Refusal to eat dried food

[eleanora]

Rudi my 14 week old Siamese kitten will not eat biscuits (dried food).The breeder told me that when I picked him up saying they had tried everything but he simply will not eat them.My other cat Nora enjoys wet food and dried food.I had hoped that seeing Nora eat dried food would oencourage Rudi to try them too but he will have nothing to do with them.After being at home with them for a week and reassured that they both get on and are ok to be left alone together (run of the house,plenty of toys,cat climbing trees and places to hide and have space from each other, I will be returning to work tomorrow without worrying that I come home to mayhem in the afternoon. However - I am worried about what to do regarding leaving food out.Rudi's appetite is huge and he has gained weight and filled out his tiny kitten frame already in the last week. I have been feeding him up to 5 small meals a day more or less on demand which has worked fine.He polishes every portion off to the last morsel,meaning there's never any food left out going stale.What should I do as from tomorrow on? I am up at 5a.m.and leave the house at 7.30 a.m.and return around 8 hours later. They will play and sleep and I have no concerns, as from the moment I get home my time is devoted to them. But what to do about ensuring Rudi gets enough food while I am not home,bearing in mind he won't eat dry food? Will he learn to adjust to 5am meal and another just before I leave 2.5 hours later and then have to wait for almost 8 hours?
My partner will be home on some days but not straight away. Advice please. I would really appreciate it.

 

[jcat]

He should be fine if he's fed before you leave, when you get home and then before bedtime - if he's really hungry he might eat the dry that's left out; if not, he'll adjust. The kittens at our shelter that are Rudi's age or younger usually get fed three wet meals a day and free-fed dry, but a lot of them don't like dry and do well on just three meals a day. From the age of about 6 months they get two wet meals a day. Our last cat also only got three meals a day from the age of about 12 weeks due to our work schedules.

If you're really worried, you could try an automatic feeder with ice packs and a timer.

 

[eleanora]

Thanks a lot jcat[emoji]128522[/emoji] Brilliant advice and I feel a bit less panicky now.I never thought about automatic feeders! What a great idea, thanks for that. I'll see how it goes with Rudi for a few days and if it looks like he needs an robotic servant while his people are at work, I will buy one.