Dear Most Esteemed and Knowledgeable Kitties:
I have a 3-month-old black beauty female who refuses to eat cat chow. She only eats canned food. I have an even dozen cats, and they all eat kibble (it’s a high-quality kibble) but her. She has plenty of teeth, so I’m pretty sure that’s not the problem. How can I get her to eat kibble without starving her?
~ Paulette
Siouxsie: Well, Paulette, to be totally honest, we think your kitten is demonstrating plain old good sense!
Thomas: Cats weren’t designed to eat kibble. We’re obligate carnivores, which means we need meat to stay healthy.
Kissy: That’s not to say kibble doesn’t have meat in it, of course, but if you look at our teeth and jaws, it’s pretty clear that they’re not designed for eating kibble.
Siouxsie: Cats’ teeth are made to grasp, puncture and tear, not to chomp.
Thomas: In order to really chew on kibble and other such things, your jaw needs to be able to move side to side. Humans, as well as most omnivores and all herbivores, have jaws that move side to side as well as up and down. Our jaws only move up and down, so any chewing we do is not efficient and we often end up swallowing kibbles whole.
Kissy: The photo above came from the materials for a University of Washington biology class. If you want to compare cat teeth to those of herbivores and omnivores, go here.
Siouxsie: That said, though, we do understand that not every human has the means or inclination to feed their cats canned or raw food. We are glad to hear that your cats are eating a high-quality kibble.
Thomas: Now for the answer to your question. If you do want your kitten to start eating kibble, the trick is to transition her slowly.
Kissy: Three-month-old kittens still have pretty small jaws and teeth, and sometimes at that size they may have trouble biting down on the kibble and making it small enough to swallow.
Siouxsie: You might try soaking her kibble in kitten milk replacer, which will soften it and probably be quite tasty, too. Gradually use less and less of the milk replacer until the kibble is dry.
Thomas: Another way you might be able to transition her is to mix a couple of kibbles in with her canned food and then gradually decrease the amount of canned and increase the amount of kibble.
Kissy: Again, we do strongly encourage a diet of soft food, which not only is more like the diet cats are designed to eat but also provides the moisture cats need to stay hydrated.
Siouxsie: If you do feed kibble, we recommend a grain-free variety, only because we’ve found in our experience that we feel better when we’re not eating grain.
Thomas: Especially me! When I used to eat grains, I got the runs so badly that it hurt to poop, and sometimes I even made messes outside the litterbox. I was so ashamed! But Mama removed all the grains from my diet (including the grain-based cat litter we used to use), and I’ve been fine ever since.
Kissy: Just a reminder here: — we’re not veterinarians, and we recommend that you do your own research and talk with your vet when deciding on a diet for your feline friends.
JaneA Kelley is a punk rock cat mom and award-winning blogger. She is a regular columnist for Catster Magazine, and she and the Paws and Effect Gang share a home in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.
Our furbabies eat a mixed diet of wet and dry. They munch on dry during the day (Natural Balance brand that has a lot less carbs and is better for them) and at night they get wet food. They are all happy and healthy, the two oldest are both 13. The way our vet explained it to us is that look at outside cats. Have you ever seen a fat outdoor kitty? What do they eat? Birds, lizards, bugs… lots and lots of protein! Not a bread in sight. It’ what their bodies were designed to use for energy.
I feed canned in the morning and dry throughout the day. I have the opposite issue with one of mine he will only eat dry and turns his nose up to the wet food. He loves to sniff it but refuses to eat it and we have tried most brands, even the high protein stuff from the vet. Any ideas?
Just look at him and tell eat or don;t trust me when he get hungry enough he’ll eat.
Rebecca, these two websites are both very informative, written by knowledgeable people, and go into detail about diet transitions. (There are some other excellent websites but I can’t recall their names off the top of my head)
http://catinfo.org/
http://feline-nutrition.org/
My two cents would be to get your cat off of the dry food asap, _especially_ if it has grains in it (and also if it contains by-products). I eliminated dry food from my cat’s diet and she showed an immediate, dramatic improvement in several areas of her health. She is 13 years old and had been showing early signs of kidney problems, which is a leading cause of death among older cats. Her kidneys are now back to 100% and at her exam last week, the vet said she could have mistaken her for a 3-year-old cat!
