Has Anyone Else's Cat Stopped Liking Fancy Feast Canned Food?

xenathecrazy

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My kitty (8 months old) doesn't really like many canned foods and several of them give her soft stools or diarrhea. The only food she has eaten consistently and has good stools is Fancy Feast Classics Chicken Feast and alternate with Turkey & Giblets. This week she has been putting her nose up at it or just nibbling on it and then walking away even though she's hungry. She does get some dry food daily too but that's nothing new. I'm just wondering if the new cans I bought had some change in formula but ingredients are the same or if she is just now starting to refuse this food too and got sick of it. She's always eager waiting for her wet food until I put it down and she smells it and then paws at it as if covering poop and then walking away.

I really want to feed her wet food as her primary diet and till now it's been Fancy Feast. I also need to stick to a budget for my pet food. She usually gets one can daily split into 2 meals and 1/4-1/2 cup of dry food overnight.

I'm wondering if anyone else has noticed their cats snubbing at Fancy Feast.
 

cheeser

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Oscar goes through phases where he loses interest in certain flavors, but he's still a Fancy Feast kind of guy at heart. Lemme drag out an old spreadsheet if see if I can spot any obvious changes for those two flavors. :)
 

cheeser

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Okay, as best I can tell, it looks like the current formulas are the same for those two flavors as they were back in 2015, which is when I started maintaining a spreadsheet for these sorts of things. But if that's not correct, hopefully someone will jump in soon and set the record straight. :)
 
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xenathecrazy

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I don't see any difference in the labels either because I happen to look at them every time I buy them. I just went to Petco and picked up a few more cans of food to try to see if maybe she's bored with FF for now.
 

happilyretired

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It might not be the FF so much as the specific types. My girl was avid for FF Chunky Chicken for a while, and although I rotated it with turkey, she stopped 'liking' it after a time. Two weeks later, she devoured it again. She seems to want 'variety,' and when she refuses something, it's usually that she wants something 'new.'
 
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xenathecrazy

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I think my girlie just wanted something new. I had several coupons for Science Diet canned food and she's eating those quite well and the plus is that it hasn't caused any tummy issues. I gave her one meal of Fancy Feast chicken and she ate it up without fussing. I guess I just need to rotate flavors and brands to keep her interested.
 

daisysdad

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Yes they did change the formula or at least substituted an ingredient, probably for a cheaper import. The label wouldn’t change and they have no requirement to change the label for 6 months. If it is just an ingredient that is replaced by another deemed the same, they don’t have to change it at all.
Purina canning plants have received FDA warnings recently for their practices.

my cat will only eat FF Grilled Turkey in gravy. Now she won’t touch it and in fact runs away from it.

it seems that everthing with a best before date of 2019 or after if affected.

I have tried every month in these bb dates and they are outright refused. I give her an old tin with a 2018 date and she eats it right away. This is no coincidence.

Purina of course denies it and sends you coupons. But what use are they for something she won’t eat. This was all she ate, now there is nothing! Thanks Purina.
 

happilyretired

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My girl eats Fancy Feast, and I give her only meat pate. I also alternate among her 5 or 6 favorites, and that seems to keep her from getting tired of any one type. If she tends to avoid it, I hold off for about a week, and when I introduce it again, she gobbles it up. She tends to be a 'grazer,' so sometime it may seem that she's ignoring her dish, but later on, she's eaten most of it.
 

Furballsmom

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Dang it - I was wondering about my Big Guy's reaction of no, not thrilled lately.
daisysdad daisysdad here are a few brands you could try;
Abound, American Journey, Wellness, Tiki Cat, Pure Balance, Special Kitty (Walmart), Luvsome (Kroger) Dave's, Merrick BackCountry.
Also I'm having some luck with bonito flakes, mackerel and freeze dried minnows (only natural pet website) as toppers.
Hang in there!
EDIT - I'm sorry, I'm now seeing you're in Nova Scotia so at least a couple of the above brands may be nonexistent for you...hopefully there's something in the others you do have access to that she'll go for.
 

tuffsmom

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I feed FF Classic chicken, beef, turkey and giblets, liver and chicken. He gets 2 cans per day and a different flavor every meal. Loves it!
 

daisysdad

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She will only eat FF Grilled Turkey. This is why it’s such a big problem. I’ve tried in the past to vary her diet but to no avail. Trouble is that she can detect changes in her food at the molecular level! I do wish that they wouldn’t tamper with the formulation of feed. If I could get her to eat decent food I would, but stuck with Fancy Feast and now it will be kibble only.
Thanks for the responses.
 

