How to make a cat accept canned food if it only eats dry food?

Canned food is a great way to increase water consumption in cats. An increased water intake is specially beneficial for cats suffering from kidney failure, other urinary problems and diabetes.

Also, soft food generally contains less carbohydrates than dry food of the same brand, this being particularly true for high protein dry food. Thus, they are less fattening.

Furthermore, since canned food contains approximately 80% water, which occupies a lot of space in the stomach, it provides less calories compared with the same volume of dry food, giving cats the impression of having eaten a bigger portion of food when in reality they feel full with less food.

Canned food thus constitutes an excellent choice for diabetic cats (another good reason!) and for cats that have to maintain their current weight or that have to lose weight.

The best time to introduce canned food (or any new kind of food) is when cats are healthy. To do it while they are sick might be more difficult for them to accept it and it can also create an aversion by association, that is that cats might associate the new food with their poor condition and then refuse to eat it.

The vacation period and long working hours are reasons frequently invoked by owners to justify their feeding their cats unlimited quantities of dry food that is available permanently.

However, even on vacation, somebody has to come at least once a day to check up on the cat. At that time, the person can offer one portion of fresh canned food (in a separate dish) and leave a frozen one out of the freezer for later.

As a general rule, an adult cat that has never eaten anything but dry food will not easily accept canned food.

One reason for that is that an extremely tasteful substance is vaporized on top of the kibbles, creating a kind of « addiction » to this type of food.

In addition, some cats' resistance to canned food might be because the pleasure of chewing the food is lost and for others, the different texture might repel them at first.

The transition process often requires more effort than to just gradually mix the kibbles with the canned food. Even if some cats accept the new food in just a few days, a lot of them will require many weeks to do so. One must remember that the ultimate goal is to make the cat eat 100% canned food, no matter how long it takes.

The key to success is that one needs to be patient with cats. Too often, owners will offer canned food for the first time and because their cat doesn't eat it right away, they give up and fill up the bowl with dry food. That is not a good solution because then the cat quickly learns that all he has to do to get the « good » food is just to snub the new food.

Furthermore, when a new food is first introduced, it needs to be put in a separate dish and not mixed with the usual food so as not to cause an aversion to the usual food as well.

Also, just a little bit of the new food needs to be offered at a time so that just a limited quantity will be wasted if the cat doesn't want to eat it. Indeed, since canned food becomes stale rapidly, any unused portion must be thrown out after a maximum of 3 hours, before if it looks not fresh.

Another problem that is frequently reported by people when introducing a new food is that some cats will develop loose stools during the transition. Generally, the diarrhea is not caused by the fact that the food is humid but rather because the composition of the food is different. If that happens, one must start over with the transition but do it more slowly and possibly even consider trying a variety of canned food.

When cats are finicky, one must be patient and show a lot of creativity for the change to take place. One must be motivated and convinced that canned food is the best thing for their cat.

As mentioned before, an increased water intake is crucial for many conditions.

For cats suffering from kidney failure whose kidneys do not retain water anymore, the additional water intake will help them maintain their hydration status.

For cats suffering from urinary cristals, the additional water intake will dilute their urine making it more easy to evacuate the cristals.

For diabetic cats, the water intake will compensate the increased urine production, and the increased thirst, caused by an excess of glucose in the urine.

As mentioned before, cats that have only eaten dry food all their lifes might need many weeks to accept the transition to canned food. Thus, one has to be prepared to be more stubborn than them.

The normal hunger sensation can work in our favor. Therefore, it is essential to offer a limited number of meals and at fixed times. Cats will not try anything different if they have a bowl full of dry food available all the time. Two meals given twelve hours apart will motivate them to try the canned food.

On the other hand, one must not go to the other extreme and leave only canned food at the beginning because some cats will still refuse to eat even after a twenty-four hours fasting period, which could be dangerous to their health, specially if they are fat.

In a house where many cats live together and have to eat the new food, one must keep a watchful eye out and make sure that all cats like and eat the food. They can also be weighed once a day to be certain that they eat enough. Most cats will lose a little bit of weight during the transition but they shouldn't lose more than 1% of their weight each week.

Finally, one must accept the fact that the process probably won't be easy and that canned food will be wasted at the beginning.

Once the cat is used to eating fixed meals 12 hours apart, one can try to offer it one meal of canned food instead of its kibbles and wait 12 hours to see what it will do.

Make the cat play before a meal can help stimulate its appetite.

At mealtime, one can throw kibbles at the other end of the room to mimic predation and stimulate its appetite.

Dry food can be hidden far away so that the cat can't smell it and then wait.

Sprinkle a little bit of tuna or put a treat on top of the canned food. If the cat starts to eat it, press on it to incorporate it into the food. Many cats also love grated parmesan cheese! Some Fortiflora® (a powdered probiotic available at the veterinarian's) can also be used because most cats love the taste of it.

Once the canned food is out of the refrigerator, il can be warmed as to release the smell and served at room temperature.

Dip the kibbles in the juice of the canned food and serve them in a separate dish apart from the rest of the dry food. If the cat eats it, the next step would be to put a little bit of the canned food on top of each piece. Even if the cat doesn't eat the canned food, it will still get used to its texture and odor.

Crush dry food and sprinkle it on the canned food.

If the cat doesn't find it too stressful, one can try to rub a little bit of the canned food on its gums to make it taste it. This technique is used with kittens when they are being weaned.

If many cats live together, one can try to take them, one at a time, into a quiet room and feed them canned food shaped into pellets by hand.

Try different kinds of canned food. Many cats love commercial canned food of lesser quality. When they are used to it, better quality foods can be tried and introduced gradually.

At the risk of repeating ourself, the important thing is to be patient with cats. One must not hesitate to try different tricks to encourage them. Just remember that if your veterinarian recommended canned food for your cat, it is because it's the best thing for it.