Out Of Canned Food Options? Picky Cat

[Simonalm]

Hi everyone! My cat Simon who is almost 6 months old now has proven to be quite picky.. to the point that I'm literally running out of canned food choices for him. He loves anything fish based but I try to not give him that more than twice a week which I still feel is too frequent, poultry, beef, lamb etc are a no go for him most of the time.

He gets free fed dry kitten food right now, natures variety chicken flavor which he loves. I try to feed him canned morning and night but he will not eat 99% of them so I got him Ziwi peak dry lamb in the mean time just to give him more calories on days that he won't eat canned. I'm hoping someone will have some suggestions here on how I can get him to eat other canned food or a new brand. We end up throwing away so much food because he will not eat it, he's been like this since we found him at 6 weeks old. He's healthy, up to date on shots, was dewormed and had a fecal test done and he's 6.5 pounds.. anyways the brands we've tried of wet are

Natures variety kitten, ate once won't touch it now.

Literally every other flavor of natures variety canned, he wouldn't even eat the salmon in that brand.

Tiki cat after dark all flavors, only will drink up the juice.

Weruva cats in the kitchen cans/pouches of most flavors, he likes the lamb only but it has a lot of tuna in it.

I and love and you, turkey and chicken Won't touch any but the cod flavor.

Wellness divine duos. Beef, turkey, chicken he wouldn't even take a bite.

Nutro perfect portions, chicken and turkey. Nope

Sheba perfect portions, hates the turkey tolerates chicken.

Fancy Feast chicken medleys won't eat more then half the can, will not touch it the next day even heated up.

Fancy feast kitten chicken flavor, nope nope nope

Fancy feast purely fancy chicken

Blue buffalo kitten chicken nope

Purina beyond chicken/sweet potatoe no

Taste of wild nope

Natural balance chicken nope

Solid gold, I can get him to eat once in a blue moon.

Probably a few more that I'm forgetting. He will eat most of fancy feast broths but those are just for supplemental feedings. Doesnt seem to prefer pate over shredded or vice versa but is definitely a licker. He will only drink the juice on most of them.

I'm literally running out of options here, id like to try Ziwi Peak canned but no where around me sells it so I'd have to order a whole case and I'd bet he won't like it. Does anyone have any advice? He loves any and all of the fish ones but I really try and hold those out on him. Any tips for very picky eaters? Any brands for picky eaters? Do I just hold out canned food on him? Because for example if we open up one can and he won't eat it after an hour I give him a different can and he usually won't eat much of that one!! He's such a little jerk also he "buries" his food, so almost always when I set down food for him he acts like he buries it and walks away lol makes me laugh but drives me crazy!! Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[MissMolly08]

You say he is a licker... Have you tried changing the presentation of the food? My cat is a licker too and if I give her food with any type of sauce/gravy, she just licks that off and leaves the chunks of meat. If I give her Pate, it has to be chopped up and have water added to make it "lickable".

 

[maggie101]

Gosh, that's a lot! My cat Peaches will only eat Wellness Core canned. Which is mostly meat. She does not like anything with vegetables or gravey. My other cats will eat anything

 

[bonepicker]

I do timed feedings of wet only, no dry food offered,my cats eating wet only, they are fussy also, their favorites are Merrick rabbit, whole earth farms duck or beef, Soulistic chicken dinner in gelee, they don’t get dry at all. Treats are purebites freeze dried chicken (dog size bag) Purchased at chewy

 

[bonepicker]

I do timed feedings of wet only, no dry food offered,my cats eating wet only, they are fussy also, their favorites are Merrick rabbit, whole earth farms duck or beef, Soulistic chicken dinner in gelee, they don’t get dry at all. Treats are purebites freeze dried chicken (dog size bag) Purchased at chewy

 

[Gizmobius]

Hound & Gatos makes a trout and duck liver wet food. I know you said you want to limit fish but at least trout is a fresh water fish and is a liiittle bit safer than salmon and tuna. I got a case for my boy and he gets it on weekends but it’s VERY soupy even for being a pate so if you cat does like it, he should enjoy licking it!

 

[maggie101]

Wellness Pate is soupy so she will lick that up. I don't give it to her because then she will eat too much too fast and regurgitate her food. That problem didn't start til she was adult. Major pig as a kitten!

 

[orange&white]

He's probably got his taste buds set on a dry food preference. Some cats get really addicted to kibble early on and it's hard to get them off of it. He's old enough to stop free-feeding the dry food. If you give him measured portions of dry and wet, he should be less picky about the canned food. He still needs to eat as much food as he wants, but if you were to limit the kibble to say 1/2 cup a day and offer him canned food when he's hungry, you can use his hunger as motivation to get him to eat healthier.

