Dry Food Diet

[Meekie]

I give up.

I've spent the past seven months trying to get my 13 month old girl to eat wet food. Every time I find something she'll eat she stops eating it after a few days to a week. I've tried everything: cans, poches, toppers, adding treats, adding dry food, and cooking fresh chicken. She won't even eat tuna anymore. She used to devour it. I've become familiar with her reaction to food I put down from her: if she nibbles a little or licks up some juice there's a good chance she'll eat maybe half of it eventually, but if she immediately backs away from it, it will sit there.

I've tried withholding her dry food until she eats the wet but she'll just go without eating. I've tried tricking her and begging her. I've followed directions from articles designed specifically to get them to eat wet but after every small step forward it's two steps back. She just won't eat it.

People tell me the best food is whatever they'll eat but does this extend to dry food? I feed her dry Blue WIlderness chicken and she loves it. At least she likes a premium brand and not something like Meow Mix.

She appears to be getting enough fluids because her pee clumps have remained constant. Is this a good indicator? She has two water sources plus a fountain and I see her drinking at least once a day. I give her Churu every couple of days just to assure she's getting liquids.

I haven't tried Tiki Cat yet and due to my experience I don't have high hopes but I will try it anyway. The problem is I'm disabled and it's not easy to get to Petco often, which is the only place they sell it. I can no longer just order a case from Chewy and hope for the best because I'm one major expense away from homelessness.

I know, I shouldn't even have a cat if I can't afford to feed her. After fifteen years in a tree cat household ( i could afford it because they all ate whatever I gave them) I figured one cat would be cheaper. But with this little one, I might as well open cans and scrape them directly into the trash. I can afford to feed her dry food, but I hear nothing but bad things about a dry food diet. What can I do? She. Will. Not. Eat. Wet. Food.

Right now I have 2 questions: is there anything I can do to mitigate the harm of feeding an almost exclusively dry diet? What conditions should I have her doctor regularly look for?

I'm also curious about the carb content of Churu. It's hard to find carbohydrate levels on the nutrition charts for cat food in general. If Churu is very high in carbs, which I understand to be the biggest drawback of dry food, then I will have to stop giving it to her.

 

[maggie101]

Have you tried weruva? That's become my cats favorite food. Maggie used to love tiki but not anymore. Plus it's cheaper. One thing to check is the cats teeth. Any red gums in the back or bad breath? Is she eating at all? My cat has a mild case of ibd. Her urine is fine. It was confirmed by an ultrasound. She had lost her appetite,diaheria, throw up,and hiding. My old cat had ibd,no diaheria. There are some brands of dry food not so bad but with a senior cat try mixing a little in. Or advita probiotic flavored

 

[LTS3]

Carbohydrate info for many canned foods can be found here: https://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf

There was a popular chart for dry food but the info is over 10 years old so no longer accurate.

Generally anything that contains starches and thickeners and gums will be high in carbs. A small amount of a lickable treat or an occasional higher carb food isn't going to cause any harm.

Honestly, don't feel bad if you have to feed only dry food. Yes, it's not the best but you can't convince a cat to eat something else and obviously finances are something to take into consideration. In a perfect world everyone would feed a super premium canned food in species appropriate proteins or a raw diet and finances and picky cats would be non-existent. You feed the best you can and try to keep up with regular vet visits and home care (teeth brushing, etc) to hopefully minimize health issues in the future.

Have you tried weruva? That's become my cats favorite food. Maggie used to love tiki but not anymore. Plus it's cheaper.

Soulistic is cheaper than Weruva and is made by the same company. Both brands are nearly identical, just different names for the same varieties and slightly different ingredients.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Probably at least 50% (probably more) of the cats in the world eat only dry food and many of them live long, healthy lives. There are no guarantees that feeding wet food will prevent health issues, or that feeding dry will cause them. I can guarantee this though, if she doesn't eat anything, she will have health issues. So feed her what she will eat and don't worry until there is something to worry about

 

[Meekie]

Thanks for the replies! I was having a bit of a meltdown when I made this thread. OCDPD and cats don't mix well!
I suppose I should be happy that she at least eats the dry food and she likes a decent brand. No red gums or bad breath that I can detect. Still drinking her water so I don't have to worry about hydration.

