Why won't my 2-month-old kitten eat dry food? How to entice him?

Some cats prefer one type of food over another. I would just leave dry food out for him to nibble on and then feed him small amounts of canned food twice a day. He has plenty of teeth that he should be able to chew small kibble. He will begin to eat more dry as he continues to get older and gets hungrier. I hope this helps!

The answer is up to you and your cat. Some cats prefer dry only, some wet only, some enjoy both. Kitten food is still needed at six months of age and will be until he is a year old. Cats are carnivores, and canned, pate-type wet food is the closest to what they would get in the wild. Dry food has to have some carbohydrates in the form of grains or vegetable pulp in order to be made into dry nuggets. Cats have a very low carbohydrate requirement and some gain excess weight on dry food. Feed the best food you can afford. My personal favorites are Science Diet and Royal Canin. Both offer excellent quality, specifically formulated diets that are nutritionally complete for your pet's life stage and condition and both offer money-back guarantees if your pet doesn't like them. Just make sure when switching to a new food to introduce it gradually. Transition your pet onto a new food by offering the old food in one bowl and a mix of 1/4 new food and 3/4 old food in another bowl next to it. Do this for a week, then offer 1/2-1/2 new/old food in the second bowl for a week. Change to 3/4 new-1/4 old for a week and gradually stop putting old food in the first bowl. By the end of the month she should be transitioned to the new food with a minimum of digestive upset.

Sounds like Diva might be living up to her name ;-) She might simply be a picky eater, some cats are picky eaters. I hope that she is at least eating wet food, and getting nutrition from there. If she isn't eating at all, then there may be something medically wrong, and she should see a vet. I can give you a few tips to maybe help with this problem. First, make sure the food is kitten specific. Kittens need more of certain nutrients to help them grow, and an adult food won't provide that. I would try mixing the wet food and the dry food. Make a 50:50 mixture, and as she eats that, slowly decrease the amount of wet food, and increase the amount of dry food. I would do this over the course of at least 2 weeks to get her more used to the dry food, and eventually, you should have her on dry food only. If that doesn't work, you can try wetting the dry food with a can of chicken broth, but make sure the chicken broth is unsalted. See if these tips work for getting Diva on a dry food, as dry food does help keep their teeth clean.

Hi, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Some cats are carbohydrate junkies and just prefer dry over canned food. It is fine for them to eat just dry. But if you want to convert them to canned food then you have to do so gradually. There are benefits to canned food, like more moisture content. If you leave dry food down all the time it is best to do scheduled feedings. So start feeding the dry food to 3-4 meals per day and only leave it down for 20 mins. Make sure you make it known to your cats it is mealtime so they know to eat. Once they have all accepted the new mealtime and eat well then start offering canned food instead of dry. Some may gobble it up right away, others may turn their nose up. Try warming it up. Don't leave it out for more than 20 mins because the flavor changes as it drys out and never serve it cold from the fridge. You can sprinkle a little dry on top of the wet or mix it in, if that works then gradually decrease the amount of dry you use over time. Just be aware cats can not go more than 24 hours with out eating or they can develop serious health issues with their liver. I hope this helps!

At two months of age, Zuri is old enough to eat dry food on her own and there is no need to give her dry food with water or milk in it. You can give her wet food as part of her diet or as an occasional treat. I hope this helps :-)

One of the things we have found is that wet food is actually healthier for cats than dry food. I feed my cats wet food only. It is better for their kidneys long term and seems to help prevent obesity since dry food has to have carbohydrates in it that cats can't utilize well. I have included a link below with a lot more information for you. http://catinfo.org I hope that was helpful. Thanks for using PetCoach.

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!