Cat's not eating the same food anymore

I have a quick question,My cats have been eating the same brand and same flavor of food for about 5 years,now all of a sudden,they won't eat it.And the act starved any time the :censor::censor::censor::censor:.is opened or when we eat something.Does everyone feed their cat's different food or the same one all the time?{they do eat small amounts of it)And if I change how do I go about it? Thanks Sherral

I had this happen to me just recently too. I thought it might be a bad tasting lot. Same food but different lot #. It was a cheeper grocery store brand and might have questionable quality control.

Hi Sherral!

I moved your thread to the proper forum where the 'experts' hang out and will see it.

I feed my cats Eukanuba. They've been eating it since I got them, 2 years ago. I mix it up between the lamb and rice and chicken and rice. So far I've experienced no problems with them getting sick of it.

Enya didn't even eat the same brand for a year. I have to switch every now and then to keep her eating.

If you want to switch brands, try mixing the old with the new at first if they refuse the new stuff. Our cat insists on variety. I generally have three or four different brands of dry food for him (right now he's eating Nutro, Iams, Hill's and Felidae) in the morning, and two or three different brands of canned food (currently Iams, Nutro and Miamor, which is a German brand) in various flavors for his evening meal. He refuses to eat the same food two days in a row, or even more than twice a week. He'll eat a brand for two or three months, and then I have to give that brand a rest and get another one. If your cats have been eating the same brand for years and are now refusing it, it may be that the producer has changed the ingredients slightly.

I've never had a problem with my cats stopping eating, no cat that has ever been in my home or my parents home did this.

I personally think it's good to give them a little variety.

What brand of food are you feeding her right now, and is it dry or wet? Lots of people switch their cats food brands after a while, I think it might be a good thing, and it also gives you the chance to find a food your cat will thrive on.

I used to feed Authority, and every 1-2 months I would give them the chicken and rice, then in another 1-2 months they'd get the lamb, and then the ocean fish... etc etc. You get the idea.

My cats have been on Solid Gold dry for about 3 months now maybe longer, they haven't gotten sick of it. But they do get various wet food brands every 3 days for a little extra something something. And sometimes I'll give them treats of other food brands. Like small food samples I'll receive.
Keeps it interetsting for them.

i give them different food every time the get sick of having the same food all the time.

Thank everyone! I think I will get acouple of small bags of different kinds of food and see what they like best.That way if there is one they don't like I won't have big bags of food that they won;t eat.I have been feeding my one cat who is going to have babies,high protean[sp] kitten food The rest of them want that! I feed all my cat dry Friskies.Thanks again

does switching every few days upset their stomachs or do you mix it?

Sherral: Would you possibly consider feeding a higher grade/better quailty food, friskies is not it.
I don't know what your budget is like however.

Plus the better food you feed the healthier your cats will be and those kittens! Foods with more meat in them are often more appealing to cats and will eat less of it, then something like Frisky's which I believe is mostly corn based. Cats don't need corn, it's a filler, no nutritional value, your actually dumping money down the drain by feeding a food like that.
Maybe your cats got tired of it because they don't like the low grade frisky's?

Auburn: I don't think anyone should be switching the foods (different brand foods every day!) That's too much.
Any brand switch you make, should be slowly a little more each day with the old stuff, for at LEAST a week.

So yes, switching to fast can cause upset stomachs.

angel - thanks! that is what i had always believed, but i thought i would ask. if i could give them more variety it would be great, but i sure would rather have him bored than sick.

Ted & I have been reading all the info.and we are going out to try a higher qualiy cat food. I am not sure what kinds I can find around here,it will be a new learing exp. Thanks Sherral

Here are a few brand names for you. Wellness, Pet Guard, Felidae (as mentioned before) and I can't think of the others right now.

Right now Binky is eating 4 different brands of dry. I mix it all up in a canister. When i try some thing new i just add it slowly to the mix. But not too much to soon.

I have three cats, only one of my cats is really fussy. The other two are not as bad. I try to feed them different flavors and the same brands of cat food all the time. It is really hard to feed him, he likes something for a while then he doesn't like it afterwards. Joey really likes when I first opened the cat food but when it been in the fridge too long, he doesn't like it. I don't know if your cat is fussy like mines, it just really hard to know what he likes. If you wabt to change the food, you have to to do it slowly because cats don't like have change, it would be very upsetting. So do it very slowly until it gets use to the new food, you can mix some of the old food with the new food. Then gradually feed the cat the new food without mixing it. Also, you try buying this brand but it is really expensive, it is called Active Life, it cost $2.99 here and all of my cats really like it and there are 8 flavors to chose from.

Sherral: Off the top of my head, if you have a...


Walmart: Maxximum Nutrition (Cat, Kitten & Hairball formuals).

Petsmart: Bil-Jac
Authority
Pro Plan
Nutro Max
Nutro Natural
Nature's Recipie

I have left out Science Diet as they use BHT in their foods and are over priced (IMO). BHT is a known cancer causing chemical preservative. I also have Exluded IAM's as it's over priced, and well... hmm I'm going to have to PM you with the rest, cause this world is a sue happy place!

Petco:
Breeders Choice
Natural Balance
Pet Gold
Royal Canin
Sensible Choice
Wysong
Vitarx

These are all just a few, there are many more cat foods out there, but these are commenly seen. And they are all better then Frisky's, Wiska's..etc (IMO).

Everyone has different opinions and I wouldn't touch some of those foods! Royal Canin also has a pretty neat holistic blend now (add to the petco list LOL - they also are the makers of the Sensible Choice also).

I would recommend going to a specialty shop that offers food consults. They should offer a money back guarantee for the food, and then if it doesn't work, bring it back and they'll help you select another to try. Good luck!

i try a lot of new foods. when i get one that dont work out i give it to my humane soc. they are allways very happy to get better quality food for the special needs kittys. they dont mind that the bag has been opened.

Ali: Your right, I wouldn't feed all of them either! But yeah have to admit, they are better then frisky's dry! (IMO) lolol

Sher: If you do have a local store that sell specialty foods I would defeintly check out that place first, cause then they might carry things like Wellness, Innova, Solid Gold, Natures Variety, etc etc, oohhh so many.