Anyone Using Food Topper On Wet Food For Picky Eaters?

[Frank123]

I usually order a variety of food in brands and flavors for my currently 9 month old to try out online. One of the foods I got her was Wellness Core Salmon Whitefish and Herring which she would not eat. I don't think it's necessarily the flavor because she loves Fancy Feast and will eat the seafood variety of that brand.
The problem is that I'm stuck with a case of 24 5 oz cans. I know that people usually use food topping for dry food, but I'm thinking about using some on the canned food she doesn't care for. I see that Fancy Feast makes a topping that comes in Salmon and Whitefish flavor. I was thinking of purchasing some and adding it to the food she doesn't like.
Anyone else have any luck by getting a picky eater to eat using food topping?

 

[Kieka]

I actually just tried that exact thing last night. Rocket gave me the "what were you thinking?" look. But, your results may vary.

If you bought the food through Chewy call the customer service and explain what happened. They gave me a full refund when that happened to me. If it's a big box stores, the physical location may let you refund them as individuals cans if they sell them that way. Any online only retailer it doesn't hurt to call.

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi - there are other toppers as well, let me get the list;
either on top of wet food or mixed in, and also in addition such as with the liquids;

• Chicken or beef flavored baby food - make sure it doesn't contain any garlic or onions

• Tuna and/or the juice

• Salmon

• Sardines (make sure there are no bones)

• boiled cut up chicken or turkey with no seasonings - this might be the thing to put on or in wet food

• kitten food - it's usually smelly. See if it's eaten on its own, then mix it in or put on top

• Try mixing in Kitten Milk Replacer - there are recipes on the internet

• Fish, tuna or BBQ flavored canned wet food (I personally have never seen BBQ flavors, but...)

• Lickable cat treats or pouch treat gravy poured over the food

• Pouch cat foods - these typically have more gravy

also Nutri Cal for when it is an urgent situation of the cat not eating

• goat milk, or low/no lactose cow milk
• whole cooked eggs (both yolk and white)
• broth with no salt and no garlic or onion or seasonings of any kind

 

[duckpond]

I have donated so many cases of food to the shelters, and friends My cats will not eat wellness either, any of the flavors. sometimes i can crumble their dry chicken breast treats, pure bites, on top of a new food and they will try it, other times nope, not eating it.

If i order online i like to use places that sell individual cans, unless its something i know my cats like.

Canned Food for Cats at Only Natural Pet Store
Search results for "cat food"

i like both of these online retailers for trying things

 

[laura mae]

I use Cat Man Doo Life Essentials freeze dried chicken as a topper. It crumbles really nicely. I have also used Purina Fortiflora as a topper. It's a probiotic but for me it is more about getting a cat to eat their food. You can buy it from your vet or Chewys or Amazon.

 

[Kat0121]

I usually order a variety of food in brands and flavors for my currently 9 month old to try out online. One of the foods I got her was Wellness Core Salmon Whitefish and Herring which she would not eat. I don't think it's necessarily the flavor because she loves Fancy Feast and will eat the seafood variety of that brand.
The problem is that I'm stuck with a case of 24 5 oz cans. I know that people usually use food topping for dry food, but I'm thinking about using some on the canned food she doesn't care for. I see that Fancy Feast makes a topping that comes in Salmon and Whitefish flavor. I was thinking of purchasing some and adding it to the food she doesn't like.
Anyone else have any luck by getting a picky eater to eat using food topping?

Oh yes. We use toppers. Usually Pure Bites but I also use dry food (we use Petcurean GO! Fit & Free. Dry food is not a normal part of their diet) or cooked chicken or turkey (unseasoned). My cats are SO picky. I often mix foods like pate with shreds/cubed, minced, etc so they get 2 textures in one meal. I also will mix flavors. This makes the meal more interesting. I find that they will most often reject a food right after I buy a case of it (of course) so what I do is shelve it and reintroduce it at a later time. That works. Wellness makes the cubed/sliced and minced flavors that mine really like with pates They especially like the chicken and turkey varieties. I ordered a case of something from Amazon once and was concerned that they would not like it so I did an online chat with them. The rep was super nice and told me that while they normally do not take back opened cases of pet food, she hinted that if I told them that it was "bad" they would give me a refund. They ended up liking it so it was not an issue. Good luck. I understand your pain. I don't even want to think about how many cans of food I have had to toss because the diva sisters refused to eat them. It would make me cry.

 

[bonepicker]

I only feed whole earth farms duck or beef pate and Soulistic chicken dinner and Merrick rabbit pate. I always top meals with purebites freeze dried chicken. I buy large $20 bag more economical (my dogs love it too). I feed a few bits of kibble for a treat at bedtime, they don’t get it normally just the ferals. I would stay clear of seafood if I were you.

 

[lisahe]

I only feed whole earth farms duck or beef pate and Soulistic chicken dinner and Merrick rabbit pate. I always top meals with purebites freeze dried chicken. I buy large $20 bag more economical (my dogs love it too). I feed a few bits of kibble for a treat at bedtime, they don’t get it normally just the ferals. I would stay clear of seafood if I were you.

This! The bolded part... Even our pickier cat loves Pure Bites. And we also buy the large bags labeled for dogs. Our cat-only vet sells them!

 

[Furballsmom]

Thanks to these smart folks, I got the Big Guy to eat something he wasn't thrilled with, by using purebites.

 

[lisahe]

Furballsmom , I'm glad they work -- Pure Bites are great toppers! I forgot to mention that I also use egg yolk powder on some meals: our pickier cat loves that, too and it's supposed to help prevent hairball formation.

 

[Furballsmom]

oh, I've got to try the egg yolk powder! Thanks ever so much! ...again

 

[lisahe]

oh, I've got to try the egg holk powder! Thanks ever so much! ...again

You are welcome, I hope it works for you! Ireland really loves it so I'm glad to have added it into Cat Catering's repertoire.

