Picky 9-month-old Kitten

war&wisdom

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Ares has always gone through phases with food. When we first adopted him at 8 weeks, he was often too distracted and hyped up to eat much at once, and we often had to place him in front of a plate/bowl to make him eat. We also spent about a month figuring out three wet foods he would eat (because he seemed to get bored if we did the same one twice in a day, much less three times). One of the wet foods is the same one he's been eating since he was at his foster home.

Now, we've been doing well on the same two wet foods for a while (supplementing with dry in between, as we always have, since we can't afford to feed all wet, and since we're gone for work about 10 hours a day). He seemed very happy with them for several months. But recently, while he still gets excited for meals and acts like he wants to eat the wet, as soon as I put it down, he normally just sniffs it and walks away. He might eat a bite or two, and he'll eat a bit more out of my hand, but he just isn't really interested. He LOVES dry food and will even try to eat his sister's.

What do I do with this pickiness? Should I try toppers? Mix dry and wet (he normally just picks out the dry if I try)? Keep trying new wet foods?

I'm on a tight budget, so I need to figure out something cost-effective.

His sister will eat anything, by the way. If Ares leaves his half of the wet, she'll eventually eat it herself.

And he refuses refrigerated food...

Oy. Thanks in advance for any tips.
 
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EmersonandEvie

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What brands have you tried? A magic food seems to be Fancy Feast (the classic pates). Very economical and most cats just can't say no. There are also a ton of flavors. I would get a few cans of that and see if Ares doesn't go for it.
You could also try warning the food up to see if the smell is more enticing to him that way. Or you could add a liquid topper, like catmilk, goat milk, or plain bone broth (nothing extra added).
 

m3rma1d

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My two foster kittens were super picky. We get Blue Buffalo chicken wet food free from our shelter I'm fostering thru, or I buy Wellness chicken kitten cans (because that's a company I trust more, personally), and I split one can between them twice daily, but they hardly ate much of either brand.
Now they each get 1/4 of a 3oz can of Wholehearted Flaked Tuna Kitten wet food mixed in with their chicken kitten food, and that combo gets scarfed down very happily. Clean bowl club members, both of them!

Oh and Wellness Kitten kibble + Wholehearted Kitten kibble, they split a cup of that daily as well.
 
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mizzely

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My kitty Lydia has been giving me the run around too. The things that have helped us the most:

- Adding prepared kitten formula to the wet food to make a soup

- crumbling freeze dried food on top

- heating up the food

What kind of dry and wet are you feeding? He might just he holding out for the dry
 
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war&wisdom

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We settled on Simply Nourish duck pate (for all life stages) and Royal Canin kitten pate. Neither kitten seems to be a fan of chunky wet food, and they reject chicken.

I do suspect that Ares is holding out for the dry. It's Royal Canin kitten. (His sister, Athena, just started on a high-fiber dry diet from Hill's because the vet, who specialized in nutrition in veterinary school, determined that she was a bit overweight and wanted her to be able to graze freely on a lower-calorie dry food during the day, between wet meals, not in place of them. Ares now tries to steal her dry too.)

I actually haven't tried Fancy Feast. They used to be on Blue Wilderness kitten (salmon pate), but I didn't want them to eat too much fish, and the vet himself recommended cutting that one out.
 
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war&wisdom

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So -- he ate the Fancy Feast flaked tuna and the ocean whitefish and tuna pate. My boy likes stinky fish potentially full of heavy metals. Ugh! I'll try some other flavors soon.
 

EmersonandEvie

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I think so, thought I'm not 100%. You would have to do some research on it. When I make the cat's food (they are raw fed half the time) I add fish oil to it as part of the list of supplements to make the food complete. The omegas are good for them. Or, if you aren't comfortable with that, you could add tuna juice.
 
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war&wisdom

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