Is it safe to starve my picky cat into eating his damn food?

[danteshuman]

Jackie turns 2 next month. All he wants is tuna, tuna & oh wait now he doesn’t like this type of tuna food but he still wants tuna! I want to feed him a whole lot less fish. Quite frankly his finickiness is driving me nuts!

So can I safely only give him one type/flavor of food for the entire day/his 4 meals along with 1/4 cup dry. How likely is he to harm himself by snubbing the food? How long do I have to keep feeding him the same food in each meal until my picky brat gets that there will be no more flavors of food

At this point I’m considering changing him over to only one flavor of wet food for month or giving up and just giving him dry food only. Or dry food with only 1/2 can per day. I don’t have $$$ to waste & it is only because I believe so strongly in wet food that I haven’t given up yet!

I’m aware that variety is best for his health. I also am aware that being part siamese he is more prone to allergies.

However if he keeps up his picky ways I might give him only 1/2 cana day of his favorite fishy wet food and put him on something like taste of the wild venison dry food.

My last cat had severe poultry allergies & died from pancreatitis. The vet said it could be caused by diets high in fish. Hence my obsession with limiting his fish intake & trying to limit his chicken (a top food allergy.)

I’m trying her but toppers don’t really work and he is driving me nuts!

 

[maggie101]

I use pure bites freeze dried treats or stella&chews which is expensive but only takes 1 small morsel to easily crush and mix in thier food. Or bonita flakes. Many cat foods that say chicken contain fish so read the ingredients. Fancy feast is just one of the foods cats find addicting. They also like sheba roasted Turkey or chicken and nutro perfect portions. Nutr is cheaper at petco.

 

[Dana_And_Monster]

No, it isn't safe. Cats can develop a disease called fatty liver which it very fatal from not eating. Here's a page on how to transition to wet/raw.
Dry food is horrible for cats, the goal is to eliminate it entirely from your cats diet.

 

[danteshuman]

Oh he refuses fancyfeast melodies chicken and turkey. He gets sick of fancy feast melodies tuna. He no longer likes my bff wet food. He snubs his Rachel ray mackerel nutrish. I won’t even talk about all the salmon foods or all the fancy feast flavors without gravy that I have tried. I have 20 more cans of fancy feast trout that I made a mistake and ordered pate and he won’t even try it!


Which is why I just looked on chewy and I think giving him healthy dry food with only 1 wet food meal per day might be best for my spoiled brat! Taste of the wild prey beef looks like a top contender for dry food or natural instincts does a venison I believe.

 

[danteshuman]

Fine will if I can’t get him to eat better with toppers and I can’t get the little brat to eat healrhier less tuna laden wet food I will transition him to mostly dry I guess. How do I do that so he doesn’t get the runs like he does when he porks out on fishy dry food at Nana’s house?

 

[Dana_And_Monster]

Oh he refuses fancyfeast melodies chicken and turkey. He gets sick of fancy feast melodies tuna. He no longer likes my bff wet food. He snubs his Rachel ray mackerel nutrish. I won’t even talk about all the salmon foods or all the fancy feast flavors without gravy that I have tried. I have 20 more cans of fancy feast trout that I made a mistake and ordered pate and he won’t even try it!


Which is why I just looked on chewy and I think giving him healthy dry food with only 1 wet food meal per day might be best for my spoiled brat! Taste of the wild prey beef looks like a top contender for dry food or natural instincts does a venison I believe.

Fancy feast is dirt quality, terrible ingredients comparable to mcdonalds fast food so thats a good thing. Tiki cat, rawz, and feline natural are high quality foods. Otherwise, look into homemade catfood.

And no, don't do dry. Dry catfood is awful for cats

Transitioning catfoods can take weeks to months of work. Be patient.

 

[danteshuman]

I know fancy feast isn’t great & that it mostly junk food. However he got a hold of some as a kitten and snubbed the healthy stuff! I figured even fancy food wet food was better for him then dry but frankly I’m ready to throw in the towel & transition him to mostly dry.

 

[Dana_And_Monster]

I know fancy feast isn’t great & that it mostly junk food. However he got a hold of some as a kitten and snubbed the healthy stuff! I figured even fancy food wet food was better for him then dry but frankly I’m ready to throw in the towel & transition him to mostly dry.

He's 2, you can't have been transitioning for very long at all. There's no reason to compromise his health and lifespan just because he's taking long (which is totally common and totally workable) to transition. Did you read those pages on dry food I gave you? And the homemade resources?

 

[danteshuman]

He hated tiki cat, it was an epic fail, right next to tiny tigers. There is no way I’m making homemade food for my cat. I’m not there physically. I live off of mostly microwave dinners myself.

He snubbed freeze dried after the first couple of auditions to his dry food and wouldn’t touch it when I soaked it in water.

 

[Dana_And_Monster]

He hated tiki cat, it was an epic fail, right next to tiny tigers. There is no way I’m making homemade food for my cat. I’m not there physically. I live off of mostly microwave dinners myself.

He snubbed freeze dried after the first couple of auditions to his dry food and wouldn’t touch it when I soaked it in water.

