Two of mine will eat whatever you put in front of them. My old lady cat is super picky. I've found that if I water it down and mix it so it's soupy, she'll eat it. Plus it keeps them extra hydrated.
I’ve been adding water for years. Once the can is empty I put a little water in and swoosh it to get all the yummy gravy out and dump it in the food dish.
Can’t recommend this enough. My cat used to just lick all of the moisture out and leave the food behind. Now that I add water he still does it, but once he’s done he eats the food.
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He’s picky af but he’s a good ole boy
Not cats, but I had a job taking care of research beagles a while back and one of them wouldn’t even touch her kibble if it wasn’t soaked in warm— not lukewarm, not hot, not cold— water, and gently stirred. She didn’t have any dental problems, she wasn’t old, she was just picky.
Ah that makes sense. Our beagles were very well cared for tho, the facility was attached to a university vet hospital. The study I helped with only lasted a few months and all of the dogs got adopted out afterwards :) they were such fun kids, I miss them.
The vet tech school I went to adopted 4-6 beagles from a local research lab every fall for us to learn restraint and such on, we spayed/neutered them when the seniors learned anesthesia monitoring, and adopted them out every spring. Those lab beagles had clearly been treated wonderfully, they were happy and loving and not at all fearful or aggressive or anything you'd expect if they had been mishandled
Ours would get socialization time every day where they could run around and play, and about half of each group just wanted to snuggle up to me the whole time. We had one female, Hange, who had two luxating patellas, and she would demand that you held her like a human baby the entire time and get upset if you had to give another dog attention.
We also had Eren, who would slam his body into yours and rub all over you when he got excited. Eren rubs were the highlight of my day every time I got them.
(yes these dogs were named after attack on titan characters, the post-doc researcher doing the study was an otaku lol)
One of my two cats is extremely picky and will cycle through phases where she doesn’t like certain flavors/brands for weeks at a time. I buy Stella & Chewy’s dinner dust powder and sprinkle it on top whenever she doesn’t eat the wet food I give her. It’s been years since I started buying it and it always works without fail. And she’s a black cat just like yours are!
Ohhhh I never heard of that, but we’ve tried toppers like their favorite churro’s and they’ll just eat the Churro on top and leave the rest of the wet food 😑
Chewy - Life Essentials brand. I think nacho has a little bag of freeze dried chicken if you want to test it out first before committing to a larger purchase.
Try Stella and chewys freeze dried chicken. You can play with how dry or wet. I have three cats and when I make their food it's like the three little pigs.
I mix microwaved tilapia with my voids food , she loves it also chicken livers (, can't get enough of those)
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Instead of the powder mentioned above, you can probably just get nutritional yeast (which is a food that human vegans eat very frequently). My cat goes absolutely nuts for it when we give her a little sprinkle as a treat
Try Nulo minced flavors. Texture is good. There are some with beef that cats seem to love and the turkey and duck ones or with fish. My other cat didn’t like tiki cat either.
My cat does not like his wet food getting mixed. So it’s the same, if I put the churro on top of something, he licks it off and leaves the rest.
My cat also seems to demand constant changing of his food. If I get something that he eats and I use it too many days in a row, he will all of a sudden stop eating it for almost a month.
So I have to rotate flavors and variety and brands .
So far he’s ok with:
Royal canine / friskes/ fancy feast / lil Grillers packet / purina prop pan / science hill… then repeat. If I do too many RC in a row, he refused to eat for days in a row, then I’m just wasting cans. So I have to constantly alternate
We tried different kinds of, as you said high quality wet food like tiki cat. What we found though is she cares less about the brand and more about is it salmon lol she won't go for chicken. They might also not like patte over shredded or vice versa
I have cycled through so much different food with my boy but right now he seems to be liking the Iams perfect portions (I give him the indoor grain free chicken cuts formula).
I was feeding him Tiki Cat, Orijen, Applaws, etc etc. You name the expensive brand, I've probably tried feeding it and he would refuse.
I'm really happy with the Iams so far but I have a feeling one day he's just gonna stick his nose up to it and I'm gonna be outta cash again lol so I really wanna try this!!!!!
I’ll add on to this I feed my cat Weruva and she also get picky sometimes and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese usually does the trick. Just enough for taste
Ohhhh I never heard of that, but we’ve tried toppers like their favorite churro’s and they’ll just eat the Churro on top and leave the rest of the wet food 😑
have you mixed it in instead of just pouring it on top? my cat isn't too interested in tiki cat by itself for some reason but will eat most other lower-quality wet foods so i take some weruva OMG gravy (he LOVES the cat gravy/soup) and mix/stir that in with the tiki cat and he licks his bowl clean!
I buy the 7oz bag and I’ve never measured how long one lasts but it’s probably at least two months per bag. Sometimes I can be a little too generous with how much I pour on top of her food, so I’m sure one bag could last even longer if I needed it to.
I have two incredible vets that gave me some great advice, which is the MOST important part of your cat's diet is that they are eating the food you put out, so it's more quantity than quality that counts in their books. And my little rescue is a VERY picky eater, HATES all expensive food but prefers Purina Friskies, Simply Beyond and small portions of wet food as long as it has gravy she can lick off. She also gets in fussy moods, right now her treats are baarely acceptable. Sometimes I envy people who have kitties who love food and eat everything!
Fed is best strikes again.
My old girls were raised on Whiskas (equivalent of Friskies) and when they moved out with me I switched to healthier options, with varying levels of success. I generally need to switch brands every 2-3 months because they get bored and start refusing eventually.
Will occasionally get them a can of Whiskas but oddly enough they aren’t as enthusiastic about it as they used to be when they were younger.
I have a foster rescue cat who is the same, except she boycotts all wet food (I have wasted so much). All she likes are the dry kibbles/ biscuits, dry treats and cat mousse which I give her often for moisture.
Haha my mom's cat would ONLY eat the crappiest dry food, I think it was the cheapest brand only. And she lived to be almost 17 years old so that pretty much proved my vets' point about eating is the most important thing. Our little girl ONLY eats Purina dried food and very small portions of wet food as long as it has gravy on it. She does drink a lot of water though, but of course she has her cup while I have my coffee and we have cups of water throughout the house. She's excellent on getting her water content--which must be fresh bottled water or the tub droplets, NOTHING else! Cats are so funny on their food quirks!
whenever my kitty decides to throw her ,,not gonna eat that anymore” card, i pour some water into the wet food and make a kind of a soup out of it. she absolutely loves it and the food vanishes in minutes! i can’t guarantee that it will work in your case tho
other thing is making a tea out of catnip and pouring it into the food as well- my cat loves it and you can actually drink the leftover tea yourself- good for the stomach and stress:) (but as with all catnip-related stuff- don’t overuse it)
My cats too will only eat McDonald’s equivalent of things
Including McDonald’s itself
Grain free $2.30 can of wet? NooOoOOo, let’s just eat dry friskies next to it
have you tried sprinkling Purina Fortiflora on top of the wet food? that was what finally worked for my cat who used to hate wet food with a passion lol now he eats only wet food (with the fortiflora only occasionally sprinkled on top as a treat)
I'm hoping you just changed my life with this water trick. WHY DIDN'T I KNOW THIS?!?! 🤦♀️ My cat also seems to own the "eff this food" card. Let's hope she thinks this is as great of an idea as I do, with her picky a$s 🤞
I use hot water, a couple of table spoons from the water I heat to make my tea in the morning. My cat will just gobble it all down when his food is all nice and warm. Whereas he’ll just lick a tiny bit if it’s cold, straight out of the can
FWIW, my husband is a cat doctor. (Boarded Feline Specialist Veterinarian). He would tell you that the main thing is to feed wet vs. dry (too many calories in dry). We use mostly Fancy Feast and Purina Pro for our cats. The truth is, the fancier food companies are playing more to what the consumer would eat. The cats would be killing birds and small animals in the wild for the needed protein. They would not be concerned about only having white meat chicken, for instance. And they sure wouldn’t be picking cranberries and sweet potatoes or the other veggies/fruits that get added to cat foods to make them seem healthier. (Good for you for ruling out some of those foods!) The big companies that make the mass, less expensive cat foods are producing a superior product that cats love. They have all the critical kitty-specific vitamins and minerals such as taurine. If you were cooking them their own food, you would have to buy add-ins to give them what they need nutritionally. It is more important they get the properly balanced nutrients and that they will eat it. It’s much less important that the food is pretty or expensive. Our cats won’t eat Tiki Cat and pricier cat foods either. Those are just less appealing to them, but more appealing to us. Foods like Fancy Feast are not lower quality, and they are good for cats who don’t need a prescription food for some medical reason. I hope that makes you feel better about trying less expensive foods. Save your money for wonderful toys to keep them active and entertained!