I know we all love our cats and it can be hard to hear that what you’ve been giving them might not be good for them. Unfortunately, the dry food that has been marketed to us by the big pet food companies is basically junk food. Unless you’re buying a super healthy, grain free brand, it is probably sprayed with a digest made of animal intestines that makes it taste good on the outside, but it’s lacking in actual meat protein, which is what cats need. Cats can get addicted to dry food but it is possible to wean them off of it and many people have been successful – you just have to be more stubborn than your cat and take it slow. Good luck!
Dry food is the worst you can give your cat. My daughters cat was also diagnosed with renal failure he is 12 years old. I told her to take him off it, and is a totally different cat now. He is back to himself, happy and healthy. And yes, dry food was designed by big corporations just wanting to fill their pockets with no interest in animals health & diet.
Raw food is the best you can give your cat, but it expensive. You can buy it in the frozen section of specialized stores. I was going to make it myself but it was too confusing because you have to make sure it is a balanced diet. Last year my 6 month old cat was diagnosed with stomatitis (his diet at that time was a quality can food & dry). The vet said I should have his teeth removed! I was outraged and starting doing research. I switched him to a raw food diet 6 months ago and his teeth and mouth look great!
I do feed them all wet food at least once a day and they have the other around all the time, the average weight of my dirty dozen is 17 ibs. so i gues they are all doing ok
Ignoring the other lectures about how cats aren’t supposed to eat dry food and it’s “evil” (which I am so sick of hearing), my cat did the same thing when she was a baby. It took her awhile, but finally, she came around when she was ready. I can’t remember how old she was, but your kitten should come around.
When I read all these terrible things about dry food I want to try to change my cats diet (I have five of my own and my daughters 3 think they are mine as well), but I have one cat who absolutely won’t eat wet food at all so she would probably starve. My problem with this is that I have been feeding a feral colony for almost 13 years and, although another feeder gives them soft food three times a week,(and most of them are eager for it) they primarily live on dry food. One of them lived to be well over 15. Also, feeding canned food and the raw food diet is expensive. If you have only one cat that’s fine but I can’t afford to indulge. Oh well, my oldest is 15 and he is fine after having most of his teeth pulled. And as far as cats doing well in the wild eating only other living things – when we find them at our colony they don’t look particularly fat and healthy but, tasting hard food for the first time perhaps, eat hungrily at the bin of food and seem to fatten up after just a few weeks. Too bad we can’t just ask them their opinion.
PLEASE! PLEASE! Tell every one I have tried can cat is best for your cat it has meat in it and
cats can only chew up and down so can cat food is the best! Why Vets have there waiting
room with display of dry cat food is crazy, unless they know your going to someday have
to treat your cat for urinary problem especially hard on little male cats. Take this serious,
I wont even buy cat food with fish in it because of all the problem their having with fish
products. My Maggie got treated for a urinary infection once and them two weeks later she
had to go back for more meds wasn’t going to put her through that again. I got on my PC
and did some great research on animal web sites like this one , went to Youtube and what-
I can find got some great info and takeing your cat off of dry cat food was one, and I put
her on bottled water and she hasn’t have to go to the Vet it’s be almost a year. Here some
thing else if you cat is eatting can cat food and you have to put it in the fridge and she wont
eat it after it been in the fridge just put in a teaspoon of hot water it will warm it up and
she or he will get more water, if you notice the stool loose just use a 1/2 of teaspoon. Gabi
Wet food is the best for kitties and has less calories then dry food. My cats love wet food and get a small amount of dry for their teeth after each meal. Also, one of my cats has a problem with hard stools if he only eats dry.
My kitty didn’t like the kibble I was feeding her, that’s why she wouldn’t eat. I read the ingredients and I could understand why. It was like junk food for cats. I put her on Natural Balance and now she eats dry food every day, and their delectable delights stews too.