well but they are much better.
We have never had kibble for our regular meals. My human gets sample bags occasionally from a brand we work with and she might hand them out as treats, but never as a meal. I’m glad to hear everyone’s feeling better!
It is good that your mom started you out right.
Oh yes, me was a kibble only girly and only one brand at dat. Dat is till me got sick. Mommy tried everythin’ and furinally offered me Primal freeze dried Chicken and Salmon and Stella and Chewy’s duck, duck, goose freeze dried food. Me luvs ’em. ‘Course me doesn’t want mommy mixin’ it in water, but me does drink more since me started eatin’ it and me’s way healthier. Me hears mommy has plans to transition me to completely raw befur long tho’. We shall see. MOL
Luv ya’
Dezi and Raena
I have more to say about making raw food so check back I a few days.
I was a kibble feeder eons ago, and ended up with one diabetic cat and two who blocked with urinary crystals. Fortunately, I fed a variety of foods so when i realized what I was doing to my cats with the dry it was fairly painless to get them off of it. One kitty, my diabetic, liked raw in the beginning and then stopped. we found out a short time later that she had cancer so I never did try to ‘wean/trick’ her back on to it.
Kibble is notorious for being addicting, it is the flavorants and additives they put on it so cats will want to eat it. Kittens who have never seen kibble before actually end up using it for litter – that is how foreign it is to them 😉
Maybe trying some “lower quality” canned foods, like the fancy feast shredded or bits.. those are generally pretty universally loved for pretty much the same reasons as kibble… then once you have them off the dry start introducing better quality foods (like the fancy feast classics, then some more ‘healthy’ options) and then maybe sneak in some raw… although I’ve found competition works.. Telling Chris he can’t have any.. might help 🙂
Also remember, that cats don’t need to eat nearly as much canned food as they do dry.. and they don’t need to eat nearly as much raw as they do canned. My cats get about two ounces at a meal of raw..
I currently feed them a variety of grain-free canned cat food, mostly Earthborn Hollistics, two or three times a day. I plan to increase that by mixing it with raw while decreasing the dry even more.
My cat hates Fancy Feast. It seems he will only eat Friskies canned shredded or chunks and Iams Dry. In the canned he only wants Turkey or Beef. Never will he eat any pate or seafood. He does drink a lot of water from the tub a few times a day, plus more from the birdbath outside. He has some skin allergies and whenever I try to buy better food with only meat, he rejects it. What types of both canned and dry might he like? I don’t have a lot of extra money but I want him to eat healthy. How expensive is it to go raw?
I think it is actually cheaper to make your own raw food than buy canned foods. I started doing that the other day and I will write about that this weekend, probably. My cats are not big fans of pate either. I buy mostly the Earthborn Hollistics Chicken Catatorie because it is the best compromise between taste, price and quality that I could find. Also, I get a 10% discount when I buy a full case. I have been going back and forth on the dry food but I try to keep them both “grain free.”
guys…..we eat both canned & kibble heer…
and….. therz all wayz optshunz three: pizza pie dee liveree 🙂 ♥♥♥
That is like us right now. 🙂
I have tried to get mine off of dry, but Wally insists on having it. They get mostly wet now…with just a sprinkling of dry on top to satisfy Wally.
I should try doing that for Chris, at least for now.
KaTwo will only eat dry, I guess some cats are very stubborn.
Stubborn is in their DNA.
Some cats are really difficult to persuade! It took me a year of trying to get Cinco and Manna to accept wet food. Dexter loved wet food right away, but that is cheating because he is a little kitten. Persistence and doing your best to make them think that it is their idea are my biggest pieces of advice.
Persistance is right. I have been cutting back the dry food for months.
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My kitties like both wet and dry. But they would probably be fine if I only fed them dry, but that won’t be happening.
All dry food is like humans eating nothing but pizza. If I didn’t know better, I would do it.
Mom wishes she could transition us all to only canned food, but Giulietta and Fiona care nothing for wet food. At most, they might eat a bite or two. With Fiona’s CKD, it is super important that she eats so Mom has to have dry foods available. Good luck with Chris. XOCK, Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth and Calista Jo
Thank you. Some kitties can really be fussy.