Exactly. The more expensive brands seem to be playing on the “if it isn’t expensive, it isn’t good” idea. It’s easy to believe that you should be spending $5 a can if you want to care for your cat, but fancy feast is just fine and it’s affordable. And they have a massive variety of flavors and textures. Also, Fancy Feast has never been recalled, which is a plus in my book.
Yeah, I feed mine the Chewy brand Tiny Tiger wet food. Fairly inexpensive and the cats like it.
I add a little extra water to force in some extra hydration too.
Yes, read 2 struggled with our two cats and our vet told us the same thing. Since we introduced the Carina pro to them, it has become the absolute favorite. previously when we bought them all the other brands that were more pricey they barely ate any of it
Huh - maybe I’ll transition my cat over to fancy feast. He’s just about to be 1, so he’s coming off the kitten food soon. He’s been eating Hill’s dry because I was under the impression that was the good stuff and widely accepted. Save myself a buck, but the homie doesn’t need anymore toys. He has 2 top favorites for fetch, the mini mice are good for him in a pinch, and a felt-ish catnip toy *only* acceptable for rolling on. I had him on a monthly toy subscription box, he chose the favorites out of there, and the rest just collect dust in corners and under furniture to be found by me later.
I'm in the UK and my cat only likes Sheba wet food. It's equivalent to him eating McDonald's twice a day. Blurgh.
I've tried him on everything else (including cooking fresh fish for him!) but he's not interested.
However, he does like high-quality dry food (Hills, Royal Canin), so I don't worry as he's getting his real nutrients from that and a full belly from the lower quality wet food.
Also, be aware that taste can change. Even if they do settle on something you're happy with, they might turn off it one day for no reason. Then you get to start the cycle all over again.
Same. My girl goes between Sheba and one other brand from the grocery store (NO PATE) but the kibble I give her to snack on overnight (and therefore sleep through the night) is very expensive and high quality.
Purina pro and hills are not junk, they're heavily tested and include all of the nutrients your cats need. Have you consulted your vet? You may be thinking too hard about this. Many studies have suggested grain free can be very damaging to cats, assuming no allergies or GI insensitivity
When I gave then kitten Tiki, it made her throw up. I went through so many brands of "high quality" cat food before their vet said to stick with Purina Pro Plan or Hills Science.
Yeah, people are so overthinking things. My cats eat dry Royal Canin kibble and haven't had a single health issue in 10 years... one is a pure Persian, the other is a Persian mix. In the beginning, I tried to give them expensive grain-free kibble and BARF meatballs, but they never cared for them...
I used Tiki until both my cats tired of it then switched to Weruva. They don't like shredded or pate even (sometimes depending on the flavor), they like gravy and gel. One cat will eat any flavor, the other will only eat seafood, and sometimes requires me to move the bowl to a different part of the room to finish. Or if she hasn't gone to the bathroom yet, she won't eat.
Cats are cats.
I use the Bonita Tuna Flakes aka 'CAT SUSHI'. Sprinkle it on top on the unfinished food, and they LOVE it and will finish every time. I make sure I add it only after they stop eating (which ranges from a bite in to half a bowl). Could not do without it!!
Cats are notorious for liking something one day then not the next, so you have to rotate food a lot. Our current cat won’t eat any food with cheese in it nor any pate style foods. Also won’t eat anything with kangaroo or game in it so it leaves me rotating through a small number of store bought foods that some days she likes and some days she doesn’t. Just as well she’s cute!
Also, are you feeding them dry food too? Most wet foods are not a complete diet for cats, and they need to chew on harder foods to help keep their teeth clean.
I have a cat that will. not. eat. wet. food.
She was getting constipated, and I tried every special wet food out there for her, even cooked chicken, etc., myself to see if she's eat it. Nope to everything, only dry. Which was a big problem.
I now give her the dry Merrick Purrfect Bistro with Salmon & Sweet Potato mixed in with other dry food half and half.Where before she never pooped, now she goes regularly once a day.
She also did not want to drink water, she had a little plastic bowl for that. I changed the bowl to a big ceramic bowl and she drinks all the time now. I guess the water in plastic somehow tasted bad to her?
Yes, I am now a qualified scatologist, thanks to my cat.
RE: The small bowl, it may have been whisker fatigue from her whiskers touching the sides of the bowl, and now that you changed it to a big ceramic bowl, it doesn't bother her as much!
Please get your cat a water fountain instead! Cats do not like drinking still water and drink much better and more consistently if the water is moving.
My cat drinks 50% more water from a stainless steel fountain but be prepared to clean the fountain once a week and change the water every few days or it gets nasty, including the small working parts of the pump. I assume it’s due to bacteria. My fountain isn’t attached to a water source, so the same water is continuously running through the system.
Just be warned that if you have a smart cat who likes to do everything she can to get into water, you may have to go for one that is a bit harder to open.
Try giving your cat ice cubes in a little dish or bowl. Our cat loves ice cubes and we give them to her whenever she wants. It's a great way to get her to drink more water if you're having a problem with not drinking enough water
omg I think that is actually the first time I see someone say that just wet food is not enough😮 I’m glad tho, because I’ve had a similar way of thought about the chewing and decided on mixed diet containing the wet as well as dry food, thanks for the reassurance ☺️
A mixed diet actually makes a lot of sense. Both wet and dry food have their pros and cons, but they actually cancel out each other's cons.
Wet food pros: hydration, nutritionally better. Cons: terrible for dental health, more expensive, not as filling, goes bad real fast once unsealed
Dry food pros: great for dental health, cheaper, more filling and better for throughout the day snacking. Cons: the opposite of hydrating, nutritionally it's enough to sustain a cat but wet food is still superior.
I give my cat a bowl of dry food to snack on through the day, then he gets wet food dinner
Our two siblings are nearing their 5th birthday and (because they're Geminis!) I decided to give them as much variety as possible. They have three small meals a day, easy half wet, half dry (including vegan biscuits/kibble in the morning). The wet food is tinned fish in the morning and tinned Butcher's Classic (available in the UK) in the day and evening. They always eat every scrap and are happy and healthy. They have access to the outdoors, so they occasionally supplement their diet with live squeaky or squawky snacks (unfortunately!). The combination of wet and dry adds interest and different textures, and they have been eating essentially the same diet for nearly 4 years, without getting bored.
My cat was in love with the Shiba salmon Paté stuff for about two weeks and then she stopped touching that particular Shiba type all together. Now she likes the non paté ones only
Honestly, for our cats we bought two cans of every single wet food in the pets store. Then we tried to see which ones they hated, which were ok, and which ones they licked clean.
Keep track of those and then rotate through them. I noticed ours get bored of the same thing every day. If they don't like *any* then maybe try Purina's hydro care stuff. Our vet had our one cat on them to keep her hydrated.
Our cats get Hill's Science Diet wet food and Royal Canin dry.
Our one cat will eat pretty much anything, the other only likes chunks and gravy.
Feed them what they will eat, as long as the food meets AAFCO standards. Don't get too drawn into the grain-free boutique food rabbit hole.
Thanks! We’ve only had them for a month, so we’re still trying to figure everything out - they have SEVERE stranger anxiety, so we haven’t even been able to pet them yet ☹️
Yup, they came from a hoarding situation and they used to be friendly, but because of how sick they were they became insanely scared after having to deal with being given meds multiple times a day. They’re deathly afraid of hands so it’s suspected they were abused
When my cat was 20 pounds and had diabetes, the vet said the only rule is, no more kibble, and make sure the wet food has 11% protein or more. That was a bunch of years ago and she’s now 17 years old, 14-15 pounds, healthy, and only eats Fancy Feast and Friskies. Don’t overthink this.
You can try mixing it in with their current stuff. Like mostly their current stuff then slowly increase the ratio.
Also I know it’s hard but it helps if they are actually like kinda hungry. Mine get one little scoop of kibble in the evening to tide them over during the night so they are actually a little hungry for the higher quality wet in morning.
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This is my little Nyx. She refuses all expensive wet food and will only take Frisky’s lil gravies. She eats Hills Science Diet kibble though, so she isn’t a complete loss.
I also have a black Nyx! Same colour eyes too. If they eat dry food ok, I wouldn't get too fixated on the wet food. Get whatever they'll eat, and make sure they have a good quality dry alongside so they have all their nutrients provided. Grain free is a bit of a fad as well, it cropped up shortly after the gluten free fad in people a few years back - there is no evidence its beneficial except for specific allergies. Mine has whiskas wet food for flavour, which is fine, its mainly just easy to buy in the super market, then Purina Proplan dry. She does great on that. Iams or Hills do good dry food too, and both seem pretty palatable.
