Cat Avoids All Refrigerated Food Except Fancy Feast + Should I Invest In Orijen?

[sdkfjlasdf]

i can keep FF liver and chicken pate in the fridge for 2 whole days and she will still gobble it up like she's starving. however if i refrigerate other types of food (petcurean, some other grain-free wet food), no matter what i do - leave it out for 5 minutes to 2 hours sealed in a bag, microwave, add warm water - she will not finish it.

i heard FF is high in sodium and is bad for the kidneys or something from a lady who feeds stray cats all around my neighborhood, however she feeds 2 other brands which aren't grain free or have too low calories per dollar. one of them is royal canin. my cat is 6 months and needs a lot of kcal so i don't think it's a good idea to feed her too little...

should i just feed her cheap FF and purchase a dry food that is more expensive like orijen/acana/something better, instead of the current dry food i'm feeding? it's fussie cat market chicken and turkey however my cat never really finishes her dry food either. it seems less wasteful to buy dry food she actually likes and will finish as i have tested a small bag of orijen and she really likes it.

thanks guys and sorry for the long thread/bad english

 

[kashmir64]

I feed FF and Purina One True Instincts. They are doing fine on it. But if you want to feed a more expensive food, that's up to you. However at only 6 months, I personally would feed a kitten kibble of some kind. Can you buy a small bag of Orijen kitten to try it out and see if she even likes it?

 

[KarenKat]

Personally, I’d feed the fancy feast. I’m always for higher quality kibble if it’s in budget, so if it’s an upgrade and she likes it then that’s worth it. But if she likes the Fancy Feast, that’s ok.

I do like variety though .... can you get small 3 oz cans of other brands and feed those in rotation? Olive gets about 70 kcal per meal, which is usually almost a 3 oz can. I feed Lotus Pate and Stew, Life’s Abundance and Tiki Cat. Maybe adding some of those in would offset any extra salt in the FF.

 

[sdkfjlasdf]

I feed FF and Purina One True Instincts. They are doing fine on it. But if you want to feed a more expensive food, that's up to you. However at only 6 months, I personally would feed a kitten kibble of some kind. Can you buy a small bag of Orijen kitten to try it out and see if she even likes it?

hi yes, as mentioned in the original post, i bought a small bag of it a couple months back and she loved it. however i thought more expensive wet food was better and decided to go with the cheaper dry, expensive wet formula.

i don't want to feed ONLY dry regardless of what kind as she might get used to it and not really eat wet food, or not drink water and have pee problems.

think i'll get FF and orijen (cheap and expensive) because she doesn't eat any other wet... thanks a lot for the advice.

 

[kashmir64]

hi yes, as mentioned in the original post, i bought a small bag of it a couple months back and she loved it.

Oops, must have missed that part.
I know FF makes a kitten pate. I would go with that for a few months. (believe it or not, she's still a kitten). Does Orijen have a kitten kibble? I've never fed it so I'm not sure.

 

[sdkfjlasdf]

Personally, I’d feed the fancy feast. I’m always for higher quality kibble if it’s in budget, so if it’s an upgrade and she likes it then that’s worth it. But if she likes the Fancy Feast, that’s ok.

I do like variety though .... can you get small 3 oz cans of other brands and feed those in rotation? Olive gets about 70 kcal per meal, which is usually almost a 3 oz can. I feed Lotus Pate and Stew, Life’s Abundance and Tiki Cat. Maybe adding some of those in would offset any extra salt in the FF.

over here, most of the other brands that are sold only have 6oz (~190g) cans except FF and maybe sheba. i think i'll feed FF 6 days a week and some other wet food once, is that a good rotation?

the "better" wet brands here are Petcurean, wellness, holistic select, nutrience, firstmate, and a couple more, all of which don't come in 3oz cans in my country haha

one thing that sort of works is adding 80% FF and 20% expensive wet food, but at the rate i'm going it would take me a loooooong time to finish the 6oz expensive can lol

in my budget it's either cheap wet+expensive dry or vice versa, can't have both too expensive

thanks a lot for the advice. Tiki is not carried here but i will check out the other brands

 

[sdkfjlasdf]

Oops, must have missed that part.
I know FF makes a kitten pate. I would go with that for a few months. (believe it or not, she's still a kitten). Does Orijen have a kitten kibble? I've never fed it so I'm not sure.

hi yes, ironically the FF kitten food is actually lower in kcal compared to the rest, but the FF adult food is all life stages so not a problem orijen has all life stages food as well. in case it's going to bust my budget, i'll just feed acana+FF instead.

 

[kashmir64]

Just advice: Free feed the dry food until she's older.

