How Many Tries With A Particular Food?

[CatDaddyMatt]

We currently feed our one year old boy a limited amount of dry food (mostly Orijen Cat & Kitten, but also Acana & Taste Of The Wild in rotation) and he loves those. But, we recognize that dry food is not the most ideal choice, even with more premium brands. So we also feed small portions of wet, canned food options a few times a day. Ideally we'd feed all wet, maybe gravitate toward raw or a homemade diet eventually.

We currently buy a wide variety of canned food and he does alright with those, but sometimes just doesn't want to eat it. We've moved beyond the Purina Beyond brand, but still offer the occasional Crave Turkey, Chicken, or Salmon (which he quickly devours). With the much talked about issues surrounding the pet food industry we decided to try more of the boutique pet supply stores and the brands offered there. We're limiting what we buy from commercial grocery stores. Of course, we still run into some questionable ingredients but for the most part are excited about the options with brands like Weruva, Instinct, Fromm, Wellness, Tiki Cat, etc.

Seeing as money is a limited resource, but our love for our boy is unlimited, we make the choices to feed him the most nutritional foods we can find. We're willing to even buy a food multiple times if it would mean that he'd adjust to enjoy them. Just not sure how many tries with a particular food would be optimal. We don't want to give up on something that has received good reviews, or is from a company we admire, and that has great ingredients, just because he walked away a time or two from the dish. As new cat parents, differentiating between him just not being in the mood for a particular food and actually disliking it is not always easy.

So that's my question: how many times would a loving cat guardian buy a particular food before giving up on it? Thanks!

 

[KarenKat]

It’s great that you are so dedicated, feeding cats can be so difficult sometimes!

I think number of tries is cat dependably. Our Olive eats only wet and she’s usually not picky and excited about food. If she doesn’t want it the first time, I don’t try again since I know her well enough that she’s telling me she doesn’t like it. Especially since she takes a while to decide but in the meantime happily scarfs it down lol.

Gohan, on the other hand, will barely eat 25 kcal at mealtime. And if anything goes wrong he’s done and leaves (a noise outside, another cat in the wrong spot) and so I would try more with him since it might not have been the food. His tell is if he physically gags after smelling it than it is a no go lol.

I say keep trying within budget, and see if there are any signs he won’t ever try the food. It might also helps to put a dollop of the new food on a Plate next to a current favor so he associates the smell favorably with it. I hear that helps and we are going to try this on Gohan to get him to expand from the one food he likes.

Good luck!! Sounds like you are on the right track.

 

[CatDaddyMatt]

KarenKat Thanks! That's a great idea putting a dollop of new food on a plate next to one he currently enjoys. I will give that a go. He's kind of unpredictable at times when it comes to the type of meat (he'll enjoy duck or lamb from one brand, but not from another), or the textures (not all pates or shreds or minces were created equal apparently). It's a learning experience, but he's a good teacher. Knowing myself, if Vinny ever physically responded negatively to a food I'd probably never buy anything from that brand again! Just a trial and error game in some ways with the wallet, but even if I can find 9 or 10 different high quality ones that he'll go for (in rotation), it'll be worth the initial cost.

 

[KarenKat]

Good for you! Sometimes I get single cans from onlynaturalpet.com and petstuff.com, so I can try brands not in the boutiques near me without committing to a case.

 

[MargoLane]

I think rotation is key! My cat is like KarenKat's and stuffs her face into almost anything with gusto. But if I feed the same canned food too often, she gets bored and starts to pick and pretend to bury. So I rotate different flavours and brands; I tend to buy Weruva and TikiCat, and they have so many different flavours and options that she gets a lot of different tastes. Plus, I rotate meats for raw as well....maybe I'm creating my own problem here?

Anyways, if she does the pick and bury routine, I crumble freeze dried meat treats on top, and it works like a charm. And maybe your cat is a slow eater? With canned food, it's fine to leave out for a while, so your cat just might want to eat it over the course of an hour. When mine is feeling picky, she tends to eat slower, instead of scarfing her plate. So I let her...she almost always finishes it eventually.

 

[duckpond]

My cats have never eaten anything the first time or two usually time 4 or 5 is the tell. I also use crumbled up pure bites on top and that will get them to try it.