A lot of times if I follow my intuition I have a little success with wet food. Last night while wondering what I'd put out for her to eventually scrape into the trash it struck me that I should try the Fancy Feast chicken and tuna but with no topper. It worked! She ate most of it!

I've also found that withholding dry food until she eats the wet food backfires. She's more apt to eat the wet if there's a little dry available. She likes variety.

She doesn't like chunky foods, especially if the chunks are large, and she won't even consider pate. What she seems to like most are the shredded foods, the smaller the shreds the better, which is why I want to try Tiki cat. From the picture on the can, the shreds look pretty small.

What other brands are finely shredded? I will try them for sure.

 

[Maurey]

Rawz has shredded food, if you’re able to source the brand

there’s also Koha, Lotus Just Juicy, Nulo Freestyle, and Weruva.

 

[maggie101]

Except for trulex and pouches the threads for weruva are small. Tiki after dark the spreads are bigger

 

[Morpheus1967]

Carbohydrate info for many canned foods can be found here: https://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf

How accurate is this list? I have always been told that if you add up the moisture, fat, protein, fiber and ash content of pet food, and subtract that from 100, you are left with carb percentages. Here is a link to that from petmd:

PETMD Carb Content

That being said, I just picked a random food on the list, Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Beef Feast in Roasted Gravy. Per Chewy, here are the nutritional values:

Crude Protein	9.0% min
Crude Fat	2.0% min
Crude Fiber	1.5% max
Moisture	82.0% max
Ash	3.0% max
Taurine	0.05% min

If you add up the protein, fat, fiber, moisture and ash, it equals 97.5%. Subtract that from 100, and you are left with 2.5% carb content. Yet on the list in the link, it states this particular food is 20% carbs?

 

[Maurey]

How accurate is this list? I have always been told that if you add up the moisture, fat, protein, fiber and ash content of pet food, and subtract that from 100, you are left with carb percentages. Here is a link to that from petmd:

PETMD Carb Content

That being said, I just picked a random food on the list, Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers Beef Feast in Roasted Gravy. Per Chewy, here are the nutritional values:

Crude Protein	9.0% min
Crude Fat	2.0% min
Crude Fiber	1.5% max
Moisture	82.0% max
Ash	3.0% max
Taurine	0.05% min

If you add up the protein, fat, fiber, moisture and ash, it equals 97.5%. Subtract that from 100, and you are left with 2.5% carb content. Yet on the list in the link, it states this particular food is 20% carbs?

That’s dry matter basis vs as fed. Dry matter will be much higher.

 

[Morpheus1967]

That’s dry matter basis vs as fed. Dry matter will be much higher.

Why would anyone care what the dry matter count is for a wet food? Serious question.

 

[Robyn5678]

My almost 18 year old only ate dry food for 16+ years. She has only started to sometimes eat wet within the last year. But she mostly prefers dry. I let her have what she will eat.

 

[lisahe]

Why would anyone care what the dry matter count is for a wet food? Serious question.

To do a real comparison. Fortunately, there's a Cat Site article that explains!

How To Compare Cat Foods & Calculate Carbs [Dry Matter Basis] - TheCatSite

Pet food labels report the nutrient content of their products using the Guaranteed Analysis. These contents are listed in terms of minimums and maximums, which are, by definition, inaccurate. For instance, if the guaranteed analysis lists a minimum of 10% protein, it may well contain much more...

thecatsite.com

 

[Morpheus1967]

To do a real comparison. Fortunately, there's a Cat Site article that explains!

http://[URL]https://thecatsite.com/c/how-to-compare-cat-foods-calculate-carbs-dry-matter-basis/

[/URL]

Thanks for the link. Very useful.

That being said, the numbers in the original link are still off, which of course could be due to formula changes, etc. It's a great place to start, but I would always do your own calculations. (FYI, the example I used originally, and using the calculator on the catcentric site, I comes out to just under 14% carbs vs 20% on the original link.)

 

[Alldara]

Meekie I'm sorry it was such a stressful experience for you both.
Yearly bloodwork and checkup should be enough to let you know if anything is going on.

