Can't help you with the dry food recommendation except buy some small bags of other brands and see if they bite. (Must be really bad if the ants won't touch it
Our 20+ YO cat will no longer eat anything but the expensive small cans of wet food and is very picky about them. However, every night she gets her favorite food in the world, a TBL spoon of melted Blue Bell Homemade vanilla (screw the listeria, we weren't scared).. Been doing this for 5 or so years now.
