It seems you need to be pretty patient when transitioning. My cat drove me crazy, but now he's on HK exclusively.

Try mixing it with other food at first. Mine wouldn't even look at it when it was on its own.

If you mix it with dry, remember that you have to toss it after about 30 minutes. Get your cat hungry before feeding. I'd only feed mine twice a day, so he didn't have the luxury of turning up his nose at the HK+dry mix. At first he'd only dig out the dry, but after a few days I started mixing it up really well instead of just putting the dry on top. Then after a few days of that I cut back on the dry. It still took about a week before he'd try the HK by itself. And he did lose some weight. It's hard when you feel you're starving them, but it's for their own good and unless they are really not eating anything at all, rather than just digging out the old food from the mix, then the cat's just being stubborn. You can outlast them, you just need to be really patient. The worst thing to do is to panic and/or get frustrated and plunk down a bowl of the old food. Then they know they've got you.

It is dangerous to starve a cat, so this above only goes for situations where the cat will eat at least something.

I'm trying to transition my kitty right now.

He will eat it as long as there are at least 10 pieces of kibble mixed in. If there is no kibble he won't eat it, except maybe to lick up the juice around the edges of the bowl.

Unfortunately mixing in kibble means that I can't save the leftovers, so I end up tossing a lot that he doesn't finish.

How much (dry) HK do you think he should be eating a day? I know it becomes slightly more when hydrated, but I'm guessing he only eats about two teaspoons of it a day, plus about 1/4 cup kibble.

I'm worried that he isn't eating enough.


EDIT: Nevermind. We've had a breakthrough. Today he ate two bowls of HK without any kibble at all. I guess he was just holding out thinking I would give up and give him kibble again.

They're being super pro-active with this latest round of recalls as well. If they carried the two brands we use now, we'd shop there exclusively.

The one I shop at only just now started stocking The Honest Kitchen, so I've also only just started shopping there exclusively.

Have you asked them why they don't carry the brands you want? If one's a Bay Area company, like you say, then they better have a good reason for not supporting it. Oh well, in a perfect world, right?

Anyway, all I'm saying is that relatively small chains like PFE are taking a big hit in all of this, and here they're being more proactive than the big chains like Petsmart that can better afford the losses, so I for one think it's a good thing to buy anything from PFE hat you'd normally buy from Petsmart or the like. The first few times I bought kitty litter I did cringe a little at the extra $2-$4 that I was spending, but now I wouldn't go to Petsmart. Just looking at that awful sign they have hanging there makes me SICK!

Has anyone heard anything about the DRY cat food, which is (supposedly... at this point I trust nothing any of these companies claim) manufactured by Diamond?

Last I heard, Costco was testing their food, but I don't know if that includes the dry food.

Diamond emailed me saying they did not use rice protein in any of their dry formulas including Kirkland, but somehow that does not make me feel better, since any of the other ingredients might be from China and who knows at this point what else might be contaminated.

Does anyone know anything more about it?

I would like to second this. Everyone at my local PFE has been very helpful. They know the food they carry, and admit when they don't know something.

Those with access to PFE should shop there, and avoid stores like PetSmart, which have a giant notice pinned to their shelves claiming all food is safe!

Support stores that show they are doing their best to keep your pets safe!