I have two cats, Jagger (5yrs old) and Tom (7 yrs old). Currently I am feeding them Taste of the Wild Rocky Mountain dry food. I really, really want to start getting them to eat... at a minimum... half dry and half wet. Problem is whenever I give them wet food they both are very interested and then pretty much just lick all the gravy off and leave the actual food itself in the bowl.

How can I encourage them to actually EAT the food? Their vet suggested to try Fancy Feast and look for the pâté kind. I tired today with Fancy Feast pâté style, and they did the same thing they always do. Do I give them less dry food and offer more wet food? I don't want to starve them and I don't want to waste money on cans and cans of wet food that they ignore.

ALSO. Any brand suggestions? I really want to feed them grain free food and I would prefer the main meat to be chicken. I was looking at trying the Tiki Cat Koolina Chicken and Tiki Cat Puka Puka Luau Chicken, but if anyone has cats that really loooove something else I would be more than willing to gamble my money away on that first.

I don't know how well these suggestions will work (as my cat loves it when she gets her wet food) but perhaps you could try one of these two things: Mashing/cutting the wet food (especially if it's a pate) into smaller chunks rather than one big (for lack of a better word) blob, or mixing it in with some dry food. That may get them to eat it, rather than just lick at it.

The brand I get is Purina's Friskies: They do have quite a few poultry options, including chicken. Whatever brand you end up getting for your cats, I do recommend you get pate rather than chunks/strips in gravy--it'll be easier to get them to eat it rather than just lick off the gravy.

Never let the gravy lay on the top of the food, you always have to mush it. My cats eat a primarily wet diet but free feed kibble, but one of them will happily ONLY eat gravy. If you're looking for grain free there are TONS of options. I wouldn't buy more than one can of each brand at a time. Is there a reason why you only want chicken? There's really nothing wrong with things like rabbit, lamb, etc. Liver is really good too so don't pass that up.

My one girl LOVES Spot's Stew, and it's a fairly accessible brand. I would just pick up a select few gain free cans and give them a go. Definitely go with pate. When you spoon it out, mush it up and then pile it in a mountain. Gravy? Whip it in, don't give them a chance. Peas and carrots? Mush it up, mix it in, don't give them a chance at not eating it.

This might also be an idea, we did it with Willow in reverse when she was a baby transitioning into eating some hard food too. (She hated hard food, it's a long story...) Put a bit of their hard food in with the wet so it makes a blend. As the days go by, less and less hard food.

i think you are on to something good, i think i get too lazy/give up and don't mix or mash up the stuff enough. is there any specific friskies flavor your cat prefers? maybe my guys will like it too.

mostly because that's the only meat tom seems to like without question; well and anytime i get food with the bf (tom was his first) he likes to stand behind me and tell me that tom only likes chicken. i most definitely not against trying other meats, i suppose i'd like to stay away from seafood based ones and that's because the smell makes me gag.

i probably fail at mixing it up enough, and i really like the idea about mixing the dry food + wet food and gradually taking out the dry. i'm hoping more wet food than dry food will help jagger eat less overall too, since his vet told us he needs to lose 2 lbs. D:

I have an old lady that has problems keeping on the pounds, so she gets a little bit of wet food at night. Like yours, if I just leave the food as is, or buy pate, all she does is lick it. I've found that if I dump the dry food over top of the wet, she'll eat it all.

I just get the turkey because that's what I've always gotten. You might want to get a couple different flavors and see if they have a preference?

- Just as a quick question to start with, is there any reason why you want your cats to suddenly start eating wet food? Having them only eat dry food won't harm them and it is better to do so in the summer as wet food attracts a lot of bugs, goes bad quicker and smells. Plus, some cats just prefer dry food to wet, my caree has 15 cats and six of them don't eat anything but dry. They always get the option of both but will always turn their noses up at it regardless of what it is, plus I live with 4 cats as well and one of them is a dry feeder too.

Other than that, I see people have already given you the mash it up advice so I will skip suggesting that. One thing I have noticed with my cats is they often lick the jelly or gravy then come back later for the rest of it, as they don't like how slimy the meat is so they leave it to dry out for a little while first. Do you leave the wet food down just in case they do this?

Another suggestion I can offer is to try and find a cat food which has easily extracted chunks in (Due to being British I can't really suggest foods, sorry) and plop them in with their dry food. One thing my caree did to help her eldest eat wet food was she crushed some of the biscuits up or got the dust / crumbs at the bottom of the bag and basically sprinkled the chunks in it, kinda like you would if you were making homemade chicken with breadcrumbs on. It is best to do this with wet food that is the same flavor as the dry, so chicken chunk wet food with chicken biscuits. If they don't eat them, try making the pieces smaller, then just gradually make them larger until they eat them fine.

Alternatively, give them half and half and gradually reduce the dry biscuits over time, or mix biscuits up in pate cat food. It's all about being creative when it comes to swapping kitty diets X)

Also just a pointer as well, if your cats start having runny or smelly poops whilst you do this, do not worry too much. Some cats get the runs when their diets are changed, normally cats that have been on the same diet for a long time but it can happen to any of them.

Hope this helps!