I recently purchased a case of Dr. elseys turkey, they love the dr. Elseys dry, so i thought maybe the wet food. Tonight was the first time they ate any of it, other than what they just had to.... to scrape off those pure bites...lol. this was can 5. we will see.

and your right about not all textures are created equal. mine are not big on pate, they usually like small minced or real shreds, but not all brands. lately its only been real shreds, such as Tiki cat, or Almo nautre, the complete foods. they are loving almo the chicken and green beans, and the salmon and apple.

 

[RajaNMizu]

I'm currently in the process of moving to a more wet food/less dry food diet. I have one cat who will eat mostly anything put in front of her (that's Raja). Mizu would prefer to live on dry food and I'm trying to change her preference. My method has been buying 2 cans of a product in different protein types and reducing (not eliminating) the amount of dry food available to her. I've also placed mealtimes for her wet food as far as I can from her last opportunity for dry food in hopes to create an appetite. This is beginning to be successful. I also have what I consider to be back up meals (Stella & Chewy's freeze dried duck) for those times when she won't even try the wet food. I keep good notes on what she's enjoyed (this week Halo was a winner), what she ate some of (which will be tried again with a different protein) and what she avoided like the plague. We're moving slowly in the right direction. Best of luck!

 

[Daisy6]

One easy way to know is Vinny begs for food after hours of eating nothing and only sniffs it before walking away. If you serve two different brands at the same time, he will let you know which one smells better by eating it first.

The ultimate loser test is a refusal to eat food he does like because another food he can smell from a few feet away is also available. That's when you know not to try it again.

 

[ailish]

Cats are just so different, it's really amazing. Ailish is so far (fingers crossed) not at all picky and eats everything the first time. In the very rare instance when she doesn't eat it the first time, she will never eat it. However, if she decides she doesn't like a food that she's been eating for quite awhile, if I mix it in with something she likes she will eat it. Usually. This has saved me from wasting food on several occasions.

 

[KarenKat]

his has saved me from wasting food on several occasions

Let’s just say that the first time Olive quite on a food the local feral cat colony ate like Kings ...

 

[Daisy6]

Karen, I did the mixing thing with dry food to make Daisy eat a 2-pound bag of NVI (Nature's Variety Instinct because I wanted her to eat the best dry food available - which is definitely not grainy Wellness Complete Health. She was good at eating NVI mixed in with the Wellness, but not by itself. Since then I have been feeding her Blue Wilderness Indoor Adult chicken, which she still likes. But because I can't find canned food she lies, I never thought about doing it with Blue Freedom chicken pate.

 

[KarenKat]

The reject food was cans of Only Natural Pet Turkey Pate. She ate the sample can exhubrantly but would only eat half of a portion one I bought the full case. I tried using toppers but she just didn’t want to eat it. The label changed around the same time, so maybe that’s why. Since I only had 20 cans left I donated them to a local guy that feeds a feral colony. She doesn’t reject most of her foods so I felt bad trying to force her to eat this one. And the ferals will be quite happy

 

[duckpond]

My guys are fussy with wet foods! they have rejected the Dr. Elseys turkey i recently got. i wish i knew why they were so fussy. I just today got the Caru salmon and turkey, we will see Our local shelter, and feral colonies get quite a few donations from my guys

 

[CatDaddyMatt]

Thanks for the tips and suggestions!

Sorry for the delay in response. We just adopted a second cat, Riley, a few days ago. He's doing great. Seven months old, high energy, affectionate, playful. He can't wait to meet his older brother Vinny (our first cat, he's just a few days over one years old). In the meantime they're communicating through an opening under the bedroom door, playing with their fish toys pushing them back and forth. Vinny will sometimes patiently sit outside the door, just waiting for Riley to come to the door and push back a fish toy, so cute. It's been said repeatedly that taking a few days before making proper introductions appears to have the highest success rates so we're doing that.

Riley's eating well. I'm introducing Origen Cat & Kitten (which Vinny did terrific on), adding little by little to the Purina he was getting at the shelter (with the goal of replacing the Purina with the Orijen). Also seems to take a liking to Royal Canin Kitten wet food, so that's a start in the right direction.

A mistake I was making with Vinny's food habits was expecting him to eat a few small meals of wet food while simultaneously allowing free feeding access to his premium dry food. I'm tapering off the free feeding, and slowing my expectations on the wet food with 2 or 3 wet food options a day instead of offering so much.

 

[Daisy6]

ConCATulations on adopting a kitten! Now you have twice the love in your home.

The words "cat and kitten" on a label mean it is for adults and there are directions to feed double the amount for kittens. IMO that is just a money grab.