Canned food is too expensive for my two hungry cats. What can I feed them?

I hate to hear this is happening to Isabella. This situation can be both frustrating and scary. Cats can become finicky eaters for several reasons: https://www.petcoach.co/article/my-pet-is-a-finicky-eater/ Unfortunately, it's impossible to know if Isabella is sick and if this is the cause of the finicky eating without a veterinary exam. If she is sick, she may be selective about her foods. Think about when you don't feel well. Most people are more willing to eat a warm bowl of soup than a piece of plain dried toast. Pets can be the same way. If she is sick, there is not likely anything you can do to encourage her to eat other foods without addressing the underlying illness. Just like humans, pets can not feel well for many reasons and this could range from intestinal parasites to cancer. In my opinion, your best option is to have her examined by the veterinarian. I agree that the chicken and chicken franks is not nutritionally balanced but if she will not eat any cat food, you don't have any options other trying a homemade diet, canned cat food, freeze dried cat food or raw cat food. You can't force her eat dry cat food and if you can't try different foods, you really don't have any options unfortunately. I will caution you that feeding a home made diet and raw diet is not generally recommended. The vast majority of homemade diets are found to be unbalanced. Balanced homemade diets can be formulated but you will need the help of a veterinarian.Raw diets can contain harmful bacteria to both people and pets. These require special handling. You would want any raw or freeze dried diets to be formulated to meet AAFCO standards and it will say this on the bag. Cats especially need certain amino acids to maintain heart health. Here is some information regarding homemade diets: https://www.petcoach.co/article/homemade-diets/ https://www.petcoach.co/article/homemade-cat-food-recipes-lack-essential-nutrients-finds-new-stud/ https://www.petcoach.co/article/raw-and-homemade-diets-what-you-need-to-know/ If you want to feed a homemade diet, I recommend to connect with your local veterinary community for information regarding local resources. You are certainly welcome to try different types of kibble to see if you can find anything she will eat that is commercially available. Some cats like the food to be switched every few days. You may end up with a lot of cat food however than she will not eat but you don't know until you try. I hope this helps to provide some guidance. Please feel free to post any additional questions.

Unfortunately the best option would be to either separate the cats so that the food can be somewhere where one cat can get to it but the other can't, or to utilize a timed feeder so that small amounts of food can be given out at a time, allowing both cats to eat without overindulging. Once your new cat is a little more calm and comfortable, he may gradually start to limit his intake as well.

Hi and thanks for your post! You can try either adding a few tablespoons of plain canned pumpkin (not the pie filling) to help fill her up or you can try switching to a different diet- Royal Canin Satiety Food which can help satisfy hunger. This is a prescription diet from Katy's veterinarian. I would ask her veterinarian if they feel this diet would be right for Katy. I hope this helps and thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach!

Often providing a wide variety of foods and flavors actually promotes picky eating. If they are otherwise well I recommend you pick a one flavor formulation of high quality brand sch as hills science plan or royal canin and put down one sachet at a time, adding more if this is eaten. Cats are grazing feeders and are likely to prefer little and often, as long a s a complete balanced dry food and fresh water is available at all times they should self regulate their own food intake. Be sure to have more feed and particularly water stations than you have cats to ensure there is no territorial bullying preventing any of them from eating when they would like to

I personally recommend feeding Mila Iams. It's an excellent quality food but it's not as expensive as brands such as Royal Canin and Hill's Science diet. You can also see if Purina ProPlan is affordable for you, that's another excellent food. Each food has a different daily requirement, so I would read the label on the food package and feed her according to that. I hope this helps :-)

This can be a challenging situation, especially if you have one cat that's more of an "eater" than the others. I would try to offer canned food for one meal, and dry for another. For the canned meal, you can put it out into separate bowls, ensure that everyone has their own bowl, and monitor the situation until they finish. Most cats will go ahead and finish a portion of canned food, unlike dry, which they will often "snack" on. You can also reinforce the "ownership" of each cat's bowl by calling them, and then feeding that cat only in that bowl (and consequentially, in that space) at all times. That way, you're teaching them that they will get fed at "their" bowl at all times. Interlopers onto other bowls should be discouraged and redirected back to their own bowl. Finally, if you're up for spending some money, there is an [automatic feeder](https://www.surepetcare.com/en-us/pet-feeder/microchip-pet-feeder) that opens only for a signal from your pet's microchip. This can become really important if one pet is on a special diet for health reasons - it only opens when the cat that has the specific microchip approaches. This is the best way to ensure that the right cat gets the right food.

The single pouches are meant to be single serve per cat, and it gives the cat fresh wet food each time as opposed to the larger canned food that must be stored in the fridge if all of it isn't used at once. By a cost comparison, the pouches will be more expensive, so it's fine for you to give Wilkie and Orieo the half a can of the wet food instead. Brands I recommend including Royal Canin, Hill's Science diet, Purina ProPlan, and Iams. I hope this helps :-)