House cats, finicky about food..?

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Abodybomber

Abodybomber

Breaking street machines , since 1983.....:)
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Half Siamese/half tabby. Feed her wet food , sometimes eaten, most not.. Constant dry food,fresh water. Usually likes IAMS ,( I do change brands, bag to bag..) She hates oil /fish smelling wet food, nothing is ever consistent here. The energy level drops, without the protein.. ( wet food) .Any ideas, besides dry food?
 
i don't cater to picky but i did find that when you change brands and food type ....it really throws them off. they are creatures of habit.

My male cat has been eating the same brand of dry for years with no wet food ...well since he was a kitten. My girl cat came to me as an adult cat and at first she was sketchy but after a week she got into it and now a year and half later she is in her routine.

They can develop digestive problems with constant change. At least my two freak out .......they are like me....we don't like change LOL
 
I agree to keep it consistent with the food that she does like so she'll continue eating. Another thing, cats also don't like it when they feel unsafe to eat or when it's close to their litterbox. You say you want to feed her wet food too (try a chicken or beef wet food), what we do for our cat is she eats her food with most enthusiasm when we mix it with a spoonful of wet with her dry food, then store the rest of the can sealed up in the fridge (they make lids for cans of food). Might be worth a shot.
 
I think finding what she likes and sticking to it is the easiest way. Our cat (we had to give him away when I developed an allergy) only got one brand of dry food but he liked some of the bits and pieces cut off fish and meats when we were cooking. And I believe that's hard to beat when it comes to proper nourishment for the little killers.

Oh, and he sometimes ate rodents only in the summer house. :D
 
yeah, they don't like change

I remember buying the wrong brand of catfood once and he wouldn't touch it
his bowl just sat there for days
I finally got a jar of catnip and laced his bowl with that...he ended up eating the entire bag
 
Try some tuna small can with brine water for human consumption the stuff you get from the super markets drain water and see how she goes. We have 2 cats one is really fussy where as the male will try any thing,he even likes eating ccs corn ships he blow me away with what he will try.Think of Garfield thats Gin Gin !
 
67 gt said:
Try some tuna small can with brine water for human consumption the stuff you get from the super markets drain water and see how she goes. We have 2 cats one is really fussy where as the male will try any thing,he even likes eating ccs corn ships he blow me away with what he will try.Think of Garfield thats Gin Gin !
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our stray won`t eat anything but meow mix, asks for it by name !! :):)
 
Cats are masters of psychological warfare always trying to trick me and giving me the evil eye. So I resort to " eat what I gave you or die". It works OK. The cool thing about cats is that they are responsible for killing more creatures than any other land animal.
 
999yards said:
Cats are masters of psychological warfare always trying to trick me and giving me the evil eye. So I resort to " eat what I gave you or die".
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I literally LOL'd at this..:D A friend once told me 'you can't starve a cat'. Pretty much true if they are outdoor cats. I feed mine the cheapest dry food I can buy. They eat it and like it...or they do with out. I also don't feed them too much at a time. I want them to be a bit hungry so they will hunt but still come around for their food 'treat' every day so they won't run off.
Dallas
 
Of course everyone with a cat has already seen this but it is just to good to pass up.

Dog-vs-Cat-Diary-Entry.jpg
 
They give cats Valium after surgery if they don't eat. For some reason it stimulates their appetite. Can't lift their face out of the bowl but they eat.LOL
 
Mine is very finicky. Might like one food one day, but not the next, and then like it, again, the day after that.
We feed her wet food twice a day. She gets dry food while we're away, though.
 
Found Iams dry food , yesterday.. She perked up( an understatement, she's attacking me for attention!) ,after eating two cups in 36 hours. She just exploded energy wise, & the water consumption went up in matching volume. So for the moment, good news...
 
MOBodyman said:
A friend once told me 'you can't starve a cat'. Pretty much true if they are outdoor cats. I feed mine the cheapest dry food I can buy. They eat it and like it...or they do with out. I also don't feed them too much at a time. I want them to be a bit hungry so they will hunt but still come around for their food 'treat' every day so they won't run off.
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My experience is that a cat is a hunter or it isn't, under-feeding a non-hunter isn't going to turn it into one, likewise a well-fed hunter will still hunt.

My attitude towards feeding is more or less the same as yours...they get what I bought, next time around I'll get something different if they don't seem to like a particular type. Fortunately, I've never had a cat that was a picky eater.

