A question about feeding canned food...

In article , zuzu22
@webtv.net enlightened us with...
We got a can of anything Whole Foods
had.

Whole Foods doesn't carry Wellness, so it's likely you haven't tried it.

Megan


Yeah, you're right - I went to that site and looked at the cans, and it
didn't look at all familiar. I also found a place kinda sorta nearby that
carries it, so I'm going to pop over this weekend and check it out.

Thanks for the help!

--
--
~kaeli~
Murphy's Law #3020: Quality assurance doesn't.
http://www.ipwebdesign.net/wildAtHeart
http://www.ipwebdesign.net/kaelisSpace

In article ,
enlightened us with...

I managed to miss how old your cats are. If they're fairly young,
I would suggest mostly high quality dry over mostly low quality wet,
and maybe you'll be able to afford a premium canned that they like,
by the time they're older.


Rowan and Isis are 4 and 3, respectively. We aren't sure about Jeffrey, but
we think he's around 4 also.

I'm just going to keep trying and stop leaving dry down constantly so at
least they're definitely hungry when I put the wet down. If they don't touch
the wet for more than an hour, I'll put a bit of dry down for them.

--
--
~kaeli~
Murphy's Law #3020: Quality assurance doesn't.
http://www.ipwebdesign.net/wildAtHeart
http://www.ipwebdesign.net/kaelisSpace

In article ,
enlightened us with...

I managed to miss how old your cats are. If they're fairly young,
I would suggest mostly high quality dry over mostly low quality wet,
and maybe you'll be able to afford a premium canned that they like,
by the time they're older.


Rowan and Isis are 4 and 3, respectively. We aren't sure about Jeffrey, but
we think he's around 4 also.

I'm just going to keep trying and stop leaving dry down constantly so at
least they're definitely hungry when I put the wet down. If they don't touch
the wet for more than an hour, I'll put a bit of dry down for them.

--
--
~kaeli~
Murphy's Law #3020: Quality assurance doesn't.
http://www.ipwebdesign.net/wildAtHeart
http://www.ipwebdesign.net/kaelisSpace

In article , zuzu22
@webtv.net enlightened us with...
Kaeli,
Have faith. Just because it's not happening quickly doesn't mean you
won't succeed. I have dealt with this too and the article you read also
has very good tips for transitioning from dry to wet. I have a cat I
rescued early this year and I could not get her to eat any wet food so I
had to start out giving her high quality dry. I just kept trying and
finally I got her to eat one flavor and over the next few months I just
kept adding little bits of this and that and we're at the point now that
she's eating 6 different premium canned foods. If you have to do more
dry and less canned right now, then that's what you have to do. Just
keep sneaking in a little more canned and a little less dry and changing
the flavors so they get used to *not* eating the exact same thing every
day. It's difficult to undo things sometimes, but it is not impossible!
:-)

Megan


Yeah, I'm probably expecting things to go too fast, huh?

For now, I'm just not going to free-feed dry any more and keep trying
different cans to see what they'll eat. If I find one they love, I'll give
them that consistently enough to get them mostly off dry then start mixing it
in with more wet flavors to get them up to a higher-quality.

I do want to try the Wellness, though (you were right, I had it confused with
another brand). Maybe they'll really like it.
*crosses fingers*

--
--
~kaeli~
Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead-to-know basis.
http://www.ipwebdesign.net/wildAtHeart
http://www.ipwebdesign.net/kaelisSpace

In article , zuzu22
@webtv.net enlightened us with...
Kaeli,
Have faith. Just because it's not happening quickly doesn't mean you
won't succeed. I have dealt with this too and the article you read also
has very good tips for transitioning from dry to wet. I have a cat I
rescued early this year and I could not get her to eat any wet food so I
had to start out giving her high quality dry. I just kept trying and
finally I got her to eat one flavor and over the next few months I just
kept adding little bits of this and that and we're at the point now that
she's eating 6 different premium canned foods. If you have to do more
dry and less canned right now, then that's what you have to do. Just
keep sneaking in a little more canned and a little less dry and changing
the flavors so they get used to *not* eating the exact same thing every
day. It's difficult to undo things sometimes, but it is not impossible!
:-)

Megan


Yeah, I'm probably expecting things to go too fast, huh?

For now, I'm just not going to free-feed dry any more and keep trying
different cans to see what they'll eat. If I find one they love, I'll give
them that consistently enough to get them mostly off dry then start mixing it
in with more wet flavors to get them up to a higher-quality.

I do want to try the Wellness, though (you were right, I had it confused with
another brand). Maybe they'll really like it.
*crosses fingers*

--
--
~kaeli~
Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead-to-know basis.
http://www.ipwebdesign.net/wildAtHeart
http://www.ipwebdesign.net/kaelisSpace

In the fine newsgroup "rec.pets.cats.health+behav", kaeli
artfully composed this message
within on 16 Sep
2004:


Yeah, I'm probably expecting things to go too fast, huh?

For now, I'm just not going to free-feed dry any more and keep
trying different cans to see what they'll eat. If I find one
they love, I'll give them that consistently enough to get them
mostly off dry then start mixing it in with more wet flavors to
get them up to a higher-quality.

