[JillianS]

I have been trying to find wet-food that my cats (2.5yrs and 7 months) will reliably eat.

I thought I'd scored when they started loving Blue Buffalo grain free chicken, salmon, turkey, and tuna varieties ( I am not against feeding high quality fish-my choice). They would eat until their bowls were clean. I got excited, and stocked up!

Then a few weeks later...nope, not touching that anymore!

So, back to the drawing board and they discovered a love of Blue's signatures (not grain free, but still Blue, so I felt ok with it)..again, three diff varieties..licked the bowls clean, begged for more..i get excited, stock up, and then a few weeks later....nope!

Recently did the same with Wellness. LOVED the chicken/herring, LOVED chicken, LOVED beef/chicken etc etc. I stocked up, went well for a bit then...nope!

AAAAAAAAAACK!

I'm a student, I cannot afford to keep doing this. Nor can I afford to keep throwing out all the food that goes uneaten! I've tried mixing a bit of cheap junkfood whiskas wet into their dishes with the good stuff to try and excite them (which used to go over great), nothing.

I thought maybe it was a warm v cold thing-nope.

help!

 

[marie73]

Recently when my girls have acted finicky, I've sprinkled a few kibbles on top of their wet food. Once they start eating, they keep on until it's finished.

 

[maggie23]

frustrating!

geez. that is very frustrating. i've read that sometimes we humans "create" finicky eaters because we feed them the same thing all the time. then when we try to switch, they won't eat the new stuff. sounds like you're having the OPPOSITE reaction from your cats. maybe instead of giving them NO variety, you gave them too MUCH variety? so, now maybe they figure if they don't have something new every few weeks, they're going to boycott the stuff. i dunno. i'm grasping at straws here.

did they also reject the original blue buffalo grain free stuff even after the wellness round? have you tried going back to the original stuff yet?

when it looked like our Angel was getting bored of her BG chicken, we started mixing in a little of the tuna and she gained her appetite back. if we make separate little piles, she ALWAYS goes for the fishy stuff first. we switch it up, too, by squeezing a few drops of salmon oil on the chicken to entice her. i've also resorted to steaming her plate of food in a pot on the stove to release the aroma more. she really likes that.

1 last idea: i don't suppose you're feeding them like 3 times a day or more, are you? if so, maybe work your way back down to 2 meals/day so that they're hungrier for it. i just know that Angel always licks her plate clean in the morning because she's hungry after going 9+ hours without food. she's not as hungry for lunch and dinner because there's only @5 hours between those meals. we do spoil her and cut up a tiny chunk of boiled chicken @8 pm for her, too.

good luck.

 

[Victoriax]

I am having this same issue with my cat's at present & I can sympathise it is VERY frustrating

My cat's were fed kibble & gourmet wet food pouches up until a 6 month's ago when I started to research cat nutrition & I decided to transition them to a raw food diet......

I tried this for 3 moth's but was throwing away so much meat that it was becomig very expensive & still my cat's were not eating it

so I then decided that a good quality wet food is better than their previous diet so I would stick to this & will possibly try raw again some time

I thought I had found a good food in Natures Menu so as you did I stocked up & after 2 week's they are only picking at it & not really eating it

I then found Ziwi peaks which they seemed to love so again stocked up & now they are just picking at this or completely ignoring it

I have tried offering them the Natures Menu again & no they dont want it ggggrrrr

but they will eat Gourmet everyday & finish their plate ~ but I dont want them having this as their main diet as it is not a great food & does not contain real meat

my partner says I have made them fussy by keep changing their food coz they know if they dont eat what I have put down then I will offer them something else !!!!!

my cats seem to prefer the junky rubbish food & are really not happy to eat the good quality food it is so frustrating for me

 

[JillianS]

thanks for the suggestions everyone.

After the wellness round, I did try going back to the Blue (not the grain free, just the normal pate)..not so much luck there.

I really don't want to try yet another kind, as I don't want this to get ridiculous-especially since I know that they did love these three at one point!

For the last half of today, I made sure their dry food bowl was empty (I leave a little bit of grain free Blue chicken flavour kibble in there sometimes if I'm going to work/school for long hours), and when they wouldn't eat the bit of Wellness chicken/shrimp that I put out at lunch, instead of leaving it, I cleaned it up and left the bowls out empty.

The kitten was not a fan of this!

Then, this evening we had a long play session with da bird, and immediately afterwards, I divided almost (about 3/4?) an entire 5.5 can of Wellness chicken into their 2 bowls.

They ate it very well! The bowls were pretty much empty when they walked away, so I happily put the remaining small bit in the bowls. We haven't gone back yet, but that's ok with me. If it doesn't get eaten through the night, I will not keep the bowls out tomorrow night.

