Hard Food Cutting Up

[Kilgore.Emily]

Hello all,
Backstory First:
My senior baby has megacolon and has a weird eating habits that I have just learned to deal with. She had stopped eating dry food all together about 4 months ago, and so she gets 6 meals a day of wet food using a timer feeder and when I get home from work. The vet, quite a while ago, put her on the Royal Canin Gastrointestinal food due to her megacolon and she used to love it until she just stopped touching it by itself. Instead, I started adding it in some wet food around dinner every day and she scarfs it so its nice and soft for her sad, 18 year old teeth.

Because 2020, and cats, she started snacking on the dry food I left out just in case, but due to her bad teeth she does not chew the food and swallows it whole. It is not big food by any means, but the vet (ecstatic that she wants to eat the dry food in addition to her wet food) suggested cutting the dry food and leaving it out for her to snack on when her wet food is not around. Does anyone have suggestions or failures on cutting up dry food? I know there are a lot of debates on dry food, but I would love her to gain some weight and she does love the taste of this. I attached a photo so you can see the size. Thanks all!

 

[LTS3]

Just smash the dry food into smaller pieces. If you don't have a food processer or blender or coffee / spice grinder, just put the dry food into a baggie and smash away with a heavy pot / pan, hammer, can of soup, etc. Cats don't really chew dry food anyways. Their teeth are designed for ripping meat. Dry food just gets crunched and swallowed pretty much whole.

 

[Willowy]

Yep. Since you want it in pieces and not powder, either pulse it briefly in a food processor/blender (I think a coffee grinder would make it too fine even with a brief pulse) or put it in a baggie and whack it.

When I had old ferrets, I used to grind their kibble into a fine powder (this is where the coffee grinder shines) and add water to make a soup, or mix it with chicken baby food for extra calories. That might be an option for your kitty too.

 

[Kilgore.Emily]

Thanks for the suggestions, I will try the baggie first and see if she will munch on it throughout the night. I gave up on hard food as a non interest, but since its a good calorie addition and helps her gut, I want to make the effort.