Cat only licks wet food

[smozes]

Hello. This is my first post.

Our senior cat has kidney disease and dental problems which make it painful for her to chew. She was raised exclusively on dry food by her previous owner.

We tried transitioning her to wet prescription kidney food but she doesn’t seem to understand how to eat it.

Shes been using her tongue to pick up dry food pieces, and tries to do the same with wet food, but it doesn’t stick to her tongue so she ends up just licking it.

There are some soft dry foods but they are not kidney specific. As a side note she is also particular about seafood flavors only.

How do we teach her to bite into wet food? Alternatively if there is soft dry food for our situation we’d love to try it.

 

[LTS3]

This thread has suggestions for lickers but none are likely suitable for cats with kidney disease: Mousse-texture, Reasonably Priced Wet Food?

Freeze dried raw fed dry is soft but, again, may not be suitable for cats with kidney disease.

Mashing or pureeing pate canned food with water into a softer almost soupy texture is another option.

Have you seen this web site? Tanya's Comprehensive Guide to Feline Chronic Kidney Disease - Everything You Need to Know to Help Your Cat There's lots of info there on what foods to feed.

 

[Mr. Meow]

Mashing or pureeing pate canned food with water into a softer almost soupy texture is another option.

I agree. Making a "slurry" is a good way to let them drink their food. Also helps with extra water intake, which is a good thing.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. Feeby (16+ yo) was on dry food only up until about 3 years ago. Even after 3 years she pretty much just licks the canned foods. She also won't eat any kind but pates. So, the only way I can work around this is to let her lick it until it is flattened out in the bowl, scoop it back into a pile, repeat, repeat, repeat. I do have to say that she has gotten just a tad bit better about eating it than she first did, but I think I will be doing the scoop, re-scoop, etc. for the rest of her life.

 

[smozes]

Thanks for the suggestions. Tanya’s site is very interesting.

We’re not sure what’s going on, we can hear her eating her regular food sometimes. Maybe it’s partly an appetite problem.
We’ve been relying on her automatic feeder but will have a manual feeding plan and watch closely.

 

[smozes]

Tonight she didn’t want to eat anything or even drink water. I had one can of prescription tuna pate, so took the advice and made a slurry mix and she had some finally. Crossing fingers that we found something that works.