I'm in no way getting hopeful, as this has happened often before...we shall see!

The inability to stock up is frustrating...the store(s) with the higher end food are all fairly out of the way, so I like to stock up for at least 2-3 weeks when I go in...and I'm getting to the point where I just want them to eat something, so I end up giving them crappy whiskas once in awhile...(hm maybe they know that lol).

Marie-I tried your trick and even took it a step further, and put a few 'cookies' on top of their food..they just looked at me like I was nuts. lol

Maggie-I do do 3x a day...I think I will try the 2x tomorrow as you suggested (since this evening went well after I took everything away at "lunch").

 

[LadyK]

I have the same problem with Josie. I keep notes on what she likes and doesn't like, and I frequently have to move a food from the "like" list to the "do not like anymore" list. It's so odd... she'll act like she loves a food, inhales it, licks the bowl clean... so I go buy more of it, but the next time I serve it, she won't touch it.

 

[MowMow]

This is where feeding a rotation is so nice. I don't think they get tired of one food as fast.

I wouldn't throw or give away any of the food until it expires. I would keep it and add more that they seem to like and start rotating food every meal. What they don't like today may be something they'll be happy to eat next week/month.

Personally, if the cat is healthy I'm not opposed to letting them go hungry until the next meal. You don't want it fine, it's going to be a long hungry night for you.

 

[dweamgoil]

Personally, if the cat is healthy I'm not opposed to letting them go hungry until the next meal. You don't want it fine, it's going to be a long hungry night for you.

My cats have never been finicky, but then again, I got 2 from a shelter; food was already scarce so there was no room for choosing to skip a meal. After that, when they came home with us, we have always had 2 daily set mealtimes. You don't eat, you don't get until the next meal. We don't leave kibble out for grazing, either.

The other 2 cats were trained the same way when they came to live with us. Today, my cats are not choosy at all. They do have their preferences, but they will eat what I set down.

 

[Alpaca]

JillianS the answer is simple. Rotation, rotation, rotation.

What I mean is not only rotate the brands, but rotate the flavors.

My two get a different flavor or brand every day. For breakfast, I rotate between Nature's Variety (venison, duck, lamb), Wellness Core (chicken) and Go! (chicken one). Then they also get quail and chicken or beef for their raw meal.

Mine don't have any preferences, they eat all of those in the same way.

Honestly if it were you, would you like to eat chicken 5 days in a row? Changing will give them a nice surprise since they don't know what's coming and therefore, keep their interest in the food. Even I don't know what they'll get for breakfast since I alternatively/randomly stack the cans and when I get one, it's different each time. Just like a kindersurprise!

 

[dweamgoil]

JillianS the answer is simple. Rotation, rotation, rotation.

I do agree with varying the food. Even if they don't particularly prefer a food, they may just eat it since something nicer may come their way soon. My cats do get a variety of proteins throughout the week ranging from quail, chicken, beef, turkey, venison, duck, a mix of entrails, etc.

 

[JillianS]

thanks everyone.

I definitely rotate already-I've never had fewer than 4-5 flavours/brands in my cupboards (and I usually have more-I'm not opposed to feeding fish, so my options for variety are great), and it's very rare that they get the same thing twice in a row.

 

[Violetzephyr]

I agree with everyone that's saying rotate! Different flavor and brand for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

 

[littlesushi]

i feed a rotation and i still have picky kitties! O_O after going through every grain-free brand available at local pet stores, i've narrowed it down to rotating among 5 brands (and a couple various flavors within those brands) that they will eat the majority of the time. cody is our super picky one, many times he will walk away from the food that i serve them but usually he will eventually come back to it later. but there is also still many a time where the food sits out long enough and dries up. i'm always worrying about him getting enough to eat! ways that i've gotten him to eat is to play with them, and give them a treat, i think that gets their appetites working.

i noticed that they started getting much more picky about their canned food when i introduced raw to them (however i do not regret the addition of raw in their diets!) but they are also picky in the realm of raw food. if it's not chicken breast or thighs, i can't promise that there won't be food that will be thrown away =(

i try to be more stubborn than them, but boo to hunger strikes!

 

[sunset97]

I had the same problem. I would find one they seemed to like and went out and bought more. I would put it down and they wouldn't touch it or they would just take a few bites. I was spending so much money trying to find a food for them. Neither of my cats would eat raw.

A few weeks ago I tried Weruva. Both of my cats went absolutely NUTS over this canned food. Now they come running when it is time to eat and they totally clean their plates. So far they love all of the chicken and beef flavors. This food looks like people food.One meal they get straight Weruva. Then I mix it with three other brands of grain free they wouldn't touch for one of their meals. But now they will gobble it right up. So now they are eating a variety.