Won't eat wet food!!!!! Wants dry!

It's so hard to get my boy to eat his wet food. I've been keeping the dry away but had to give about 1/4-1/2 cup today at +6 when his BG was 27 and I had to get back to work for a few more hours. If I put out half a 5.5 oz can of wet he will eat a quarter if I'm lucky. I'll save the rest and microwave it (is that ok?) and give at his +6, what I'm still trying to figure out but am prety sure thats the midpoint of the cycle. Anywho...he will NOT eat any other type of wet food and I mean will NOT. I never knew it was bad to feed seafood food every day and thats all hes had his whole life and won't touch any other type of food. Mixing to transition won't work..nothing will. (He won't even eat it if he smells another type of food on the bowl or from the fork used) I think I will run to the store for nitrite-free bacon and try bacon grease cuz I know he loooves bacon. I'm not giving insulin tonight because he hasn't eaten and his number is 248 I just feel so bad that he won't eat :cry: People have given me many tips and tricks to try but a lot of cat food is loaf-y and my cat won't even go near certain consistencies! You can't fool this guy!! I need to get him off this dry food but I feel bad that hes starving..and hes so skinny as it is! Do I keep denying him the dry food?? Anybody else have an extremely hard time transitioning and reached success? Or failed? I want to rip my hair out!

 

if he doesn't eat enough you'll have bigger problems on your hands like that low BG level, or something called hepatic lipidosis, so if the dry is all he'll eat, yes, let him eat it for now.

which dry is he eating? sorry if you've already posted that. i haven't been around much these last couple days. there are a couple lower carb dry foods perhaps you could try if you are feeding one that is higher carb. it's won't be as low carb as is preferred by most but it's lower than most commercial dry foods. they are Evo and Wellness Core

and what about crushing up some of his dry and putting it on top of some wet? perhaps that will trick him some?

 

I'm terrified of low BG levels so I definitely don't want that. We have hill's prescription w/d for dry. I was thinking about buying EVO or wellness core dry yesterday but thought it would still lead to the same getting rid of the dry food problem. Is 12 hours too long to go without food for him? Its so frustrating because I know what has to be done but he makes every little aspect so difficult! My boyfriend has a grinder at his pizzeria so he's going to grind some chicken for me and I'll follow the recipe on catinfo.org and maybe by some miracle he will try it, as he showed interested in raw chicken by itself.

 

I agree, eatingsomething is more important than what he eats. you may want to try to switch first to a lower carb dry food (evo, wellness core), then try to wean off of that onto wet. I assume someone gave you the link to dr. Lisa's site? She has lots of tips on switching a resistant cat over to wet food. Here is the link just in case you haven't checked there yet http://catinfo.org/docs/Tips for Transitioning PDF 1-14-11.pdf

 

Do you have a Petsmart nearby? They carry a low-carb treat made by Beefeaters which is freeze-dried shrimp. They are very very smelly! If he's hooked on the seafood smell, you can take just one of these, crumble it in your fingers to powder, and sprinkle over his non-seafood canned wet food. I occasionally do that with Bob when he's getting a FF flavor he isn't a big fan of (like liver & chicken) and he inhales the food. One small treat over wet is a heck of a lot better than dry for him.
Might be worth a try.

Carl in SC

 

Charlie meow...Dr. Lisa's site has been my bible since I discovered it on Friday...I'm making a second attempt at raw food tomorrow. I went out and got bacon and the grease got him to eat but only on the seafood Soulistic, he wanted nothing to do with the seafood FF. Carl I got the freeze dried shrimp a few days ago and he wanted nothing to do with them alone so that wouldn't work on his food but thanks for the tip. When I say hes picky I mean hes PICKY! :roll: I guess some bacon grease on his seafood is better than dry if he will eat it so hopefully he'll take to it in the morning so he can get some insulin as his numbers are creeping up (he didn't eat earlier so no insulin, hes at 334 now, 2 hours after finally eating)...And hopefully by some miracle we'll have some luck with the raw food tomorrow night. Thanks guys

 

If you decide to try raw, I'd strongly suggest sprinkling Fortiflora to his food. The tricky thing about raw is that it has no artificial flavorings for cats to smell when you offer it. If freeze dried shrimp is uninteresting, I'd definitely go with Fortiflora. It is a probiotic that is laced with the same animal digest that coats dry food and makes it so addictive to cats. Hopefully, replicating that smell/taste will help make the wet food more palatable and allow you to transition.

