Hi all i'm new on here, after spending a few days reading through the posts i've decided to register.

I would appreciate any advice anyone could give on switching my 11 month old cat from kitten food to adult food.

She is not a specific breed, i guess she is what you would call a 'moggy.' I had her at 3 months old from a friend who couldnt look after her anymore.

Since then i have been feeding her on Whiskas Kitten food and a seperate bowl of dry food.

I switched her dry food from kitten to adult go-cat a few months ago with no problems at all.

After reading up about it I have now however decided to switch her from Whiskas Kitten to adult Natures menu. I bought a 12x box of Natures menu last week and have been mixing a little of it with her kitten food to try and 'fool' her into eating it. She will not touch it, and it's driving me insane.

Is it because of the texture of the Natures Menu As it's more of a patte type food as opposed to the 'cubes' shes used to i think this might be the main reason she just refuses to even try it.

As much as i dont want to i'm seriously considering just going back to an adult version of the 'cube' whiskas type food shes used to as i'm pretty sure she would devour that with no problems.

I'm well aware cats are notoriously 'finicky' eaters, she gets absolutely no table scraps or anything like that, i'm starting to feel like i'm starving the cat as she will not give in

Should i buy a food with the kind of texture that she is already used to

Thanks in advance for any tips

she probably is not used to the taste of real meat! LOL

My kittens arn't too keen on the Natures menu so I feed them James Wellbeloved kitten biscuits which are a complete diet and I also give them a tin of Applaws in the morning and evening (chicken variety mainly)

Applaws is not a complete food though, so more of a treat rather than just eating dry food all the time.

You can get it from Pet Supplies, Pet Food, and Pet Products on Sale Now at zooplus.co.uk

My kittens LOVE it! and they are extremely fussy buggars!

To be honnest with you hun, I would not give in. Cats are notouriously fussy eaters and I think most of the time they are just seeing how far they can push you.

I know you have already tried mixing the foods together, but if you try putting some of the kitten food on top of the mixture aswell. This will make her think it is just her kitten food and she will hopefully eat the mixed food underneath by accident... (its all about being cunning... he he).

An alternative to this, is to try mixing it with the dry food she eats instead, once again after you have mixed the food together, add a bit more dry on top so hopefully you kitten wont realise what is underneath.

Try not to give in, when I have changed foods in the past, if I find my cats to be fussy, I let them go hungry. This always works, they will never miss more than one meal.

Hopefully when you get her to eat it she will love it! Good LucK!

i'm thinking now it would be better to change her to an exclusive dry diet of a quality food rather than giving her whiskas wet and go-cat dry which i think are both relatively low quality foods.

I've tried her on science plan dried before though and she turned her nose up at that too

Is feeding an exclusively dry diet an ok thing to do Seeing as i feed her no 'human' food at all

thank you for that, some great tips there. I have been mixing a relatively small bit of Natures Menu with the kitten food shes used to on top, its as if she smells it from a mile away. If i put the kitten food in the bowl first shes jumping to get at it, but if i do it the other way around shes nowhere to be seen........ i also think now she's got wise to my game of mixing the two and is just flat refusing to touch it.

As far as dry only diet is concerned, there are plenty of people that feed that way, but I personally would not.

The main reason why I don't advice it, is because it can be hard to make sure your cat gets enough fluid when on a dry only diet, where as wet food is about 80% moisture so it it not a problem.

A lack of fluids can lead to urinary tract and kidney infections, and when you start going down that slope it is hard to get back up.

Also, one of the common reasons for feeding dry only is because it apparently helps keep their teeth clean. Although some vets are still saying this, I have read many reports that this is not the case at all and in fact certain brands of wet food are much better for teeth.

I'm sure others will have some further advice, and hopefully an 'all dry' feeder will be able to give a few reasons to feed all dry so you can make an informed decision.

It might be worth trying a different brand of wet food. My boy adores Applaws but isn't too keen on the Natures Menu... expensive tastes!

I'd personally change the dry to something better quality, but then that's just me.

Orijen Cat/Kitten Food is biologically appropriate diet for all breeds and ages. High protein-content, plenty of fresh meat and no cereals.

Tesco Luxury might be more to their liking, it's 50% chicken which is better than most foods.

Have you considered raw meat instead of a wet food?

Thanks for all the advice

After spending practically my whole evening giving it all a serious think i have decided to change her to a exclusive dry diet of james beloved from tomorrow. At the moment i feed her both wet and dry and she always finishes the dry and just picks at the wet. The automatic feeders you can get in pets at home sort of swayed me as getting these means she will have more water than she will need all the time and it coming from a feeder will hopefullly stop her licking my taps

I have 4 cats and they are all different in what they eat. Roony will only eat biscuits will not touch wet food at all. Not even if you give him freshly cooked fish or chicken he just looks at you and walks off and will only eat chicken flavoured biscuits. Snowy his brother mainly eats biscuits but will every now and then will lick the gravy off of wet food. Patsy my old cat has a mixture of both she has biscuits down all the time and will have a pouch of meat at night at min but in winter normally in a morning as well.Sophie who is 16 weeks prefers her wet food she has whiskas kitten and applaws kitten and nibbles on biscuits every now and then. I feed mine rc biscuits have bought applaws meat for both cats sophie loves it but patsy seems to prefer asdas own make or whiskas. I admit mine are very spoilt and pampered roony has bath tap on all time as he prefers to drink water from there. If we are away though he drinks out of bowl hubby says its because i spoil them . I tend to just go with what my cat wants and all my cats have had a mainly dry diet and have all lived to good ages chloe was 18 yrs old when i had her put to sleep and she only ate go cat or asdas own cat biscuits as that was what she liked and she never had any health issues until the last couple of months of her life.