Siamese Cat Only Eats Iams Dry Food, Likes Any Wet Food Though.

[Green_Tea58]

One of my cats only likes IAMS Chicken dry food. All 3 of them like any wet food I've bought, but I don't have the budget to only feed wet. Instead, I keep trying higher-quality dry food with them but the only thing is, the Siamese won't eat it.... The other 2 will happily scarf it down, but HE just won't have it. Even when I mix it into his food he may or may not eat it, but when I show it to him on its own he only sniffs it, looks at me like he's thinking "is this food?", then walks away. I've tried Blue Buffalo Kitten and Chicken & Rice adult formulas, Natural Balance (can't find what I fed them anymore... seems like they discontinued it? The package was blue, had an also blue cat on it and was probably a Chicken formula), Nature's Variety Instinct Raw Boost and normal formulas, Authority Chicken and Rice Indoor formula, Only Natural Pet Fish & Fowl Dinner, Wellness Core Air Dried Chicken and Turkey Indoor formula, and Rachael Ray Nutrish Zero Grain Chicken & Potato recipe. I don't want to feed them Purina or anything with the same quality (or not quality? lol). SO, for anyone that had a cat that would only eat IAMS dry food, what other dry food did they start to like (that isn't Purina or low-quality)?

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi! Welcome!
I guess my thinking is to feed the other two whatever kibble they and you like, and leave the meezer on wet only.

What about Luvsome? Not a fabulous food, but....
duckpond really likes Dr Elsey's clean protein kibble

Here's a couple cat food databases that might help in your search for him;

CatFoodDB - Cat Food Reviews to help you find the best cat food for your cat

Pet Food Guide

 

[Green_Tea58]

Yeah, I may have to do that... Seems like the best option, because I've practically tried to feed him every higher-quality food in the pet store! Thanks for the other food suggestion + the thread!

 

[lalagimp]

My dog did this and it drove me nuts. She wouldn't eat the higher quality kibble unless I mixed it in with a crappy can of pedigree. Other than that she would eat the Fresh Pet loaf.

I don't recall that I've had a kibble my cats were turned off by except Orijen. They've eaten Natural Balance, Taste of the Wild, Nature's Variety, Hills Ideal Balance, Hills Metabolic, and now we're using Dr Elsey's cleanprotein.

 

[duckpond]

My little white cat is like this, she fixates on one food, and that is all she wants. She will starve herself to death rather than eat what she does not want. I tried and tried to change her over to wet, she was having none of it. I did it with my vets help. He finally said she is one of those cats. Feed her what she likes and will eat, or we would cause her to have some serious health issues.

Iams is a bit high in carbs, but if that's all she will eat, so be it. Like Furballsmom and you said already, maybe try feeding her mostly wet, and use the Iams for her when needed.

I do like Dr. Elseys dry, the chicken, i think its the first dry my 4 have all agreed on. If they ever stop making it i dont know what i will do with my white girl. The other 3 like Dr. Elseys and Farmina for dry. Dr. Elseys has a small 2lb bag if you ever decide to give it a try. Its rather expensive, but very high protein and high calories, so a little goes a long way!

 

[1 bruce 1]

One of my cats only likes IAMS Chicken dry food. All 3 of them like any wet food I've bought, but I don't have the budget to only feed wet. Instead, I keep trying higher-quality dry food with them but the only thing is, the Siamese won't eat it.... The other 2 will happily scarf it down, but HE just won't have it. Even when I mix it into his food he may or may not eat it, but when I show it to him on its own he only sniffs it, looks at me like he's thinking "is this food?", then walks away. I've tried Blue Buffalo Kitten and Chicken & Rice adult formulas, Natural Balance (can't find what I fed them anymore... seems like they discontinued it? The package was blue, had an also blue cat on it and was probably a Chicken formula), Nature's Variety Instinct Raw Boost and normal formulas, Authority Chicken and Rice Indoor formula, Only Natural Pet Fish & Fowl Dinner, Wellness Core Air Dried Chicken and Turkey Indoor formula, and Rachael Ray Nutrish Zero Grain Chicken & Potato recipe. I don't want to feed them Purina or anything with the same quality (or not quality? lol). SO, for anyone that had a cat that would only eat IAMS dry food, what other dry food did they start to like (that isn't Purina or low-quality)?

My childhood cats saw their 20's eating Purina dry food and nothing else!
This isn't a plug for Purina (we raw feed now) but if your Siamese will eat wet food with IAMS I would not worry a whole lot.
Dry food is dry food, the ingredients may differ a lot but if a cat is happily eating a dry food AND a wet food, be glad.

 

[lisahe]

My childhood cats saw their 20's eating Purina dry food and nothing else!
This isn't a plug for Purina (we raw feed now) but if your Siamese will eat wet food with IAMS I would not worry a whole lot.
Dry food is dry food, the ingredients may differ a lot but if a cat is happily eating a dry food AND a wet food, be glad.

I agree! Particularly with any sort of Siamese cats: we have two Siamese mixes and our vet says Siamese tend to have digestive issues. She specifically recommends feeding them high-protein, low-carb wet diets. That's worked very well for our cats who've proven her right about digestive problems: one vomits when she eats potato, the other is a picky eater who seems to get a bit of occasional nausea.

 

[Green_Tea58]

Thanks for the replies, everyone! But, finally, it also seems like he'll actually eat some of that Only Natural Pet dry food mixed with his IAMS now!
I still had the bag left (didn't return it) and the other cats ate it, so I still gave it to them mixed with IAMS... But when I turned around, he was eating it, too! I tried putting more of the ONP food on top to see if he'd eat it, and he had a bit of it! So I'll stick with IAMS and occasionally mix that food in, and give him some wet food on top of that (they all love wet, so if one gets it, the rest flock over too... lol)

 

[Daisy6]

Can you try to phase out the Iams gradually until she eats ONP by itself?

 

[Green_Tea58]

I may be able to, yeah. But if he won't eat it on its own, I think mostly keeping it mixed is my best option.

 

[BonitaBaby]

My little white cat is like this, she fixates on one food, and that is all she wants. She will starve herself to death rather than eat what she does not want. I tried and tried to change her over to wet, she was having none of it. I did it with my vets help. He finally said she is one of those cats. Feed her what she likes and will eat, or we would cause her to have some serious health issues.

Yep. Sounds like my cat baby. I would have fed her all wet when I was working if she would have eaten all wet but nope. If she doesn't like a flavor or texture of wet, she will not eat and starves instead. I'm glad she's eating a little wet again, but she's a grazer so I just put out a little. About 1/2 gets wasted.

 

[BonitaBaby]

Thanks for the replies, everyone! But, finally, it also seems like he'll actually eat some of that Only Natural Pet dry food mixed with his IAMS now!
I still had the bag left (didn't return it) and the other cats ate it, so I still gave it to them mixed with IAMS... But when I turned around, he was eating it, too! I tried putting more of the ONP food on top to see if he'd eat it, and he had a bit of it! So I'll stick with IAMS and occasionally mix that food in, and give him some wet food on top of that (they all love wet, so if one gets it, the rest flock over too... lol)

Sorry. I didn't notice this posted. I meant to suggest Blue Buffalo Wilderness, but sounds like your cat is eating that other kibble now.