You've got to be careful with the really cheap cat food though, apparently there's some ingredient that they use can cause urinary tract infections, especially in males. I'll go with whatever mainstream brand is cheapest, not gonna waste money on the expensive brands.
 
make a barn cat out of them and feed the cheap dry dog food, mice, birds, and bugs!!! then they will do fine. they will be appreciative for shelter and food!

and will start acting like a big guard dog! ha .. but true.....
 
Agree with the consistentsy part BUT, be careful there isn't to much carbohydrate. I try to find the highest protein / animal product level and go with that. The reason is diabetes. I had to give my cat insulin shots for 9 years, and have several friends who have had the same happen to their cats. Their systems weren't made to eat a lot of carbs. Much of the cheap dry food is loaded with it.
 
It MIGHT be the cat has something (health) wrong and is not eating.

I probably won't have any more cats. I do miss them.

4120397091_0daa17239a_z.jpg
 
Ours eat all the time. They are not picky at all. I think the key to it is to keep the bowl full all the time, which we do. That way, they eat WHEN they want to, which I think is the biggest thing.

We feed ours nine lives plus care. It has extra nutrients in it for adult and older cats. Although our youngest is about 6 months, he eats it too and it does them all good. Their coats are thick and shiny and they are all healthy.

We also give them a treat of canned food a few times a week as that adds more nutrients to their diet too. It stinks too bad to feed it to them all the time.
 
none of my neighbours let their cats inside...ever
they keep a bowl of kibble topped up outside and that's about it.
these cats just keep on ticking!
 
I have two feral cats, one 4 years old and a 1 year old. Two totally different eating habits. The older one ( Buddy) loves wet food and barely eats the dry food but goes crazy for human food. while the younger one ( Pumpkin) loves the dry food and not so much the wet and doesn't care for human food except for ham.

Now with the wet food Buddy doesn't like the seafood flavors but Pumpkin does. Go figure. Neither cat is going hungry so I just deal with it.
 
ir3333 said:
none of my neighbours let their cats inside...ever
they keep a bowl of kibble topped up outside and that's about it.
these cats just keep on ticking!
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Not around here! We always make sure our cats are inside at night, way too many predators, not to mention too cold in the winter.

We've lost any number of them over the years...sometimes we'll find a pile of fur in the field behind the house, usually no trace at all.
Nope, ours go out during the day but in after dark.
 
When you get the wet food, is it the minced, paté, or chunks? Our cats really like the paté, tolerate the minced, and will just lick the juice off the chunks but won't eat the food itself. So that's something to think about as well.
 
65LoveAffair said:
When you get the wet food, is it the minced, paté, or chunks? Our cats really like the paté, tolerate the minced, and will just lick the juice off the chunks but won't eat the food itself. So that's something to think about as well.
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Usually pate straight out of the can,or smoosh the chunky stuff down. She's eating on a normal level again,with Iams.
 
Oaktree said:
Not around here! We always make sure our cats are inside at night, way too many predators, not to mention too cold in the winter.

We've lost any number of them over the years...sometimes we'll find a pile of fur in the field behind the house, usually no trace at all.
Nope, ours go out during the day but in after dark.
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Our cat woke us up one night in the summer house. He was up in the pear tree outside our bedroom window, probably chased up there by a fox. The fox was "barking" at him and he screamed back. An awful racket.

What predators do you have?

The cold never seemed to keep him from going outside, though.

I hope you don't mind the chatter, Abodybomber.
 
360DartGT66 said:
Our cat woke us up one night in the summer house. He was up in the pear tree outside our bedroom window, probably chased up there by a fox. The fox was "barking" at him and he screamed back. An awful racket.

What predators do you have?

The cold never seemed to keep him from going outside, though.

I hope you don't mind the chatter, Abodybomber.
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Not in the slightest,Oak tree.& 360..
In previous posts, my pet walked back in the back door,& meowed. ( back patio door always open, when I am at the house) Walked outside,something healthy & heavy was climbing the power pole in the dark. Turned out ,to be a raccoon. The second time: was out back,with an adult frosty beverage, & FABO on my tablet. The cat finally got aggressive,.... on a incoming skunk... The broom was handy, used that to deflect the cat's forward back to the house.. Finally nailed the skunk with the garden hose,to let it know not to come back.. It marked the fence nastily, I can live with it. (43 years in the same house, first skunk ever. And my lazyass feline wanted to become a warrior then. Just,ugh..)
 
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