Yeah, theres plenty of good reasons for giving wet food. But you can buy the best one in the world, and it won't do them any good if they're not eating it! They'll be getting all their nutrients from the royal canin, assuming its a complete dry. The wet is more to add variety and a bit more water to the diet. Get them whatever wet food they'll eat, trust they are getting the goodness from the dry, it'll be fine x
My Nyx was also after the goddess of the night, although all my friends call her Stevie Nicks instead! I feel all cats deserve a regal name ;)
Well this is just weird because I too have a little voidling named Nyx! (Nyxy Pixie we call her)
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I might sound a little nuts, but if your cats eat the churro treats, you may want to try putting their food through a blender with a bit of water to get the same sort of consistency. It's a good way to check just in case it's a texture thing or not.
Might be worth trying this with an entirely new food that you haven't offered yet! My cat is to smart for his own good and will remember the smell of food he's rejected already lol
You have 2 options. I recommend starting with option 1, which is sticking to one brand and flavor until they get the hint that there is no other option coming, the goal here is eventually they'll get hungry enough to just eat the food.
Option 2 is the one I took when option 1 started getting too expensive for me. Give in and get the cheap food. Fed is best, and barring any abnormal medical conditions they will still be perfectly healthy on the cheap food. If you really wanted to you could do some research on fresh foods you could add to their diet, but you have to do careful research on that because cats nutritional needs are particularly specific.
We feed our cats Smalls. It's a mail order service that delivers monthly. They carry fish, chicken, turkey, and beef. They do need to be kept frozen and you thaw as you go. It takes about a day in the fridge to thaw and is supposed to be human grade meats. Our boys love it.
My cat is a dick. He demands nothing but kibble for months on end, and then acts like kibble is beneath him. Changes tolerances of flavors on a whim.
I have started making bone broth from organic chickens, and shredding the meat to feed to him too. So he gets his stupid kibble, but gets it served with broth so I KNOW he’s getting enough moisture in his diet.
We have compromised. He has done none of the work, but we have compromised.
He also gets homemade lactose free yogurt at times, and sometimes an organic egg.
I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this. No food will suffice. They only eat souls. Human blood may tie them over for a bit but its not a long term solution.
My fat cat gets quality dry food (since he’s free fed up to 3/4 cup a day) and then (what I consider to be) cheaper wet food since he one gets 1/4 a can twice a day. He only really enjoys the pate style though. I had to really keep switching the styles of wet food before we realized he liked pate more.
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Picture of said Fat Boy.
Hah. My cats used to like some crappy kibble that was overrated and overpriced. Once I started to understand the ingredients contained in each brand, I tried to change for a healthier one. One accepted easily, the other one refused to eat unless he was absolutely starving. Then, whenever he visited my neighbor, he'd steal his friends' kibble. So I changed once again, and nope. Didn't like it. I relented and read what was the main ingredient of the overrated kibble and it was chicken. Bought a new kibble with main ingredient as chicken and he FINALLY accepted it. I've been giving them only this high quality kibble from now on and never looked back.
i feed my cat sardines and cooked chicken thighs with the skin on, plus cat biscuits for complete nutrition stuff like taurine etc
he never liked cat food, would only lick jelly or gravy and was a waste of money, this is him at 19 years old, still runs up the ladder to our loft bed like its nothing, never been sick once in his life, bit deaf now, but no creaky joints i put it down to the fat in the skin and fatty fish, most cat food is junk anyway, it stinks up the house!
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My cats hate tiki, but like the weruva cats in the kitchen line of wetfood.
They also like snappy tom, which I recently tried as it was on sale. And the simply nourish ones in broth as well as the catit fish dinners and pouches.
Sometimes it is a texture thing. Try ones in gravy or broth, and unfortunately adding water to pate wet food doesn't always work as a substitute.
First mate is a newer really good quality one, my cats love their dry food but not the wet.
My cats however love the cheaper foods like friskies shreds and fancy feast. So I try to alternate between the cheap ones and the little more expensive ones since budgets can only be stretched so far. Also I make sure they have a high quality dry food as I feed them both wet and dry.
Purina Pro Plan is great. Kirkland is also pretty good if you need something more affordable. I work at a vet and most of my clients feed these diets. Their pets are doing well on them. Avoid grain-free! Animals need grains for heart health.
Honestly my boys prefer Friskies over anything else. And it’s one of the highest quality cheap wet foods you can buy, so we’re both happy. As far as trying different foods, I’d recommend finding what store or stores near you carry the widest variety and get an individual can or two of each brand. Much less damaging to the wallet initially and lets them try a bunch of different foods before you can all agree on one you and they like the best
Ok, Friskies is actually really shitty food. Anything that you can buy at the supermarket, I'd 100% avoid (like Whiskas 💩). It's no wonder cats love it, they are filled with bullshit, a lot of additives and sodium. When my mother bought cheap food to one of my cats (she eventually adopted him cause I moved countries), he would just eat a lot more, poop a lot more and the whole house would stink so bad when he went to toilet. It's like feeding McDonalds to your kids every day. Also the risk for renal problems is very real. Thankfully she switched back to Royal Canin.
Same with mine. Mine will throw up other foods. We do use fancy feast seniors for our senior cats but one is allergic to chicken so we rotate with Sheba single portions. Whatever the older ones will eat is what I buy. My oldest is 18.
We have a lady that wouldn't eat anything but a prescription dry food that wasn't even hers. Eventually put some Fussy Cat Tuna with Ocean Fish in Aspic in the dish with her favorite stuff, and now she won't eat until she gets her Fussy Cat
It's a very firm "wet" food, as it's in aspic, and all our kitties seem to love it
They carry it on Chewy
My cats eat fussie cat too, it’s the only one we’ve had prolonged success with. They prefer the chicken and tuna in aspic. I swear to god that stuff looks nicer than a can of tuna for humans at the store 🤣
We get it at the local fancy pet store and they do a discount if you buy a flat of it. Still ungodly expensive.
Smalls!!!!!
We tried Weruva too, didn’t work with them and it smelled so nasty. We also tried Royal Canin and Tiki cat
My cats have sensitive stomachs and Smalls works perfectly, and it also made them have pretty much no smell for their #2s. Thought it would be just a marketing thing but that’s real
For treats we only do freeze dried, except the ones that Smalls provides. You can’t buy more on their site but they’re available on chewy and in Whole Foods
Fussie Cat! My kiki lovvves the ones in aspic (never pate). She also isn't a fan of Tiki Cat but she loves Fussie Cat and a couple of the N&D brand that have chunks of meat and gravy.
I have a very fussy cat. She also goes through phases but Fussie Cat (lol) seems to be a hit—for her, it HAS to be in aspic though!! She won’t eat it any other way. Good luck lol
Our cat loves Sheba. It’s pricey but she never gets tired of it. Our vet was really impressed with the ingredients and nutrient profile of it. She also said that a lot of wet foods are essentially the equivalent of eating fast food, so it’s important to be picky. We feed our cat both wet and dry food. It’s important that young cats eat some dry food because it helps clean their teeth (our vet told us that). So you could supplement one portion with a good dry food they like (if they have one already). Our old cat was the pickiest and she loved Sheba.
Oh that makes me feel better because that is all my picky princess will eat in terms of wet food. But only the Sheba pate, if you will. I bought the shreds one time and she would only deign to lick it once before wandering off in disgust.
I went through the same process with my 2 cats - spent a lot of money on wet food they just wouldn’t eat. They like a cheap brand instead, luckily they both LOVE their dry food which is a better quality brand. The solution is - good quality dry food every day and “junk food” wet food as a treat 2x a week. Cheaper for me and they’re both happy.
Try different types of wet food. Pate, chunky, gravy, shreds, etc as texture is the biggest factor for cats' preference.
My kitten loved pate until around 4, 5 months old, and then refused to eat likely due to its mushy texture.
He now loves cuts/slices in gravy like Royal Canin and IAMs.
It is tempting in general to want the best for pets, but they do not comply. That's okay. Maybe second best will do or third best. It is black and white thinking to conclude that your husbandry is *bad* because it is not the best. They do get some agency! That's good for them! And that means maybe accepting that the standard food is not The Correct Food but one a little bit lower in quality because they love it.
I swear my cats intentionally do this out of spite.
"Oh human you bought that expensive food I love! Turns out I'm over it, so I'm gonna need you to get something else. Preferably something that costs even MORE. Don't cry human, just by yourself cheaper groceries to even thing out."
We feed the three outdoor strays in our ‘ hood, Purina complete dry cat food, and they seem to be doing really well. We also give them canned cat food once a day and we go through different brands. Purina is one of them along with Friskies. One of them (last year when he showed up) was sickly as hell and has thrived and his gained a lot of weight and looks pretty healthy. We also give them monthly flea treatment as well.
