Chris’s addiction to kibble has always been a real problem. I have not eliminated kibble because he eats very little wet food, even when faced with starvation. Instead, I buy the highest quality kibble that I know of, a brand called Rawz, and try to keep it to a minimum. I have also been giving them homemade raw cat food twice a day that I make using chicken and a premix from a company called TC Feline.
The problem has always been getting Chris to eat the homemade food, or any wet food. I usually give him about half of what I give Frankie and Flokie, who both love the homemade food, but typically he only eats about half of what I give him before one of the other cats come and take it away from him. Sometimes he leaves his food before anyone shows up and I have to follow him around with his plate. I might also put some on my finger and feed it to him like a baby. That usually works once or twice before he turns his head and refuses to look at my finger.
Not long after I feed them, Chris is hungry and wants dry food but the bowls are empty, so he lies down next to the bowls and talks to anyone that will listen.
My wife and I joke that he is “holding vigil at the food bowl.” When this doesn’t work he comes and annoys me in hopes that I will give up and put food in his bowl. Sometimes it works.
Lately he has been eating even less of the homemade food. Sometimes he wouldn’t take even one bite. I did not want to stop giving them the homemade food because it is the healthiest option and Frankie and Floki love it, but I did want Chris to eat something besides kibble, so I decided to split the difference. I decided to give them a can of food in the morning and the homemade food in the afternoon.
Since Chris is also picky about canned food I decided to go back to a food I found after much experimentation years ago that seems to satisfy everyone. It is a food from Earthborn Holistic called Chicken Catcciatori. This is the most universally accepted canned food I have found that is also somewhat healthy. While it is not as healthy as homemade, it is better than kibble.
Please note that the above link and that of the Rawz food are Amazon affiliate links. I included them because there is a lot of information about the products on Amazon but I would recommend that if you are interested, check your local pet supply store first because both products are overly pricey on Amazon.
It has been over a week and I can report that Chris is eating a fair amount of the canned food. Not as much as I would like but much more than he was eating before. He is even eating slightly more of the homemade food. Perhaps he just needed the variety.
Bad Cat Chris 
It sure is hard to get the menu acceptable to all parties when wet food isn’t popular. Simon only likes dry food too although he is starting to try the wet stuff.
I think the more cats you have the more difficult feeding time is.
Louis Catorze won’t eat wet food, either. In fact he’s not a massive fan of food in general, so I don’t fancy our chances of making him eat raw. I hope you find an acceptable compromise with young Christophe.
Chris is actually 11 and he is overweight which is why I want him to eat less dry food. I think the dry food can be more fattening than wet food, especially for cats that are addicted to it.
I’m glad Chris is eating some of the canned food. My human is so relieved that nobody here is that picky! And none of us eat kibble either. The closest we get is the Stella and Chewy freeze dried cat food.
I buy Stella & chewy’s and give it to the cats, especially Chris, as a distraction when he is holding vigil at the food bowl. I hesitate to only give him Stella and chewy’s because I fear it may be even more dehydrating than kibble. That is just a guess. I have no evidence that that is true.
Food experiments are always fun. I am the opposite of Chris. Mom mixes my delicious boiled chicken and veggies with my kibble. But I usually manage to eat all the good stuff and leave the kibble behind. Then she puts it into my Tornado Treat Toy with a few Cheerios and I finish it after my walk.
Love and licks,
Cupcake
Sounds like you have a good meal plan.
I’m glad Chris is eating more wet food because it is better for him than a diet of dry. Have you tried mixing the dry with wet to see if he would eat it that way?
I have not tried that
Glad you found a happy medium.
Thank you.
My cats and dogs request variety. If I feed them the same thing all the time, they stop eating it. There is one Earthbound flavor that they like a lot (Monterey Medley)- unless I serve it too often. I have even made homemade food for the cats with varying success (wild success for the dogs). Good luck finding the right combination for Chris!
Nobody likes the same thing all the time. I switch the dry food flavor every other bag. I also think having canned food and homemade food on the same day is actually better because of the variety. In addition, I also give them a different flavor of canned food about every third or fourth can.
We all have our rotation schemes! As long as our clowder/pride is happy, we’re happy.
Teddy won’t eat ANY wet food period. He likes his Hill’s prescription weight maintenance food that our vet has him on though and gets a “wet” treat once in a while.
Hugs, Pam
I believe wet food is better for cats. Maybe you can experiment to see if you can find something he likes and then give it to him just once a day.
My sister had a ginger many years ago and loved his Tender Vittles and his regular Purina Cat Chow. When she decided TJ needed a more healthy diet by switching to Hills Science Diet, he was more than upset with her. He started eating several doors away, who was feeding TJ his Tender Vittles and Cat Chow, because that’s what they fed their own cats. TJ decided to move in with the neighbors.
Cats are like kids. Sometimes they’d rather go hungry than eat something they don’t like.
So true.