After many years and many cats, my new American Shorthair has taken the crown as the most picky eater ever. I took ownership of her recently at 18 months year old from a breeder who said she liked the Iams High Protein Dry Chicken+Salmon. With all my cats I've supplemented with wet once a day. My previous American Shorthair loved the wet although he was a bit picky too (probably a trait of the breed.) He liked flavors with Tuna which I eventually switched to a chicken-salmon that he liked to avoid the tuna and possible mercury exposure although as the third or 4th ingredient after other proteins and not his 100% diet, the health risk probably is not that huge but I like to play it safe.
I've tried my goto's including Tiki cat chicken shreds in gravy and several flavors of the Weruva BFF. And even my Kitty Crack trick, mix some canned sardine juice with any flavor wet. She ate a tiny bit of the Sardine mix the first time but hasn't touched it after. With my previous ASH I'd remove the dry food bowl during the day, feet wet in the evening and put the dry bowl back out for the night otherwise he's wake us up at 4am wanting to eat! But he would eat the wet whether the dry was out 24/7 or not.
Good thing is the new cat, even though smaller than the old does drinks close to about twice the water so she's well hydrated on a 100% dry diet. But she's very lean and I'd like to give her something hydrating that is high protein and higher quality than the Iams to supplement the dry food. I think because she probably was on a 100% dry diet all her first 18 months, wet food is just very too foreign to her. But turning your nose up at Sardine juice!? That's pretty incredible.
I know it's a process of trial an error but any suggestions are appreciated. I think I may just need to temporarily start limiting access to the dry food to encourage her to try the wet more.
I've tried my goto's including Tiki cat chicken shreds in gravy and several flavors of the Weruva BFF. And even my Kitty Crack trick, mix some canned sardine juice with any flavor wet. She ate a tiny bit of the Sardine mix the first time but hasn't touched it after. With my previous ASH I'd remove the dry food bowl during the day, feet wet in the evening and put the dry bowl back out for the night otherwise he's wake us up at 4am wanting to eat! But he would eat the wet whether the dry was out 24/7 or not.
Good thing is the new cat, even though smaller than the old does drinks close to about twice the water so she's well hydrated on a 100% dry diet. But she's very lean and I'd like to give her something hydrating that is high protein and higher quality than the Iams to supplement the dry food. I think because she probably was on a 100% dry diet all her first 18 months, wet food is just very too foreign to her. But turning your nose up at Sardine juice!? That's pretty incredible.
I know it's a process of trial an error but any suggestions are appreciated. I think I may just need to temporarily start limiting access to the dry food to encourage her to try the wet more.