High Quality Cat Food Recommendations For A Picky Eater?

[Luthien]

Hi, all!

My cat is a neutered 10-month-old male (I made a couple of posts here before saying he was 8 months old, my mistake) and he is so picky. When I got him at 4 months old, I started him off on the Merrick Purrfect Bistro Kitten Dinner Pate, and he happily ate that for a few weeks, then stopped. I switched to Wellness Core Pate Kitten and again he happily ate that for several more weeks. Then he just stopped, wouldn’t touch it, and since then it has been a hassle trying to get him to eat quality cat food. I’ve tried most flavors of Tiki Cat, Hounds & Gatos, Natural Balance, Evanger’s, and a few more varieties from Wellness and Merrick... no dice.

He also won’t eat the same kind of food more than two times in a row, so I’m constantly having to switch it up.

Currently he is happily eating a rotation of Kit Cat Boneless Chicken Shreds & Shrimp, Royal Canin Kitten Instinctive in Gravy, Vitakraft Poesie, and Ciao Chicken Fillet and Scallop. (I can’t find much info on these brands online so if anyone has any negative experiences, please do share!)

The thing is... I really would like to get him on another good quality wet food like Wellness. So I’d love to know what similar brands your own cats can’t get enough of. Thank you!

 

[ailish]

My cat is not a picky eater, but of all the things in her rotation the food she gobbles down is from the Farmina N&D Pumpkin line. Farmina does have other feline lines, but I have never tried them. I think the reason she likes it is that IT STINKS because it has herring oil in it. No other food I feed is as strong smelling. She also particularly likes Weruva Mideast Feast.

Although not generally picky about food, she did go on a hunger strike a little over a year ago and at that point would only eat Weruva. She's been eating that (all flavors with some favorites) ever since with no further problems.

All foods mentioned are wet.

 

[KarenKat]

We also have a picky eater - he likes the Caru brand stews (they use human grade ingredients). I’ve also found Life’s Abundance to be instantly loved. Only available on Lifesabundance.com. Their regular flavor is chicken and shrimp, and they have a new pork and duck flavor.

 

[mizzely]

My cat won't eat the same food more than twice a week, so I feel your pain! And she's quite picky too.. Any fish except salmon is an immediate disqualification, and then some she loves it the first time and then never again.

So far she's liked some flavors each of KaiKoa, Tiki Cat Mousse, Soulistic Pates, Weruva Slide N Serve, Dr. Elsey's, American Journey, Tiny Tiger, Instinct, Sheba, Only Natural Pet, and Caru. All pates only.

For comparison she hates Wellness, especially Core, Merrick, Identity, Rawz, Koha and Halo. She hates chunks, etc.

One thing that helps encourage her to eat is crushed freeze dried food on top of her wet food. And I use the Sure Pet Sealed Food Bowl so I can leave wet food out at all times without it getting dry. She's an awful grazer but also hates dried out food. It has paid for itself many times over now!

 

[lavishsqualor]

I've talked about my insanely finicky four-year-old female tuxedo cat, Thirteen, on other threads. She's been raw fed rabbit almost all of her life because of a chicken allergy. However, my rabbit supplier recently ran out and Thirteen wouldn't eat anything. Not even fresh rabbit from other suppliers. I tried every commercial brand of cat food known to man and she walked away from each. Even Friskies! She would eat a tiny amount of Hound and Gatos Duck on her own but after a while I had to wrap her in a towel and feed it to her. It was either that or a feeding tube. Once my rabbit supply came back online she refused it too! I was honestly at my wits end.

For whatever reason, one day I offered her a can of Super Premium Fussie Cat, the Chicken in Gravy variety--something she'd turned down before--and she scarfed it up. She's been licking her plate for the last few weeks. So far, knock on wood, she hasn't exhibited any symptoms of her previously diagnosed chicken allergy. My vet claims that she may have outgrown it.

Anyway, Fussie Cat is a great choice for picky eaters, as is Weruva's Paw Lickin Chicken.

I feel your pain. There's not much more frustrating than having a pet not eat.

 

[Kflowers]

When we fed wet we fed different flavors at each meal - beef for breakfast, chicken for dinner, turkey next day's breakfast, etc. The crew ate without complaint. However, I think having more than one, okay more than three, gave us a competition eating atmosphere which helped increase the desire to eat in each of them.

 

[lisahe]

One thing that helps encourage her to eat is crushed freeze dried food on top of her wet food.

Yes, this is one of the things that keeps our pickier eater eating. We mostly use Pure Bites, plain freeze-dried chicken, which I buy in large bags labeled for dogs. (Our cats-only vet sells them!) Ireland will eat anything with Pure Bite dust on it.

Anyway, Fussie Cat is a great choice for picky eaters, as is Weruva's Paw Lickin Chicken.

Ha ha Fussie Cat didn't work at all for our cats!

Ireland, our picky cat, is least picky about the homemade food I make with the Alnutrin supplement. She just loves it, no matter what meat I use. She also likes homemade with the EZ Complete supplement. And the raw foods we feed: freeze-dried Primal pork and Stella & Chewy's Selects chicken or turkey medallions.

For canned foods, Fancy Feast Classics are probably her favorites over all, but I only feed those once a week. She absolutely loves Nutro Natural Choice minced chicken but that's very carby so it's kind of a treat food. Canned foods (other than FF and Nutro) haven't been popular lately with either cat: I think they've come to like their homemade food so much that canned just doesn't do it for them. I keep it on the menu, though, because Cat Catering already has trouble keeping up with cooking, plus it makes it easier for my husband to feed some canned food when I'm traveling.

As others have said, variety is key. Our cats will only put up with repetition in their Primal pork (which they get every morning for breakfast). Even the homemade is varied: I use various cuts of pork and chicken, plus turkey tenderloin, sometimes making foods with more than one cut or meat.

 

[maggiedemi]

We mostly use Pure Bites, plain freeze-dried chicken, which I buy in large bags labeled for dogs.

Where can I buy these online?

 

[lisahe]

Where can I buy these online?

Chewy.com!

 

[maggiedemi]

Chewy.com!

Thank you! I like that I can buy a little sample size.

 

[lisahe]

Thank you! I like that I can buy a little sample size.

Our local Petco sells small bags of Pure Bites, labelled for cats. I think the first ones I ever bought were turkey. The bags labelled for cats are much more expensive than the doggie bags (ha) but the only difference is the size of the treats.