All 3 can't be this fussy about wet food!

thecatlady3

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I've just switched all 3 of my cats to a canned diet. My middle cat had crystals in his urine so I made the switch. I am super frustrated though trying to find something they will actually eat!
I am trying to give high protein/low carbohydrate. They previously shared 1 can of Friskies and ate mostly dry.
I have seriously tried like 6 kinds! Fancy Feast, Boreal, Weruva, BFF, Merick, etc.
They either take 3 bites and walk away or sniff it and don't eat it at all!

I feed them in the morning when I get up as they are meowing like the end is near, often a small snack at lunch and more at dinner. I'm wondering if I should give up the lunch snack so they are more hungry for dinner. If they don't eat dinner they get me up super early! Help!
 

paiger8

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Try different textures. Pate, shredded, chunks, in gravy... Cats are weird and have definite texture preferences.

Also, try heating it slightly in the microwave, just warm. Heating it releases aromas and makes it smell extra yummy. Mine won't touch cold food!

Good luck!
 

missmimz

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I had to try a lot foods. And i mean lots. Unfortunately, you have to just keep hunting until you find what they like. Try diff flavors by the same brand, textures, as was already suggested. I've found even picky cats really like the Nutro natural choice sliced variety. Mine are big fans of the chicken & tuna and turkey. Put a little of the kibble they used to eat on top to see if that entices them, or try some freeze dried treats. Sometimes this is a process, so expect that you might go forwards and backwards a little. They have to eat though, so if they keep refusing the wet you'll need to supplement with dry. 
 

2cats4me

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I have two super picky cats .  Although they will eat wet food they will ONLY eat two brands and I tried almost every brand in every texture & flavor . They have settled on Fancy Feast Classic & 9 Lives Meaty Pate . I also sprinkle 2 Tbs of Evo kibble on top . They eat it all up . 

I would suggest starting out slow .  Go to the pet store and few cans of different textures and flavors . 

Sprinkle a bit of your cats kibble on top the wet food to entice them to try it .  

If you find a wet food that they really seem to like , stick with that one for awhile until they get used to eating wet food . 

Then you can slowly add in a different flavor/brand . 

It is really all up to the cats and what they like .. 

I would love my cats to eat some of those fancy gourmet wet foods but it is what it is ..
 

lisahe

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I agree with everything the others have already written and want to add that in the end this
Originally Posted by 2Cats4Me  

It is really all up to the cats and what they like ..
is always a great reminder! I think one of the most important things you can do is observe the cats and see what works, even if only a little bit. (I'm thinking of those three bites: that's a start, much better than just sniffing and walking away.) All cats are different so, for example, unlike @2Cats4Me's cats, ours refuse to eat if they're fed the same canned food more than once every two or three weeks. Though there's an exception: Nutro Natural Choice, which they love and eat every night before bed, rotating between only three flavors. @missmimz is right about picky cats and Nutro Natural Choice.

If you haven't already tried Weruva's Cats in the Kitchen, Edwina and Ireland would like to recommend all their canned poultry flavors. They also particularly like Tiki's Gourmet Carnivore foods with chunks of organ meats, Hound & Gatos lamb, Soulistic's new chicken dinner in gelee (though I should caution that they've only had it once!), and Merrick's LID duck and turkey.

It really can take some time to get cats into a good rotation of foods: it took us several months to come up with an initial bunch of foods they liked and i felt comfortable feeding them. They, too, had been fed dry food and even though they were underfed when we adopted them, they got picky pretty fast. Sprinkling dry food on their canned food and limiting the times they were served dry food really helped. (First phase: feeding dry food only at night. Second: feeding less dry food at night. Third: garnish of dry food only. End result: everybody forgot about dry food.) That worked for them but might not work for your cats.

Good luck! And for now, anyway, it might not be such a bad thing to feed the canned Friskies, particularly if it's the pates they've always liked.
 

jolie0216

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Really, Friskies isn't a bad food - esp if they are eating the Friskies pates as Lisa said above.  Any wet food is getting more hydration into the cat, which is always good!   We can get too hung up on ingredients and trying to find the perfect  food - I'm glad to see a cat eating ANY wet food!!

We went through a phase at my house a few months ago where I had to use a lot of toppers in transitioning the guys to timed meals of wet food.    I used FortiFlora, bonito flakes, crumbled Purebites sprinkled on top of the wet food (sprinkling crushed kibble didn't seem to motivate them) and sometimes I had to do 2-3 rounds of going back and topping their wet food to get them to eat it all.   It was frustrating - but I kept doing it......and now we're at a point where I don't have to use toppers hardly ever anymore!   They gladly eat their canned food meals!

Now each cat is different, but if they're already eating canned Friskies - that's a great start!    I think ideally cats should be eating a 100% wet diet, but even my gang still gets a little "kibble snack" at night.  If you end up feeding a mix of wet and dry, or if your cats (like mine) don't want to completely eliminate kibble from their daily lives - I think it's fine to feed a mix of both.   You're already helping them by making sure to include canned food in their daily diet.     

I do a breakfast meal, a dinner meal, then their kibble right before bed (roughly 10-15 pieces of kibble per cat)

If they seem hungry in the middle of the day, my husband will put some PureBites treats in their puzzle box and treat wheel, so they have to work for it 


It doesn't sound like you're free-feeding the kibble, so that's good - their hunger will work in your favor when trying to get them to eat more canned food!

Just curious - did your vet specifically recommend some canned food brands for your UTI kitty?
 
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Kat0121

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I had to try a lot foods. And i mean lots. Unfortunately, you have to just keep hunting until you find what they like. Try diff flavors by the same brand, textures, as was already suggested. I've found even picky cats really like the Nutro natural choice sliced variety. Mine are big fans of the chicken & tuna and turkey. Put a little of the kibble they used to eat on top to see if that entices them, or try some freeze dried treats. Sometimes this is a process, so expect that you might go forwards and backwards a little. They have to eat though, so if they keep refusing the wet you'll need to supplement with dry. 
I agree with this. I had to try a LOT of brands, flavors and textures before I got a rotation in place that they all like. Nutro Natural Choice is a good line in general. They have a lot of flavors and textures in the line that cats like. They often go on sale at Petco and Petsmart, too. 

I often mix and match textures and proteins in the same meal. They like pate topped with the Soulistic shreds as one example. I keep Pure Bites freeze dried chicken treats in the house at all times because it's one sure fire way to get them to eat, especially Lilith, my pickiest eater. She will go check the dishes and give me "the look". The "where is the chicken that's supposed to be on my dish?" look. I add them and she eats. 
 
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thecatlady3

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So in the end my kitty didn't have a uti. He had crystals which was painful for him to pee. The vet put him in urinary so with zero success.
 

tobilei

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So in the end my kitty didn't have a uti. He had crystals which was painful for him to pee. The vet put him in urinary so with zero success.
I absolutely hated it but I had a kitten that had severe crystals at just 17 weeks. He was trailed on the s/o and it didn't really help. What did was the Hills C/D. He got half a can of the chicken and vegetable stew (also c/d prescription) with a tablespoon of water mixed into it 3 times a day (7am, 5pm and 9pm) and then roughly 3/4 cup of the dry throughout the day. It took a couple of weeks but it was a steady decline in blood and crystals over those 2 weeks and it kept him mostly well for 6 months (we did have one episode of a potential blockage at 10 months).

Wet is better than dry with crystals so the more of the wet c/d he will eat the better. I also bought a water fountain which my little guy loved. He refused to eat the regular wet c/d though, it's a pate but your guy might like it.
 
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