Help! Extremely Fussy/picky Cat With Canned Food Flavors

[lanerich]

Hello,

I have two boy cats, both are approximately 1 year old. One is a little bit older than the other.

I am feeding them high quality canned food twice a day, in the morning and at night. 5-6oz in the morning and 12oz at night to share between the two of them (they eat less in the morning). They also have a little bit of grain free dry food out at all times but they usually don't eat that much of it unless they are just starving.

I had the older cat first and he has always been relatively good about eating whatever canned food I put down. He would sometimes get burnt out on having the same flavors over and over so I started to buy several different ones and rotate them. For example I would feed him a few different varieties of Wellness Classic and Weruva flavors with the occasional Whole Foods or Trader Joes can. I never really had much of a problem with him eating the majority of the food with this system. He almost never eats the dry food.

Then we got the younger cat and he is extremely picky and fussy. He is quite slim and hungry all the time, but pretty much the only food he will consistently eat is Wellness classic. I've continued to try and rotate the foods so the older cat doesn't get sick of them.

The younger cat will eat 1-3 cans out of a case of a new flavor and then refuse to eat any more after that. Usually the older cat would still eat it, but lately he also started refusing some of them too. I want to keep rotating so they have variety but it's pretty hard when they won't eat anything but the Wellness consistently. Plus I can't afford to buy single cans and I'm wasting a bunch of cases this way.

I've tried adding chicken and beef broth and I've tried microwaving to warm it up. Doesn't make any difference.

I've tried adding Bonito flakes. Only the older cat likes them and then he just eats only the flakes off the top. The younger cat hates the flakes.

I tried adding a little bit of shredded cheese to the top, the younger cat happily ate but then threw up for 2 days straight. He has a more sensitive stomach in general.

Today they are running around like crazy and angry because they won't eat the new flavor that they happily ate 3 times before.

Here are the foods that always get eaten (for now): Wellness Classic Chicken, Wellness Classic Turkey, Whole Earth Farms Duck, Whole Paws Chicken Shreds

Foods that used to be eaten and are now hated: Weruva Paw Lickin Chicken, Weruva Lamb burger, Whole Earth Farms Turkey, Whole Earth Farms Duck & Chicken, etc.

Help please!!!

 

[MeganLLB]

If all they will eat is the Wellness, what's wrong with just buying them that?

 

[lanerich]

Well the older cat does get tired of having the same food all the time, so I'm worried he will get sick of the Wellness too. Wellness doesn't have a lot of variety outside of the seafood flavors and they aren't too big on the seafood overall.

I read that it is good to have a variety of proteins and brands so they don't develop allergies and vitamin deficiencies.

Plus Wellness isn't the cheapest food out there and it would be nice to be able to mix in some cheaper varieties!

I am thinking about feeding them separately so the older cat can finish up all the many reject cans I have and the younger cat can eat his same thing every day. I think the older cat is starting to be more picky and fussy because he is copying younger cat.

 

[Columbine]

I think toppers are probably the best way to go hete. Purebites style treats crumble to make wonderful, stinky toppers, and come in a variety of flavours too.

Another trick I use is to pop some kibble in a plastic baggie and bash the hell out of it with a rolling pin That can be pretty irresistible too.

Purina FortiFlora makes a great topper too. Because you just want the flavour, you can ignore the dosage instructions, so making one pack last for ages

Hopefully some others will have more food brand ideas to try. I'm not familiar enough with US foods to be much help there, I'm afraid. You might find some ideas here: Say your top 3 Dry or wet cat food brands can be local. Check out our reviews section too

 

[lanerich]

Thank you Columbine, I checked on Chewy and they seem to have quite a few different toppers. It's probably worth trying a few. I like the idea of the Fortiflora too, maybe it will also help with the stomach sensitivity of the younger cat.

It just drives me absolutely bananas that they will eat the food 3 times and then look at it like it's the most disgusting thing and walk away on the 4th time. Why!! It would be a lot easier if they rejected it on the 1st can

 

[MeganLLB]

If you go for PureBites buy the dog ones. Its the same exact thing but the big bag ends up being around $1 per ounce instead of $3 for the one with a cat picture on it

 

[MeganLLB]

I feed my cats Dave's. They advertise as being an affordability priced quality food. Also feed them Whole Earth Farms. Its less expensive than Wellness. I throw in some Tiki Cat once a week but its too expensive to feed everyday.