 

[Simonalm]

Thank you all for the replies!! I found a site where you can purchase single cans of food so I went ahead and ordered one of each Ziwi peak, a couple hounds and gatos and a few different brands you guys recommended. I tried chopping up the pate and adding water to it last night and he started to eat it and I thought yay finally but after a few bites he started trying to cover it and walked away lol he sure is something!

Ideally yes I would like him to be completely off of dry food, either all canned or home cooked. I never fed my dog dry food, so I'm knowledgeable in a home cooked diet for dogs but not at all for cats right now. Due to our schedule and his very weird eating habits dry seems to be a must right now. When I do work it's 8 hours a day so I try and feed him canned food before I leave and leave dry food out for him. He also gets up in middle of the night every night and just about empties his dry food bowl. Whether he has actually ate canned food for dinner or not. You're absolutely right though he does seem to love his dry food so I will start cutting it down. At least not leaving as much out at night for him that way he will hopefully be hungry for canned in the morning.

Thanks everyone!

 

[nansiludie]

What about I and love and you in rabbit or beef? My cats love the rabbit variety.

 

[ailish]

My two suggestions would be Wild Calling and Rawz. Rawz is hard to find, but the web sites have Wild Calling. My cat is not picky at all, but Wild Calling is her current favorite (don't let her hear me say that) and smells so good I could eat it. They have a good number of flavors and it's good stuff. My sister's cat who has gotten picky in her old age took to Rawz. They are both soft pates that mix well with water, so you can make a nice soup if need be.

 

[momof3b1g]

Is there a reason you havent tried the other fancy feast? My 9 and even picky eaters will eat. Classic beef, chicken & beef, beef & liver, chicken and chopped grill

 

[maryah]

I found a site where you can purchase single cans of food so I went ahead and ordered one of each Ziwi peak, a couple hounds and gatos and a few different brands you guys recommended.

Would you share which website that is? I've only found ones that sell by the case only. Thanks!

 

[kittyluv387]

It would be a lot better if he stops being fed dry food and stop with the free access. Since he's still a growing 6 month old i would feed him 3 times a day and drop it down to 2 once he's older. It should help with the pickiness.

 

[Ardina]

I think your kitten is a dry-food addict. No matter how tasty the canned food is, he's probably going to turn his nose up. Saipha was like that, and I never managed to get her to eat both dry and canned. She would always hold out for the dry food. Eventually, I had to take away the dry entirely and transition her to wet food only. Once she realized that the dry wasn't coming back, she ate the wet food somewhat consistently (including brands/textures/flavors she'd refused only a short time before).

 

[maryah]

Ardina -- my experience was similar. I had pretty much given up trying to transition my 1 year old to canned. And then one day she just refused to eat the dry food and kept crying until I pulled out some of the canned food in desperation. Then she was a happy cat! We still went through some weeks of getting her to eat more than one brand of canned food, but she's doing pretty well now. I leave a small portion of dried out overnight in case of hunger attacks and to keep her used to it, but she eats very little of it. (All selections are grain-free, high-protein, low-carb.)

 

[Simonalm]

Sure Maryah! The site was www.onlynaturalpet.com

They also have free shipping on every order and I found a $5 off first purchase coupon.. they bubble wrap the cans so they arrived in perfect condition.

 

[Simonalm]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions! I'm happy to announce I've finally figured Simon out.. for now anyways lol. He likes cuts in gravy, not pate and not shredded unless I cut it up for him. He is a stinker.

I've went through countless high end brands and flavors for him and he was turning his nose up at all of them aside from drinking the juice/gravy. I bought a few cheap kinds just to get him to eat something other than dry and the one he kind of ate was Sheba pate, I went and bought another few trays to last until our order from chewy and natural pet came in with the new flavors and brands. This time I accidentally bought the cuts in gravy.. he gobbled it up so fast. So I went on chewy again and ordered him cases of the merrick pouches, which is cuts in gravy of a few different flavors. He loves them all!!!

I'm trying now to find other high quality brands that are cuts in gravy other than merrick but I'm not having much luck.. any suggestions? I got him the nutro perfect balance in pate (before I knew he liked cuts more) and he wouldn't even touch it.. I see now they have cuts in gravy I think I will give that a try. He likes the weruva cats in the kitchen, almost all of them but I have to cut the shreds up other wise he will just like the juice/gravy off. Isn't that funny?? It's like a whole new food to him if it's cut up. I'm also disappointed to say he hated the Ziwi peak. We tried 3 different kinds and he would only touch the lamb, which makes sense as he loves the dry Ziwi Peak lamb.

 

[maryah]

Sure Maryah! The site was www.onlynaturalpet.com

They also have free shipping on every order and I found a $5 off first purchase coupon.. they bubble wrap the cans so they arrived in perfect condition.

Thank you!