Yay, She Finally Ate Wet Food! ...is Salmon Bad For Her?

[LittleShadow]

I have finally discovered a wet food Molly likes! Even better, she likes it enough to eat it in my presence!

For a bit of background, Molly is VERY cuddle motivated, to the point that I have never had a successful play session with her, because she ignores the toy and rubs on my hands or legs until I give up and pet her. She will, very rarely, eat one to two bites of kibble in the middle of a long petting session, or when I stop cuddle time to clean her litter box, but she has zero interest in treats or food I put out for her when there is the possibility of petting.

Now that the weather is cold and rainy and food left out in her catio won't spoil or dry out so fast, I've started putting out small portions of wet food for her to see if I can convince her to try it so I can expand her diet and get some more moisture into what she eats. I've determined that she'll eat some things, if I leave them out at night and take up her kibble, but some things she won't touch even then.

First success was a Friskies Lil Soups in the salmon flavor, sprinkled with her kibble. Sheba chicken pate was a no-go, it got a sniff and then was ignored even when left out overnight. Sheba roasted chicken cuts in gravy sprinkled with kibble was ignored when I put it down, but eaten when left out. Today I decided it was cool enough to put out a serving of Sheba salmon cuts in gravy, and I was debating if I should sprinkle kibble on it or not when Molly just dove right in.

Apparently Molly LOVES Sheba's salmon recipe. She ate so fast she had to stop in the middle and cough and make hairball sounds before apparently getting over it and scarfed the rest, purring like crazy. There was her favorite kibble right in the dish not four inches away, so she wasn't starving, and she actually ignored me leaving the catio as well, another first. So it seems I've finally hit on something she really, REALLY likes.

I've been avoiding most fish and seafood recipes until this last week when I decided to just try whatever and see if she liked anything, as I recall reading that seafood cat foods weren't very good for cats, as much as they tend to like them. But seeing how much she loved that salmon recipe, I have to ask, how bad is it? Or is it fine after all, or...?

 

[kittyluv387]

Fish is one of the suspects of hyperthyroidism so I only feed it to my cats once a week. But this is still a good development! You can try mixing the fish with other canned flavors to get her into more canned. But fish oil is considered to be safe. Maybe you can try sprinkling some omega 3 fish oil into her canned food? The omega 3s are good for cats anyways.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. Other members will come along and offer better advice than I can, but from what I know salmon may be OK to feed her, but not as her sole diet. Perhaps, if that is all she will eat, you could add a bit to other foods and see if that will make her happy?

Oh, just saw kittyluv387 's response - totally agree.

 

[lisahe]

I agree with kittyluv387 and FeebysOwner about adding to fish. Maybe salmon is Molly's gateway protein to canned food!

I keep fish to very occasional for our cats: every other week or so, the two of them split a small can of a chicken/fish combo food from Weruva's Cats in the Kitchen line. (They especially like Funk in the Trunk.) I don't feed the pouches very often because they have tapioca as a thickener and it just adds empty calories!

Good luck!

 

[ashekitty]

Congrats on finding something she likes! Everyone else has great advice, I just wanted to say good luck on your wet food journey!

 

[RajaNMizu]

Mizu was a little addicted to her kibble as a kitten and stubborn when it came to eating wet foods. Halo's salmon was the gateway food that got her to open up and start trying new things. Ten months later (now) she's very open to different proteins...turkey, beef, rabbit and chicken and salmon is no longer her favorite. So, I wouldn't worry. Just keep trying different things. She's already learned the most important lesson: wet food can be really yummy so she may be more tempted now to try other things.

 

[LittleShadow]

Good to hear your opinions. So, it seems like once I get her to accept wet food more easily, it will be better to wean her off of the seafood so it's an occasional treat. But for now while I'm getting her to accept that wet food is actually food, it shouldn't hurt her in the short term to give her whatever she'll go nuts for for a single meal every day/every other day?

I might also try switching her back to her less-desired, but healthier, kibble too when I start transitioning her to trying other wet foods. Mom tried to help and got a big old bag of cheap cat food, one we used to use for the feral colony since they had the ability to supplement with all the gophers, mice, and birds they could catch. For the ferals, having a constant supply of food that didn't bankrupt us when we were feeding dozens of cats was more important than having the highest quality food. But...well, it's not so great for an indoor or catio cat, as it has really high carbs and by-products. Of course, Molly loves it like a little kid loves SugarBombz Double Sugar Breakfast Cereal. And like the kid, she really shouldn't be eating it for every meal.... Swapping her kibble out for something more along the lines of the cat equivalent to HealthyBran Super Healthy Breakfast Cereal might make her a biiiit more likely to try different wet foods.

