Thread: Tricky cat
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Old April 12th, 2009, 11:18 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Okami View Post
I've found wet cat food dry's up pretty quickly when I lay it out more then 30 minutes. Usually my cat doesn't touch wet cat food when it's been out for more then 1 hour (gets all crusty then).
I add an extra tbsp or 2 of water to my cat's canned so that it stays moister longer.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Okami View Post
Would I be able to just take the kibble away all together now, since he does eat wet cat food a little, but not nearly as much as kibble. If not should I be moving him to only wet food first then bits of raw mixed in?
I would stop free-feeding kibble for sure, but really keep an eye on how much your cat is eating and make sure he picks up the slack with the canned food. What I did with my guy was feed him kibble only at meal times, and only a small amount (like starting with less than a 1/4 cup each meal). I'd also put canned down at the same time but I'd leave that out for him to snack. Very gradually, I decreased the amount of kibble to the point that he was only getting 5 pieces per meal. It was enough to get him excited about meal times, and after eating those 5 pieces, he would tend to eat more canned. Then one day I just stopped the kibble altogether and he hardly seemed to notice.

As for introducing raw, you could try that anytime. Will he eat some raw meat if you put it on a plate beside the canned? Some cats dive right in, some take a while for it to dawn on them that it's food. Mixing it with canned is an option as long as it doesn't put him off of eating the canned.

Once he is eating the raw regularly, you want to make sure it's balanced and not just pieces of muscle meat. Cats also need bone and organs in the proper ratios or else some serious nutritional deficiencies can result.

Good luck!
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