How do I get my cat to eat wet cat food instead of dry cat food?
July 30, 2010 by MrAuthor
Filed under Food & Drink
I have heard that dry cat food is bad for your cats health. My cat loves dry cat food and only eats a small amount of the wet cat food. I used to give her dry food in the mornings but now I have started to give her wet cat food as that would be the time when she is the most hungry. This morning she woke me up meowing becuase she was hungry and I fed her one of those small tins of cat food and she only ate half. An hour later she still didn’t finish it. I gave her a small pile of dry cat food and she ran straight over and ate it. I don’t think it is enough food for her to be eating only one small tin of cat food a day (half in the morning, half at night). She is already small and although her weight is okay, she really doesn’t need to be any thinner.
Good for you! You’re doing the right thing.
I went through this myself, and it took me two weeks.
First, be prepared to waste a bit of money. And to be patient.
Buy several different brands of food, and get different varieties of each. Offer a bit of that, and if your cat responds to any, make note of the brand and flavor. It may be that he’ll like venison or turkey, or perhaps he’ll like any flavor from a certain manufacturer.
You are right to switch gradually. I think you could continue what you’re doing – offer the dry food once per day – give him 1/2 to 3/4 of what he would usually get. You could even break that into two meals although I don’t think that really matters.
By reducing the amount of food, your cat still is getting food but will also still be hungry. And hunger can be a great inducer to try new things!
You could also try mixing some dry in with the canned.
Basically, you’re doing the right thing. Just be patient and try other foods too.
EDIT: Whoever told you this was on the mark! Don’t worry about the uninformed opinions out here. And dry food doesn’t clean their teeth; you don’t have to worry about that myth either.