If you have a PetCo nearby I find that they have a better food selection than some other big box stores

 

[lanerich]

I haven't tried Dave's yet, too afraid to buy anything else new that they might hate. They love Whole Earth Farms duck pate. Then I got them Whole Earth Farms Duck and Chicken morsels thinking it must be pretty similar, but that is the one they started refusing yesterday!

I only fed them Wellness since yesterday and the younger cat threw it all up this morning, I guess he was so excited that he ate it too fast. Ugh.

I ordered some of the Purina Fortiflora and a sampler of the PureBites flavors to try. I also took away the dry food. Fingers crossed!

 

[MeganLLB]

Maybe they didn't like the texture and they like the pate. My one cat just likes the bits in gravy, but I was a little disappointed when I first got the Whole Earth and it was a bunch of chunks all glued together in a jelly substance. I had to add water to it to make it more "gravy" like. But they definitely like dave's gravy ones because it is very moist.

I hope the toppers work for you. that seems like a good idea.

 

[poivre]

Try Tiki Cat puka puka chicken. (not cheap) Best so far for my cats (but far from perfect)
Mine now play games. They check up on one another. If one is eating the other one will continue (they are on opposite sides of the room and like to occasionally check up on the other. But if one walks away (for a smoke!) the other immediately goes to her dish and starts eating from there even though her own dish still has plenty left. Then the other one comes back, starts to eat again and the other one leaves the room then comes back and stands and stares down at the one eating and finally goes back to her own dish. Cat plays! Drives me crazy.

 

[sailon]

I think toppers are probably the best way to go hete. Purebites style treats crumble to make wonderful, stinky toppers, and come in a variety of flavours too.

Another trick I use is to pop some kibble in a plastic baggie and bash the hell out of it with a rolling pin That can be pretty irresistible too.

Purina FortiFlora makes a great topper too. Because you just want the flavour, you can ignore the dosage instructions, so making one pack last for ages

Hopefully some others will have more food brand ideas to try. I'm not familiar enough with US foods to be much help there, I'm afraid. You might find some ideas here: Say your top 3 Dry or wet cat food brands can be local. Check out our reviews section too

I like that! I'll definitely try it. I have trouble getting Max to eat anything other than one brand/one flavor. Thanks.

 

[lanerich]

So I have been trying various topper type things over the last few days and I'm happy to report some success!

I started with some "reject" cans that were previously eaten by the cats but subsequently snubbed. They were all different kinds of flavors and textures.

The first few days I mixed in some Fancy Feast Creamy broth pouches. Older cat ate these a couple of times and seemed to enjoy them when he was our only. It's only 16 calories and barely anything inside but they cost over $1 each (why???).

The younger cat cautiously sniffed around it, barely licked it etc for several minutes the first day. Then he decided it must be worth a try after seeing the older cat chowing down the whole time. He ended up eating even more! I was able to get him to eat 3 different kinds that he refused before by mixing in the pouch.

The Fortiflora arrived yesterday and younger cat also ate previously hated food with 1/3 pouch sprinkled on top. I got some PureBites sampler packs too but haven't tried those yet.

Probably I will stick with the Fortiflora overall, it seems to be the best value. It's $23 on Amazon for 30 pouches and each pouch lasts 2-3 feedings. I will save the broths for occasional use, adding those defeats the purpose of mixing in the cheaper brands.

 

[Columbine]

Great to hear that the toppers are doing the trick

 

[maryah]

My young cat also will only eat one brand/flavor of canned food. I'll have to try the Fortiflora again, maybe I didn't use enough to tempt her.

 

[lanerich]

I think I may have caused the little cat some issues in the meantime when I took away his dry food. He has been vomiting up his morning meal for the last few days. Multiple times the whole morning and afternoon. He doesn't vomit at all over night.

