thanks good advice. in the end i tricked him. he loves pounce, so i bought some soft tender vittles kind of food and fed him that from the Pounce can. shaking it like i do for "treat time". he ate a whole serving of real food that way. tonight i mixed it with the canned food and he ate some of that too...
he goes back to the vet for his check up tomorrow.
my fingers are crossed (which makes typing difficult!)