Soft food to hard food

Hi again I have went to the Ark www.animalarkshelter.org in Hastings after checking out feline rescue www.felinerescue.org and st. paul shelter and i found a Big guy. He was sitting in the litter box with (princess) a cat at the shelter batting at his head. He looks a bit like pete glaciers kitty I hope to have pictures soon. He has only been in the house for 3 days now but i brought him to the vet for his free physical that the Ark offers for adopted pets. The vet picked butterscotch's teeth and big pieces of plaq came off :(

All he will eat right now is soft food, well he will pick at the hard food but not eat much at all, i have 3 different kinds of hard food out, and he eats the soft food when i put it in a bowl. The only other thing i have tried is putting a little hard food in with the soft but he seems to just eat around it.

Does anyone have any suggestions I know soft food only is really bad for their teeth and would appreciate any advice i could get to switch him to the hard food. The vet said it is really bad for cats to go without food for long periods of time because of keytones and liver damage from burning fat, So i am scared to just leave hard food untill he is so hungry he has to eat it.

Have you tried to soak the hard food in some water or cat-milk?
Or maybe you can buy the "senior" food, where the pieces are much smaller and easier to knibble :confused:

Sometimes they do go on hunger strikes when they move to a new home. I wouldn't worry for the time being, just put down the food he likes and mix in the food you hope he'll evenutually eat. Just cut the proportions evenly and slowly reduce the amount of the wet food he's eating and increase the amount of food you want him to eat.

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Originally Posted by catnapper

Sometimes they do go on hunger strikes when they move to a new home. I wouldn't worry for the time being, just put down the food he likes and mix in the food you hope he'll evenutually eat. Just cut the proportions evenly and slowly reduce the amount of the wet food he's eating and increase the amount of food you want him to eat.

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thats what i do when i bring a new cat home! just mix the soft and hard food and slowly reduce the amount of soft food till it is eventually gone! :)

When I got Caramel I soaked his soft food with kitty milk and then he ate it all up! Now he eats it without but I still give him that for a treat sometimes! He loves kitty milk!