Good luck!

 

Don't know if you have tried this one yet, but I had on non-diabetic that was a dry food addict, the only wet he would even consider was the stuff smothered in gravy, so....I now mix about 1/2 a can of hot water into their wet pate style food and then chunk it up rather than smush it. The hot water melts the jelly stuff in the can and makes it sor of a gravy and leaving the pate in little chunks so far as fooled him into thinking his getting chunky style gravy covered food. lol

Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang

 

The beefeaters freeze dried salmon is fantastic (according to Harley). Petsmart carries it. I weaned my guys off dry by getting the EVO 95% chicken (dry food - 7% carbs) and mixing it with a bit of FF canned. Every other day, I would add a bit more of the wet food until now it's only wet - with the dry as a treat.

I was lucky with Harley (my diabetic), he loved the FF from day 1.

Pattie

 

Sometimes it can take a few tries to find a canned food they take to--what canned options have you tried? Some cats really have an aversion to liver, so they won't eat Friskies or the lower priced foods. Fancy Feast is better but it still has a higher liver content.

Have you tried more novel protein sources like Beef, Rabbit, or Venison? EVO makes 95% Venison & Beef flavors, and Nature's variety instinct has Rabbit and Lamb. Merrick's cowboy cookout and surf & turf are also a big time favorites in my house, and my cat Gabby loved them so much she would eat them when she pretty much refused everything else. I would suggest getting a bunch of different options in the small 3oz cans, and make it appetizing by mixing tuna or salmon powder from the beefeaters treats in. Sardines packed in water are also super smelly to mix in. If you can find one or two foods that he likes then you're golden!

I have to say, Bandit agrees that the freeze-dried shrimp are nasty. He's a kitty vacuum cleaner when it comes to food, and he would not touch them! Neither would Gabby. The beefeaters salmon and chicken are big hits, though! The dry w/d is about the worst thing for a diabetic cat, so I would trash it. It is really important he eats with insulin so if you have to feed dry until you can get him transitioned to wet (which can take a while sometimes, with a lot of trial and error, and people food bribes so you have to go at his pace) then grab the EVO or Wellness Core.

 

Hummmm....KT - who'll take you down for a can of FF fish and shrimp flaked - says the shrimp is only good to send flying down the hall! I got liver this last time - now THAT is a different story. He LOVES it!

 

I'll definitely have to try the Fortiflora..Can I only get it at my vet or do stores sell it? Regarding different brands and flavors of canned food, I've tried SO many. This cat won't eat anything! I'm trying raw again tonight, and will put bacon grease on it if he wants nothing to to with it- I guess if Dr.Lisa says its ok especially for a thin cat then I'll do it, it worked pretty well on the wet food last night...I'm not sure about long term use of bacon grease though.

 

There are a couple of low-carb dry foods that you can check out. People have posted that Wellnes Core is low-carb -- you should check out exactly which variety is okay. I think Petco, Petsmart carry it. I buy EVO -- I have a non-diabetic cat that demands dry. I have a small dish of it out all the time. My diabetic takes a couple of bites of it from time to time and it has no effect on his BG. You can do a web search for "EVO low carb cat food" and there will be an option on the website for "where to buy." It took me awhile to get my diabetic transitioned to wet food. It wasn't easy but I finally got him there. Right now, I am giving him Beechnut Baby Food -- Chicken & Broth or Turkey & Broth for a treat after blood tests. He can smell it half way across the room when I open the jar. You might try to tempt your cat into wet food by putting some on top of the wet food you are giving him. The stuff is pretty high on the cat aromatic scale.

Lana