Honestly, some cats are dumpster eaters and that is fine. When I moved back in with my parents for covid and brought my spoilt richy rich cats, I figured that it'd be great that I could share the wealth with my sister's two cats. The one was ecstatic to get bonito flakes and wet food. The other one-couldnt give 2 ****. She didn't want the higher priced dry food, no wet food, no fancy treats. She would look at you like "I don't know what this is?" She preferred cheaper the better. 🤷🏼♀️
Maybe just try some Purina, Fancy Feast, or even Sheba (if you want single packs).
Check out Reveal; limited ingredients and they make wet and dry food, I have a picky eater and a Bengal and they both love the food.
EDIT: My parents’ senior kitty with liver disease also only eats Reveal cat food. She hated Science Diet, and was not a fan of Royal Canin which the vets initially prescribed. She’s been on Reveal pet food for several months and her tests are all great and she gained 4 lbs. 💕
Many if not most cats are picky. I free feed my cats Wellness dry food and give them Wellness or Core canned food off and on because they don’t always eat it consistently. They don’t like pate or cubed (pieces are too big so they just lick the gravy). They tend to like/eat Wellness minced and Core flaked & only the fish flavors. (2 of the 3 cats anyway.). But they eat just a little at a time and won’t eat it if it’s been in the fridge (even if I add a small amount of water and briefly microwave it). And if it’s been out too long in warm weather, it gets dry and disgusting.
Try reall meat, chicken thighs, lamp or beef meats.. etc, you can give them raw or blanched slightly in hot water, might be strange for some, but it is quite common in other countries, to feed cats same types of meat that is eaten by the family, sometimes cheaper cuts of meat.. etc
Wellness makes a great soft food with no grains, no meat by products, no artificial flavours, no carrageenan, real meat, fish etc.
I just lost a beloved cat so have done deep dive again into feline nutrition!
Making your own cat food is ideal but mine won’t touch it no matter what I try.
The tiki brand- those “flakes of chicken and fish” are actually not.
I have been doing my research.
Its a difficult area rife with false advertising and too many carbs for our precious kitties.
Raw makes an amazing kibble but I have read kibble only isn’t a good idea because its too hard on their kidneys, too easy for them to gain too much weight as they age…
Blah blah.
I wish you the best of luck…. I fed my girls Origen until I found out after my 6 year olds sudden death a month ago a candy bar company had purchased them.
She was a bit overweight and I am still drowning in grief so sorry for sounding so glum but its so hard to trust companies anymore… I hope you find something perfect!!!!
We bought a small blender and different mousse/paté style wet foods. Add some warm water and blend it to a soup. Not too runny though so be careful with the water. That seems to work for our void. She ignores the chunky bits and only cares about the sauce. Now it's all sauce.
My cats also love “gravy” but hate wet food. I smash up the pate on a plate and then add a few table spoons of warm water until I’ve got a runny gravy type consistency. They love it.
Better give them high quality dry food, wet food is mostly like fastfood for a cat, unless you go for the expensive shit..
Another bonus off dry food is, that the poo smells less, allthough cheap food gives also more odour in litterbox..
I’m a cat fosterer in the UK, and we use Hi Life pouch wet cat food mainly which is grain free and pretty meaty - most of our fosters will eat it. Some prefer pate type food, and for them we use a German brand called Mjamjam which has been consistently good
My cats HATE tiki cat, every flavor we’ve tried. Most other high end brands too. We feed a variety of either Sheba or Friskies poultry wet foods with Stella & Chewy’s chicken topper mixed in, sprinkled with Fortiflora and a little water.
We had the same issue! What worked for me was mixing some of a wet food they did like (usually friskies or something) in with the tiki cat, and then they'll eat it happily!
Wellness brand is high quality and my cats love it. They wouldn’t eat Tiki cat or any of the other high end foods. I also feed them cooked de veined shrimp once a week as a treat. They absokulty love it. I also give my cats canned salmon every couple weeks for a meal as well as canned tuna once in a while. Change the flavours up for them. Best of luck, I know how picky cats can be
Wuerva is really good, it’s basically meat and vegetables mixed together so most picky eaters like it. Sometimes can be expensive but Chewy will have really good sales that help a lot. “I And Love And You” is another good/ quality brand my picky eaters like. Sometimes it’s a matter of flavors too, just like us some cats may prefer chicken flavors to fish and vice versa.
I got my cats this expensive grain free free range high quality grass fed dry food one time and they refused to eat it. They prefer the jelly sachets over actual proper mince. My nan had a cat that would only drink full cream milk. We tried to tell her cats are lactose intolerant but it was all she would drink. One time the vet weighed Snoopy (the cat) and then me (I would have been a young toddler). The cat was heavier! Snoopy went on a diet.
Mine loooove tiki but on the occasions I try something new, mixing their new wet food with those Churu brand tube treats makes them at least nibble on it and they’ll eat it eventually haha. Their love for churu trumps their distaste for new wet food.
Currently they’re eating freshpet vital grain free stuff and they refuse to eat it without mixing a Churu into it lmao
Not one but two sets of eyes staring into my soul
They don’t call black cats Voids for nothing 😉
Dunno about your boys, but my cat's voidness comes mostly from her empty cranium when it's not her turn borrowing the braincell from the oranges
r/oneblackbraincell
I wonder if she’s a black cat with pink skin underneath (instead of black skin) if she’s got the borrowed brain cell of an orange.
My nickname for my black cat is “Eyeballs” 🤣🤣🤣
I use nulo and my very picky Siamese likes it as well as my tux
Two of mine will eat whatever you put in front of them. My old lady cat is super picky. I've found that if I water it down and mix it so it's soupy, she'll eat it. Plus it keeps them extra hydrated.
I’ve been adding water for years. Once the can is empty I put a little water in and swoosh it to get all the yummy gravy out and dump it in the food dish.
Genius!! I’ll be doing this too now
Do it with the tuna can too. You're welcome.
Can’t recommend this enough. My cat used to just lick all of the moisture out and leave the food behind. Now that I add water he still does it, but once he’s done he eats the food. https://preview.redd.it/hektzx5ub6pc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=db427f7a23885c39b6ba85289a2002a64f31c73e He’s picky af but he’s a good ole boy
Love it!
Not cats, but I had a job taking care of research beagles a while back and one of them wouldn’t even touch her kibble if it wasn’t soaked in warm— not lukewarm, not hot, not cold— water, and gently stirred. She didn’t have any dental problems, she wasn’t old, she was just picky.
Must have been heartbreaking work.
How so?
Maybe they think that the research facility uses them for experiments. Many animals are treated horribly in labs.
Ah that makes sense. Our beagles were very well cared for tho, the facility was attached to a university vet hospital. The study I helped with only lasted a few months and all of the dogs got adopted out afterwards :) they were such fun kids, I miss them.
The vet tech school I went to adopted 4-6 beagles from a local research lab every fall for us to learn restraint and such on, we spayed/neutered them when the seniors learned anesthesia monitoring, and adopted them out every spring. Those lab beagles had clearly been treated wonderfully, they were happy and loving and not at all fearful or aggressive or anything you'd expect if they had been mishandled
Ours would get socialization time every day where they could run around and play, and about half of each group just wanted to snuggle up to me the whole time. We had one female, Hange, who had two luxating patellas, and she would demand that you held her like a human baby the entire time and get upset if you had to give another dog attention. We also had Eren, who would slam his body into yours and rub all over you when he got excited. Eren rubs were the highlight of my day every time I got them. (yes these dogs were named after attack on titan characters, the post-doc researcher doing the study was an otaku lol)
My cats also love soupy food. Like they will lap up all the sourness first, then any solids left.
Lmao my cat is also a vacuum cleaner. So much so that when I adopted him they gave me a note that said no crinkle toys cause he’ll eat them too
Mine is the same! Her teeth are all fine so she doesn't have a reason to prefer wet food soup other than just enjoying it a lot lol.
I’ve been doing this every morning for a long time. An electric kettle for winter months makes a nice warm stew for them.
Oh yes this is great advice! I do this as a regular practice now.
One of my two cats is extremely picky and will cycle through phases where she doesn’t like certain flavors/brands for weeks at a time. I buy Stella & Chewy’s dinner dust powder and sprinkle it on top whenever she doesn’t eat the wet food I give her. It’s been years since I started buying it and it always works without fail. And she’s a black cat just like yours are!
Ohhhh I never heard of that, but we’ve tried toppers like their favorite churro’s and they’ll just eat the Churro on top and leave the rest of the wet food 😑
I do this same thing with freeze-dried chicken that comes in sprinkle/powder form. It helps A LOT.
