# Picky cat won't eat high quality wet food. Any advice?



## RowdyAndMalley (Aug 9, 2010)

Our flamepoint siamese has never been a great eater. For the first two weeks we had him (he was probably only a month old at the time), he ate Friskies Indoor wet food and ate it very well. Once we found out about the low quality of this cat food, we started buying Wellness kitten, and although he would eat it, he wasn't as eager as he was with the Friskies. Over time, he didn't want it anymore at all. We then switched to Innova Evo, and he ate that very well for about a week, and then stopped wanting it altogether. Since then, we have tried almost every brand of high quality cat food there is, and he will take a few bites and then walk away. Sometimes he will even act like he is burying it by scratching his paws on the carpet. 

Two weeks ago we adopted our Tortie from a local rescue. Unlike our boy, she will eat almost anything and will, in many cases, lick the plate clean when she is done. 

The other day, we bought some Friskies Turkey and Cheese and we were surprised by how well both cats ate it. I haven't seen him eat like this in a long time. Both cats have access to dry food all day long, and they both like Chicken Soup for the Kitten Lover's Soul, which is a good quality dry food from what I've read. However, when it comes to wet food, our boy just seems to crave the low quality stuff. 

So what should I do? I'm guessing he is just bored with the typical chicken flavored cat foods, but doesn't seem to like the other flavors too much either. I like the price of the Friskies and the fact that he eats it so well, but I don't like that we are feeding him low quality food. We tried some Petsmart Authority brand, which seems like a middle ground between the really high quality stuff (Innova) and the Purina line. I just gave them both the Authority chicken recipe and she loved it, he took a few bites and walked away. 

Any advice? Thanks in advance.


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## swimkris (Jul 17, 2010)

I can't tell exactly from this, but are you switching flavors, textures, etc. from day to day? My kittens are not too picky about the type of food they eat, but they will not eat the same food two days in a row. My grandmother's cat is also like this. 

I don't remember what thread it was from, but I think some people here suggested watering food down into a soupy mixture because cat's like the "gravy" consistency.


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## RowdyAndMalley (Aug 9, 2010)

Oddly enough, they don't seem to like really watery food, and prefer the chunky consistency of Friskies and other brands. 

We are basically just trying out different foods right now to see what they like and don't like.


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## swimkris (Jul 17, 2010)

RowdyAndMalley said:


> Oddly enough, they don't seem to like really watery food, and prefer the chunky consistency of Friskies and other brands.
> 
> We are basically just trying out different foods right now to see what they like and don't like.


I guess that's about all you can do! If they like chunky, would it be conceivable to give them raw or cooked meat chunks? A lot of people here could give you directions, recipes, etc.


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## love4himies (Nov 12, 2009)

Take the free feeding of kibble away, it is not good for them anyways. Munching on kibble makes kitties not hungry enough to eat what doesn't smell good to them. The pet food companies (except the higher quality ones) care only about getting your cat to eat so owners will keep buying it, not whether it is good for them. I call the cheap food: hotdogs with a vitamin pill added, lol.

Think of your kitties as children. If they are given the choice to eat cupcakes or fresh veggies, what would they pick? What would you make them eat being the mother? If they were munching on chips all day, are they going to eat their dinner, something that may not be their favourite? Probably not, or just pick at it.

My cats won't eat Wellness. They did at one time, then stopped. The cat food I had the best luck with was Nature's Variety Instinct, canned. They also get home made raw. It has more flavours than Wellness so I can go a few days without repeating flavours.


Do you warm it up for a few seconds in the microwave and mix it around to get any hot spots mixed in?


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## RowdyAndMalley (Aug 9, 2010)

Thanks for the input, we will take away the dry food and see if that helps. He was picky even before we introduced the dry food though.

Here is what we have tried so far, this isnt a complete list because we cant remember everything .

