Reintroducing Wet Food To Recovering Cat

[laura mae]

We spend more on cat food than we do groceries. Our current group of cats have always been wet food fed. Some have had freeze dried raw. We have rotated a wide variety of pate and morsel type foods for variety interest and making sure they were getting the nutrients they needed. Jeffery the cat was pretty ill in December and went from playing and good humor to lethargic, sniffly and drooly and nauseous. He stopped eating and we took him to the vet. He was diagnosed with hyperthyroid but clearly had a cold or something bacterial going on. He ended up being hospitalized for several days and in an effort to get him to eat, they also offered him dry food. Because he was losing so much weight, their opinion and mine was---let's just get him eating on his own. Well he still loves that dry food and won't eat the canned food or the freeze dried raw food-rehydrated. I've tried different brands, toppers, heating...nothing. He just wants the kibble. Ack! Naturally, with him having lost weight and having to have food so not to be nauseous from the methimazole, I will let him eat the kibble. I've put extra cups of water around, which he happily drinks and I still fix him a plate of the wet food at every meal with the others.

The primary foods are high quality with "side dishes" of their absolute favorite Fancy Feast. We put the Fancy Feast as nibble to get them eating and then onto the higher quality foods. He'll lick the Fancy Feast, but walks away. I'm sure it is because he associates the usual brands smell and texture to being sick. I'm about to try the wet Meow Mix. Help!

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Once he's back to his normal weight, sounds like may have to transition him as if he didn't know what wet food was . Here's an article on how to do that:

Transitioning Your Cat From Kibble To A New Type Of Food (canned, Raw, Or Homemade)