What transition style are you using and how long were you attempting these foods? Typically this is a month or over process. Cats require work, you've to put a lot of effort into this.

 

[Dana_And_Monster]

Here's another great page read it full.

edit: And this:

 

[danteshuman]

My restrictions are: must be able to order off of chewy and his food must cost $100 or less per month. I’m looking for chicken free and low in fish ..... I know most dry foods add a smidge of fish to give cats some needed ingredient. I would prefer his dry food be fish free.

I have tried mixing 3/4 wet of his preferred wet food and 1/4 wet of his new dislikes wet food (chicken) and he still won’t touch it.

I have known cats to live 20 years eating mostly dry food with 1 wet food meal each day. At this point I think dry food might be healthier for him & I hate saying that!

 

[Dana_And_Monster]

My restrictions are: must be able to order off of chewy and his food must cost $100 or less per month. I’m looking for chicken free and low in fish ..... I know most dry foods add a smidge of fish to give cats some needed ingredient. I would prefer his dry food be fish free.

I have tried mixing 3/4 wet of his preferred wet food and 1/4 wet of his new dislikes wet food (chicken) and he still won’t touch it.

I have known cats to live 20 years eating mostly dry food with 1 wet food meal each day. At this point I think dry food might be healthier for him & I hate saying that!

Try slower and less then.
It's not. Here's page about this.
Again, this takes typically months to do, however, wet food is ultimately healthier than dry no matter how you slice it, giving up is compromising your cats health. This is going to take time and work.
It could also just be the brand you're trying. Do some more research into different wet foods after a few months or weeks if this doesn't work and start over.

 

[maggie101]

Dr elseys will send you samples. No fishat all. They like the canned chicken and Turkey. Occasionally the cat food deals forum will have good sales. I plan to start feeding them sheba roasted chicken and Turkey and more expensive American journey landmark. Check out the catfooddb.com. some of the ff classics are ok.

 

[verna davies]

If he likes dry and will eat it without any problems, try mixing a little wet food with it and gradually increase wet and reduce dry. Try a couple of grams of dry with a very small amount of wet to see if it works to save wasting food and mix well together.

 

[maggie101]

2 of my cats like pate. My other cat likes pieces of meat. So mixing something crunchy like freeze dried helps. Peaches licks her food, Maggie takes bites, Coco will eat it all in one bite. So texture makes a big difference. I want to try venison for my cats

 

[danteshuman]

He ate all of his bff chicken & pumpkin (that does have some tuna in it) for dinner. So yeah & no he ‘s not starving but he only gets one scoop of 1/4 cup dry food every day. I just refuse to free feed him unlimited dry food.

Again I know fancy feast isn’t ideal but I figured at the time, that fancy feast was better than mostly dry. Thing is if he doesn’t like his food he just hopes I will feed him something better later.

So maybe feeding him turkey everything for a couple of weeks will break his perception that tuna is just around the corner? (He likes turkey better than chicken.) Then I can try to transition him to something healthier mixed in... maybe starting at a 1/10 ratio? If I’m going through that kind of trouble I’m switching him to a poultry free wet food. I would prefer to just feed him 3 meals a day plus his dry food, since I wind up throwing away wet food. If he acts hungry, I will always feed him.

I even tried rabbit wet foods but got barely a nibble.

If he likes dry and will eat it without any problems, try mixing a little wet food with it and gradually increase wet and reduce dry. Try a couple of grams of dry with a very small amount of wet to see if it works to save wasting food and mix well together.

He gobbles up his wet food when he likes it. He gets 6 oz wet and 1/4cup dry every day.

I think I may try the probiotics, he loves it! I bought Jackson Galaxy’s probiotics & tried mixing some into his turkey wet food. He ate it all.

To be clear the problem is he only really wants to eat tuna & fancy feast melody tuna.... which has wheat in it. I want him to lay off the fish and eat beef or duck or turkey. (Avoid chicken.) I really would rather he just eats my bff or better yet something healthy like instinct LID or other LID foods.

I try to give him variety but he is driving me nuts!!!! So nuts I’m considering letting him pork out on dry food and only giving him 1/4 of his diet from wet food! I could stick him on science diet or taste of the wild prey (beef.)

Is it really worth the fight when the only wet food he will eat is junk food?

 

[danteshuman]

2 of my cats like pate. My other cat likes pieces of meat. So mixing something crunchy like freeze dried helps. Peaches licks her food, Maggie takes bites, Coco will eat it all in one bite. So texture makes a big difference. I want to try venison for my cats

Oh yeah texture is key! He wants lots of gravy & tiny bits!

 

[verna davies]

I was in the same position with one of mine, tuna or dry, nothing else. It took several months but now he eats wet food with a dozen nuggets of dry mixed in. Stick with it, you'll get there.

 

[di and bob]

There are many good dry foods out there, if they were that bad for cats there would be a revolt. I have had cats live their entire lives on dry food. The secret is to have them drink plenty of water with dry. Get a fountain or set several bowls of water around the house. Cats will literally starve themselves before eating food they don't like.