Furballsmom

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Have you tried any of the toppers I mentioned? You could even crumble her kibble and put that on top of a food.
I know how hard this is, I've also been there. Don't give up :)
Do you have a water fountain to help her out with water?
 

laura mae

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I have noticed. It is with this week's purchase of the stash of Fancy Feast. I offer it as a "side dish" along with a larger can of one of the more nutritious, but less kitty exciting brands. Historically, the bit of FF gets them eagerly eating and they also eat the food that's better. Now they are walking away from all of it.
 

daisysdad

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She just won’t eat it. Anything different and that’s it. Has to be exactly the same every time (groan)
The new tins she won’t even taste. They don’t get past her nose.
Cats get a bad rap and a reputation for being picky. There is the old joke that as soon as you buy a crate of her favourite cat food, she’ll go off it. Well, this is the reason.
Manufacturers change the formula or substitute an ingredient from another source changing the taste and smell. Cats are sensitive to this and will refuse it. You have to trust your cat.
Manufacturers need to provide consistency.
I have provided Purina with a batch number of a food she will eat and a batch number of one she won’t. They can quite easily compare the two formulations and see what is different.
However everything is so secret. They just want to give you coupons for a product that is no good to you. Doesn’t help.
Thanks again, but it’s that stage now where I will have multiple tins of food open and trying desperately to get her to try any of them, which she won’t. Or maybe she will taste one and you think “yay!” Then next time you give it to her, she doesn’t want it.
 

Furballsmom

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Due to this, which is a day I've been expecting, I just spent quite a bit of time again looking for cat food but this time in my local grocery stores and a non-high-end (as in not a boutique) pet food store.

I'm seeing a lot of new brands in stores and online, and different types and styles of foods that were never available before, like lickable treats, kibble toppers, canned food toppers, tubs, pouches, some even is being called mousse...I also never knew a person could purchase freeze dried minnows, and bonito flakes. Bonito has become my absolute saving grace of being able to get the Big Guy to eat because he's the type that will starve if he doesn't like what's being served, without telling me about it since he doesn't yell for his food.

daisysdad daisysdad , I'm so sorry that you're having to deal with this - thank goodness you have the kibble to fall back on.
Have you had a chance to try bonito flakes? Those are available online and in pet food stores...
Have you tried topping something that she takes a taste of with her old accepted canned FF if you still have some?

By the way, while I was in the petfood store I noticed a Purina brand I've never seen before called Muse. Wish I'd grabbed some--I don't know how similar it is to Fancy Feast, but since both are a Purina brand (for any readers/lurkers who might not realize that), it's certainly worth a try when a person's back is against the wall with a cat that won't eat anything else.
There are also some other brands that are recent to the market such as;
Tender and True
Chicken Soup for the Soul Cat food
Another example of a new (to me) brand is Applaws. Some varieties of this brand have only three or four ingredients and NO additives.

If you become concerned about her water intake, you could add some water or unseasoned broth to her kibble. If you do that, don't leave the kibble out due to much faster bacteria growth.

Hang in there! I do know the stress of this, it really is difficult, but try and tamp down your emotions - cats are little sponges for our feelings. If you have to, put something on her plate and walk away so she doesn't pick up on your stress of whether she's going to eat or not. Best of luck to you and your little furbaby!
 
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duckpond

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My guys have always been hit or miss with fancy feast, sometimes yes, sometimes no. But what ever the food mine do seem to get tired of the same old thing. If she has been eating the classics you might try some of the grilled or minced flavors? depending on where you shop you might also try some of the nutro flavors, or nulo? If you have a petsmart nearby they often have some good deals on their store brands. If you shop online another budget friendly food is Chewy's american journey. my guys like the minced poultry flavors, they will eat the pate, but not such big fans of it as they are the minced. They really like the turkey minced. Chewy does have a good return policy if your cat hates it.

Another thing that works for mine is to crumble some freeze dried chicken treats on top, "seasonings" lol i like a bit of spices on my food sometimes too :)

That all being said i have a female cat that hates wet food. I still offer it to her when i feed the others, who like wet. She might nibble, but thats it. So she gets the best dry i can afford, and i keep several water bowls that i refill 2x per day, she likes cold filtered fridge water, just like me, and a few water fountains out as well. What ever i can do to entice her to drink more.

If you want to compare foods, they have both wet and dry foods rated you may take a look at the cat food data base.

CatFoodDB - Cat Food Reviews to help you find the best cat food for your cat
 

tangers40

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My cat has gone from "will absolutely eat any wet food you put down for her", to "only eats 2 kinds" in the course of the last couple weeks. She turns her nose up now at things she has eaten vigorously before. I am not too worried, as she still eats those couple kinds with gusto, but of course I bought an entire boatload of variety cans, and now she won't eat most of them....sigh.
 

Furballsmom

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of course I bought an entire boatload of variety cans, and now she won't eat most of them....sigh.
In case it's of value to anyone, there are a couple websites that will allow for ordering of small quantities, Only Natural Pet, and The Big Bad Woof -
 
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