I know the benefits of feeding an all wet diet, but in this house, this comes with a number of problems. Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, my older girl, the mum of the kittens, is getting enormously fat as she's now eating an almost exclusive wet diet. Because of the layout of the house, I can't easily separate mum and kittens' food as there's no handy place that they can get to it and she can't, so what one eats, they all eat.

The second problem is that the only thing mum and the little girl kitten will eat is Hills when it comes to wet food. Not only is this ridiculously expensive, but the meat content is rubbish, and it gives them incredibly smelly, sloppy poos. When you consider that they're Persians, this is one huge problem. I worked out that at the current rate of consumption of pouches, it would cost me somewhere in the region of just under £40 per cat per month to feed them exclusively on Hills wet, and that just isn't sustainable. The two boy kittens were eating Animonda very happily until about a week ago, and now will hardly touch it. I've tried them on Bozita, Grau and Smilla too, but it's the Hills they all want.

Now, before kittens came along, I fed mum a wet pouch a day (equating to about half her daily intake), more if she wanted it, but had dry down for her to graze on. On this diet, she maintained her weight beautifully, and I'd like to get her back to it. Only problem is that in order to do that, I have to get the kittens eating dry too, and they won't touch the stuff.

Things I've tried:
Mixing it with their food: They pick at the food and lose weight steadily, the little girl more than anyone else, and as she's underweight already, I can't let this happen. I've tried this for four days before giving up.
Soaking Babycat dry in KMR or water, sometimes served warm, sometimes at room temp, sometimes chilled: They won't touch the stuff at all, not even if there's no other food down.
Putting a bowl of dry in between their wet dishes so that they have to smell it as they're eating: The dry food remains untouched.
Popping bits into their mouths: They spit it straight back out again.

Does anyone else have any ideas I've missed that I could try? I really need to get this sorted out soon before my girl gets even fatter. And I need to have them at least tollerating dry before they go to new homes, just in case owners can't be convinced to feed an all wet diet.

I don't have a lot of suggestions beyond to keep trying with them. Whether a buyer wants to put a cat on dry or not, they should get the best nutrition now.

And it's a misconception that wet food makes cats fat. Carbohydrates put weight on a cat and there are more in dry than in wet (unless it's bad wet, larded up with crap ingredients). The Hills might be high in corn or fats. Which would also make their poop nasty. Higher meat content should give them nicer poos, since there's less waste and more nutrition that's actually absorbed.

I know that wasn't much help, though. Hopefully someone else will come along. We'd love some pictures of the babies

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My babies
Aber, Ragnar, Kelso (the corgi trio), Daisy (our rescue mystery-mix puppy), Ellie, Henry, Gwennie, Jezebel (the kitty quartet), Blake, Chaucer, Molly and Milton (the kittens), and Bingo the African Grey parrot

Over the Bridge:
Pippin: 1/6/08-17/5/11
Freja: 11/8/10-30/10/10
Kirby: 11/8/10-1/11/10

"Praise liberty/The freedom to obey/It's a song that strangles me/Well, don't cross the line" Billie Joe Armstrong

Hi there, Dagny

I do know that the food I'm feeding is crap, and I know the research that says that the misconception of wet making a cat fat is not necessarily true, but I can't argue with mine or my vet's scales. She's put on almost a kg since the kittens were born, and she was only 3.5 to start with, so that's quite a lot. Remember that she's been suckling kittens in between too, and they usually lose weight rather than gaining during this period. The only thing that's changed is her diet, so as ridiculous as it would be normally, bearing in mind the research, I can't argue with the facts. She's not even gorging on the wet, she's just eating a little more. I've had her tested for other potential problems and there are none, so diet is the only thing that's the culprit.

She won't touch anything but Hills. I've tried for a solid year now with every recommended method to switch her onto a high meat content food as I know the benefits all round; coat, poos, nutrition etc. She just ignores whatever I put down though, even if it's mixed with the Hills. The only progress that I've made is that they will now eat Hills with a little bit of Purely mixed in with it, but only a little.Still, it's better than nothing.

I agree that kits should get the best nutrition possible now which is why they've had wet up until this point and I haven't complained, but they go to new homes in 2 weeks, and I feel a responsibility to the kitten to make that transition as easy as possible for them. It's bad enough that they lose their mum and siblings and everything familiar in the world to them, but to add food on top of that is just too much IMO if I can help avoid it. I will never feed them exclusively dry, but I do need them to realise that dry food is actually food and should at least be nibbled occasionally.

As for pictures, well, here they are at 11 weeks old. The little girl will be staying here with me.

Thanks for your help!

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Awww, gorgeous!!! Love the blue eyes.

I don't know what else to suggest and I'm surprised nobody else has weighed in. Queens do typically lose weight, from what I've read. Perhaps it's inactivity . I immediately thought about humans and how women quite commonly have a thyroid issue (usu) temporarily after giving birth. But with people it's usually hypothyroid, which cats don't typically get. Good luck with them.