Wellness kitten
Wellness chicken
Wellness turkey
Wellness core oceanfish
Wellness core chicken

Natural Balance indoor
NB ultra
NB duck and pea
NB oceanfish

Castor and Pollux Chicken and Veggie dinner

Innova Evo Chicken
Innova

BG chicken
BG tuna

BFF chicken and Tuna

Nutro Max cat Kitten
Nutro max cat chicken and tuna
Nutro natural choice chicken
Nutro natural choice salmon

Chicken Soup for the Kitten lovers soul

Felidae GF Salmon
Felidae chicken

None of these were a hit they smell them and try to bury them and walk away..... so now we are resorting to "hotdog" varieties, which we HATE, but they need to eat.... We do microwave the food when it has been refridgerated, but if it is a fresh can that has not yet been refridgerated we leave it be.


Any more ideas would be very much appreciated.


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## swimkris (Jul 17, 2010)

Stuff a few pieces of their dry food into/under the moist food. They will have to eat their veggies to get to the cupcakes


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## love4himies (Nov 12, 2009)

RowdyAndMalley said:


> Thanks for the input, we will take away the dry food and see if that helps. He was picky even before we introduced the dry food though.
> 
> Here is what we have tried so far, this isnt a complete list because we cant remember everything .
> 
> ...


I have one of those types of kitties, hahaha.

I had many, many tears trying to get Puddles to change from her "hotdog" food to Wellness, then on to Nature's Variety Instinct, then onto raw. I thought she was going to starve herself. I actually had to throw out all the kibble I had in the house because if she could smell it, she would sit in front of the cabinet where it was kept wanting at it.

If you can find NV Instinct, I would give it a try. I personally like it better than Wellness because it doesn't have any potatoes in it, just a bit of peas and carrots.

Nature's Variety Instinct: Grain-Free Canned Diets for Cats | Nature's Variety

There is another canned food that is for treats only, not nutritionally complete, but may make your cats eat the canned you chose if you mix it.

It is called Almo Nature. I think it is made in the UK. I can actually hide a pill in it and my feral will eat it , I know the trickery I have to play, just evil, lol.




You can also try Real Food Toppers, they are freezed dried meat that you can pulverize and sprinkle on top. That was my life saver to get Puddles converted.
100% Natural and Organic Pet Treats- Complete Natural Nutrition - Natural Pet Treats- Complete Natural Nutrition


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## marie73 (Jul 12, 2006)

You might want to try Merrick. It comes in lots of flavors and it has chunks and pieces, not pate.


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## RowdyAndMalley (Aug 9, 2010)

We have a can of Merrick sitting in our cupboard to try... we will give it a shot. 

Our Local pet food store gave us some free samples of wild kitty and stella and cheweys which is raw so we will give that a shot.

When he was eating the wellness kitten we did mix in chicken breast and he seemed to love that. We may go back to that.


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## Susan (Mar 29, 2010)

I have an almost identical problem with my two girls, who I'm about to rename Finicky and Pernickety. They were eating a high-quality wet food, but it was fish flavoured and I have had no luck trying to get them off fish-flavoured food. On top of which, the sole pet store in our area no longer carries this their favourite food. I have tried every food you've mentioned and then some. The only luck I've had thus far is with Merrick's plus trickery. The trickery involves a treat called Pure Bites, which is a freeze-dried chicken treat. The only ingredient is chicken, so it's very healthy. The treats also crumble very easily between your fingers. So, I crumble up a Pure Bites treat (resulting in little freeze-dried chicken flakes) and sprinkle it on top of the food. This technique works for one of my cats (Muffin aka Finicky). I'm still working on Pernickety...so I will be reading this thread with interest!


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## RowdyAndMalley (Aug 9, 2010)

*Anyone no anything about the Authority Brand....*

...sold at PetsMart? we bought a few cans of this today, because it does not have any of the definite no-no's of the cheap stuff, and our cats seemed to love it. Anyone have any experience with this. We are keeping our fingers crossed as it seems to be a hit and it is cheap!


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