Finicky Eater

[rainbowbreakk]

My two year old kitty, Zoey, eats only salmon. She barely eats canned food and won't touch raw. I am trying to switch her to a more varied and healthy diet and am wondering if anyone has any tips for getting a picky kitty to change her food. Thanks for any feedback.

 

[felineempathy]

The best thing to do is keep trying different brands till you find something that she likes.  There's a lot out there to test.  I would definitely get her off any kind of fish because they have traces of mercury and toxins in them.  

My cat isn't really a picky eater and only ignores some brands because of our the meat is prepared.  She tends to like minced, cubed, and shredded meats and stays away from "loafed" and blended up textures.  It could also be the kind of meat, there's a variety of meats that are offered - most commonly chicken and turkey but there's also duck, rabbit, and venison.  

Here's the rotation I give her:

Nutro Natural Choice (highly recommended, good food for a good price)

First Mate

Nature's Variety

Tiki

Weruva

Lotus

Ziwipeak

Natural Planet Organics

Wellness

I'm also about to experiment with dehydrated foods (food that you add water to) such as Honest Kitchen and Stella & Chewy's - both are highly recommended in the cat community as an alternative for canned and raw.

Good Luck!

 

[rainbowbreakk]

I need tips for how to get her to eat other foods. We have tried many and she wont eat it unless its salmon.

 

[felineempathy]

That was a tip but again, keep trying different brands and don't give up.  Some owners had to do this and could only find a couple or even one brand a cat would eat.  If you're restricting yourself to Petco foods then you need to expand out, lots of the brands on my list are more natural and high quality so that may get your cats attention - you're definitely not going to find most of those at Petco!

Here's another tip, if your cat likes treats (Example: Greenies), mix a couple of them into the wet food so she'll have to eat it.  They have a salmon flavor so you can try mixing them in the food.

Here's another one,  there's something I've heard about that's for cat food that enhances the flavor in wet food and can attract your cats to it.  I've never used it and don't know much about it, including a name but your vet probably will know if you ask them.  I just know it by "Cat Food Flavor Enhancers".  Someone else on here might know more and you could try asking your vet.

Also just like I mentioned, if all else fails try dehydrated foods because they're very popular and considered the closest alternative to canned and raw.

 

[LTS3]

My two year old kitty, Zoey, eats only salmon. She barely eats canned food and won't touch raw. I am trying to switch her to a more varied and healthy diet and am wondering if anyone has any tips for getting a picky kitty to change her food. Thanks for any feedback.

Eating too mush fish isn't good. Some cats, like yours, get addicted to eating it and refuse to eat anything else. Fish tends to be high in phosphorus which can be hard on the kidneys, mostly a concern for cats who have kidney disease.

Is the salmon canned food pate/loaf style or chunks/slices in gravy? If it's chunks/slices, try the any of the foods made by Weruva (the regular line, Cats In The Kitchen, BFF, Soulistic). Weruva has seafood based foods, some of which contain salmon, as well as meat varieties.

Try mixing the salmon food into other canned food.

Try a topper on top of food: FortiFora, crushed up freeze dried meat or fish treats, crushed up freeze dried raw food, a little Parmesean cheese, tuna in water, etc. If you can find it, Stella and Chewy's brand of freeze dried raw is super stinky and many cats love it. There's a salmon and chicken one. The 3oz pouches work well as a topper or as a single serve meal. There's a thread on TCS about Stella and Chewy's being backordered or having some other issue but I have seen the 3 oz bags in the pet store lately.

 

[lisahe]

 
Is the salmon canned food pate/loaf style or chunks/slices in gravy? If it's chunks/slices, try the any of the foods made by Weruva (the regular line, Cats In The Kitchen, BFF, Soulistic). Weruva has seafood based foods, some of which contain salmon, as well as meat varieties.

Try mixing the salmon food into other canned food.

