Would You Just Scrap Dry Food If Your Cat Didnt Like It?

mmin

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I feed a mixture of wet and dry. For his dry: I'm currently feeding him ziwipeak's airdried, and hills, t/d. i managed to kick out royal canin! yees!

but- he doesn't like ziwipeak. he hardly touches it. when i come back from work, the bowl of dry food will have t/d cleared out completely and ziwipeak untouched. i can coax him to eat it, however, if i take a couple on my palm, lather it with his favourite creamy treat (that has agar agar as one of the ingredient so i'm trying to cut down), he eats it up. but once i try not lathering any more, he doesnt want to eat the rest.

my question is: is there a point in continuing with this handfeeding+creamy treat lathering? i wanted to continue feeding a mix of wet and dry for a couple reasons. one, being, at least he would have a rationed amount of food when i'm at work, and two, if by any little chance, that the myth about dental help has any truth in it. three, that he would at least have a couple different brands in his foods. there really arn't too many good brands here in aus :(

what would you do?
 

Erin80

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My cats love dry and I scrapped it, lol. It really doesn’t help their teeth. If anything, I feel the bits of bone in the raw food they eat help their teeth more than anything.
Anyway, canned food is way better for them.....how old is your cat? Most adults are good with being fed twice a day on wet food, morning and night .
My two are still under a year, so they’re fed 4 times a day...but even that works with a work schedule....6:30 and 9am, and then 5 and 9pm.
 
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mmin

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My cats love dry and I scraped it, lol. It really doesn’t help their teeth. If anything, I feel the bits of bone in the raw food they eat help their teeth more than anything.
Anyway, canned food is way better for them.....how old is your cat? Most adults are good with being fed twice a day on wet food, morning and night .
My two are still under a year, so they’re fed 4 times a day...but even that works with a work schedule....6:30 and 9am, and then 5 and 9pm.

he's close to 9 months old! i don't work all the time, but i'm working for the next month and i have to leave the house at 6.30am and only get back at 6pm. So i thought it would be good to have something in between for him rather than go 12 hours without food : / (but then again, he seems to finish everything at one go at 6am)
 
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mmin

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currently his feed schedule is- 6am, 6pm, 12am. :runaround:. it just feels ironic to me that i'm adding a "bad food" on to a "bad food" to make him eat it- :eek2:
 

Erin80

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Why 12am? Are you still up then or do you get up to feed him?

What about wet at 6am, a scoop of dry before you leave to get him through (not a ton, just enough for the day), wet at 6pm and wet at 10pm? Once he’s older you could cut the dry right out or leave a timed feeder with wet food for mid day or late morning.
Dry food isn’t the devil. If you need it to get through the day, especially because he’s young, then definitely use it.
We were feeding dry for a snack before bed (still do sometimes)....they hated the one brand and did the same as your kitty...ate the kind they liked and left the rest! Haha! We have them on Instinct with raw boost now, once or twice a week (if that) before bed....1/4 cup per cat.
 
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mmin

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i usually get up haha! wasn't sure if 10pm would be too close an interval, but he seems to have a bottomless pit for a stomach, so maybe i will try 10pm.

aaah but did you continue with that brand they disliked? from what i researched, ziwipeak is basically the best dry food i can find in australia but he's not.. receptive to it- and i'm not sure if the daily thing with the creamy treat is good to continue. they don't have instinct here :(
 

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I didn’t continue with it, no. I’m not familiar with UK brands, so I’m not a huge help with that.
Honestly sometimes my two get fed at 6:30am and then 8:30am if we need to leave earlier, and they STILL eat it all. Lol. Try the smaller intervals, he might surprise you and then you don’t have to get up
 

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A programmable timed feeder is great for giving a cat canned food meals when you are not home. You may want to look into it and scrap the dry food if your cat won't eat it. The Petsafe 5 compartment feeder is great but there are others.
 
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mmin

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A programmable timed feeder is great for giving a cat canned food meals when you are not home. You may want to look into it and scrap the dry food if your cat won't eat it. The Petsafe 5 compartment feeder is great but there are others.
Just a question though, would a programmable timed feeder cause the wet food to spoil? since it's not in the fridge etc. especially since i'm feeding feline natural wet, which, from my understanding, i might be wrong, is kind of like heated raw? :eek:
 

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Some people put an ice pack in there from what I’ve heard, to keep it cool. I’ve never even looked at programmable feeders though, so I’m not sure how it works with the ice pack.
 

