I have a very picky but beautiful, adorable, loving and pretty much perfect Maine Coon. He has a super sensitive palate. He will eat certain types of canned food only (particularly Wellness) but is lot/batch specific. In other words he will also eat food from a certain batch (i.e. certain expiry date on the cans) but there are times when he will refuse to eat the same food that has a different expiry date on it. And he's consistent with this. So I have to keep a file on my my phone with the dates on the cans that he eats and those that he doesn't when I go shopping. The problem I am running into now is that the only cans that are in the store are those that he won't eat and I'm getting close to running out of food for him. Any suggestions as to what I can do? I only give him chicken or rabbit. He's never had fish so I don't want to try that now. And when I sprinkle Fortiflora on the food that he doesn't like, he just looks at me and scowls. Thanks...
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(Another) picky kitty question
- Thread starter david23
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I don't know the sequencing of the expiry dates, but it almost sounds like they have changed something about the ingredients, and he is picking up on that. If you have some cans from the ones he will eat and the ones he won't, compare the ingredients in them. If you see there has been a change, then you will know. Look for other brands that match as closely as possible to the ones he likes.
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- #3
Thank you. He does this with all the food on his "will eat" list i.e. not only Wellness but also Purina EssentialCare and Rayne. So I suspect it's not an ingredient issue; he would be an excellent Quality Officer Cat for a pet food company.
I cannot imagine that a number of different foods have all changed ingredients, so not sure if the expiry dates have anything to do with it, even though it seems like they do. If not that, then he might need a larger rotation of food. My cat has to have about 10 different foods rotated in order to keep her eating them. I could never give her the same food two days in a row.
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- #5
I know it isn't really funny, but sometimes cats are just plain difficult to satisfy with their foods. Aside from that, I presume your cat has had a thorough check up and blood work to ensure there isn't something else going on besides just being picky? My cat is older and has multiple health conditions which I am sure attribute to her pickiness.
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- #7
I think that your MC might be detecting something "off" in the different batches. Because of the numerous reasons that an animal is sent off to "the factory" and also variations in how long the base proteins are stored, the scents in the different batches will vary. My budget allows only cheaper brands and discounted premium brands so sometimes there are batches of wet food that are rejected by some.of my crew and some that's rejected by cats AND skunks and, on rare occasions, refused even by raccoons!
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- #9
Food issues can be very difficult to figure out. I tried everything. I knew peas were an issue. I figured out brewers yeast was a no go.Yet she was still vomiting a lot and it was increasing.She has heath issues so I thought that could be part of it as FeebyOwner mentioned. Finally, did a consult with a Nutritional Vet. Who asked me if I tried eliminating all gums not just some. This is is a very very weird one to be sure, but appears to be the cause as she has not vomited food in a long time. Every cat is different and there are many ingredients so its a challenge.Also as mentioned very important to rule out potential medical issues via test or blood first. As he is a breed have you into what health issues are more common in Maine Coon cats?
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My cat has this same problem. Our cats should start their own food company.
The only thing I can suggest is that once you know a certain "Best By..." batch is a big hit with him, to race back to the store and buy out all of that batch. This is what I have to do, lol. In the long run, I actually save money by having the most reliable batches stocked up.
I likely could return the batches that were scoffed at by my cat, but that can be a pain. I save them and donate them to shelters and the Humane Society.
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It is not entirely reliable, you are dealing with Sellers you do not know so you must make sure the food is packaged as it should be — but I have occasionally found past batches of a well-liked cat food when searching on Ebay. It's hit or miss. But if you are in your current dilemma, you might take a look. You can converse with the Sellers, too, and ask them the dates/batch numbers. If they are not on the up-and-up with you, don't buy from them. Be picky, as your cat would be.
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- #14
Any kind of well loved treat that you could mix in/top off with that might convince him to give new food a go?
Ours is a kibble junky (he only gets wet food, huge variety to keep him interested) so when we need to convince him to try something new, a little crushed up kibble mixed into the new wet will almost always work to at least get him to consider expanding his palate.
Ours is a kibble junky (he only gets wet food, huge variety to keep him interested) so when we need to convince him to try something new, a little crushed up kibble mixed into the new wet will almost always work to at least get him to consider expanding his palate.
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Yes, it would be a total desperation move only.