I particularly like these ideas from LTS3 so will just add a couple other thoughts that build on these... One of Weruva's Cats in the Kitchen foods is Goldie Lox, which has salmon, tuna, and chicken. Our cats, who are big poultry eaters, loved it when I bought it once by mistake. Another thought: Tiki Cat has a shredded salmon and chicken food that might be useful in transitioning Zoey from just salmon to blends. I think Nutro Natural Choice makes some canned foods with salmon, too -- like perhaps salmon and chicken? -- that might be helpful in transitioning Zoey from salmon to some meats.

Mixing salmon into other foods is a good idea... you could even try using the salmon as a topper or garnish for something else, gradually reducing the amount of salmon and increasing the amount of the "something else." Something, maybe, like chicken or turkey!

Good luck!

 

[rainbowbreakk]

None of the food she eats is from petco/petsmart. We've been trying primal freeze dried raw, tiki cat, weruva,honest kitchen, Stella and chewys, and hound and Gatos. All the high quality brands we can get. She did eat the salmon and chicken but wouldn't go for duck, turkey or even other kinds of fish. She doesn't like treats either, and I tried catnip near the food since she does like catnip, but even with that she wouldn't. The only thing we can coax her into eating is orijen dry chicken. If its canned, she refuses.

 

[snugglecat]

Some cats just don't go for the foods we want them to eat. Have you tried Fancy Feast or Friskies canned food? I know some people think those are bad but any canned food is better then none. My feral cats eat Friskies canned food and they have shiny coats and look pretty healthy.

If she ends up eating those two I mentioned you could mix the better canned food with it. My cat is very picky and only eats two different brands of food. One is Wellness Turkey and the other is Merrick Duck. She can't have any canned food with fish or fish oils but if she goes too long without eating canned food I will mix Fancy Feast in it and she gobbles it up.

Good luck!

 

[felineempathy]

Well unless any of the other suggestions work, you may have to face the fact that she'll only eat dry food or only canned salmon.  She does eat dry food, right?  If that's going to be the case, Orijen is a very highly regarded brand - my only concern is the fish mixed in with the chicken and turkey.  EVO is another good dry brand but again there's fish in the chicken formula.  I think Nature's Variety would also be a top line one.  Basically any high quality canned food you tried or I listed should have a dried version.  I'm not big on dry foods so therefore I don't know to much about them.

You say she likes catnip.  If you have the plant kind you could try mixing some of the plant into her food to get her to eat it.

It also wouldn't hurt to try the cheaper brands of canned food if you haven't already. -Like Snugglecat mentioned above - anything you find at Petco/Pet Smart

 

[rupertoooo]

Some cats just will not eat raw or canned foods no matter what you do.  Does she lap the juice/sauce from the canned food by any chance.  If so all may not be lost.  You mentioned Orijen, dry does she in fact have an appetite for the Orijen?  Does she eat dry food in general?

 

[lisahe]

None of the food she eats is from petco/petsmart. We've been trying primal freeze dried raw, tiki cat, weruva,honest kitchen, Stella and chewys, and hound and Gatos. All the high quality brands we can get. She did eat the salmon and chicken but wouldn't go for duck, turkey or even other kinds of fish. She doesn't like treats either, and I tried catnip near the food since she does like catnip, but even with that she wouldn't. The only thing we can coax her into eating is orijen dry chicken. If its canned, she refuses.

Wow, I see what you mean: that's a real variety of foods in all ways. Sometimes using dry food in combination with wet food -- sprinkled on top, in ever-lessening quantities -- can help shift cats completely to wet food. It worked really well for our cats but they were okay with wet food to begin with. I've also found that our cats like their Primal freeze-dried food even more if I sprinkle just a little of the food powder on top of a dish of rehydrated food.

Maybe if she eats the salmon and chicken consistently (does she?) you could try gradually mixing in more chicken with the salmon?

I realize you've probably already tried all those things, though.

I agree with @Snugglecat about maybe trying some Fancy Feast or Friskies. I'd probably go with Fancy Feast Classics first -- I remember from our previous cat that they have salmon -- and see what happens.

Looking on the bright side, our young cats' taste seems to change fast be constantly evolving. They used to prefer pates but are now into shreds. Good luck!