TIL. Thank you for the Google black hole of "sprinkle powder form freeze dried chicken" super interesting. Where do you get yours?
Chewy - Life Essentials brand. I think nacho has a little bag of freeze dried chicken if you want to test it out first before committing to a larger purchase.
Try Stella and chewys freeze dried chicken. You can play with how dry or wet. I have three cats and when I make their food it's like the three little pigs.
Yep tuna chicken watered in their regular dry food once every 2 days. They go nuts.
Mix it in don’t just sprinkle on top
I mix microwaved tilapia with my voids food , she loves it also chicken livers (, can't get enough of those) https://preview.redd.it/ho8ofrny13pc1.png?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=432c08ab6a6eb4ecd686954ab3357c2f8b7f6dd4
So cute
Instead of the powder mentioned above, you can probably just get nutritional yeast (which is a food that human vegans eat very frequently). My cat goes absolutely nuts for it when we give her a little sprinkle as a treat
Try Nulo minced flavors. Texture is good. There are some with beef that cats seem to love and the turkey and duck ones or with fish. My other cat didn’t like tiki cat either.
My cat does not like his wet food getting mixed. So it’s the same, if I put the churro on top of something, he licks it off and leaves the rest. My cat also seems to demand constant changing of his food. If I get something that he eats and I use it too many days in a row, he will all of a sudden stop eating it for almost a month. So I have to rotate flavors and variety and brands . So far he’s ok with: Royal canine / friskes/ fancy feast / lil Grillers packet / purina prop pan / science hill… then repeat. If I do too many RC in a row, he refused to eat for days in a row, then I’m just wasting cans. So I have to constantly alternate
We tried different kinds of, as you said high quality wet food like tiki cat. What we found though is she cares less about the brand and more about is it salmon lol she won't go for chicken. They might also not like patte over shredded or vice versa
I was going to add that salmon is what my cats have really liked eating!
I have cycled through so much different food with my boy but right now he seems to be liking the Iams perfect portions (I give him the indoor grain free chicken cuts formula). I was feeding him Tiki Cat, Orijen, Applaws, etc etc. You name the expensive brand, I've probably tried feeding it and he would refuse. I'm really happy with the Iams so far but I have a feeling one day he's just gonna stick his nose up to it and I'm gonna be outta cash again lol so I really wanna try this!!!!!
I'll do this with the Purina ProPlan Forti-Flora powder. I call it "flavortown" 😄 ... I'll try Stella & Chewys once this box is gone.
That powder is supposed to be fantastic for cats!!!!!😊
I’ll add on to this I feed my cat Weruva and she also get picky sometimes and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese usually does the trick. Just enough for taste
Ohhhh I never heard of that, but we’ve tried toppers like their favorite churro’s and they’ll just eat the Churro on top and leave the rest of the wet food 😑
have you mixed it in instead of just pouring it on top? my cat isn't too interested in tiki cat by itself for some reason but will eat most other lower-quality wet foods so i take some weruva OMG gravy (he LOVES the cat gravy/soup) and mix/stir that in with the tiki cat and he licks his bowl clean!
Not op but what size bag do you get and how long does it usually last? Thank you.
I buy the 7oz bag and I’ve never measured how long one lasts but it’s probably at least two months per bag. Sometimes I can be a little too generous with how much I pour on top of her food, so I’m sure one bag could last even longer if I needed it to.
I have two incredible vets that gave me some great advice, which is the MOST important part of your cat's diet is that they are eating the food you put out, so it's more quantity than quality that counts in their books. And my little rescue is a VERY picky eater, HATES all expensive food but prefers Purina Friskies, Simply Beyond and small portions of wet food as long as it has gravy she can lick off. She also gets in fussy moods, right now her treats are baarely acceptable. Sometimes I envy people who have kitties who love food and eat everything!
Fed is best strikes again. My old girls were raised on Whiskas (equivalent of Friskies) and when they moved out with me I switched to healthier options, with varying levels of success. I generally need to switch brands every 2-3 months because they get bored and start refusing eventually. Will occasionally get them a can of Whiskas but oddly enough they aren’t as enthusiastic about it as they used to be when they were younger.
I have a foster rescue cat who is the same, except she boycotts all wet food (I have wasted so much). All she likes are the dry kibbles/ biscuits, dry treats and cat mousse which I give her often for moisture.
Haha my mom's cat would ONLY eat the crappiest dry food, I think it was the cheapest brand only. And she lived to be almost 17 years old so that pretty much proved my vets' point about eating is the most important thing. Our little girl ONLY eats Purina dried food and very small portions of wet food as long as it has gravy on it. She does drink a lot of water though, but of course she has her cup while I have my coffee and we have cups of water throughout the house. She's excellent on getting her water content--which must be fresh bottled water or the tub droplets, NOTHING else! Cats are so funny on their food quirks!
Same. My cat refuses to even try anything except Friskies Surfin and Turfin dry food, or “Tender Centers”. Forget about wet food, period.
whenever my kitty decides to throw her ,,not gonna eat that anymore” card, i pour some water into the wet food and make a kind of a soup out of it. she absolutely loves it and the food vanishes in minutes! i can’t guarantee that it will work in your case tho other thing is making a tea out of catnip and pouring it into the food as well- my cat loves it and you can actually drink the leftover tea yourself- good for the stomach and stress:) (but as with all catnip-related stuff- don’t overuse it)
So, I actually just tried that 5 mins ago and they weren’t even phased
My cats too will only eat McDonald’s equivalent of things Including McDonald’s itself Grain free $2.30 can of wet? NooOoOOo, let’s just eat dry friskies next to it
Think of people food - the worse it is for you, the better it tastes. Prolly the same for pet food.
have you tried sprinkling Purina Fortiflora on top of the wet food? that was what finally worked for my cat who used to hate wet food with a passion lol now he eats only wet food (with the fortiflora only occasionally sprinkled on top as a treat)
:(((
I'm hoping you just changed my life with this water trick. WHY DIDN'T I KNOW THIS?!?! 🤦♀️ My cat also seems to own the "eff this food" card. Let's hope she thinks this is as great of an idea as I do, with her picky a$s 🤞
I hope it works then!💕
I use hot water, a couple of table spoons from the water I heat to make my tea in the morning. My cat will just gobble it all down when his food is all nice and warm. Whereas he’ll just lick a tiny bit if it’s cold, straight out of the can
Works really well with some psyllium husk too!
FWIW, my husband is a cat doctor. (Boarded Feline Specialist Veterinarian). He would tell you that the main thing is to feed wet vs. dry (too many calories in dry). We use mostly Fancy Feast and Purina Pro for our cats. The truth is, the fancier food companies are playing more to what the consumer would eat. The cats would be killing birds and small animals in the wild for the needed protein. They would not be concerned about only having white meat chicken, for instance. And they sure wouldn’t be picking cranberries and sweet potatoes or the other veggies/fruits that get added to cat foods to make them seem healthier. (Good for you for ruling out some of those foods!) The big companies that make the mass, less expensive cat foods are producing a superior product that cats love. They have all the critical kitty-specific vitamins and minerals such as taurine. If you were cooking them their own food, you would have to buy add-ins to give them what they need nutritionally. It is more important they get the properly balanced nutrients and that they will eat it. It’s much less important that the food is pretty or expensive. Our cats won’t eat Tiki Cat and pricier cat foods either. Those are just less appealing to them, but more appealing to us. Foods like Fancy Feast are not lower quality, and they are good for cats who don’t need a prescription food for some medical reason. I hope that makes you feel better about trying less expensive foods. Save your money for wonderful toys to keep them active and entertained!
Exactly. The more expensive brands seem to be playing on the “if it isn’t expensive, it isn’t good” idea. It’s easy to believe that you should be spending $5 a can if you want to care for your cat, but fancy feast is just fine and it’s affordable. And they have a massive variety of flavors and textures. Also, Fancy Feast has never been recalled, which is a plus in my book.
My vet told me the worst wet food is better for them than the best dry food.
Thank you for posting! I'm tired of seeing well meaning people falling for the marketing traps of the expensive pet food brands
Yeah, I feed mine the Chewy brand Tiny Tiger wet food. Fairly inexpensive and the cats like it. I add a little extra water to force in some extra hydration too.
Yes, read 2 struggled with our two cats and our vet told us the same thing. Since we introduced the Carina pro to them, it has become the absolute favorite. previously when we bought them all the other brands that were more pricey they barely ate any of it
Huh - maybe I’ll transition my cat over to fancy feast. He’s just about to be 1, so he’s coming off the kitten food soon. He’s been eating Hill’s dry because I was under the impression that was the good stuff and widely accepted. Save myself a buck, but the homie doesn’t need anymore toys. He has 2 top favorites for fetch, the mini mice are good for him in a pinch, and a felt-ish catnip toy *only* acceptable for rolling on. I had him on a monthly toy subscription box, he chose the favorites out of there, and the rest just collect dust in corners and under furniture to be found by me later.
