Cat is not wanting to eat his dry food after I started feeding him a good wet food

Box of Rain

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Thank you,yes a raw diet sounds like it would probably be best for cats.I will look into raw cat food at petsmart, thank you Very much 😊
I raw feed myself. There are various options when it comes to raw feeding.

Should you wish to discuss them it might be best for you to start a new thread in the raw feeding sub-forum (as I believe that's the expressed preference of this board's ownership).

Feeding commercial raw can get expensive; however, there are ways to raw feed that are both highly sound nutritionally and economical and come with various degrees of user "difficulty."

Happy to advise, as will others, if you wish to discuss further.

Bill
 

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Thank you,yes a raw diet sounds like it would probably be best for cats.I will look into raw cat food at petsmart, thank you Very much 😊
Petsmart doesn't sell raw pet food. Neither does Petco or other chains. You'll have to look at independent and specialty pet stores. You can post on the Raw and Home Cooked forum here on TCS for suggested brands of commercial raw food and where to buy.
 

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Thank you! Yes, the feeding plan you use sounds like something I could probably do.A mixture of less expensive and higher quality wet foods.Thank you for the reply!
You’re welcome ☺ I also add around 3 ounce extra water to it. Typically most meals I use 3-4 3 ounces cans or 2 5.5 ounce or a mix of them both. They get fed 2 times a day. I have 4 cats
 

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For raw feeding, commercial foods can also get quite expensive so it costs less to make the food yourself (buy meat in bulk, mix, and freeze). However, make sure you are following a recipe that guarantees a complete diet for the cat (you will need to use the correct ratio of muscle meat, organs, bones...etc. and include adequate amounts of fiber) - the raw food board on this forum is a great place to start researching.

It's also a good idea to still keep some canned food in a raw diet mixed in or on rotation to make sure that if your cat ever needs to switch to a medical diet, your cat is used to the taste and texture of canned food, and if you are making a mistake you aren't aware of in the recipe, your cat is still getting complete nutrients from the canned food.
 
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For raw feeding, commercial foods can also get quite expensive so it costs less to make the food yourself (buy meat in bulk, mix, and freeze). However, make sure you are following a recipe that guarantees a complete diet for the cat (you will need to use the correct ratio of muscle meat, organs, bones...etc. and include adequate amounts of fiber) - the raw food board on this forum is a great place to start researching.

It's also a good idea to still keep some canned food in a raw diet mixed in or on rotation to make sure that if your cat ever needs to switch to a medical diet, your cat is used to the taste and texture of canned food, and if you are making a mistake you aren't aware of in the recipe, your cat is still getting complete nutrients from the canned food.
Thank you very much! I will definitely go to the raw food board and learn about it.I appreciate your advice!
 
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Forry

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Petsmart doesn't sell raw pet food. Neither does Petco or other chains. You'll have to look at independent and specialty pet stores. You can post on the Raw and Home Cooked forum here on TCS for suggested brands of commercial raw food and where to buy.
Thank you for your advice, I appreciate it very much. The more I can learn about cat health and eating behaviors, the better I will feel.i really want him to be healthy and eat healthy food.
 
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Forry

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You’re welcome ☺ I also add around 3 ounce extra water to it. Typically most meals I use 3-4 3 ounces cans or 2 5.5 ounce or a mix of them both. They get fed 2 times a day. I have 4 cats
Do you think that 1 5.5 ounce can each day would be enough for just 1 cat? Or possibly 2-3 ounce cans?Should I give him a very small amount of dry food or none at all?
 

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Do you think that 1 5.5 ounce can each day would be enough for just 1 cat? Or possibly 2-3 ounce cans?Should I give him a very small amount of dry food or none at all?
You’ll want to feed by calorie content. Each of my cats gets around 200 calories a day
 

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Do you think that 1 5.5 ounce can each day would be enough for just 1 cat? Or possibly 2-3 ounce cans?Should I give him a very small amount of dry food or none at all?
I feed a very small amount of dry food and that’s because they start annoying me at 3am for food so I found if I have their auto feeder drop a little dry food around 11pm and 4am, they leave me alone 😂😂 but for the 3 of them it’s like an 1/8 of a cup or maybe even less
 
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You’ll want to feed by calorie content. Each of my cats gets around 200 calories a day
I've been having a problem figuring out the calorie content of a can of food.For example, a can of food I have lists the calorie content as 847 kcal/kg or 132 kcal/can ME. I'm not exactly sure how to read that.
 

