Dr. Elway's Dry food

[lisahe]

Hi,
I agree, don't offer too many new foods at once. I would do one ( variant/brand) at a time with a break in between of a week or so. Sometimes it takes a little while to accept a new food as food and too many can be overwhelming.
If any are a similar texture to what she ate previously try that while also feeding the previous food.
Often there is a healthier variant that is similar to a less healthy one. For example, chunks in gravy but with real meat & no sugar is still chunks in gravy.

What you say about acceptance is so true! Our cats are pretty quick (at least relatively speaking) to try new foods but their first reactions usually involve bewilderment, as if they wonder what we're trying to do to them.

This reminds me, too, that I notice that sometimes the best thing to do with new foods is to just leave them alone, leave the room, so they can just try the food without a curious observer.

 

[BucDan]

I'm going through this right now with one kitty, maybe two. Been feeding him Dr.Elsey's Clean protein Turkey dry. But the calorie count is very high compared to others. It's clean and healthy and they don't get an upset stomach or diarrhea, most importantly.

I found that Applaws Chicken and Pumpkin flavor and Weruva Meal or No Deal are his favorite. We feed our cats 4 times a day, breakfast 7am, lunch 12pm, dinner 5pm, then late night they get the biggest serving of 2 scoops at 10 pm so they don't annoy us at 2am.

Because they're basically eating 5 servings a day (just under 1/4 cup per serving), we're working to cut out at 3 of those servings, or at least 2, breakfast and dinner, from dry to wet food to help cut his weight. So far, it's working, slowly. There's no other diet food out there that I think he'd like.

Our other cat, used to like wet food, but now loves Dr.Elsey, but he isn't eating like a pig, but we're trying to get him on wet food again. He wont go for anything anymore. Back then, he loved Blue Buffalo Carnivora wet food cans.

 

[kittymama18]

I would just pick one kind of wet food that you have, and put a teaspoon on the plate next to her dry food or whatever she is eating that she likes at every meal. Warm it up by putting it in a plastic bag and running under hot water. When it's warm it'll smell more. Then she'll get used to the smell and presence of the food while she's eating what she likes. Do that for a week. 'accidentally' drop a kibble or 2 next to the wet, or even on it. Does she eat the 'contaminated' kibble? Then, gradually over the course of a few weeks, increase the amount of wet (very tiny increments) and decrease the amount of dry and continue to 'accidentally' get kibbles on the wet. When kitty is consistently eating the kibbles on the wet, if kitty isn't already eating the wet, give it a tiny mix so more wet gets on the kibbles. Mix a little more every day until kitty is eating a mix of wet and dry. Keep changing the % of each until it's entirely wet. This is the months-long process I used to get a dumped kitty off the cheapest kind of kibble, which was all she'd eat. It took forever but eventually she figured out that the wet squishy stuff was actually good. Also second the Forti-Flora. That stuff is expensive, but great for tempting picky eaters. Maybe have her eat in a quiet room with feliway or some pheromone calming spray to get her in a good mood, and pet her and praise her and reward her with a kibble or two when she even SNIFFS the wet food. That's how my kid trains one of our super smart kitties. Praise and reward when they even sniff the new thing at first. She's taught her to jump through a hoop, lie down, roll over, sit, and sit up on her haunches and give a high-5!! LOL! I hope all this help!!