Question:
The Vet says that our six year old female is getting a bit plump.
She has been fed dry Iams Less Active/Hairball for the past few years. She seems to enjoy it and eats very well. We feed her about 3/4 cup, late at night, and it lasts her 24 hours.
The Vet has suggested that we switch to any canned food, as they tend to be lower in carbs. That's swell!
The problem is she won't eat it. We've tried all the varieties of Iams. She barely takes a smell at it. It sits there for an hour after which we relent and feed her the dry food she likes.
We leave that down for an hour and then pick it up. We repeat that about every 12 hours.
The only good thing so far is that she's not grazing any more. But, she's not happy.
Any suggestions?
Answer:
Try mixing the wet with the dry. More dry than wet at first, then gradually change the ratio until all wet. Also, you might try putting out much smaller servings of dry, side by side with small servings of wet, then gradually don't put out the dry. If that doesn't work, then you may have to go the tough love route and only put out the wet. She WILL eat eventually. Try the Whiskas Choice Cuts canned food, it's a stampede when ours hear the can open.
Last week, I found out that one of my kittens has to have a special diet in order to lower his urine Ph. Well, everyone gets the new food since it won't hurt them. A couple of the Herd didn't want to change, but they figured out that that was the new menu and that was it. They all eat it just fine now.
Good Luck!!!
spike481
Herdmaster of 14 Cats & 2 Dogs
"Ever tried to herd cats?"

Answer:
I would suggest a different brand as Iams is of poor quality for a canned food. I would try brands that do not include bi-products of any kind, and no fish flavors.
My cats are a bit finnicky about their preferred brands and flavors, so I know that it takes some time to find something that she'll like.
g'luck
~RB~
Answer:
Try mixing some of the new food with her old stuff...if her old stuff was dry then just mix it in with the wet. She should respond and every day you can just add less and less of the old food and hopefully her will get used to her new stuff. Also you could try warming it slightly before you give it to her...this increases the smell it gives off and makes it more appealing to cats. She is probably not used to having cold food from the fridge since her other food was at room temperature.
*steph*
Answer:
try mixing dry in with the wet. I feed Fancy Feast to my cat, and i've heard others say that Fancy Feast is very smelly and tasty to cats, it's addictive. My choice is Roasted Turkey feast.
Marshu.com | Munchkin Polydactyl All White Cat - Marsh (Marshmallow)

Answer:
We tried all of your suggestions prior to posting.
Actually, the only one we didn't try was changing brands, which we'll do next time we're out shopping.
Seeing as that the cat loved Iams dry food, perhaps it was silly of us to presume she'd like the canned.
Thanks for the ideas, however.
Answer:
Definitely get different (and better) brands of the wet, and see if she'll like any of them. Some cats are really picky, and it'll take some time to find ones they like. I would have turned down Iams wet too, the few cans I tried some years ago looked nasty.

Answer:
Give her less and less dry food. She'll start eating the wet. Only leave out a tablespoon full or so. Add more as time goes on.
Alternatively, you could just cut the dry food off completely, but putting out less and less should bother her less, and will let you get rid of whatever you have left of it.
My cat has issues with wet food. I've only been feeding him dry Natural Balance as a result. He doesn't like it even half as much as wet, for which he'll mew 15 minutes straight. I let him have a couple tablespoons of it awhile back and he refused to eat much of the dry for a couple days. Unfortunately for him, I'm more stubborn, so that's all he got. Eventually he got hungry and started eating it again.
Think of it this way... if your kids would only eat candy for dinner, and screamed for it when you give them healthy food... would you keep giving them candy and let their teeth rot out, or do what's best for them?

Answer:
catwithnoname wrote: Think of it this way... if your kids would only eat candy for dinner, and screamed for it when you give them healthy food... would you keep giving them candy and let their teeth rot out, or do what's best for them?
Wet food is actually better for cats, so it's not like they are eating bad when eating wet. Here's a good article about it and I know this forum has many threads on wet food vs. dry food.
Why Cats Need Canned Food
~Km~
Answer:
starship wrote: ...Actually, the only one we didn't try was changing brands, which we'll do next time we're out shopping.
Couple of comments: If you mix the wet with the dry, don't leave it out too long, when dry food gets wet, bacteria starts growing.
You might have to try a lot of brands, so I'd just buy one can of everything and see what happens. We tried about 25 different foods before we figured out that Kitty would only eat two of them, and one she only licks the gravy off, the other one she'll eat.
Answer:
Kitty's Mom wrote: We tried about 25 different foods before we figured out that Kitty would only eat two of them, and one she only licks the gravy off, the other one she'll eat.
Argh, Vequi does the same thing with her wet food. She'll sip the broth and leave the chunks there.
I also used Starship's logic in that if Vequi liked Whiskas dry food, she'd like their wet food as well. I guess cats don't care about the brand, its all about taste for them.
Roberto (Vequi's Daddy)
Vequi says "¡Miau!"