[shlanon]

Justin has pretty much stopped eating any wet food at all. I think he may be gaining more weight also. I feed Stormy and him Felidae dry right now. The other night, I had a rotisserie chicken. I gave the two of them some bits of it and while Stormy didn't care for it, Justin gobbled it up.
Would it be okay to supplement his dry food with some cooked chicken? At least then I know that it has high protein and no carbs. But this wouldn't have all the nutrition he needs if I gave him a lot of this chicken, right?
Or maybe I need to find a lower carb food? The wet food thing just isn't working.

 

[drjean]

If you want them to lose weight, get rid of the dry food.

The Atkins diet does not work as long as you're still eating too many carbs! Adding extra protein and fat to a *high* carb diet will make a cat fatter, quicker.

Chicken is fine as a supplement as long as it isn't more than 15% of their total diet.

Cheers,
Dr. Jean

 

[shlanon]

He won't touch the wet food at all anymore. I can leave the wet out for over an hour and he'll be meowing at me for food, but he still won't eat it. He just won't eat until I give him the dry. I have tried numerous brands of wet food and the problem has gotten worse instead of better. He used to nibble at the wet and now he won't even do that!
What should I do at this point? I'd love to get him off dry and onto an all (or at least half) wet diet, but he refuses to eat the wet. I guess I was thinking maybe I could do 50% dry, 50% chicken, but that won't work if the chicken can only be around 15% of his diet.

 

[drjean]

At this point, he's got you SO well trained! All he has to do is fuss, or simply wait and, bingo, here comes the dry food. Every single time. You have trained a monster but good!

Next time, put the wet food out for an hour. Pick it up. If he doesn't eat, too bad. Do NOT put out any dry food. Let him be hungry. It will surprise him and make him think. It will also make him hungry. Next meal try again. I don't want him to skip more than one or two meals completely, but still, pick up the leftovers and leave the room. Go do something else. In an hour or so, give him a small snack of dry. Just a little bit, not a full meal. Next meal, try again. Keep me posted on how this is going!

Author Anitra Frazier also recommends just smushing the wet food into the cat's mouth 3 or 4 times at a meal until they "get it."

Another trick is to take a rolling pin and crush the dry food into crumbs. Take a little itty bitty tiny "meatball" of wet food (I mean SMALL, 1/4" across at most) and roll it in the crumbs. Pile up a few of these "breaded" meatballs and see if he'll eat those. The dry food on the outside may fool him, and most of the time, once a cat actually eats the canned food, they realize they like it.

There are also mixers and baby food to "top" the canned food with (or you could try putting a few chicken shreds on top of the canned) to tempt him.

All that said, there *are* some cats who simply cannot be converted. But, in those cases, you are stuck with traditional "dieting" in terms of measuring and restricting intake. Nothing you add to high-carb dry food will make it any better in terms of weight loss, and "light" foods are even higher in carbs. That's why, most of the time, they don't work. In a few cats, sure, but most cats will just gain weight on light foods even when restricted because they go into "starvation mode" and pack on as much fat as possible.

Cheers,
Dr. Jean

 

[shlanon]

Thanks Dr. Jean! I was afraid to have him skip meals since I thought it might be bad for him. I guess I will try more of my mom's attitude "if he's hungry, he'll eat". So far he's been offered wet twice today but hasn't touched it. He hasn't gotten any dry yet but I'll give him a snack soon and a meal if he doesn't eat any wet later this evening.
I'll also try out those other tricks with him!
What a little stinker he is though...I'll just have to resist those big eyes and pitiful meows.

 

[shlanon]

Update on Justin:
I tried all the tricks you mentioned which still only got him to eat a bite or two of the wet each time I would put it out (this was with Felidae wet). Then I tried Wellness today, he ate a couple bites. Later he kept meowing and then started chewing a plastic bag :shock: so I put out more wet and he ate a little that time. All told, he ate about an ounce of wet today, which is more than usual. He only gets a little snack of dry during the day and a full meal at night (thus far).
I tried them on Chicken soup dry tonight since they've been on Felidae dry for quite awhile and I don't want them to get picky. They both seemed to really like it (Justin especially).
I guess I will just keep trying with the wet? I smushed a little in his face a couple times (no effect), sprinkled dry on top (he ate a couple bites) and put chicken on top (ate a couple bites the first time, none the second time).
Does it matter what time I give him his meal of dry? Should I change the time that I give it so that he doesn't "expect" the dry at night? How can I be sure that he is getting enough to eat? I want him to be hungry enough to eat the wet but not starving and going into "starvation mode" and making his metabolism drop.

Edit: I reread your post and there are a few more things to try...I didn't do the meatballs exactly as you said and I can still try the baby food.

 

[drjean]

Hang in there, Shlanon! You still have a few tricks up your sleeve! Varying the time of feeding is a great idea, what we have to do is convince him that since it's so unpredictable when he gets his way, he'd better reconsider and start eating what he's offered!

Cheers,
Dr. Jean

 

[shlanon]

I have been offering the wet at least twice a day. Normally he just licks it for about one minute, taking maybe 2 or 3 small bites. Then I wait for awhile (longer sometimes than others) and give him a few bites of dry. Once a day he gets the recommended amount of dry for an adult cat. Which actually I have noticed, is less than I had been feeding before. So I think maybe I was still overfeeding before even though I wasn't leaving food out all the time. At any rate, even with that smaller amount of food, he won't always gobble it all down at once. He'll eat about half, come back in 30 minutes or so and eat the other half. Then several hours later he will beg for more.
Anyway, tonight he actually ate some of the wet! Maybe about an ounce. We'll see if he can keep this up and in the meantime I'll go buy some baby food and more of the turkey Wellness!

 

[Sol]

Some cats are hard to get off the dry food. My oldest lady was a bitch. She wouldn't eat anything but dry food so I let her starve. I offered her my home made food every day (many times every day) but she was stubborn. Now, I wouldn't let her starve forever off course but on the third day she ate some of the home made stuff (I put some tuna in it, I know she can't resist that smell) and now she eats the home made food. She's lost 0,4 kilograms since I took her of the dry food. Weight she needed to lose.

 

[BoscosMum]

shlanon,
Hello! Are you still out there???
I was hoping for an update about Justin!
I am just starting this journey with my cat Bosco.