? Question for owners of kibble addicted cats

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for some tips from kibble addicted cat owners. My cat won't eat any wet food (I've been trying for the past three weeks). I tried multiple brands and tried to add freeze dried chicken on top of the food. I tried mixing just a bit of wet food in his dry food. I was so desperate I even tried putting two PartyMix treats in the wet food. He doesn't even want to look at the wet food...

I would love to just take the dry food away and let him be hungry enough to eat the wet food (Noah has NOT lost his appetite with the diabetes AT ALL), but because I need to keep on a schedule, I'm not really sure what to do.

All advices and tips are welcome. I'm waiting for some freeze dried raw food (Primal and Stella and CHewy), but at this point I'm not very hopeful. He'll probably eat it if I leave it dry, but won't touch the food if I add water to it. And I'm guessing rehydrated freeze dried raw food is probably not a ideal long-term solution. Would it be ok if he does eat that?

 

Young Again Zero carb. It's less than 1% carbs and helped my cat into remission. They will send you a free sample if you ask (email or call) Youngagainpetfood.com

The other ok dry is Evo Cat and Kitten in the purple bag. This one you can get on chewy.com or some pet stores.

 

I would love to try these foods, but unfortunately I live in Canada and we can't get these brands here. I would consider moving to the US for my NOah, but I kind of like my free healthcare!

 

@MrWorfMen's Mom lives in Canada and has a kibble addict. I believe she feeds Natures Variety Ultimate Protein. Hopefully she'll check in and give you some ideas.

 

Thank you @Sharon14!
@MrWorfMen's Mom did give me some brands to try out and I did. But he didn't like two of the foods (I'm about to go bankrupt from all the food I'm buying) and the other one seems to raise his numbers and he doesn't like it as much as the Purina DM (which of course raises his numbers as well). Maybe it's just because he is not regulated yet and still in pretty high numbers, but I'm getting worried.

 

Are you sure you can't get evo?

I think ya ships up there but not sure how much shipping would be. How far are you from the boarder... You could smuggle it in.

 

Have you tried warming the wet food with a bit of warm water or a couple seconds in the microwave? Could also put the unopened can in warm water before opening it. It was tough getting my non-diabetic cat off kibble but he now eats only wet food.
Side note: I don't blame you for sticking around in Canada! We're a hot mess down here in the USA anyways!

 

I think you meant continuing to feed the dehydrated raw? Rehydrated would be adding the water they recommend and there's never any problem with that!!

It's not ideal, but if he'll eat the dehydrated raw (dry), it's better than what he's eating now!!

 

@JanetNJ From what I was told from other Canadian members, both brands are not sold in Canada and shipping can be a problem because of customs. You would think we are trying to import something illegal... but nope... just pet food.

I'm not that far from the border (about a 2-hour car drive), but to import the food you need to have the pet with you in the car. No way I can drive two hours with Noah and I would probably need a lot of papers to bring him into the States. I could always "hide" it in my car, but not sure it would go unnoticed.

@Chris & China OH good to know. I wasn't sure freeze dried raw wasn't a good long-term solution (even with water in it). He'll probably eat it dry (he just loves any kind of PureBite treats), but I'm hoping by adding just a bit of water at a time he won't notice (in all honesty he will probably will, but let's be hopeful here). Thank you for taking the time to reply to me you've giving me hope tonight that MAYBE we can find a better diet for Noah.

 

Oh and @StephG thank you for your tip. I will try this tomorrow.

 

You could also try the frozen raw, even my most kibble-addicted kitties love it (no idea why-but they're cats, after all, lol).

 

Do you have any recommendation on a brand? I'm still learning about nutrition and carb values and wouldn't want to select a "bad" brand. I bought the freeze-dried version of Stella and Chewy and Primal. Would these be good brands in the raw as well?

 

Try a raw food.
Katie was a 12 week old kitten when I got her. She had only eaten dry food. I tried switch her to canned, but she wanted nothing to do with it. She ate dry for almost 2 years, would never touch the canned, and it was always available because my other kitty ate the canned.
I decided to try a commercial raw in 2007. Katie went right for it and never looked back. Nearly 10 years later, she still wont touch canned food, and will only eat raw.

 

Melanie, I so understand the "going bankrupt" buying cat food. I joked that I could have started a pet food store from my kitchen and the cat food took up more space than my human food between the cans and bags of food I had hanging around for quite some time. Unfortunately, this part of the equation is a hit or miss proposition. There are a couple of other foods slightly higher in carbs (around 18%-20%) that might meet with Noah's approval.

Orijen Cat & Kitten - about 18%
Horizon Legacy Cat & Kitten - about 19-20%

Your goal right now is to find the lowest carb food he will eat and if dry food is all he will eat, 20% carbs is still a lot better than most dry food. It will at least buy you some time to continue to try to transition him over to wet, raw or freeze dried food. I have my fingers crossed for you that you will find something appropriate Noah loves!

 

In frozen raw, Primal makes a "sample pack" with 4 flavors...I think you can get Natures Variety too

RadCat is good too

 

If raw doesn't work, you might try looking at the Orijen "cat and kitten" and "regional" cat dry foods (available at Pet Smart and expensive). I'm not sure of the carb levels and have no clue how to calculate.

I'm assuming you've tried the Nature's Variety Instinct and Wellness Core.

 

I did try the Wellness Core and the Nature's Variety Instict brands. Noah would not eat those foods. Well he would eat the Nature's Variety Rawboost, but only the pieces of raw food. Noah was actually eating Orijen Regional Red before the diagnosis, but when he started to get sick he stop wanting that particular kind of food. I guess he was associating not feeling well with his food. I started the Blue Buffalo sensitive stomach food and he loved it. Then came the FD diagnosis and the vet switched us to Purina DM. He likes the Purina DM, but I would love something lower in carbs to get his numbers down.

@MrWorfMen's Mom I'm thinking he might like the freeze dried because he was only eating the raw pieces in the Rawboost food. Fingers crossed. If not, I'll be starting a food pet store online soon. Thank God I have family members with cats that will actually eat about any kind of food. At least it is not going to waste.

@Chris & China Thank you for the brand recommendations. I will for sure try them sometime in the near future.

 

I used the Nature's Variety frozen raw, my guys all love it. Never tried the other brands, but I'm sure they would like them, as well!

 

I ended up using the Heinz brand of baby food - chicken & broth. Not the chicken and vegetable. Only available at Superstore. I could warm that up and put tsp on the kibble..softening it up. Made him eat while slowly changing the the texture of the food he was getting. And it allowed me to get some calories in without upsetting his IBD.

 

Great tip! I actually have to go to the office tomorrow and I'll be in Ottawa. They have a Superstore near my office. Hopefully, they'll have the chicken and broth in stock.

 

Wysong makes a very low carb kibble about 2% carbs, Young Again is either 4 or 0 and Evo 1s 8.4% carbs.
Everything else is at least 17% and most in the 20s to 30s.

 

Unfortunately, Wysong and Evo are not available in Canada and Young Again is no longer able to reliably ship their food across the border which has left those of us with kibble addicted kitties with no dry food options less than 14% carbs.

 

Several good suggestions already given. Check Dr. Lisa's page to see if there is something else. www.catinfo.org