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I am attempting to get my remaining two cats to eat complete dried food rather than tins of wet food. We get so many flies in during the summer and within an hour or two the wet food is fly blown. I started yesterday and my youngest cat, Daisy, wasn't having any - literally! and hasn't had anything today. Yesterday evening, she brought in a young wild rabbit she'd caught in protest. My older cat, Alfie, 13/14 years, is desperate to eat something and tries it but after about five bits gives up. How long should I persist? I have two different flavours and have put them both out in bowls together with two other bowls, one with water and one with milk as usual. I am worried that the dried food may be too hard for my older cat to deal with. Any ideas please?

Animals will normally eat anything if they are hungry enough so if you have the heart to continue then carry on but I know from experience its difficult not to give in to them. Have you thought about getting on of those automatic feeders that run off batteries. They operate on a timer and open once or twice a day. I know of some made by a firm called petmate. Then you can go back to feeding meat to them as they will soon learn what time the timer opens their dinner up and will eat it and then they food will be covered from the flies until the time the feeder opens. Hope that makes sense!!

It will probably take them a little while to get used to a different diet, if that's what you want to feed them then stick with it and perhaps give them a few biscuits with their tinned food to begin with, maybe you could also try soaking the biscuits in water that would soften them up if your older cat is having trouble crunching. Keep trying different techniques to introduce the biscuits but feed them wet food at the end of the day if they haven't eaten anything else.

When I switched my cats to a raw diet it took 4/5 months of persistence for them to accept it completely and now they totally love it.

Why don't u feed them once a day and only give them enough for that meal? That way they will clear their plates leaving nothing for the flies. We feed r cats last thing at night, if they r hungry in between then they hunt! As for changing to dry food, cats huff, they can't help it bless them! They want u to feel so guilty that u give them something else!!! They will get used. If ur older cat is struggling then add a bit of water but this again will make it attractive to flies. Good luck. Xx

I can see that the canned food would attract flies, but I wouldn't be too keen on switching to dry kibble. Cats tend to drink too little and when you put them entirely on dry kibble it could cause kidney damage in the long term.

The kibble my cats eat contains as much rice as it does turkey. I don't really think that my cats' food should consist of rice (18%), conrnmeal, pea protein concentrate etc. However, they (the producers) need the grains or potato starches to be able to bake biscuits. Canned food usually has more meat content. And our kibble really isn't cheap either, the cheaper brands are even worse. Our cats also get canned food and I occasionally dry to give them some raw meat, but only our senior cat (17 yrs old) really likes that.

As for switching to new food: I've been told by my vet to never let a cat fast for more than 36 hrs. Something to do with the liver function. Het told me to come right away if i suspected my can hadn't been eating for over 24 hrs. I later had the opportunity to see the yellowish stripes on a cat's liver after not eating for a few days. It probably won't kill them (right away) but it is not healthy.

If cats have never eaten dry kibble they might simply not recognize it as food. So I would mix some kibble with canned food to gradually introduce it, if you're set on teaching them to eat it. Kibble is very convenient, but on the whole I'm personally getting less and less happy with feeding my cats dry kibble.

Jandra wrote:Canned food usually has more meat content.

Really? Most of the stuff we find in the supermarket is only 4% meat. I feel a bit guilty about giving this to our cat, but she was fine with it until we accidentally bought some much more expensive food for her. It took quite a while after that to persuade her to accept the cheaper stuff again

Thanks for the advice.

I have given in! I couldn't cope with them crying. They were on the desk or the arm of my chair meeowing constantly and wouldn't leave me alone. Every time I moved to the kitchen area they ran like demented starved animals and I weakened I'm afraid. Since I've put the canned food down they haven't touched the dried at all, although I've renewed it each day. They are obviously not for turning.

I know nothing about cats except they put my in hospital on a regular basis, but I do know dogs with few or no teeth: we soak the dried food in water for about ten -fifteen minutes before putting their bowls down. This softens the food & ensure they are consuming some water.

MW

Id be careful with dried cat food if you have a male cat, my big black Tom took ill and was crying when he was trying to use the litter tray...I thought he was constipated but as the day got on he got worse and we had to rush him to the vets, male cats have a short urethra and dried food causes crystals to build up and block it...he had to have a little catty catheter inserted and was really quite ill. When he came home we had to feed him a special food from the vets. Now I feed them meat first thing on a morning and if it isnt eaten straight away I remove it and cover the bowl with a tea plate, if they get hungry later they make sure Im aware of the fact and finish off what was left.

We got a little moggy from the local cat rescue & he's an odd little character. One of my customers told me that he was so friendly... ?? All I ever see him doing is sleeping on the bed all day & then he's out all night - doesn't really have anything to do with us!

Anyway, I started off feeding him sachets, then as he got bigger, he had a tin a day & always had biscuits down as well. Over the space of a couple of weeks, he started to leave his tinned stuff & if I try to give it to him now, he just walks away. It wasn't cheap rubbish either. So now he's just on dry biscuits - and as many mice & rats as he can catch in the fields at night

Alfie, at 14-odd, may well find dry food just too hard on his teeth.
a gradual swapping over is the best way to go.

we too get probs with flies (have 4 cats, and the dog) and I often just put the tins (covered) into the fridge - they're not in there long enough for too many problems to happen!
Sachets are a great idea (just that with three boys, theres no way I could afford to feed them!)

Recently did the same thing, and for the same reason, they are complaining, and making the point by leaving half chewed Mice, Voles, and even little Rabbits, on the doormat every morning.

On the other hand, maybe they think we've gone bust and are trying to help out.