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My babies
Aber, Ragnar, Kelso (the corgi trio), Daisy (our rescue mystery-mix puppy), Ellie, Henry, Gwennie, Jezebel (the kitty quartet), Blake, Chaucer, Molly and Milton (the kittens), and Bingo the African Grey parrot

Over the Bridge:
Pippin: 1/6/08-17/5/11
Freja: 11/8/10-30/10/10
Kirby: 11/8/10-1/11/10

"Praise liberty/The freedom to obey/It's a song that strangles me/Well, don't cross the line" Billie Joe Armstrong

I would personally keep them on the wet. Dry is shoddy for so many reasons and if the cats won't eat it, all the better as far as I am concerned, and the new owners will just have to deal with it

You certainly have no responsibility to make sure cats eat a poor quality food substitute before they go to their new homes. They are happier and healthier on what they have.

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GM, as mentioned before, they are not even eating a good quality wet food, so as for receiving poorer neutrition, they won't be when they move to dry. If they were all consistently eating Animonda etc, then I wouldn't be complaining half as much. For me, the cost is much less that way as well and it's affordable. However, £80+ for 2 cats every month just for food isn't sustainable on the income that I have. That's just shy of £1000 a year just for food! I have a responsibility to make sure my kittens are as happy and healthy as possible. That's why I made sure to keep them on a totally wet diet until this point, but now that rehoming time approaches, my responsibility is to make sure that transition is as painless as possible for them, and unfortunately, dry food is likely to be part of that change. I can't bury my head in the sand and pretend that owners will feed an all wet diet,and a high quality one at that. And that doesn't even begin to address the poo issue either! They're long-hairs. For me, I accept that cling ons are a part of life with a Persian, but when it's runny poo and they trail their bum on your carpet... It's not a good present to give the new owners if I can sort it out for them!

Dagny, Idid think thyroid myself, but it doesn't seme to be the case. As I say, she's been to the vets and they tested for all sorts. All came back clear. I've been careful not to allow her to become inactive either. As soon as I'd realised she was piling it on, I started to run her with a toy until she just couldn't run any more. I play with her lots, and so do the kittens, so she's moving around tons. That's why I'm so concerned about this. When I go back to work, the problem's only going to get worse as I'll have less time to play with her and she'll have more time to scarf kitten food without being interrupted. I'm surprised nobody else has weighed in either!

They'll keep their eye colour, by the way. It never changes in colourpoints.

It's your choice what you feed your cats hun.

One thing i will say is that dry food isn't the best for Persians, they are very prone to kidney & urine problems (sadly i have personal experience) and dry food makes the problem a great deal worse!

Wet food doesn't cause sloppy poops, you just need to experiment with different ones until you find something that suits you.

If you really must, i would feed some wet as well as the dry.

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Ali.

A life without animals isn't worth living.



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I didn't 'wade in' (too wet! lol) cos a) I didn't know the answer and b) I actually thought your reasoning was good. Though I admit I am often one of the first (ish) to come in a rubbish dry. But . . you also need to do what is right for you.

Slightly confused - are you saying Aminonda cost you £80 a month for 2 cats? I'm sure I worked out that a mixture of raw, smilla, aminonda and bozita, and a sprinkling of dry acana would cost me £40-60 a month for 3 cats.

At the moment I have a HUGE sack of acana barely being touched as it gives my new girl the runs - I have to sneak it to m other cats when she is aslepp - I think it may last me a very long while now!

I found with my kittens when I was getting them used to all sorts that just leaving a few bit of dry in there bowls worked - they ended up playing with it and then eating it. You can only do the best you can. You can't force them to eat it if they don't want.

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Hi there, Alison

Oh, no worries on that score. I'll always feed a mixture of wet and dry. As I mentioned in my initial post, bven before the kittens came along, mum was getting about half of her daily intake made up of wet food, and she could have more if she asked for it, but she rarely did. I'd never feed exclusively dry as I'm in the group of people who knows it causes problems. I'm with you on the runny bums too. When they were eating Animonda, their poos were great! But now they've reverted to Hills, the problem is an absolute nightmare. Put Animonda down and it's picked at and kits lose weight. Put dry down and it's totally ignored. Mix the two and again it's picked at. I'm worried sick about my little girl anyway as she's only just over a kg at 11 and a half weeks old, so I can't let her get any further behind. If they'd eat Animonda or something comparable, I think I'd complain less, but it's the runny bums and the food transition that worry me the most.

Spid, I worked out the cost based on Hills pouches. Animonda would be a whole lot cheaper for me! As I say though, they refuse to eat the stuff. I feel like I'm banging my head against a wall at the moment trying to get them to eat dry and best, or at worst, a very good wet food. There's just no winning sometimes!