To mitigate anything you could:
- monitor her weight and keep dry food portions controlled
- encourage water drinking
- feed the occasional can or wet food treat with a bit of extra water (you said she will eat it for a day or two, which tells me she might enjoy it as a once or twice a week treat!)
- Give wet food tube treats occasionally like Churus, or Pure Bites pouches
- cut back on some dry food when giving wet food treats
- check if she will eat some dry food with water soaked into it sometimes
- try freeze dried food like Stella and Chewys as a treat. For that you add the water about 20 minutes before and then give to the cat. I used to give 1 or two pellets per day to Lily. That's all she would eat of it.

 

[Meekie]

To mitigate anything you could:
- monitor her weight and keep dry food portions controlled
- encourage water drinking
- feed the occasional can or wet food treat with a bit of extra water (you said she will eat it for a day or two, which tells me she might enjoy it as a once or twice a week treat!)
- Give wet food tube treats occasionally like Churus, or Pure Bites pouches
- cut back on some dry food when giving wet food treats
- check if she will eat some dry food with water soaked into it sometimes
- try freeze dried food like Stella and Chewys as a treat. For that you add the water about 20 minutes before and then give to the cat. I used to give 1 or two pellets per day to Lily. That's all she would eat of it.

Thanks. I will try everything. I saw her drinking out of her water fountain this morning for the first time, so there's another water source. I give her Churu once or twice a week but I still want to know if it's high in carbs.

And although it might seem obvious, she does drink more water when she doesn't eat the wet food. I'm glad she seems to know when she needs hydration.

 

[Alldara]

Churu Chicken – Premium quality pet food for your beloved pet friends
6 calories per tube

Crude Protein (min) 7.00%
Crude Fat (min) 0.20%
Crude Fiber (max) 0.30%
Moisture (max) 91.00%
Vitamin E (min) 310 IU/kg
Taurine (min) 0.025%
Sodium 0.38%
Phosphorous 0.23%
Magnesium 0.01%
Calcium 0.03%
Potassium 0.09%

If you search the name of something and then add 'nutritional information' afterwards, you can normally find it.

Chewy says they have approx. 2 carbs per tube. They're grain free so I didn't expect them to be high Are Churu cat treats low in carbs? - Customer Questions & Answers - Chewy.com.

 

[lisahe]

Thanks for the link. Very useful.

That being said, the numbers in the original link are still off, which of course could be due to formula changes, etc. It's a great place to start, but I would always do your own calculations. (FYI, the example I used originally, and using the calculator on the catcentric site, I comes out to just under 14% carbs vs 20% on the original link.)

The numbers on the Catinfo.org chart may be off because the data are now old and recipes may have changed. Also, the carb numbers aren't for dry matter but rather for caloric distribution.

There's also the question of what numbers are used in the first place: guaranteed analysis numbers (what's on a label) are minimum and maximum values rather than precise figures. Here's a good explanation of that.

And this, from Dr. Pierson -- of the Catinfo.org site and chart -- sums a lot up:

The data used to calculate the values on this chart are from Typical Nutrient Analysis (TNA) data -
not the Guaranteed Analysis (GA) data which is listed on the product’s package (can/pouch/bag). GA
values are reported as minimums and maximums and are, by definition, inaccurate since there is no
ceiling or floor, respectively.

You generally need to contact a manufacturer to get the typical nutrient analysis.

 

[mizzely]

My cat is suuuper picky. She also prefers dry food to wet, but things I've done to help:

- Feeding dry next to wet. Like yours, it seems to help.
- using Wysong AddLife on the wet food occasionally to her
- if I feed the same brand and flavor two days in a row, she stops eating it. So always be rotating!
- take a break. If she's not eating any wet food several days in a row, I will take it away completely for a few days.
- smaller portions. I've taken to giving her just half a can at a time now instead of a full one
-Warming it up slightly

My cat hates the shreds lol. Brands I've seen with the shreds:

Tiki Cat
Soulistic (Petco)
Cats in the Kitchen
Weruva
BFF
WholeHearted (Petco)
Landmark (Chewy)

At the end of the day, cats gotta eat. Celebrate days she eats wet and remember tomorrow is another day on the days she doesn't

 

[JamesCalifornia]

~ I have extended the health and life of two cats in kidney failure by using weekly subcutaneous hydration. It is not hard to learn and if I had a cat on only dry food this is what I would do. Also steamed chicken and the fatty broth can be used to feed a fussy cat .
We "cat crazy" people must remember that any cat that comes into our care are lucky — no matter how short or long they live.