I do want to try the Wellness, though (you were right, I had it
confused with another brand). Maybe they'll really like it.
*crosses fingers*

Kaeli, I got Shadow converted in the beginning by not leaving any
dry food out at night and by morning he was hungry enough to eat
whatever I gave him. It was a process because at first he wouldn't
eat enough of the canned to sustain him for the day while I was at
work, and leave him without food until dinner (canned) and since he
had a history of fatty liver, I'd leave him with enough dry food to
make up for the canned he wouldn't eat. It took several weeks to
several months to get on this feeding regime. I never got him fully
off of dry food, but it was down to about 1/8 cup per day, and
about 1/2 cup canned 2x per day. Still too much food for him, but
with his chronic diarrhea, he was persistently hungry.

OTOH, I'm battling this problem with my former feral Bonnie. I had
given up for a while to get her on canned food because of the same
fears you have - she'd rather starve than eat canned food. She
won't touch canned food and since I'm gone for about 12 hours per
day at work and the commute, she'd literally go nearly 24 hours
without food if I let her skip breakfast because she won't eat what
I give her. I have to remember that it won't kill her to go that
long, but it's really hard. I'm back on a mission to convert her to
canned, or at least 50/50 so tonight when I fed her dinner I wet a
few of the bits with water so they'd become soft, and something
other than the crunchy stuff she considers food. She outsmarted me
by eating around the wet ones and waiting a while until they dried,
then went and ate them.

--
Cheryl

In the fine newsgroup "rec.pets.cats.health+behav", kaeli
artfully composed this message
within on 16 Sep
2004:


Yeah, I'm probably expecting things to go too fast, huh?

For now, I'm just not going to free-feed dry any more and keep
trying different cans to see what they'll eat. If I find one
they love, I'll give them that consistently enough to get them
mostly off dry then start mixing it in with more wet flavors to
get them up to a higher-quality.

I do want to try the Wellness, though (you were right, I had it
confused with another brand). Maybe they'll really like it.
*crosses fingers*

Kaeli, I got Shadow converted in the beginning by not leaving any
dry food out at night and by morning he was hungry enough to eat
whatever I gave him. It was a process because at first he wouldn't
eat enough of the canned to sustain him for the day while I was at
work, and leave him without food until dinner (canned) and since he
had a history of fatty liver, I'd leave him with enough dry food to
make up for the canned he wouldn't eat. It took several weeks to
several months to get on this feeding regime. I never got him fully
off of dry food, but it was down to about 1/8 cup per day, and
about 1/2 cup canned 2x per day. Still too much food for him, but
with his chronic diarrhea, he was persistently hungry.

OTOH, I'm battling this problem with my former feral Bonnie. I had
given up for a while to get her on canned food because of the same
fears you have - she'd rather starve than eat canned food. She
won't touch canned food and since I'm gone for about 12 hours per
day at work and the commute, she'd literally go nearly 24 hours
without food if I let her skip breakfast because she won't eat what
I give her. I have to remember that it won't kill her to go that
long, but it's really hard. I'm back on a mission to convert her to
canned, or at least 50/50 so tonight when I fed her dinner I wet a
few of the bits with water so they'd become soft, and something
other than the crunchy stuff she considers food. She outsmarted me
by eating around the wet ones and waiting a while until they dried,
then went and ate them.

--
Cheryl

In article ,
enlightened us with...

Kaeli, I got Shadow converted in the beginning by not leaving any
dry food out at night and by morning he was hungry enough to eat
whatever I gave him.

They're NEVER hungry enough to eat some of what we've tried, much like your
Bonnie.

she'd literally go nearly 24 hours
without food if I let her skip breakfast because she won't eat what
I give her.

Yup, when I offered nothing but the premium canned, they went *36 hours*
before I broke down and gave them dry.
I felt like the most horrible person ever, might I add.

when I fed her dinner I wet a
few of the bits with water so they'd become soft, and something
other than the crunchy stuff she considers food.

This sounds like something to try!
First just a little water, then gradually softer and softer...

Thanks for the idea!

--
--
~kaeli~
The Bermuda Triangle got tired of warm weather. It moved to
Finland. Now Santa Claus is missing.
http://www.ipwebdesign.net/wildAtHeart
http://www.ipwebdesign.net/kaelisSpace

In article ,
enlightened us with...

Kaeli, I got Shadow converted in the beginning by not leaving any
dry food out at night and by morning he was hungry enough to eat
whatever I gave him.

They're NEVER hungry enough to eat some of what we've tried, much like your
Bonnie.

she'd literally go nearly 24 hours
without food if I let her skip breakfast because she won't eat what
I give her.

Yup, when I offered nothing but the premium canned, they went *36 hours*
before I broke down and gave them dry.
I felt like the most horrible person ever, might I add.

when I fed her dinner I wet a
few of the bits with water so they'd become soft, and something
other than the crunchy stuff she considers food.

This sounds like something to try!
First just a little water, then gradually softer and softer...

Thanks for the idea!

--
--
~kaeli~
The Bermuda Triangle got tired of warm weather. It moved to
Finland. Now Santa Claus is missing.
http://www.ipwebdesign.net/wildAtHeart
http://www.ipwebdesign.net/kaelisSpace

In the fine newsgroup "rec.pets.cats.health+behav", kaeli
artfully composed this message within
on 17 Sep 2004:

when I fed her dinner I wet a
few of the bits with water so they'd become soft, and something
other than the crunchy stuff she considers food.

This sounds like something to try!
First just a little water, then gradually softer and softer...

Thanks for the idea!

LOL I hope you have better luck than I have.


--
Cheryl