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Do you think that 1 5.5 ounce can each day would be enough for just 1 cat? Or possibly 2-3 ounce cans?Should I give him a very small amount of dry food or none at all?
Probably not quite enough. How much does your cat weigh? The general suggestion is to feed 20 to 25 calories per pound of body weight daily. 5.5 oz cans run around 150 calories or so. That's enough for a 7 lb-ish cat. 3 oz cans run much lower in calories, under 100 so you'd need to feed more of those cans daily vs a 5.5 oz can.


I've been having a problem figuring out the calorie content of a can of food.For example, a can of food I have lists the calorie content as 847 kcal/kg or 132 kcal/can ME. I'm not exactly sure how to read that.
Kcal is kilocalorie :) 1 kcal is the same as 1 Calorie. That food has 132 calories per can. You want want to look at the kcal / can number (or kcal / cup for dry food if you feed that).
 
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Forry

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Probably not quite enough. How much does your cat weigh? The general suggestion is to feed 20 to 25 calories per pound of body weight daily. 5.5 oz cans run around 150 calories or so. That's enough for a 7 lb-ish cat. 3 oz cans run much lower in calories, under 100 so you'd need to feed more of those cans daily vs a 5.5 oz can.




Kcal is kilocalorie :) 1 kcal is the same as 1 Calorie. That food has 132 calories per can. You want want to look at the kcal / can number (or kcal / cup for dry food if you feed that).
Thank you.I need to get an exact weight on him which I don't have right now, he's a medium size cat and I would estimate he weighs approximately 8 lbs.
 
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Forry

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I feed a very small amount of dry food and that’s because they start annoying me at 3am for food so I found if I have their auto feeder drop a little dry food around 11pm and 4am, they leave me alone 😂😂 but for the 3 of them it’s like an 1/8 of a cup or maybe even less
😆😊
 
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Forry

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Also one can jump the gate to get into my old lady cat room and he eats her food. She only eats dry, I can’t get her to eat wet
Cats are so funny! 😊
 

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You also have the option of buying ground beef, cooking it and using a topper. Toppers provide the right amount of nutrients. My kitten's breeder was all raw and I transitioned my kitten to cooked meat with a topper and then to premium canned food. I rotate the proteins and she seems to like everything.
 
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Forry

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Wow,that sounds interesting!I'm not sure what a topper is.i did not know they could eat cooked ground beef! Thank you😊 what do mean by rotating the proteins?
 

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Toppers are things you put on top of food to make it more interesting and enticing to a cat. Things like crushed up treats, plain cooked pieces of meat, FortiFlora, etc. I guess social media is full of videos and such with pet owners showing off bowls of pet food topped with fresh diced veggies and fuits and other stuff that cats don't need in the diet. Toppers are best used to get inappetant picky cats to eat. Healthy cats can have occasional toppers but sometimes if you give toppers too often, the cat will expect toppers at every meal and may refuse to eat until you cave in and put toppers on.

Many people rotate different proteins to prevent addiction to one protein and to give variety in the diet and to possibly prevent food sensitivities / allergies. If a cat does develop a food sensitive to a protein, you can just eliminate that protein from the diet and feed the others. You don't have to rotate proteins at every meal.
 
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Forry

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I understand about toppers now.Thats very interesting about rotation of proteins. Very informative thank you.I have variety of different canned foods right now such as Fancy Feast fish and shrimp feast and Beyond artic char and spinach and Wellness chicken entree. I have a question for you though, do I really need to transition him slowly from one wet food to another? Can I just change his wet food one day?I know that might be a little hard on his stomach. I never realized how fragile cats can be.they are very delicate animals, as far as their digestive systems and emotions. Very beautiful animals.
 

Box of Rain

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I understand about toppers now.Thats very interesting about rotation of proteins. Very informative thank you.I have variety of different canned foods right now such as Fancy Feast fish and shrimp feast and Beyond artic char and spinach and Wellness chicken entree. I have a question for you though, do I really need to transition him slowly from one wet food to another? Can I just change his wet food one day?I know that might be a little hard on his stomach. I never realized how fragile cats can be.they are very delicate animals, as far as their digestive systems and emotions. Very beautiful animals.
As you know, I mostly raw feed as opposed to feeding from cans (the occasional bit of Mackerel being an exception to the rule) but I'm of the school of thought that--so long as a cat doesn't have food allergies/intolerances--that it's a positive to mix up the protein sources.

My understanding is that cats are less prone to developing both allergies and food aversions if they are not fed the same thing day-in and day-out.

That strategy doesn't work with allergic cats, so one has to be mindful of that when adding new proteins.

Bill
 
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