Picky Eater vs. Wet Food

BellaGooch

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Hello, everyone!
One of my cats, Eden, doesn't seem to be fond of wet food, despite her trying different flavors, variations, etc. I know that wet food is obviously much more nutritional than dry food, but this girl refuses to eat anything but dry food. Her water intake seems sufficient, so my question is, is judy dry food + water enough?
 

neely

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I'm not personally familiar with that brand of cat food but also had a difficult time getting Carleton to eat wet food. Since he ate only dry food in the shelter he had acquired a taste for it. I tried to transition him slowly but he refused and like you I gave up at first. Fast forward, some time went by and I decided to try again since I really wanted him to eat wet food. I tried multiple flavors and brands. When he showed a little interest in one of them I transitioned him slowly. It took several months but I'm happy to say it worked. I still give him dry to snack on but the majority of his diet is wet food now. Best of luck, I thought this Article might be helpful for you:
Transitioning Your Cat From Kibble To A New Type Of Food – TheCatSite Articles
 

Whenallhellbreakslose

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I had a female cat that only ate dry and didn't drink much of the water I put out for her. She developed numerous U.T.I.'s. The vet bills were beginning to pile up, so I had to do something. I couldn't get her to eat the Prescription wet food the vet gave me. She drove me crazy for dry food. I tried to find wet food that I thought would convert her, but no luck. I got so frustrated that one day I placed some of her dry food into the wet food and she actually ate it . I kept doing that until I felt she was okay with the wet and then one day, I stopped giving her the dry food altogether. I also started giving her water with tuna juice in it and she started drinking it. I kept that up and then one day stopped altogether. Finally, she was now eating only wet food and drinking water. She was U.T.I. free after that. It took time and patience but it worked.

One thing my kitty did take a liking to was those fancy feast broths. So I used them in the process of transitioning her as well. Hope you find what works for your cat. Best of luck.🙂
 

daftcat75

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Short answer: no. Dry food plus water won't be enough. But it may be a very long time before you see any evidence of this.

Even cats who like to drink water will not drink enough to make up for how little moisture is in dry food. Most wet food is around 78% moisture. If your cat eats 6 oz a day (2 x 3 oz cans), that's 4.7 oz of moisture from food alone. Eden would have to spend nearly all day at the water bowl to drink that much.

That said, I got 12 healthy years out of Krista on a dry food only diet. Then she had three rough final years that, while I won't say they would have been prevented with a higher moisture diet, they certainly benefitted from her switching to a wet food only diet. Three very common illnesses of older cats are teeth issues, gut issues, and kidney issues. All three of these would be treated with high moisture diets. I can't promise prevention. But increasing the moisture content of her diet through wet food is easy harm reduction.

I'm going to be controversial. I'm going to recommend Friskies. Everyone thinks this is a low quality food. And it might be. But it's very popular with even picky cats.

Between the higher moisture content and the sharp reduction of nonsense carb ingredients that don't belong in a cat's diet, your worst wet food will be better than your best dry food. Start with Friskies to get moisture in her diet. Then you can branch out with other foods once you've got her eating wet food on the regular. Maybe you have to mix the better foods with Friskies to get her to eat them. Good thing that stuff is cheap. You'll have her lifetime to find better foods. For now, it's far better for her to feast at McDonald's than starve at Whole Foods. Quality makes no difference if she won't eat it.
 
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BellaGooch

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thank you guys so much for responding! I will definitely check out that article out neely neely ! Carleton sounds a lot like Eden. Not sure what her life was like before us, but I knew an old lady fed her (dry food, I assume).
Whenallhellbreakslose Whenallhellbreakslose wow, if anybody ever has any doubts about how healthy wet food is, reading your story should put them at ease! Thank you for replying.
daftcat75 daftcat75 Thanks so much for your response. My last cat, Bella, waa fed almost entirely dry food with wet food only being introduced in her later years due to teeth problems. She lived a long time as well, but that doesn't mean she wasn't unhealthy on the inside.

Friskies might be a good place to start as well if the dry food mixed in with wet food thing doesn't work out. Thank you :)
 

Whenallhellbreakslose

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That is good to hear! There is just one more thing. When you mix wet with dry or even add water to dry it becomes sort of a bacterial soup. It is not that good to eat after 20 minutes, as it could upset your kitty's GI . So what I would do is only give your kitty what you know she will eat, anything leftover needs to get tossed. My kitty never got sick when I did this. I stopped doing this once she transitioned to wet food. I hope that your kitty successful makes the switch. Just give it a little time. 🙂
 
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BellaGooch

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That is good to hear! There is just one more thing. When you mix wet with dry or even add water to dry it becomes sort of a bacterial soup. It is not that good to eat after 20 minutes, as it could upset your kitty's GI . anything leftover needs to get tossed.
Thank you so much, I'll go see if she's finished it/throw away leftovers right now.
 

daftcat75

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Let her poops be your guide. Don't give her more wet food until you've seen the next poop. A little softer or a little smellier on the first day of a transition is to be expected as it is a new food. Take it slow. If it's a good poop, proceed. If it's significantly softer or smellier, then perhaps consider a different food. Maybe give it one more poop to see if it gets any better.
 
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BellaGooch

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Let her poops be your guide. Don't give her more wet food until you've seen the next poop. A little softer or a little smellier on the first day of a transition is to be expected as it is a new food. Take it slow. If it's a good poop, proceed. If it's significantly softer or smellier, then perhaps consider a different food. Maybe give it one more poop to see if it gets any better.
I will definitely try my hardest, but right now she unfortunately lives outside (former stray who currently adamantly refuses any efforts to bring her inside).
 
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BellaGooch

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I've totally been lazy and have only fed her wet food a few times since my last post. I was just tired of having to monitor the whole time she eats (and she's a slow eater) because if I don't, she'll wander away from her food after a few bites and not finish it. I know that's a lame excuse, though.

However, each time I've been feeding her less and less dry food. Tonight, she only walked away from her food once and licked the bowl clean :yess: I also tried a method that I saw another poster reccomend (I don't remember who!) Where you run her wet food in a bag under warm water to heat it up a little bit, which I think helped. Thank you guys for youe help!
 
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