What to do with cats who don't eat wet food?

Usually it's the other way around, they only want the wet food! My understanding was that it's better for their teeth for them to have dry food, but I'm no vet. I do have a healthy 12-year-old kitty who's had nothing but kibble her whole life, and before that had a 16-year-old who also ate nothing but kibble. You're a good dad.

Your cats eat dry food? Count your blessings. It's much less gross to deal with (for you), and my cat's vets told me it's just as healthy.

My 13yr old cat has eaten dry food his entire life. He's never liked wet food, even as a kitten. He won't even eat soft treats. He's not picky about brand - as long as the food's crunchy, he's happy - but I only feed him brands like Science Diet, Innova, etc. He's never been sick (he's indoor only) and when I took him in for his yearly check-up, the vet said his bloodwork looked great.

I'm highly opposed to buying a bunch of brands of cat food until I find one they like Why? Isn't that better than repeatedly throwing away a brand that I presume is relatively expensive? It's a moot point if you're happy with just giving them dry food, which seems to be fine, but I don't understand the opposition.

I have one cat that likes wet food, whereas the other one won't touch it. I give it to the one as a special treat about once/month. Otherwise they've been on dry food all their lives.

I'm highly opposed to buying a bunch of brands of cat food until I find one they like.. ... I don't understand the opposition. The opposition is mostly crotchetiness... For every brand of food I buy, I have to do research, look for recommendations/warnings, make the sure the producer is one I want to do business with. There's no guarantee I'll find a brand all three cats enjoy, and no guarantee that they'll continue enjoying it. I would happily do this if my cats needed me to for their health, but otherwise I would feel like a chump.

My cats refuse to eat wet food, and I have tried every different brand from ultra expensive to cheap stuff. A dry food only diet can sometimes increase chances of crystals in the urine -- one of my cats has that problem right now -- but if they won't eat wet food it's not like you can force them. I think as long as you feed a really high quality food you're doing okay. Take them to the vet and watch out for litterbox weirdness.

The main issue is that the food you give them be nutritionally balanced and a complete diet. There are specific micronutrients that a cat must have to stay healthy (like how humans don't make vitamin C so have to consume it) as well as an optimal balance of overall nutrients that works for them. The packaging of each type of food should say if it's a complete diet or not, and if it's good quality then I expect both types you're giving are. So as long as the cats drink enough and whatever you give them to eat is balanced and complete then they're fine. If you do need them to eat some of the wet food then stop leaving the kibble out all day. Just mix to two together and only feed them twice per day, they'll soon get used to it and eat everything. As long as they eat enough at meal times continual grazing isn't really necessary. If they don't eat enough that way you could always leave out kibble over night but not during the day or something, so then they're hungry for one of the meals but getting extra food before the other. I did this when my kitten was still growing and it worked really well. You should be able to see from their condition if they're eating enough or too much (a nice fat layer over the ribs but no big saggy bulging tummy) and can adjust accordingly. And just as a data pint, we give our picky skinny kitten (~13 months old) and greedy fat cat (13.5 years old) dry food twice per day and wet food maybe once per week as a treat. This stops the picky kitten getting bored with everything and keeps the fat cat happy with her diet kibble. They don't share a bowl as their food is different and this allows me to monitor and adjust how much each one gets.

Also, the NZ government put out a http://www.biosecurity.govt.nz/animal-welfare/codes/companion-cats last year. It's quite good I think, shows both minimum standard and 'best practice' of what you should be doing to look after your cats, and was widely researched and discussed first. Most people will exceed the minimum easily but I think it gives a good benchmark for what is necessary, and found it put my mind at ease when it came to worrying about things like food and how fat they should be etc (there are pictures at the end of what size a healthy cat should be). It's quite a good primer for a new(ish) cat owner, and as such might be useful to you.