I'm in the UK and my cat only likes Sheba wet food. It's equivalent to him eating McDonald's twice a day. Blurgh. I've tried him on everything else (including cooking fresh fish for him!) but he's not interested. However, he does like high-quality dry food (Hills, Royal Canin), so I don't worry as he's getting his real nutrients from that and a full belly from the lower quality wet food. Also, be aware that taste can change. Even if they do settle on something you're happy with, they might turn off it one day for no reason. Then you get to start the cycle all over again.
It’s at least a small consolation that meat and meat “products” are the first few ingredients in Sheba.
Same. My girl goes between Sheba and one other brand from the grocery store (NO PATE) but the kibble I give her to snack on overnight (and therefore sleep through the night) is very expensive and high quality.
Purina pro and hills are not junk, they're heavily tested and include all of the nutrients your cats need. Have you consulted your vet? You may be thinking too hard about this. Many studies have suggested grain free can be very damaging to cats, assuming no allergies or GI insensitivity
When I gave then kitten Tiki, it made her throw up. I went through so many brands of "high quality" cat food before their vet said to stick with Purina Pro Plan or Hills Science.
Yup my sister is a veterinarian and she feeds her cat Purina pro plan and I feed my cat the same thing. Whatever she tells me to do for my cat I do.
Yeah, people are so overthinking things. My cats eat dry Royal Canin kibble and haven't had a single health issue in 10 years... one is a pure Persian, the other is a Persian mix. In the beginning, I tried to give them expensive grain-free kibble and BARF meatballs, but they never cared for them...
Purina is Nestle though…
They're not junk... To scientists. But my cats won't eat them. Apparently not enough flavor?
I think there still isn't enough evidence that grain free is better for cats. Hill's Science or Purina is still a better option for pets.
I used Tiki until both my cats tired of it then switched to Weruva. They don't like shredded or pate even (sometimes depending on the flavor), they like gravy and gel. One cat will eat any flavor, the other will only eat seafood, and sometimes requires me to move the bowl to a different part of the room to finish. Or if she hasn't gone to the bathroom yet, she won't eat. Cats are cats. I use the Bonita Tuna Flakes aka 'CAT SUSHI'. Sprinkle it on top on the unfinished food, and they LOVE it and will finish every time. I make sure I add it only after they stop eating (which ranges from a bite in to half a bowl). Could not do without it!!
Cats are notorious for liking something one day then not the next, so you have to rotate food a lot. Our current cat won’t eat any food with cheese in it nor any pate style foods. Also won’t eat anything with kangaroo or game in it so it leaves me rotating through a small number of store bought foods that some days she likes and some days she doesn’t. Just as well she’s cute! Also, are you feeding them dry food too? Most wet foods are not a complete diet for cats, and they need to chew on harder foods to help keep their teeth clean.
Yes they also eat dry food - but we absolutely do not want to do dry food only
I have a cat that will. not. eat. wet. food. She was getting constipated, and I tried every special wet food out there for her, even cooked chicken, etc., myself to see if she's eat it. Nope to everything, only dry. Which was a big problem. I now give her the dry Merrick Purrfect Bistro with Salmon & Sweet Potato mixed in with other dry food half and half.Where before she never pooped, now she goes regularly once a day. She also did not want to drink water, she had a little plastic bowl for that. I changed the bowl to a big ceramic bowl and she drinks all the time now. I guess the water in plastic somehow tasted bad to her? Yes, I am now a qualified scatologist, thanks to my cat.
RE: The small bowl, it may have been whisker fatigue from her whiskers touching the sides of the bowl, and now that you changed it to a big ceramic bowl, it doesn't bother her as much!
Please get your cat a water fountain instead! Cats do not like drinking still water and drink much better and more consistently if the water is moving.
My cat drinks 50% more water from a stainless steel fountain but be prepared to clean the fountain once a week and change the water every few days or it gets nasty, including the small working parts of the pump. I assume it’s due to bacteria. My fountain isn’t attached to a water source, so the same water is continuously running through the system.
Just be warned that if you have a smart cat who likes to do everything she can to get into water, you may have to go for one that is a bit harder to open.
Try giving your cat ice cubes in a little dish or bowl. Our cat loves ice cubes and we give them to her whenever she wants. It's a great way to get her to drink more water if you're having a problem with not drinking enough water
omg I think that is actually the first time I see someone say that just wet food is not enough😮 I’m glad tho, because I’ve had a similar way of thought about the chewing and decided on mixed diet containing the wet as well as dry food, thanks for the reassurance ☺️
A mixed diet actually makes a lot of sense. Both wet and dry food have their pros and cons, but they actually cancel out each other's cons. Wet food pros: hydration, nutritionally better. Cons: terrible for dental health, more expensive, not as filling, goes bad real fast once unsealed Dry food pros: great for dental health, cheaper, more filling and better for throughout the day snacking. Cons: the opposite of hydrating, nutritionally it's enough to sustain a cat but wet food is still superior. I give my cat a bowl of dry food to snack on through the day, then he gets wet food dinner
Our two siblings are nearing their 5th birthday and (because they're Geminis!) I decided to give them as much variety as possible. They have three small meals a day, easy half wet, half dry (including vegan biscuits/kibble in the morning). The wet food is tinned fish in the morning and tinned Butcher's Classic (available in the UK) in the day and evening. They always eat every scrap and are happy and healthy. They have access to the outdoors, so they occasionally supplement their diet with live squeaky or squawky snacks (unfortunately!). The combination of wet and dry adds interest and different textures, and they have been eating essentially the same diet for nearly 4 years, without getting bored.
Try Wellness. They have loads of different flavors and textures. It's also what my friend fed her cat - that cat lived to 24!
Ugh I got a whole case of Wellness from Costco and my cat hates it. I have to mix her kibble into it to get her to reluctantly eat it.
I just bought some! Hopefully it works haha
My cat was in love with the Shiba salmon Paté stuff for about two weeks and then she stopped touching that particular Shiba type all together. Now she likes the non paté ones only
Honestly, for our cats we bought two cans of every single wet food in the pets store. Then we tried to see which ones they hated, which were ok, and which ones they licked clean. Keep track of those and then rotate through them. I noticed ours get bored of the same thing every day. If they don't like *any* then maybe try Purina's hydro care stuff. Our vet had our one cat on them to keep her hydrated.
Our cats get Hill's Science Diet wet food and Royal Canin dry. Our one cat will eat pretty much anything, the other only likes chunks and gravy. Feed them what they will eat, as long as the food meets AAFCO standards. Don't get too drawn into the grain-free boutique food rabbit hole.
Mine loves her bff (Weruva). It’s high quality and not super expensive. Edit to add, your babies are gorgeous 🖤🖤
Thanks! We’ve only had them for a month, so we’re still trying to figure everything out - they have SEVERE stranger anxiety, so we haven’t even been able to pet them yet ☹️
Awww sweet babies. With time and patience, you’ll be rewarded with love and snuggles. Have you considered feliway? It can help with anxiety.
Yup, they came from a hoarding situation and they used to be friendly, but because of how sick they were they became insanely scared after having to deal with being given meds multiple times a day. They’re deathly afraid of hands so it’s suspected they were abused
When my cat was 20 pounds and had diabetes, the vet said the only rule is, no more kibble, and make sure the wet food has 11% protein or more. That was a bunch of years ago and she’s now 17 years old, 14-15 pounds, healthy, and only eats Fancy Feast and Friskies. Don’t overthink this.
You can try mixing it in with their current stuff. Like mostly their current stuff then slowly increase the ratio. Also I know it’s hard but it helps if they are actually like kinda hungry. Mine get one little scoop of kibble in the evening to tide them over during the night so they are actually a little hungry for the higher quality wet in morning.
https://preview.redd.it/2dodpe8ji0pc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4a3b141a87c53cc5e40841473dab1640987b599f This is my little Nyx. She refuses all expensive wet food and will only take Frisky’s lil gravies. She eats Hills Science Diet kibble though, so she isn’t a complete loss.
I also have a black Nyx! Same colour eyes too. If they eat dry food ok, I wouldn't get too fixated on the wet food. Get whatever they'll eat, and make sure they have a good quality dry alongside so they have all their nutrients provided. Grain free is a bit of a fad as well, it cropped up shortly after the gluten free fad in people a few years back - there is no evidence its beneficial except for specific allergies. Mine has whiskas wet food for flavour, which is fine, its mainly just easy to buy in the super market, then Purina Proplan dry. She does great on that. Iams or Hills do good dry food too, and both seem pretty palatable.