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If my cat didn't like wet, I probably wouldn't keep it. As it is now I only give her 1 tbsp a day before bed.

I use a Sure Pet Sealed Pet Bowl. It is not a timer but it does keep out the air from the wet food. I leave it for 12 hours at a time and it doesn't seem to bother my cat.

Feline Naturals canned is definitely cooked as part of the process of canning.

I will say that my cat who likes dry hated ZiwiPeak air dried also. Do you have Wellness Core dry? That's a pretty good dry food that might go over better.
 

LTS3

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Just a question though, would a programmable timed feeder cause the wet food to spoil?

Canned cat food is a cooked product so it will not spoil of left out all day. You can even freeze canned food into cubes and put the frozen cubes into the feeder to slowly defrost. Some feeders do have an ice pack pack feature which will help keep food cool and fresh.
 
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mmin

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will definitely look into a programmable feeder!! and mizzely mizzely , i checked out the surepet sealed bowl and i think i'm in love! :flail:

am i right to say that most will think it's a better idea to scrap ziwipeak and either try another brand of dry food or go wet entirely?
 

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You know, it’s safe to leave out canned food while you’re gone. Cats have shorter and more acidic digestive tracts. Dr. Pierson from catinfo.org talks about this. Of course you should toss the can when you get home. Maybe you can leave out a 3oz can? Btw my kitties eat 2x a day and they are doing great. Of course your kitty is young so I get wanting to leave some food out.
 

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Yes, if he doesn't like the Ziwipeak, toss it. There's no point in trying to get him to eat something he doesn't like. There are lots of good dry food on the market in Australia you can try. Ask mani mani .

But actually, it would be better for him to eat wet food only. The moisture helps to keep crystals at bay. The timed or sealed feeders are good ideas.
 

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will definitely look into a programmable feeder!! and mizzely mizzely , i checked out the surepet sealed bowl and i think i'm in love! :flail:

am i right to say that most will think it's a better idea to scrap ziwipeak and either try another brand of dry food or go wet entirely?
I adore mine!! It has saved me so much money since Lydia wants to graze all day but won't eat it if it dries out! Ugh lol

You can omit all together. My main reason for keeping any dry at all is Lydia will only eat max 4 oz of wet food in 24 hours so I keep a bit out to help her not lose weight. If she ate her wet what she was supposed to, I'd just keep the wet :)
 

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I'm not sure whether ziwipeak does it, but if my cats don't like it I take it back to the store. A lot of the dry foods work that way.
Unfortunately it seems to me that when it comes to dry, cats turn into junk food fanatics.. they don't want the really good ones. :rolleyes2:

I don't mind a little of the dry food grazing thing and do it with mine. I have to be careful, though, as Sundar has renal failure and Nilah is incredibly sensitive, so I'm not much good when it comes to recommendations for a healthy young lad.

So that The Food-Crazed Feline (Sundar) cannot access Nilah's food, I bought one of these:
SureFeed Microchip Pet Feeder
Whilst it doesn't keep food cold, it does keep it pretty fresh, as it seals.
It works like a dream once you finally get your cat to use it (I took it incredibly slowly and it took about three weeks for her to get the hang of it, but younger cats might be better). However I ditched the plastic feeding bowls that came with it and ordered stainless ones. Then I found that Nilah was getting really bad chin acne that often comes from plastic bowls. I realised I wasn't cleaning down the lid, etc often enough. Once I started doing that.. no acne and the food stays quite fresh. :) So that might be your fresh food option.
 

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Just a question though, would a programmable timed feeder cause the wet food to spoil? since it's not in the fridge etc. especially since i'm feeding feline natural wet, which, from my understanding, i might be wrong, is kind of like heated raw? :eek:
I freeze canned food into small portions before I put it into the timed feeder. It's probably unnecessary, but keeps it fresher.
 
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mmin

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thank you everyone! on a completely unrelated note, i just wanted to ask, would an occasional, say, twice weekly freeze-dried raw chicken neck, help with dental cleaning? or must it be real fresh-
 

LTS3

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I've never seen freeze dried chicken necks, only fresh and frozen. Raw necks are good as a treat and for dental purposes :agree:
 
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