Cat won't eat dry food

eet fuk

I need some advice on getting my cat to eat dry food. He will only eat specific tins of wet and it's pretty expensive.

I have tried 10+ different brands and he has no interest in any of them.

He's an indoor/outdoor cat, just under 4kg. He will sometimes eat bits of dry food if I hand feed him so I don't think it's a dental problem.

Any and all help would be appreciated. If there's anymore info I can provide to help please let me know

Faith

Some cats are just fussy!! It's real trial and error. Our cat will basically ONLY eat wet cat food that is mostly fish flavour and in a tin. No pouches for him, nor anything chicken based. He's less fussy with dry food, but generally only eats it when no wet food is available. We find he enjoys Carnilove Sensitive Adult, the salmon flavoured one. Have you tried that brand?

My two don't really eat dry food either. Same as Faith's experience, they really only eat dry food if there is nothing else on offer (or I wake up late and haven't provided breakfast yet).

I give them tinned wet food twice a day, (they're not fussy on flavour, it varies between chicken, beef, lamb and salmon) and leave a bowl of dry food beside their water for them to nibble at if they want.

Vet told me not to worry if they don't drink too much while on wet food, as they get a lot of their hydration from it.

Both have just turned 1 year old, and are approx 3.5kgs.

Graces7

Mine get raw chicken one meal an usually tinned the other. I only give dry food as an emergency to neuters as they are not good at drinking enough.

They donlt need to with raw or tinned ,,The raw chicken is really their main food and they have excellent teeth

Apothic_Red

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058253996/cat-wont-eat-dry-food

Just a theory, perhaps he's getting the sweeter meats elsewhere.

We have 3 that all prefer the pouches but cut off the wet food for a day or 2 they'll go back to their dry bits.

Whe have to watch the wet foot cause if we leave the window open every cat in the estate goes mad for it

Graces7

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119613341#Comment_119613341

So close the windows when you feed them! NB I have every cat in the area out here!

Furze99

Start mixing in a bit of dry food with the wet, just a few bits at first, then increase it. After a while then, you could just give a small amount of this mixture in one dish and later in the day put out some dry on it's own. They might turn up the nose initially but sneak back after a while.

Graces7

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119635016#Comment_119635016

The concern is that dry food is not the best for cats. Cats will not always drink enough. That was why I stopped feeding it. It was causing serious health issues.

Akrasia

Our cat will only eat 1 type of food. We've tried everything else, but he'd rather starve than eat anything other than the Lidl 'premium' pouches

I know if he was hungry enough he'd eat something else but there's a neighbour in our estate who basically steals cats by feeding them whatever they want so we need to keep him happy or he'll piss off to her house

Graces7

Two of my cats were free range out here until recently and still remember real hunger so they are easy to feed. Raw chicken and Supervalu tins... The third will eat anything; he was a stray too.

patnor1011

My cat is a mystery. He refuse to eat any wet food other than sheeba pouches mostly fish variety in gravy. Chicken sometimes turkey but if he eats beef it usually und up on a pile in the garden somewhere.

I got every other type available yet the most he does is to sniff it then he give me dirty look and go away. Not even lick or bite. He does like dry food but only some parts of it. We get him whiskas chicken variety but he only eat yellow rectangle and green round bits. All of the rest stays in bowl or all around it. Sometimes I cheat him a bit and use catnip powder on "undesirable" bits and he eat some as he cant resist catnip.

He is fairly trained, he sit in front of a bowl of what he wants, either dry or wet and sit there like statue till it gets filled. I also trained him to give paw on order, left one first, you shake it then the other one. Well it was fun and quite easy to train him as he got treats and figured out what to do quite fast but it created other "problem" for us. Little beggar goes around and if you come close to him he will start sticking left paw up. He is also quite smart, he go and does his begging routine with my wife, then he follows me and then kids. He get his treats 2-3x...

Baybay

For the sake of his remaining teeth, the vet said our fellow should stick to a dry diet & being a feline of expensive taste & an expert at feline fussiness, it’s Royal Canin for him. He took to it very well but is prone to gingivitis so now has to have his teeth cleaned periodically. The vet hopes the ongoing dry diet will help with that also.

However, since the last extraction but more particularly since the last cleaning, he’s quite reluctant to eat his biscuits. I dampened them with a little water to make them a bit softer for him. He’s still looking at me! The oil off tins of tuna mixed through though made them acceptable but our tuna budget was getting pretty high! I then bought a salmon oil additive for cats thinking that would do the job. €21 for a litre pump action dispenser with apparently only a few drops necessary to moisten the biscuits enough to encourage him to eat. Once again, he’s still looking at me & not eating. Not even interested in smelling the oil from a spoon.

He & I have now reached agreement whereby, I buy tins of tuna, not cheap ones mind but I mix it with olive oil or water, store it in the fridge & mix a teaspoonful through his biscuits each meal. Empty dishes every time & now a tin lasts a week or so. Trying to use a bit less each time but again, he’s still looking at me!

Graces7

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119636169#Comment_119636169

Ah you outwitted him! Mine are all rescues and they are jut seriously happy to have food at all. I am not sure how I kept my temper with the man who boasted he never fed Tonto ( mu name) as " I do nothave time to feed a cat" but as this is a small island quarreling with someone who runs an essential service is not wise. So I simply started feeding him and of course Tonto lives here now. And a year later when a lady died leaving a cat, Tonto's previous owner brought him to me straight away. But none are fussy what they eat so after raw chicken I feed SV basic tins. Not keen on dried food at all. Noticed recently how shiny Tonto;s fur is now,,,