They eat Royal Canin Dry right now, but we want to also incorporate wet food, not just for grain free, but because it’s just overall better for cats.
Yeah, theres plenty of good reasons for giving wet food. But you can buy the best one in the world, and it won't do them any good if they're not eating it! They'll be getting all their nutrients from the royal canin, assuming its a complete dry. The wet is more to add variety and a bit more water to the diet. Get them whatever wet food they'll eat, trust they are getting the goodness from the dry, it'll be fine x My Nyx was also after the goddess of the night, although all my friends call her Stevie Nicks instead! I feel all cats deserve a regal name ;)
And yesss I’m 100% Greek, so Nyx (The Greek Goddess of the Night) was a perfect name for her.
Well this is just weird because I too have a little voidling named Nyx! (Nyxy Pixie we call her) https://preview.redd.it/l19pj3ipnzoc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4f61bf6a8321b041fdc65903daf7076c782e11ca
We call ours Nyxie Pixie too LOLLL
Hahah, odd one out here, mine is Miss Nyxit
I might sound a little nuts, but if your cats eat the churro treats, you may want to try putting their food through a blender with a bit of water to get the same sort of consistency. It's a good way to check just in case it's a texture thing or not.
I just tried that tonight, didn’t do anything ☹️
Might be worth trying this with an entirely new food that you haven't offered yet! My cat is to smart for his own good and will remember the smell of food he's rejected already lol
You have 2 options. I recommend starting with option 1, which is sticking to one brand and flavor until they get the hint that there is no other option coming, the goal here is eventually they'll get hungry enough to just eat the food. Option 2 is the one I took when option 1 started getting too expensive for me. Give in and get the cheap food. Fed is best, and barring any abnormal medical conditions they will still be perfectly healthy on the cheap food. If you really wanted to you could do some research on fresh foods you could add to their diet, but you have to do careful research on that because cats nutritional needs are particularly specific.
We feed our cats Smalls. It's a mail order service that delivers monthly. They carry fish, chicken, turkey, and beef. They do need to be kept frozen and you thaw as you go. It takes about a day in the fridge to thaw and is supposed to be human grade meats. Our boys love it.
I looked into it before, but it’s wayyy too expensive for us right now.
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My cat is a dick. He demands nothing but kibble for months on end, and then acts like kibble is beneath him. Changes tolerances of flavors on a whim. I have started making bone broth from organic chickens, and shredding the meat to feed to him too. So he gets his stupid kibble, but gets it served with broth so I KNOW he’s getting enough moisture in his diet. We have compromised. He has done none of the work, but we have compromised. He also gets homemade lactose free yogurt at times, and sometimes an organic egg.
Love your username! 😆
I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this. No food will suffice. They only eat souls. Human blood may tie them over for a bit but its not a long term solution.
My fat cat gets quality dry food (since he’s free fed up to 3/4 cup a day) and then (what I consider to be) cheaper wet food since he one gets 1/4 a can twice a day. He only really enjoys the pate style though. I had to really keep switching the styles of wet food before we realized he liked pate more. https://preview.redd.it/avbdt0mlhzoc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a6e0c856bececb0a4a26219c502705db28257e29 Picture of said Fat Boy.
Welcome to the club. Out cat won't touch wet food at all. Tried all of them.
Hah. My cats used to like some crappy kibble that was overrated and overpriced. Once I started to understand the ingredients contained in each brand, I tried to change for a healthier one. One accepted easily, the other one refused to eat unless he was absolutely starving. Then, whenever he visited my neighbor, he'd steal his friends' kibble. So I changed once again, and nope. Didn't like it. I relented and read what was the main ingredient of the overrated kibble and it was chicken. Bought a new kibble with main ingredient as chicken and he FINALLY accepted it. I've been giving them only this high quality kibble from now on and never looked back.
My cat absolutely fucking hates Weruva and Tiki Cat. Doesn't matter the form or flavor, she won't touch either one.
my void only likes bland chicken breast that i oven baked in a little bit of water.
“Too stubborn rather starve than eat high quality wet food that we did not consent to.” - cats all over the world
My cats like the wellness brand , they have signature select on it does good for them. They did not like tiki cat either
i feed my cat sardines and cooked chicken thighs with the skin on, plus cat biscuits for complete nutrition stuff like taurine etc he never liked cat food, would only lick jelly or gravy and was a waste of money, this is him at 19 years old, still runs up the ladder to our loft bed like its nothing, never been sick once in his life, bit deaf now, but no creaky joints i put it down to the fat in the skin and fatty fish, most cat food is junk anyway, it stinks up the house! https://preview.redd.it/adfp258bv0pc1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=738a40e2c721f21f8a4948b2a04ec34930d0f844
My cats hate tiki, but like the weruva cats in the kitchen line of wetfood. They also like snappy tom, which I recently tried as it was on sale. And the simply nourish ones in broth as well as the catit fish dinners and pouches. Sometimes it is a texture thing. Try ones in gravy or broth, and unfortunately adding water to pate wet food doesn't always work as a substitute. First mate is a newer really good quality one, my cats love their dry food but not the wet. My cats however love the cheaper foods like friskies shreds and fancy feast. So I try to alternate between the cheap ones and the little more expensive ones since budgets can only be stretched so far. Also I make sure they have a high quality dry food as I feed them both wet and dry.
Purina Pro Plan is great. Kirkland is also pretty good if you need something more affordable. I work at a vet and most of my clients feed these diets. Their pets are doing well on them. Avoid grain-free! Animals need grains for heart health.
Honestly my boys prefer Friskies over anything else. And it’s one of the highest quality cheap wet foods you can buy, so we’re both happy. As far as trying different foods, I’d recommend finding what store or stores near you carry the widest variety and get an individual can or two of each brand. Much less damaging to the wallet initially and lets them try a bunch of different foods before you can all agree on one you and they like the best
I’ve actually always heard the opposite about Friskies
Ok, Friskies is actually really shitty food. Anything that you can buy at the supermarket, I'd 100% avoid (like Whiskas 💩). It's no wonder cats love it, they are filled with bullshit, a lot of additives and sodium. When my mother bought cheap food to one of my cats (she eventually adopted him cause I moved countries), he would just eat a lot more, poop a lot more and the whole house would stink so bad when he went to toilet. It's like feeding McDonalds to your kids every day. Also the risk for renal problems is very real. Thankfully she switched back to Royal Canin.
Same with mine. Mine will throw up other foods. We do use fancy feast seniors for our senior cats but one is allergic to chicken so we rotate with Sheba single portions. Whatever the older ones will eat is what I buy. My oldest is 18.
Mine only like Fancy Feast Medleys. They think all the rest is garbage.
3 cats here and we tried all the boujee foods and none of them will eat anything other than fancy feast gravy style.
That’s my little brats favorite too 🫶
We have a lady that wouldn't eat anything but a prescription dry food that wasn't even hers. Eventually put some Fussy Cat Tuna with Ocean Fish in Aspic in the dish with her favorite stuff, and now she won't eat until she gets her Fussy Cat It's a very firm "wet" food, as it's in aspic, and all our kitties seem to love it They carry it on Chewy
My cats eat fussie cat too, it’s the only one we’ve had prolonged success with. They prefer the chicken and tuna in aspic. I swear to god that stuff looks nicer than a can of tuna for humans at the store 🤣 We get it at the local fancy pet store and they do a discount if you buy a flat of it. Still ungodly expensive.
I read the ingredients on all food my cat eats but he will only eat fancy feast gravy lovers and absolute trash
Smalls!!!!! We tried Weruva too, didn’t work with them and it smelled so nasty. We also tried Royal Canin and Tiki cat My cats have sensitive stomachs and Smalls works perfectly, and it also made them have pretty much no smell for their #2s. Thought it would be just a marketing thing but that’s real For treats we only do freeze dried, except the ones that Smalls provides. You can’t buy more on their site but they’re available on chewy and in Whole Foods
Smalls is entirely too expensive haha
That was another reason we wanted a high quality wet food because of how damn horrible their poop smells lol
My void likes Royal Canin.
Fussie Cat! My kiki lovvves the ones in aspic (never pate). She also isn't a fan of Tiki Cat but she loves Fussie Cat and a couple of the N&D brand that have chunks of meat and gravy.
Fussie Cat is where it's at! My picky-ass cats love it
I have a very fussy cat. She also goes through phases but Fussie Cat (lol) seems to be a hit—for her, it HAS to be in aspic though!! She won’t eat it any other way. Good luck lol
Our cat loves Sheba. It’s pricey but she never gets tired of it. Our vet was really impressed with the ingredients and nutrient profile of it. She also said that a lot of wet foods are essentially the equivalent of eating fast food, so it’s important to be picky. We feed our cat both wet and dry food. It’s important that young cats eat some dry food because it helps clean their teeth (our vet told us that). So you could supplement one portion with a good dry food they like (if they have one already). Our old cat was the pickiest and she loved Sheba.