So I'll go ahead and grab a selection of different brand options with salmon and some other fishy flavors, see if I can get her sold on those. Once she's starting to get a taste for wet food, I can try introducing some of the mixed recipes, or mix seafood cans with non-seafood cans myself, to get her to accept additional proteins, then either reduce the seafood I mix in, or try giving her completely non-seafood options and see how she reacts. Does that sound right to you guys?

Any brand recommendations? I tried the Sheba because the local walmart stocks it, and I liked that it had the smaller portions since I didn't like wasting larger cans when she ignored them and let them dry out. I might want larger cans later once I settle on what brands and flavors that are good for her that she'll eat, but for now, I'd like to go with smaller cans so I can try lots of options and flavors without wasting too much if she hates it. Is the Sheba an okay brand? I'm not expecting it to be THE BEST, but is it decent as a gateway option? I think I heard Tiki Cat is good, though heavy on seafood, should I try that?

 

[kittyluv387]

I think lots of seafood for the time being will be ok. It’ll be her gateway food for canned. I think you can mix her favorite fish canned food with a little bit of something else. Maybe even 10% of something else and gradually work your way up. Fancy feast classicsand Sheba are good ones to experiment with since they are affordable but have low carbs!

 

[sandyshores]

I have finally discovered a wet food Molly likes! Even better, she likes it enough to eat it in my presence!

For a bit of background, Molly is VERY cuddle motivated, to the point that I have never had a successful play session with her, because she ignores the toy and rubs on my hands or legs until I give up and pet her. She will, very rarely, eat one to two bites of kibble in the middle of a long petting session, or when I stop cuddle time to clean her litter box, but she has zero interest in treats or food I put out for her when there is the possibility of petting.

Now that the weather is cold and rainy and food left out in her catio won't spoil or dry out so fast, I've started putting out small portions of wet food for her to see if I can convince her to try it so I can expand her diet and get some more moisture into what she eats. I've determined that she'll eat some things, if I leave them out at night and take up her kibble, but some things she won't touch even then.

First success was a Friskies Lil Soups in the salmon flavor, sprinkled with her kibble. Sheba chicken pate was a no-go, it got a sniff and then was ignored even when left out overnight. Sheba roasted chicken cuts in gravy sprinkled with kibble was ignored when I put it down, but eaten when left out. Today I decided it was cool enough to put out a serving of Sheba salmon cuts in gravy, and I was debating if I should sprinkle kibble on it or not when Molly just dove right in.

Apparently Molly LOVES Sheba's salmon recipe. She ate so fast she had to stop in the middle and cough and make hairball sounds before apparently getting over it and scarfed the rest, purring like crazy. There was her favorite kibble right in the dish not four inches away, so she wasn't starving, and she actually ignored me leaving the catio as well, another first. So it seems I've finally hit on something she really, REALLY likes.

I've been avoiding most fish and seafood recipes until this last week when I decided to just try whatever and see if she liked anything, as I recall reading that seafood cat foods weren't very good for cats, as much as they tend to like them. But seeing how much she loved that salmon recipe, I have to ask, how bad is it? Or is it fine after all, or...?

Salmon and Mackerel are is at the top of the list for Omega 3 - however king mackerel has a lot of mercury, whereas salmon is one of the fish that is low in mercury. Don't know if they distinguish on the ingredients of cat food with mackerel if the mackerel is king mackerel or just mackerel... king mackerel is much larger so guess that's why it has more mercury than regular mackerel. I opted for salmon when I fed my cats fish to be safe on the mercury. They liked the Tiki Cat Chicken and Salmon, didn't care much for the ones that were just salmon. Shrimp also has a LOT of good stuff in it, I live in Florida so get shrimp for me alot. I just boil it with no spices so my cats get a shrimp or two each when I have shrimp - they love it. Those two are the only seafood I feed my cats. Oh, I've also had the butcher cut off a real small piece of salmon when it goes on sale and I just stick it in the microwave for a bit til cooked, mine like it that way too.