I'm a little shocked about what you say about wet food in the summer. If wet food is attracting bugs, going bad, and smelling then you're putting too much out and leaving it out too long. In my summer it is explosively hot, but I've never had wet food start to stink. If any time of year wet food would be important it would be in the summer when there is a higher chance of dehydration. Wet food is recommended both for that reason (moisture intake) but also to ensure a cat is getting enough necessary meat in their diet. The meat content of kibble is quite low unless you're using grain free brands, and even then, a close eye on the ingredients is a must. I'm not arguing that some cats prefer dry, that's fine that's what they've been raised on. I think that the problem you've brought up is easily prevented though. If wet food is going bad, try feeding more often in smaller portions.

- It doesn't take long at all to go bad and our cats are on strict diets due to genetic issues. They get fed one wet pouch in the morning (Except Pingu, she eats when I get up because she prefers to eat her food with me) and have biscuits down all day which are changed and topped up throughout the day. If they have access to unlimited fresh water which ours do as we have four pet fountains in the house that are regularly topped up, then they are fine. We use grain free dry cat food, ironically it is a lot cheaper here than the grained stuff. We were suggested this by a vet and by a professional feline dietitian and it has yet to go wrong.

Even the no kill cat shelter I work at follows this ruling, they're the reason why my mother sought help and started doing it too because she was getting fruit fly issues in the kitchen due to them being attracted by the food.

Where are you in the world?

- I'm in the UK.

Interesting. Certainly not where I would have imagined a problem like that being prevalent. I've lived in some pretty high humidity places too. Must be the perfect storm of conditions where you are.

- It's the UK, rain and storms are our specialty XD But yeah the humidity in my area goes wacky as hell during the summer so bugs like fruit flies are a big problem, especially since where I live there are a lot of assholes who dump their rubbish on corners and the council does nothing about it for weeks, so they thrive in that. We don't leave wet food down even in the winter (mostly because once one of the cats is done Dave goes around and licks the bowls clean anyway) because of them.

Fruit flies are always a bitch aren't they. That's always lovely when the council just lets bullshit fly.

Wet food doesn't really sit much in my house either but that's because we feed on a multi-serving strategy. Usually alternating between two cans because I have two princesses who will clutch their pearls if they must eat too much of the same flavor at once. So 3-4 times a day they get a small scoop. It's cut down on A LOT of waste because of finicky taste buds. We also have water absolutely everywhere. I can't get them to drink out of fountains though. Not afraid just... too entertained to sip it. So we have repurposed margarine containers strategically placed.

Yeah they are an ass blasting bitchaloid, to quote Markiplier. The council don't make it any easier either, if you call them up about an infestation in your house they just send a guy round with cheap bug spray. Heck at one time we were having radiator problems and they sent a fragging plumber round! But enough about them, this isn't the topic XD

We used to do something similar as our eldest cat was a very fussy eater and would not eat the same flavor twice in a row, plus she was very sporadic of when she wanted food. When she got to the point where we knew her time was coming soon, we basically just fed her whenever she wanted to be fed, we knew she didn't have much longer with us so we made her as satisfied and as comfortable as possible. She passed of old age last month, it was sad because we'd had her since 1998 but at the same time we were happy that she passed peacefully at home with us and not on a vets table with multiple health troubles.

We don't really have to worry about leftovers, our tabby Dave always eats anything the others leave behind. He's a chunky boy our Dave, but he isn't overweight or anything he's just very chunky. We take them all to the vets once a month to get a general check up and weight check to make sure. Yeah our pets are a big thing in our household, they eat better than me sometimes.

It took them a little while to get used to the fountains, well it took two of them to since Pingu had one in the previous house she'd lived in and she likes to drink from the bathroom tap. It was funny watching them get used to them, Bean used to stick his whole face under the stream then freak out and Dave used to just sit there watching it, slowly tilting his head like he was contemplating something.

I would definitely mash up the food, and try different kinds and flavours (fish flavours always are popular with my cats). My eldest cat is the same as yours in that she'll just lick the gravy off of the cheaper food and leave the little bits. She loves the pate style though.

I volunteer at a shelter and with the way shelter cats/dogs/etc. are, some come in sick and we have to feed them a gastro food, which is good for their stomach, but rather... bland and not very palatable (though some cats will eat anything, others won't touch it), I found with the cats that wouldn't touch it (but needed to eat it), that mixing the food with water to make a slurry of sorts, worked really well -- especially if they're bigger fans of just licking the wet food as opposed to actually eating it.

I HATE FRUIT FLIES. at my old apt, they would swarm my kitchen and bathroom with a vengeance every single summer. the only thing that was cute about it happening was watching jagger try to catch them. :3 he would get so confused when he thought he caught one and stare at his paw like, "wtf? where did it go?" but trying to get rid of them is such a pain, no matter how much you clean it's like once you're infested they never want to leave. that's a good heads up though.

i don't really want to switch them from dry to wet completely. i've been reading about the benefits of a wet food diet and i just felt like it would be a good idea to get them to eat wet more frequently. mixing it in with the dry sounds like a good way to entice them to actually eat some of the wet food.

they both get really excited when i open any sort of can. they'll come running over to the kitchen and just sit there and stare at me. so im assuming that means they like it, just don't want to do more than lick it. if they don't want to try it mixed in with the dry food, i'll try adding the water.

tom would looove turkey kind.