 

[sdkfjlasdf]

Just advice: Free feed the dry food until she's older.

thanks, i do that she never finishes it, but normally more than half of the dry food that i leave out is gone. it seems she doesn't like it and only eats it when i'm not around and she's really hungry, lol

i agree with you, when she's older i'll gradually leave less dry around, and hooooooopefully find an alternative to FF.

 

[RajaNMizu]

Just an idea, don't know if it will work though. Have you tried freezing leftovers instead of refrigerating them? I wonder if it would work to dedicate an ice cube tray with leftovers and freeze them. When serving, pop a cube or two to thaw or add a little warm water. I wonder if Aquaria would react the same way.

 

[sdkfjlasdf]

Just an idea, don't know if it will work though. Have you tried freezing leftovers instead of refrigerating them? I wonder if it would work to dedicate an ice cube tray with leftovers and freeze them. When serving, pop a cube or two to thaw or add a little warm water. I wonder if Aquaria would react the same way.

:O thats a good idea! it also seems like a fun DIY project lol. gonna try it and report back... thanks a lot.

on a side note im also thinking of making chicken bone broth and just pouring it over haha...

 

[duckpond]

I have always given my guys a variety of wet foods, and i think that fancy feast is a very acceptable food. If they like the fancy feast then feed it.

For dry food i am a bit more picky. its hard to find a dry that is not way to high in carbs. If you feed mostly wet, and just a bit of dry to supplement the wet then i think most any dry food would do. I would try to get the highest quality, highest protein dry kibble in which ever brand i decided to go with.

 

[sdkfjlasdf]

I have always given my guys a variety of wet foods, and i think that fancy feast is a very acceptable food. If they like the fancy feast then feed it.

For dry food i am a bit more picky. its hard to find a dry that is not way to high in carbs. If you feed mostly wet, and just a bit of dry to supplement the wet then i think most any dry food would do. I would try to get the highest quality, highest protein dry kibble in which ever brand i decided to go with.

Thank you! She's about 2.8kg/5.5-6lbs and is 6 months ish. She always eats about 1.5 cans of FF and only a few mouthfuls of dry food. I don't know if that's enough but she seems to be growing horizontally nowadays so... Maybe I need to play with her more lol

The issue I have with FF and almost all other brands is the change in recipe. If all she will eat is FF im a bit worried that she may one day reject it and we're going to have a problem feeding her haha...

 

[Willowy]

Fancy Feast isn't especially high in sodium. In fact, some flavors are on the low-sodium list for cardiac cats. Try to stick to Classic Pate flavors, and try to feed as wide a variety as she'll tolerate so she doesn't get stuck on one flavor.

Maybe that lady was talking about menadione sodium bisulfate complex? Some people prefer to avoid that ingredient.

 

[duckpond]

At her age just give her all the food she will eat. she is still a growing girl!
The change in formulation, or just finicky cats that get tired of a food and start rejecting it is common for all of us. From what i read offering other foods, such as shredded wet, minced wet, pate, different proteins, and different brands is one of the better way to keep them from getting fussy. I dont know, i have always done this, and mine are fussy.

on the other hand, my sons cats only get Fancy Feast classics, and they dont seem to get fussy? Maybe because they know not to wait for something else? Maybe because they dont get dry? IDK

 

[sdkfjlasdf]

Fancy Feast isn't especially high in sodium. In fact, some flavors are on the low-sodium list for cardiac cats. Try to stick to Classic Pate flavors, and try to feed as wide a variety as she'll tolerate so she doesn't get stuck on one flavor.

Maybe that lady was talking about menadione sodium bisulfate complex? Some people prefer to avoid that ingredient.

Ah the fake Vitamin K. I personally dont have a problem with it but I can understand why people dont like it.

At her age just give her all the food she will eat. she is still a growing girl!
The change in formulation, or just finicky cats that get tired of a food and start rejecting it is common for all of us. From what i read offering other foods, such as shredded wet, minced wet, pate, different proteins, and different brands is one of the better way to keep them from getting fussy. I dont know, i have always done this, and mine are fussy.

on the other hand, my sons cats only get Fancy Feast classics, and they dont seem to get fussy? Maybe because they know not to wait for something else? Maybe because they dont get dry? IDK

Thanks, that's good advice! I always try everything but she just ends up eating chicken pate ONLY lol.

 

[jclark]

I mix kibble and crumpled up freeze dried chicken or beef liver with refrigerated cat food. Seems to work for my bozos.

 

[sdkfjlasdf]

Hey I'd just like to thank everyone for the advice. Rotated among a few different brands of wet food (Wellness, etc), stored the remains in Ziploc-type bags in the freezer. Put them in a warm water bath well below taurine's melting point (300C). She actually likes it better that way haha. Thank you so much.