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My kitten only eats wet food. How do I get him to eat dry kibble?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Cat | Mixed Breed | Male | unneutered | 3 months and 17 days old | 9 lbs

Oliver doesn't like dry food. I'm feeding him wet food in the morning and I left the dry food out for all day. When I came back home from school, he doesn't even touch it. He's starving himself. I take him to the vet but he was very fine. I can't afford only wet food because it's too expensive. I don't want to mix wet and dry food because I want to make him satisfied that dry food alone is edible. I've tried to put some chicken broth, etc, but he sill doesn't want to eat. What should I do?!

2 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Maria DVM

Veterinarian

Published on February 17th, 2018

I would give him wet food for a little longer. He is only 3 months old and may not be able to chew the food enough with how small he is. I would still leave dry food available but if a month he will hopefully take to the dry food and you can start removing the wet food. Thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

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Other Answers

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    Answered By Amber Da Silva, DVM

    Veterinarian

    Published on December 29th, 2017

    I'm sorry that Oliver is reluctant to eat his dry food. If he likes the wet food, I would continue feeding him that so that he will start to gain some weight. I think it is just fine to feed a cat wet food exclusively. If at some point you do want to transition him to dry food, I would wait until his weight is stable and he is eating well, then slowly start mixing in dry kibble with his wet food. I would also make sure that he has been properly dewormed because in small kittens like him, they can fail to gain weight when they have a lot of parasites. I hope this helps and that Oliver feels better soon!

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