My 7-month cat only eats dog food. How do I get him to eat cat food?

Absolutely! Dry food only diets are perfectly fine for kittens, provided that you are offering a diet formulated for growth, like a kitten or all life stage diet. Oliver can be transitioned to an adult cat food when he is 1 year old. Any time you change the food, be sure to do so gradually by mixing the old and new foods together for 5-7 days.

Great question! You are correct that he shouldn't be eating a cat food. At eight months of age, Buster should be eating a puppy formulated food, as it will have higher amounts of protein, calories, and calcium that he needs for growth. You can switch him to an adult food when he's a year old. I recommend feeding him Royal Canin or Hill's Science diet. Both are high quality foods that are tasty to dogs. I would offer him only that, and put the cat food up out of his reach. Do not give him any treats or human food, which will help ensure that he eats the dog food only. Leave it out for 15-20 minutes, then pick it up until his next meal time. This will encourage him to eat it.

This is a tricky situation. Some cats just have very strong preferences. You can try mixing the wet and dry and slowly fading out the wet over the course of 1-2 weeks. You can also try adding some hot water to the dry food and letting it sit for 10 minutes before offering it to Oliver (I will warn you that not many cats are fooled by this, but worth a try). Another idea is to experiment with different dry foods - he may just not like the one you have. Finally, you may have to wait for him to grow out of this. He's still very young. If none of the ideas above work, use coupons and big box stores to get wet food and keep trying with the dry every 2 weeks. Good luck!

It is quite alright if little Oliver does not eat dry food. Canned food has a higher protein and moisture content as well as less carbs than dry food. Cats do not "need" carbohydrates but do need a high protein diet, especially growing kittens. Feed a good quality canned food that comes from the can looking like a hockey puck. Read the ingredients and confirm there is named protein source of animal, not plant, origin. Avoid by-products and meat meals. Stay away from store or discount brands too, these typically contain low quality ingredients and more fillers.

Thanks for using petocach! I'm sorry to hear your cat is having issues with food preferences. Unfortunately, he will need to eat kitten food in order to get the nutrients, vitamins and minerals he needs to grow. I would recommend trying a variety of wet kitten foods to see which he may like, and occasionally warming them in the microwave to help it smell more enticing. He should ideally be eating two meals of kitten food a day, which can be supplemented with small amounts of additional protein but kitten food should be the mainstay of his diet. Good luck!

Picky eaters can always be frustrating! By 7 weeks of age, Ryoko does not need to nurse from her mom, so any nursing may be delaying her need for kitten food. If possible, try to separate the mother cat from all kittens for several days. During that time, offer canned kitten food mixed with finely shredded chicken to try to tempt Ryoko to eat, then gradually decrease the amount of chicken mixed with the kitten food. If she does not care for canned food, you can try offering dry kitten food. She won't starve herself! I hope this helps and that all goes well!

How lovely of you to take on these kittens! Yes, you are correct they should be on kitten food and should stay on kitten food until they are one year of age. Purina kibble is a great food, just get the kitten version. To switch them to it, mix 75% old food and 25% new food, and feed them that for 3-4 days. After that time period, give them 50% old food and 50% new food mixed together. Again, feed that for 3-4 days. Then mix together 25% old food and 75% new food, and feed for 3-4 days. Finally, then give them 100% new food. This will help slowly transition them to the kitten food. If you see diarrhea at any point, add a little less new food and a little more old food to settle their stomach. Once the diarrhea is gone, continue the transition. I hope this helps!