Best Diet For A Picky Kitty

[cryptic]

Hi all!
I have two kitties - a beautiful two year old and a playful six month old.
The younger girl (Java) eats ANYTHING. Probably eats mothballs too. The older girl, Jinx, is super fussy. The only food I've ever gotten her to eat is Royal Canin Savor Sensitive. It's overpriced crap, honestly - totally aware of the brand name price for the low quality ingredients. I tried putting her on Wellness Core and Fromm, with no luck. I even mixed it in with her favorite wet food and some of the Royal Canin - she picked around the Wellness and refused to eat it. Fromm she entirely refused. I've tried a raw diet, that backfired as well.
What are high-quality foods that would be best for a picky eater? She has no known allergies or sensitivities. I will not feed anything like Friskies/Meow Mix/etc., as while I know they're tempting and cheap solutions for a picky eater, they have 0 nutritional value, and I may as well stick to Royal Canin at that point. Money is of no issue here, please help me out.

 

[mizzely]

I have a fussy girl. I have the most luck with her with fish and rabbit flavored foods. Obviously fish isn't ideal long term but the smell is pretty overpowering so I can sometimes mix a sardine into a new food just to get her to try it.

Right now the only thing she's eating without fail is Nature's Variety Rabbit.

 

[cheesycats]

My penny is rather fussy at times. She won’t eat anything twice in a row usually. Her favorites tho are probably pet values brand of performatrin canned stews and the dry. I can feed those multiple days in a row and she always enjoys them. But ultimately for her variety is the spice of life apparently. But I agree I doubt I’d wanna eat the same thing every day either tbh. If money’s not an option just go to all the petstores near you can and try small bags of stuff. Typically a good pet store will offer money back guarantee if your kitty doesn’t like the food. I rotate performatrin, whole earth farms and natures variety chicken raw boost right now as far as dry. They are the only foods I’ve seen her eat with gusto. And with wet right now my kitties are really enjoying tiki cat, performatrin stews, soulistic, and a few pates. But pates arent a big hit around here unfortunately. I also add a bit of warm water to make any food a little more gravy-e.

 

[MissMolly08]

Not sure where you get that Friskies has "0 nutritional value". All cat foods labeled as complete diets have the vitamins/minerals your cat needs... Friskies gravy flavors and such are high in carbs though, yes. Friskies PATE and Fancy Feast CLASSICS are actually decent foods though and are recommended a lot on this board as budget options/options for picky eaters. Friskies PATE has a little rice as the only carb and Fancy Feast classics are actually grain free!

 

[bonepicker]

I think she is talking dry food not wet. I don’t feed dry only wet sorry can’t help

 

[MissMolly08]

I think she is talking dry food not wet. I don’t feed dry only wet sorry can’t help

Ahh, yea... I missed where it said she tried topping wet food. That makes more sense.

 

[MissMolly08]

If she has a favorite wet food, is there a reason you want to keep the dry? It isn't necessary and if you can afford to feed her all wet and she's more willing to eat that, it'd be best for her.

 

[cryptic]

She really likes the dry food, which is why my raw diets backfired. I think she likes the crunch of kibble. Maybe I could try feeding dry AM and a raw/wet PM? Or mixing. I don't know, she's just so dang picky. Maybe she doesn't like having the same wet food every day, but I want to get her a more nutritional food than Royal Canin. Right now what seems to work is topping her foods with a generous helping of Natural Balance Platefuls - different flavor every meal! So while yes, I have like four packets of Natural Balance open, it seems to get her to eat more. Maybe I could try a better food with these toppers.
But, I am still taking suggestions on the best quality kibble for fussy kitties

 

[mizzely]

Sorry, I also missed the kibble portion!

Kibble I definetly have issues with my finicky cat with. She's very particular. The only ones so far she's taken to without issues are

Orijen
Feline Caviar Leaping Spirits
Wysong Epigen Venison

Everything else is pretty much a hit or miss. She won't do freeze dried or air dried either. She was also most resistant to the diet change over from mostly kibble to mostly canned. I give her wet in the morning, wet in the evening, and 1/8 cup of dry at night. Somedays she ignores one or both offerings of wet food (we rotate between about 4 types for each meal) but if nothing else she gets that bit of kibble to tide her over. It works for us!

 

[destinyz12]

I have the opposite problem- my cats will go crazy over almost any dry food (they currently eat Nutro grain-free Duck), but are super picky with wet food. Some wet foods they will eat for a short period of time...until I buy a brand new case and then it must be an unwritten rule that they're not allowed to like it anymore The only wet foods i've found that they will consistently eat (that I approve of) is most Nutro varieties and Merrick purrfect bistro shreds.

 

[cryptic]

So, update. I tried some Blue Buffalo and mixed it in with her Royal Canin. I also added a Natural Balance topper and hot water, she actually ate all the Blue Buffalo instead of picking around it like she normally does. Progress!

 

[Espalia]

I was about to suggest Blue Buffalo Wilderness, rabbit-flavored. My girl is very picky with all foods as well, but she consistently likes that kibble. And she used to eat lots of other flavors of Blue Buffalo as well, including the grain-free indoor version and salmon-flavored Wilderness. I recently switched her over to Instinct rabbit and she eats it, but a little begrudgingly.

Cookie doesn't eat nearly enough wet food in one sitting for me to feed only wet food, but it works really well for me to feed 3 meals a day of wet food (I have kittens - two is fine for adults) and free-feed the dry.