I use the powder from the same people that make EZ Complete. I probably should have tried boiling an egg first to see if the cats would eat the yolk on their food -- I admit I'm lucky that they love it!

 

[himawari]

I've never used egg yolk powder as a topper before. lisahe Can you please link me for the product that you use? I normally just do crushed up Pure Bites or Whole Life chickens and sometimes Hundur's Crunch as toppers.

 

[lisahe]

I've never used egg yolk powder as a topper before. lisahe Can you please link me for the product that you use? I normally just do crushed up Pure Bites or Whole Life chickens and sometimes Hundur's Crunch as toppers.

The link is here. I'd always just used Pure Bites, too, but then ordered the egg yolk because one cat vomits sometimes with what I might call borderline hairballs -- they're not quite hairballs but there's just enough hair that it seems to cause stomach irritation. (Apparently there's something called "hair gastritis"! I think that's what Edwina gets. And it's been a bit of a struggle to get her to like being brushed.) Edwina likes the egg yolk just fine (she'll eat anything) but her sister, who's a hesitant eater, goes crazy for it and has been eating better since I started using it. I use the recommended amount for each cat, putting some on their EZ Complete meal and some on their evening freeze-dried meal.

 

[bsett]

I'm so glad I found this site. So much good information. I've just recently brought Coco into my life and home (my previous kitten was over 50 years ago). Having made the decision to be ruled by a kitten I did my homework and made sure that I had some healthy cat food available for her arrival.

I quickly learned that the cost and rating of any given wet or dry food matters little if your cat won't eat it. Pure Bites ground up and used at a topping has allowed me to use many wet cat foods that Coco had previously walked away from.

Coco still doesn't like any of the dried cat food that I have tried although she did eat her IAMS Proactive dry kitten food for the first few weeks.

Would it be okay to use a little crushed up Pure Bites mixed in with the dried food? Is dried cat even really necessary if she eats enough of the wet cat foods?

 

[lisahe]

I'm so glad I found this site. So much good information. I've just recently brought Coco into my life and home (my previous kitten was over 50 years ago). Having made the decision to be ruled by a kitten I did my homework and made sure that I had some healthy cat food available for her arrival.

I quickly learned that the cost and rating of any given wet or dry food matters little if your cat won't eat it. Pure Bites ground up and used at a topping has allowed me to use many wet cat foods that Coco had previously walked away from.

Coco still doesn't like any of the dried cat food that I have tried although she did eat her IAMS Proactive dry kitten food for the first few weeks.

Would it be okay to use a little crushed up Pure Bites mixed in with the dried food? Is dried cat even really necessary if she eats enough of the wet cat foods?

Yes, it's certainly possible to use Pure Bites with dry food but if your kitten's happier eating wet food and it's all balanced (not labeled as supplementary feeding only), why not just feed that? Many of us have very strong preferences for wet food only, so I'd even say Coco's a smart kitten for choosing that. Kittens need lots of good meat protein and she's more likely to get lots of that from wet food than dry food.

As long as you can keep up with her feeding--since kittens need to be fed so much so frequently--with the wet food, go for it! Lots of people do leave some dry food out for kittens during the day since it can be hard to establish a feeding schedule around jobs. One thing you might want to do is aim for high-calorie foods so you can get her plenty of calories with fewer cans. Some foods can be very low-calorie, meaning they don't fill up a kitten for very long.

Good luck!

 

[Tobermory]

One of my three is picky. When she turns up her little pink nose at something I put in front of her, I crumble some bonito flakes on top. I buy the flakes at an Asian market, and they’re really inexpensive. I’ve also used FortiFlora which works but is expensive.

 

[bsett]

Yes, it's certainly possible to use Pure Bites with dry food but if your kitten's happier eating wet food and it's all balanced (not labeled as supplementary feeding only), why not just feed that? Many of us have very strong preferences for wet food only, so I'd even say Coco's a smart kitten for choosing that. Kittens need lots of good meat protein and she's more likely to get lots of that from wet food than dry food.

As long as you can keep up with her feeding--since kittens need to be fed so much so frequently--with the wet food, go for it! Lots of people do leave some dry food out for kittens during the day since it can be hard to establish a feeding schedule around jobs. One thing you might want to do is aim for high-calorie foods so you can get her plenty of calories with fewer cans. Some foods can be very low-calorie, meaning they don't fill up a kitten for very long.

Good luck!

Thanks for the advice. Since I'm usually home most days I think I'll go for all wet since that seems to be what Coco prefers.

One thing I've noticed Coco won't consume a whole can in one session and if I refrigerate the leftovers she doesn't like it served cold. I've been warming the cold leftovers for about 10 seconds in the microwave and that seems to work.

How long before reuse is it okay to leave a 1/2 can of open wet food in a zip lock bag on the counter top so it stays at room temperature?

 

[Frank123]

Thanks to those who recommended PureBites. I purchased a variety of flavors, tuna, salmon, and chicken. This morning I tried mixing the tuna with the Wellness food she doesn't like and she ended up eating everything. Same thing when I fed her again when I got home this evening.

 

[EmmiTemmi]

My cats both like PureBites crumbled on their food, but my picky boy will go absolutely nuts over Instinct Raw Boost Mixers Rabbit for cats crumbled over his food. It was buy one get one free over black friday, so I got a chicken and a rabbit 1oz packet. He insanely prefers the rabbit flavor, and PetSmart had it buy 3 get 1 free recently so I stocked up on the 1 oz packets (which were, like, half the price of the 6oz packets per oz strangely?). Anyway, he loves it on his wet food, especially if he isn't super enthusiastic about whatever flavor wet food I've chosen.