I am thinking maybe he really needs a few bites of the dry food to tide him over till the morning so he doesn't have too much acid when he eats the next meal? I put the bowl back out, hoping that will fix the issue and he will still eat the canned food with toppers

 

[lanerich]

I just wanted to let you all know that the little cat is doing so much better thanks to your tips. I put the dry food bowl back out with only a little in each day and he has not had any more vomiting.

He is eating a lot more canned food overall now that I mix in the broth pouches or Fortiflora.

He has calmed down quite a bit and is even way more friendly with us. He didn't really cuddle that much before, now he comes up and wants to lay with us. He seems to be filling out a bit more and doesn't do as much agitated meowing.

I guess he was really just not getting enough to eat before, poor thing.

 

[bonepicker]

Hello,

I have two boy cats, both are approximately 1 year old. One is a little bit older than the other.

I am feeding them high quality canned food twice a day, in the morning and at night. 5-6oz in the morning and 12oz at night to share between the two of them (they eat less in the morning). They also have a little bit of grain free dry food out at all times but they usually don't eat that much of it unless they are just starving.

I had the older cat first and he has always been relatively good about eating whatever canned food I put down. He would sometimes get burnt out on having the same flavors over and over so I started to buy several different ones and rotate them. For example I would feed him a few different varieties of Wellness Classic and Weruva flavors with the occasional Whole Foods or Trader Joes can. I never really had much of a problem with him eating the majority of the food with this system. He almost never eats the dry food.

Then we got the younger cat and he is extremely picky and fussy. He is quite slim and hungry all the time, but pretty much the only food he will consistently eat is Wellness classic. I've continued to try and rotate the foods so the older cat doesn't get sick of them.

The younger cat will eat 1-3 cans out of a case of a new flavor and then refuse to eat any more after that. Usually the older cat would still eat it, but lately he also started refusing some of them too. I want to keep rotating so they have variety but it's pretty hard when they won't eat anything but the Wellness consistently. Plus I can't afford to buy single cans and I'm wasting a bunch of cases this way.

I've tried adding chicken and beef broth and I've tried microwaving to warm it up. Doesn't make any difference.

I've tried adding Bonito flakes. Only the older cat likes them and then he just eats only the flakes off the top. The younger cat hates the flakes.

I tried adding a little bit of shredded cheese to the top, the younger cat happily ate but then threw up for 2 days straight. He has a more sensitive stomach in general.

Today they are running around like crazy and angry because they won't eat the new flavor that they happily ate 3 times before.

Here are the foods that always get eaten (for now): Wellness Classic Chicken, Wellness Classic Turkey, Whole Earth Farms Duck, Whole Paws Chicken Shreds

Foods that used to be eaten and are now hated: Weruva Paw Lickin Chicken, Weruva Lamb burger, Whole Earth Farms Turkey, Whole Earth Farms Duck & Chicken, etc.

Help please!!!

Try whole earth farms beef, mine like beef and duck. Try Merrick rabbit pate. You can buy single cans at Petco. Did I understand you, you feed 12 oz each a day? Mine only eat 6 oz a day with a few purebites freeze dried chicken on top. They don't get dry food at all, 12 oz each is way too much

 

[lanerich]

I'm not sure if they would like beef, they don't even like the Wellness Beef very much and Wellness is their absolute favorite.

Most of the cans say to feed 1oz per pound of body weight a day. One cat is 12 pounds and the other is 9 pounds. Usually I feed 6-9oz in the morning and 12.5oz at night on a big plate that they share. They are more hungry at night. They don't eat very much dry food, just a few pieces here and there.

 

[maryah]

From the difference in calories listed on the various 3 oz and 5.5 oz cans I have here... I don't really think you can go by number of ounces per pound safely if you use more than one brand or flavor. One 5.5 oz can might be 120 calories, and the next one might be 185! Big difference.

 

[MeganLLB]

From the difference in calories listed on the various 3 oz and 5.5 oz cans I have here... I don't really think you can go by number of ounces per pound safely if you use more than one brand or flavor. One 5.5 oz can might be 120 calories, and the next one might be 185! Big difference.

Yes I have a lamb pate that is 205 cals but a gravy can that is 135 cal- really big difference! And the cans all have different instructions on what to feed.