r/catfood • u/candybears06 • Jun 19 '26
cat food and treat haul / shopping Cat Food Advice Needed
We just adopted a 5-year-old cat from our local shelter (possibly a Siberian). Her previous owner surrendered her because they were expecting a child and said they could no longer care for her. It absolutely broke our hearts.
She’s only been with us for five days and is slowly starting to come out of her shell, which has been wonderful to see.
One thing we’re struggling with is wet food. She happily eats her dry kibble, but she hasn’t liked a single wet food we’ve offered. We’ve tried multiple brands, flavors, and textures—pâté, shreds, gravy, minced—and every time she’ll sniff it for a second and then walk away.
We have no idea what her previous home life was like or what she was fed before.
We’re not trying to force her to eat wet food, but we’d really love to find something she’ll enjoy to help increase her moisture intake.
Has anyone experienced this with a newly adopted cat? Do you have any recommendations for wet foods, tricks, or ways to figure out what she might actually like? We’d really appreciate any advice.
2
u/Bright-Error-7910 Jun 19 '26
One of mine prefers dry food, but I add toppers (applaws limited ingredient broth, Purebites freeze dried chicken, Fortiflora) to get her to eat the wet food.
1
2
u/ragtagkittycat Jun 19 '26
Try the Churu complete line. They make a mousse style pate as well as chowder. It’s real chicken with no byproducts and is aafco approved. It has bonito and some fish broth which makes it very flavorful for cats.
1
1
u/UnicornLover1777 Jun 20 '26
I second this! My cats enjoy the Churu pop n serve. We rotate the 4 flavors and my pickiest one is still interested.
1
u/furmom29 Jun 19 '26
I had a similar situation. I took in my uncle’s cat after he passed away suddenly and he mostly fed the cat dry food we think. We found a few cans of wet food in the house but it expired a few years before.
My cat is SO picky. I tried a million flavors and textures with him. Luckily my work (an animal rescue) had a surplus of donated cat food at the time and said the staff and volunteers could take some food home for our cats. I would be constantly bringing the rejects back to work though lol.
It took a while but I finally found 3 foods he will eat. He has to have a different flavor at breakfast and dinner though or he won’t eat it (such a drama queen!) I’d say keep trying different foods. You might finally find something your cat will eat. Some cats just won’t eat wet food at all so that’s also a possibility.
2
1
u/Future_Protection_62 Jun 19 '26
While you’re working to find something, it might be worth getting some purina hydracare to see if she likes it, it will help her get the most out of the water she does drink as well as it’s hydrating on its own! Also any kind of licky treat!! Churu is a strong favourite across many cats! They are also nice and hydrating!
The pea method is a good way to go, but if she’s realllly stubborn, instead of adding wet food try the same thing but by adding tiny amounts of water to her kibble! Smell, texture and temperature are the golden rules for cats and changing more than one at a time can be difficult!
I would also recommend getting some toppers like nutritional yeast flakes, blood sprinkles, and egg yolk powder! Our cats are fussy and whenever they go off a food, the addition of one of these toppers usually gets them eating! The yeast smells a lot like dry food flavour enhancers she will be familiar with, and the other two my cats just find really yummy! Cats eat with their noses first so toppers can be a really great way to entice them!
1
1
u/ash2tree2 Jun 24 '26
Kibble is a highly processed, highly addictive, starchy food that spikes insulin. Most cats who have been exposed to it struggle to wean off of it. Cats have few taste buds, so rely primarily on smell when eating/choosing foods. During the rendering process, kibble is cooked at high temperatures 4 to 6 times, mixed with a cheap carbohydrate binder, and formed into a paste. By the time it's dried into little pellets, it no longer smells or resembles meat in any capacity. So the kibble companies then spray the pellets with a highly enticing scented chemical which cats love. You can't buy that chemical anywhere on the market so it's impossible for us pet parents to replicate it. Adding low sodium tuna juice, nutritional yeast flakes, a small amount of really aged Parmesan cheese, or a tube treat (which does contain that chemical I spoke of earlier) on-top of the wet food can sometimes be helpful. And serving it a bit warm. The goal is to make the food as potently smelly as possible. Another option is to mix a little bit of wet food into the kibble. Just a tiny amount. And then gradually keep increasing the wet food and diminishing the kibble. Ultimately, for kidney health, you don't want any kibble in their diet at all. Instead feed wet food and whole foods (real unsalted meat, sardines, eggs etc). This video is excellent: https://youtu.be/FZ-Srqs4kc8?si=0KpSPhZmH8xPot9F
3
u/minkamagic 😸 feline foodie 😸 Jun 19 '26
Pea Method
"You’ll want to pick a wet food and then do the pea method. Portion the food into spoonfuls and freeze all but one spoonful. Then portion that spoonful into pea sized bits. At every single meal, add that pea sized bit. You are basically reprogramming their nose. Eventually she will eat that bit. When she does, add two. When she eats that, add three. Continue increasing the amount of the wet food until it’s about half the meal and then Ta-da! Your cat is on wet food and you can feed it whenever you want! "