My cat of 8-9 years old has really never been fed wet cat-food. I thought I would try it for a change of pace.

Question

But the problem now is that I can not get him off it. The reason for wanting to take him off of it is becuz he is throwing up hairballs all the time now and never did before.I know when he gets hungry enough, he will eat the hard food, but what do I do until then. He is constantly meowing for the canned food now. And he is playing a great game of starvation with me. I am about ready to give in, but that is not the answer. What is??

Answer 1

I did the same thing once with my cat. He just seemed to love the wet food so that's what I bought. After I decided to go back to the dry stuff I started mixing wet and dry food together. Everyday I would add a little more dry food and a little less wet food. I eventually got back to the dry stuff only. But recently I have been giving my cat 2 cans of wet food a week. Sort of like a treat.  

Answer 2

Larissa, stick to skin care

The canned food is much better for your cats health. For the hairballs get something called 'vet basis'  If your car gets diarreah, get some acidopholous and sprinkle over the food.

Please for your cat's health, give in!

Nutrition since there are so many bad things out there is very important to your cat’s health

Contrary to what you may have heard; dry foods are not a great thing to feed a cat.

Please read the label on what you are feeding? What are the ingredients? Do you know what they mean? Is the first ingrdiant a muscle meat like chicken or meal or other things?

http://www.catinfo.org/#Learn_How_To_Rea...

http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring04...

Dry foods are the number 1 cause of diabetes in cats as well as being a huge contributing factor to kidney disease, obesity, crystals, u.t.i’s and a host of other problems. Food allergies are very common when feeding dry foods. Rashes, scabs behind the tail and on the chin are all symptoms

The problems associated with Dry food is that they are loaded with grains and carbohydrates which many cats (carnivores) cannot process.  Also, Most of the moisture a cat needs is suppose to be in the food but in

Dry, 95% of it is zapped out of dry foods in the processing. Another thing, most use horrible ingredients and don't use a muscle meat as the primary ingredient and use vegetable based protein versus animal. Not good for an animal that has to eat meat to survive.

http://www.catinfo.org/#My_Cat_is_Doing_...

You want to pick a canned food w/o gravy (gravy=carbs) that uses a muscle meat as the first ingredient and doesn't have corn at least in the first 3 ingredients if at all.    The best food for cats does not contain any grains at all.

Fancy feast is a middle grade food with 9lives, friskies  whiskas lower grade canned and wellness and merrick upper grade human quality foods. I would rather feed a middle grade canned food then the top of the line dry food.

Also, dry food is not proven to be better for teeth. Does a hard pretzel clean your teeth or do pieces of it get stuck? http://www.felinefuture.com/nutrition/bp...

Please read about cat nutrition.

                               http://www.newdestiny.us/nutritionbasics...

                               http://www.catinfo.org/feline_obesity.ht...

      http://maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.ht...

Vetinarian diets  The reason your vet thinks so highly of the pet food they sell probably has more to do with money than nutrition. In vet school, the only classes offered on nutrition usually last a few weeks, and are taught by representatives from the pet food companies. Vet students may also receive free food for their own dogs and cats at home. They could get an Iams notebook, a Purina purse and some free pizza.  http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring04...

Answer 3

All right hold it! I'm seeing a lot of c**p in some of these answers.

Canned food PROS:

It is fresher, and seems to taste better.

CONS:

More expensive, and lacks the vitamins that dry food does.

Your cat will do just fine on both. I recommend dry food if your budget is not so great. If you can afford it, go ahead and get cat food. But here is how to wean him off.

NORMAL:

Gradually let him have more and more dry food introduced into his diet.

COLD TURKEY:

The cat will eventually eat, just make sure that he has a fresh bowl filled all the time.

Wait, theres more!: "Dry foods are the number 1 cause of diabetes in cats"  -Ken      Well, "Misinformation is the number 1 cause of stupidity in humans" - Me

"Also, Most of the moisture a cat needs is suppose to be in the food but in

Dry, 95% of it is zapped out of dry foods in the processing." Uhhh... Have you ever heard of WATER!

Also, for the hairballs, give him hairball controll (usually the green bag) or let him outside to eat some grass occasionally.

Oh, yeah. Unreleated, but I wanted to mention that the ESPCA recommends that a cat owner has one cat litter box for every cat, then another one. c+1=b c=cat b=box

Answer 4

Okay. I was reading one of the answers and I was like WHAT?!!  A top contributor said to feed more dry food than wet food?

I then I saw that she was top contributor of some other category and all was right in the world again.

So anyways, canned food is much better for your cat. But if you insist on the cheaper more convenient dry stuff, I suggest slowly adding more and more dry to the wet.  

Answer 5

Leave him on the wet. It's much better for him. The reason is, in the wild, cats normally get most of their water content directly from their prey items and drink very little. Domestic cats are no different, and because of the fact that they are designed to take in water with their meal, they have a very low thirst drive. Cats often just don't drink enough. This leads to urinary tract infections and crystals. The bit about dry food being better for teeth is a myth and has not been proven in the least. Canned/wet food is better because it more closely mimics the cat's natural diet. More on why canned food is best:

http://www.catinfo.org/  (Excellent cat nutrition information by a vet)

http://cats.about.com/cs/catfood/a/canne...

http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?ac...

Try a higher quality wet food.

Examples of low quality foods to avoid: Anything you can find in a grocery store will be low end, Purina, Iams, Eukanuba, Science Diet, Royal Canin, Whiskas, Fancy Feast, Friskies, Meow Mix.

Examples of high quality foods to look for: Innova, Wellness, Solid Gold, Felidae, Fromm, Merrick, GO Natural, Nature's Variety, Nature's Logic.

Answer 6

Cats were never meant to eat dry food, also known as cereals or kibble. We, humans, make them eat it for convenience to us. It has nothing to do with them or their nutritional needs. It's completely species inappropriate.

All small domestic cats descended from desert cats. In the wild, desert cats derive their entire liquid intake from their prey. They do not have a thirst mechanism because they don't need it when eating a species appropriate diet. They get all they need from what they eat. Additionally water was usually not available to them in their desert climate. So they do not often drink water. Regular ol' house cats have descended from those same wild desert cats.

So in a home environment, your kitty does not get the moisture it needs from dry food and it’s almost always in a constant state of dehydration. Water fountains are encouraged to TRY to get your cat to drink more and your kitty may even enjoy it, but it will never meet its water intake needs drinking from a bowl.

Deadly feline illnesses such as diabetes, kidney failure, obesity, allergies, Irritable Bowel Disease (IBD), bladder stones, kidney stones,  urinary tract blockages and Urinary Tract Infections (FLUTD), with and without deadly crystals run rampant these days. Cats are not taking in enough water to stave them off. Proper water intake through a species appropriate diet alone can prevent most of these conditions.

Overall,  wet is all around better for any cats diet, be it canned or Raw and they should never be fed dry cereal kibble if we wish to most closely match their wild nutritional and dietary needs. Kibble meets our needs… not our cats.

Answer 7

never feed JUST wet food, it sticks to their teeth and isnt as healthy anyways.

have it 2 parts dry food to 1 part wet food, thats what i do with my dogs.

this will still be giving him the canned food he wants but also having the good dry food.

if hes still getting sick after this just wean him off wet food.