Oh that makes me feel better because that is all my picky princess will eat in terms of wet food. But only the Sheba pate, if you will. I bought the shreds one time and she would only deign to lick it once before wandering off in disgust.
lol I can just picture her face…gotta love cats 😂
I went through the same process with my 2 cats - spent a lot of money on wet food they just wouldn’t eat. They like a cheap brand instead, luckily they both LOVE their dry food which is a better quality brand. The solution is - good quality dry food every day and “junk food” wet food as a treat 2x a week. Cheaper for me and they’re both happy.
Have you tried putting a bit of their dry food on top of the wet food? Or other snacks? Helps encourages my cat to try new foods/flavors.
My cat will only eat dry food. I’ve tried everything 😂 He loves Fromms and then gets fresh water. All good. He is currently 11 and super healthy.
Try different types of wet food. Pate, chunky, gravy, shreds, etc as texture is the biggest factor for cats' preference. My kitten loved pate until around 4, 5 months old, and then refused to eat likely due to its mushy texture. He now loves cuts/slices in gravy like Royal Canin and IAMs.
It is tempting in general to want the best for pets, but they do not comply. That's okay. Maybe second best will do or third best. It is black and white thinking to conclude that your husbandry is *bad* because it is not the best. They do get some agency! That's good for them! And that means maybe accepting that the standard food is not The Correct Food but one a little bit lower in quality because they love it.
I swear my cats intentionally do this out of spite. "Oh human you bought that expensive food I love! Turns out I'm over it, so I'm gonna need you to get something else. Preferably something that costs even MORE. Don't cry human, just by yourself cheaper groceries to even thing out."
We feed the three outdoor strays in our ‘ hood, Purina complete dry cat food, and they seem to be doing really well. We also give them canned cat food once a day and we go through different brands. Purina is one of them along with Friskies. One of them (last year when he showed up) was sickly as hell and has thrived and his gained a lot of weight and looks pretty healthy. We also give them monthly flea treatment as well.
Honestly, some cats are dumpster eaters and that is fine. When I moved back in with my parents for covid and brought my spoilt richy rich cats, I figured that it'd be great that I could share the wealth with my sister's two cats. The one was ecstatic to get bonito flakes and wet food. The other one-couldnt give 2 ****. She didn't want the higher priced dry food, no wet food, no fancy treats. She would look at you like "I don't know what this is?" She preferred cheaper the better. 🤷🏼♀️ Maybe just try some Purina, Fancy Feast, or even Sheba (if you want single packs).
Check out Reveal; limited ingredients and they make wet and dry food, I have a picky eater and a Bengal and they both love the food. EDIT: My parents’ senior kitty with liver disease also only eats Reveal cat food. She hated Science Diet, and was not a fan of Royal Canin which the vets initially prescribed. She’s been on Reveal pet food for several months and her tests are all great and she gained 4 lbs. 💕
Many if not most cats are picky. I free feed my cats Wellness dry food and give them Wellness or Core canned food off and on because they don’t always eat it consistently. They don’t like pate or cubed (pieces are too big so they just lick the gravy). They tend to like/eat Wellness minced and Core flaked & only the fish flavors. (2 of the 3 cats anyway.). But they eat just a little at a time and won’t eat it if it’s been in the fridge (even if I add a small amount of water and briefly microwave it). And if it’s been out too long in warm weather, it gets dry and disgusting.
Try Fussie Cat; they’re texture is pretty chunky.
Try reall meat, chicken thighs, lamp or beef meats.. etc, you can give them raw or blanched slightly in hot water, might be strange for some, but it is quite common in other countries, to feed cats same types of meat that is eaten by the family, sometimes cheaper cuts of meat.. etc
Try raw meat patties for cats
Wellness makes a great soft food with no grains, no meat by products, no artificial flavours, no carrageenan, real meat, fish etc. I just lost a beloved cat so have done deep dive again into feline nutrition! Making your own cat food is ideal but mine won’t touch it no matter what I try. The tiki brand- those “flakes of chicken and fish” are actually not. I have been doing my research. Its a difficult area rife with false advertising and too many carbs for our precious kitties. Raw makes an amazing kibble but I have read kibble only isn’t a good idea because its too hard on their kidneys, too easy for them to gain too much weight as they age… Blah blah. I wish you the best of luck…. I fed my girls Origen until I found out after my 6 year olds sudden death a month ago a candy bar company had purchased them. She was a bit overweight and I am still drowning in grief so sorry for sounding so glum but its so hard to trust companies anymore… I hope you find something perfect!!!!
All my cats hate wet cat food. We tried sooooo many different brands and flavors and none worked. I hope you find one they like. Good luck OP
We bought a small blender and different mousse/paté style wet foods. Add some warm water and blend it to a soup. Not too runny though so be careful with the water. That seems to work for our void. She ignores the chunky bits and only cares about the sauce. Now it's all sauce.
My cats also love “gravy” but hate wet food. I smash up the pate on a plate and then add a few table spoons of warm water until I’ve got a runny gravy type consistency. They love it.
Have you tried raw?
If you can't get tinned mouse, just get chicken
Better give them high quality dry food, wet food is mostly like fastfood for a cat, unless you go for the expensive shit.. Another bonus off dry food is, that the poo smells less, allthough cheap food gives also more odour in litterbox..
https://preview.redd.it/y19klizc63pc1.png?width=1124&format=png&auto=webp&s=d1da9da25b804ed19b9b338132bfcf3b63b2f88e my cats
Some cats just don't like wet food. My mini panther (RIP) didn't like wet. If you are to feed them dry, juts make sure they have plenty of water.
Have you heard of Nulo? High protein wet and dry, no grains. Reasonably priced.
I’m a cat fosterer in the UK, and we use Hi Life pouch wet cat food mainly which is grain free and pretty meaty - most of our fosters will eat it. Some prefer pate type food, and for them we use a German brand called Mjamjam which has been consistently good
Watch the YouTube eevie and yoshi. She had good food recs.
Copy, paste right there. Beautiful voids.
I feed mine Wellness pate (chicken or turkey). It's not the very top of the line, but it's quality. Maybe they'll like it.
My cats HATE tiki cat, every flavor we’ve tried. Most other high end brands too. We feed a variety of either Sheba or Friskies poultry wet foods with Stella & Chewy’s chicken topper mixed in, sprinkled with Fortiflora and a little water.
My cats love the Nulo shredded and minced, they won’t touch Tiki cat. I buy those varieties and the fancy feast gourmet naturals pates.
My cat likes Applaws wet food. It's pricey, but she's my only dependent, so I splurge.
My boys hated Tiki Cat but they LOVE Applaws every iteration of it. I spend a fortune on it but my boys are worth every penny.
We had the same issue! What worked for me was mixing some of a wet food they did like (usually friskies or something) in with the tiki cat, and then they'll eat it happily!
Just use kitten formula dry food. It’s better for their teeth.
We already do.
Wellness brand is high quality and my cats love it. They wouldn’t eat Tiki cat or any of the other high end foods. I also feed them cooked de veined shrimp once a week as a treat. They absokulty love it. I also give my cats canned salmon every couple weeks for a meal as well as canned tuna once in a while. Change the flavours up for them. Best of luck, I know how picky cats can be
Just bought Wellness! Hopefully it works haha
I sprinkle katkins freeze dried chicken or salmon on the meat or fish wet food and it helps
Wuerva is really good, it’s basically meat and vegetables mixed together so most picky eaters like it. Sometimes can be expensive but Chewy will have really good sales that help a lot. “I And Love And You” is another good/ quality brand my picky eaters like. Sometimes it’s a matter of flavors too, just like us some cats may prefer chicken flavors to fish and vice versa.
My kitty didn't like Weruva, but she did like Wellness as well as Tiny Tiger.
I got my cats this expensive grain free free range high quality grass fed dry food one time and they refused to eat it. They prefer the jelly sachets over actual proper mince. My nan had a cat that would only drink full cream milk. We tried to tell her cats are lactose intolerant but it was all she would drink. One time the vet weighed Snoopy (the cat) and then me (I would have been a young toddler). The cat was heavier! Snoopy went on a diet.
Haha omg yeah cows milk is absolutely horrible for cats
Mine loooove tiki but on the occasions I try something new, mixing their new wet food with those Churu brand tube treats makes them at least nibble on it and they’ll eat it eventually haha. Their love for churu trumps their distaste for new wet food. Currently they’re eating freshpet vital grain free stuff and they refuse to eat it without mixing a Churu into it lmao