Have you given EVO canned a try? I have a cat who will devour EVO Turkey and Chicken but will turn her nose up at the Chicken Wellness canned. EVO has lots of different flavors too if you can find them. Only recently has my petstore started carrying the 95% line in the big cans. You could get a few of the smaller cans in different flavors to see how they like it. Just a warning...the Original (I think Turkey and chicken) is really pasty but the other flavors are a little firmer.

I alternate between the brands all the time for variety in their diets.

 

there are a whole bunch of other good brands.

I fed wellness for a while, my cats were finicky about eating it. They ate it well for a while and then started turning their noses up at it sporadically, and now they will hardly touch it at all if I try to give it to them. Its okay with me, though, as the smell of it makes me want to gag.

Other brands I'd recommend:
EVO or Innova (made by Natura)
Natural Balance
California Natural (made by Natura)
Felidae (my cats hate it, but it works well for others)
Wysong
Evangers
Eagle Pack (most cats prefer the pink can, from what I hear)
Fromm (expensive, but very good)
Merrick
Nature's Logic

Fancy Feast does not make my list. Good for getting a finicky or starving cat to eat, but not good enough for what you pay for.

 

Three of my girls eat Merrick. They lke Grammy's Pot Pie, Thanksgiving Dinner and their very, very favorite: Turducken.

Cinderella will still eat mostly Fancy Feast, but when she's hungry enough and all that's out on the plates is Merrick, she's been known to sneak some.

 

Kitties sure can be finicky! My oldest gets tired of a certain food after a while and won't touch it so I take it out of his rotation and replace it with a different brand. Right now he has Nature's Variety, Innova, Natural Balance, and Felidae in his stockpile. He will only eat Wellness in the small cans and then only a couple flavors. I rotate California Natural, Avoderm, Precise, and EVO in there as well when he gets tired of a certain brand. I've tried many other brands but these are the ones we use the most. The Nature's Variety cans are his current favorite, especially the homestyle stews. He goes nuts for them.

 

Oh for a can of Merrick. Toby loves that stuff but I cant get it over here.

He also likes felidae and natures variety and will eat Eagle pack (the pink can as it happens :lol with encouragement

 

I'm surprised to hear people complaining about the smell of Wellness canned. To me, most of the flavors smell like fried chicken! The only other canned brand I serve is Fancy Feast, which smells like it's mostly made of ground-up organs. Bleh, I'll take Wellness any day.

 

I also am surprised to hear complaints about the smell of Wellness. I don't really notice the smell at all. You want smell, try California Natural chicken and rice... the cats eat it, but I've decided to stop feeding it because *I* can't stand it.

I guess I'm lucky that my ladies seem to like Wellness just fine. I find that the Chicken, Chicken & Herring, and Turkey & Salmon go over best (yep, I feed food with fish... bad me, I guess, but they eat it.). Turkey is not a big winner. Chicken and Beef and Beef and Salmon seem to be so/so.

But they do seem to want to change preferences every so often just to keep me confused...

Mine will also eat the original EVO, but don't like the 95% meat flavors. Go figure.

 

The venison NB is the only canned food smell that gets to me. Kitties enjoy it though!

I can't feed Bradley the 95% meat. He is awake all day pacing for food like he hasn't eaten when I have tried it a couple of times. He does fine with the regular canned evo though.

 

Not sure what Wellness you're using, but they do also make a LOT of fish-type flavors that might make transition easier for your fish addict. If Texture is an issue, Wellness also makes Pouched food that is wheat-gluten free. I'd give some of the stinkier Wellness fish flavors a try and see if that helps...or mixing some of the familiar canned food and the new canned food together to sneak it in that way.

Personally, I am not yucked out by good canned food...in the case of Wellness, I can honestly say I have been served ickier stuff on a cracker at fancy parties (seriously...doesn't taste much worse, either). OTOH, the grocery store brand (9-Lives, Fancy Feast and the like) "shreds in gravy"-style food makes me queasy just looking at it.

A lot of cats have a love-hate relationship with Felidae...that's a food I'd suggest as a "buy a small can or two and see how it goes, but always have a Plan B ready," because some cats just plain loathe it, or will eat it for a week and then just stop.

I think maybe mixing old and new canned food might help, at least to start with...maybe go 75% familiar food and 25% Wellness, then after a week or so, bump it up to 50/50 and so on, until the cat figures out what you're up to. :wink:

 

I would suggest a gradual switch too - the "healthy" brands tend to be less appealing at first because they aren't full of tons of flavorings that the junky foods are.

It may just take time to realize its good food...

But in my experience the best way to get a cat to NOT eat food is to buy a bunch of it :roll:

you could pick up a few of the other flavors to see if you can find one they both like. Or try some of the other brands. I've always liked to go through a few different flavors and brands on a regular basis for variety - kitties seem to appreciate it too!

 

So far we've tried Chicken and Herring and Beef and Salmon. She just won't touch it. My husband even tried to sneak a bit of it under her Friskies today and she ate everything but the little pile that was Wellness. <sigh> I might add that once we bought the Turkey and Liver flavored Friskies and my cat ate all of the "turkey" flavored bits and left all of the "liver" flavor bits on her plate.

She's my special kitty, she won't eat any table scraps or anything, not even fish, just that tuna from the can. I'll give some other brands a try before giving up on her.

And I don't know why, but Friskies doesn't smell bad to me, but the Wellness stuff just stinks.

Also, I did notice this, since starting them on the Wellness dry food, they seem to be hungrier. Is this a normal transition thing, like jump-starting their metabolism?

 

It could be the texture. Wellness is a little mushy for some cats tastes. When I made the switch, one of my cats only half heartedly ate the wellness, but really tucked into Natures Variety Instict, which has a more solid "bite-able" consistancy. He likes being able to chew his food I think.

I really like the way Wellness smells also, its smells like whats supposed to be in it, which I think is a good thing.

 

do you free feed?...that might be the problem with her being overweight. talk to the vet about some other weight loss options. this wont work for all people...but i used to walk my cat outside on a leash like a dog and she loved it...it could be a good option for some exercise if she will take to a leash.

 

vets will usually prescribe carbohydrates to combat obesity. Which doesn't help at all. Neverletgo presented an option that helps cats loose weight. Exercise.

This can be done a number a ways. Leash walking, placing food on something high or in another room with a baby gate so they have to jump to their food each time, laser pointer (most cats can't resist and they are found cheap at dollar stores), hiding treats/kibble around the house so they have to search for them, placing treats/kibble in egg cartons so they have to use paws to reach the food, if you can afford it a tall cat tree, and cat nip seems to get some kitties moving. The list goes on.

As long as you get your cat moving and eating a low carbohydrate diet (wet food will work) the weight should come off.

Good luck