What do you do if your cat doesn't like the food you provide

If you have researched the food, and know for certain that it is good food nutritionally and has not been spoiled, but your cat refuses to eat it, what would you do?

Well, if you are ME, you buy a different brand of food and try THAT. Rinse, repeat.

The best food in the world won't do them one bit of good if they refuse to eat it, after all.

I have donated dry food that my cats would not eat to the local cat rescue. They were VERY thankful.

I 've only had that happen once with dry food, and I returned it to the store and bought the kind they like

wet food was a different story, so much wasted money

I voted for the first one. We just went through a similar thing. Luckily I only had a little of the old food left. Nabu stopped eating his food, but I know it wasn't bad (Stimpy still ate it just fine). I found something else he likes, and we'll probably pitch the small amount of the old dry food that is left. He eats the new food very well. If there was more left of the old stuff I would donate it. My cats would tip over from starvation rather than eat something they don't like. So I don't force it.

I just had to dump a big bag of Felidae because none of them would eat it. That was a big ouch. You'd think that with all the cats in my household that someone would like it. Nope - that particular bowl went untouched for a week straight.

I have this problem with Thor mostly (the dog)

I mix 80/20 the first week 80% of the old

Then 50/50 the second week

Then 20/80 the third week

Then 100 the fourth week

It seems to work well that way. Even if they don't really like it the first day they will eventually gobble it up by that night.

No problems with wasted food. If the cats won't eat it doesn't sit for long the dog eats it!

We've changed food a few times after researching what we consider to be better, and never had any problems. They're not particularly picky.

Lucky is very picky, she won't eat wet and so far she will only eat Evo dry and chicken soup dry, Gus will eat anything, I don't throw out the food that Lucky won't eat. I feed it to my semiferal outside,

I would give the extra food to the humane society, weather the bag was open or not, they dont care and they so need it!

Then, I would find a food of equal or better quality that they like!
My cats are pretty picky, right now they eat Nutro Natural Choice for Kittens and they love it! At night time they also get a can of NaturaLife which they love, and is pretty good for them! My Issue with feeding my cats Nutro right now is it seems to be severely back ordered, and you can only get it at one store in town, so today when I went in to get it, they only had itty bitty tiny bags! So my location doesn't help anything! Good luck!

Oh yeah, BTW, Sharky is the resident food expert!

When my girlies reject a particular food, I give it to my ferals. Bless them, they always love any food and gobble it right up

I give it away to friends who have cats, the shelter won't take opened food.

The food they win at shows goes to the shelter.

It`s taken ages to find wet that Kitty will eat without throwing up and wet that Maisie will eat full stop!

Neither is the best quality but they don`t like the good stuff. Just like kids

I have a neighbour though who I know is on a low income so she has had a few carrier bags of food as her cat eats anything.

My two eat anything I give them

Occasionally I give them something that they clearly aren't keen on but they will eat it (albeit slowly and with a disgusted and disappointed look on their faces). I just leave it down for them and make a mental note not to buy that again. But if it's a box containing several servings I will make them eat them all I'm a mean meowmy sometimes!

My mom's cat Turtle has been the very happy recipient of a lot of cat food courtesy of Pippin's sensitive tummy.

Originally Posted by urbantigers

Occasionally I give them something that they clearly aren't keen on but they will eat it (albeit slowly and with a disgusted and disappointed look on their faces).

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Oh, I have a great mental image of that now! Poor deprived kitties

Originally Posted by DawnofSierra

When my girlies reject a particular food, I give it to my ferals. Bless them, they always love any food and gobble it right up

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I tried the Felidae (the bag I just threw out) on my ferals and they wouldn't touch it either.

This happens so often, I lose count.

I had a cat that lived nearly 19 years on Friskies wet and Purina One dry. With this batch, I was determined to find a higher quality wet and dry food for them. It is often hit or miss.

The more whole the food, the less they like it. Anything labeled "human grade chicken" or some such is sure to be rejected outright.

My cats will not eat Merricks or Wellness. They will not eat Felidae canned but have in the past enjoyed the dry, but no longer will agree to eat the dry. They loved the Pinnacle dry and then the company changed the formula and they won't touch it.

I think that's the key oftentimes. Companies mess with the formulas and some cats are attuned to the changes and protest.

After the pet food scare, I tried to switch to the Dick VanPattan wet, then some of that was affected. I gave up and went to Fancy Feast because Purina wasn't affected. It was like I gave them Nirvana.