Finding a good food they will eat

daddyof8

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I've been driving myself crazy the last few weeks trying to get my 8 cats off of Nutro Complete care. The driver for this was not only Nutro quality concerns, but that my two oldest wouldn't eat it anymore. The oldest get wet food, but I free feed dry food and would like to have 3 out at all times. I found that half of them like Blue Buffalo Chicken and Rice, but the others are being very picky. The biggest issue is that I don't have a food to transition from, so I just have to put the new food out and watch closely to see who eats it. I've never had a problem transitioning them before, but I have one kitten in particular that has only liked one of the below foods (Solid Gold). I already have 9 bags of food in the house, so this can't go on forever.

I've tried 9 dry types:

Blue Buffalo Chicken and Rice (well received by most)
Blue Buffalo Salmon and Rice (nobody loved it)
Blue Buffalo Turkey and Rice SS (nobody liked it)
By Nature Adult Formula (one cat ate a little)
Avoderm Chicken and Herring (some liked it, but too much corn)
Solid Gold Katz n' Flocken (in testing-most seem to like it)
Natural Balance Ultra (in testing-not well liked)
Wellness Indoor (in testing-not well liked)
Castor and Pollux Indoor (in testing-most seem to like it)

My question is this. If I put out multiple new foods at a time, is it as easy as watching to see which foods they eat the most? I'm afraid they have too many choices because I currently have 4 new foods out and they have had zero interest both the Wellness and Natural Balance foods( I was hoping that they would like these). Does that just mean that they prefer the Katz n' Flocken and Castor and Pollux and don't like the other two? I just don't want to discount good quality foods because my testing method is flawed. I'm not sure how else to go about this and would love to hear any suggestions.

Thanks!
 

carolina

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My Lucky is extremely picky, and the solution I found for that was to do a VERY slow transition... Start with a few kibbles, than 1/8 of new into 7/8 of old food, and go from there - at least a week or two in each step. Yep, it will take a couple months, but she will eat whatever I give to her... If I do it any faster than that, forget it.
 

snake_lady

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Originally Posted by Daddyof8

My question is this. If I put out multiple new foods at a time, is it as easy as watching to see which foods they eat the most? I'm afraid they have too many choices because I currently have 4 new foods out and they have had zero interest both the Wellness and Natural Balance foods( I was hoping that they would like these). Does that just mean that they prefer the Katz n' Flocken and Castor and Pollux and don't like the other two? I just don't want to discount good quality foods because my testing method is flawed. I'm not sure how else to go about this and would love to hear any suggestions.

Thanks!
I would have to say that your testing is slightly flawed in that you have 4 different foods out at once.... So it doesn't nessecarily mean they don't like the Wellness or NB, it's just that something draws them to the other two foods (they may smell stronger, and attract them that way).

Because you don't have a transition period, I would stick a big bowl or several bowls out, of the same kind for a day or two. See if anyone is acting hungry, if the food is being eaten, etc. I'd leave the same type of food for at least 2 days.

Definately putting 4 different types of food at once is causing favoritism by the kitties..... Try one at a time, would be my suggestion
 

sharky

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I agree with Chris ONE at a time ... can be a short time ie a few weeks
 
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daddyof8

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Thanks for the replies. I knew I over did it with all the varieties, but I panicked when a few of the cats weren't eating. I've always left two foods out(typically same brand different variety), but the cats have become far pickier lately so 3 seems to be necessary. Since they have been eating the Castor and Pollux and Solid Gold foods, I'm going to leave them out and pick up the Natural Balance and Wellness. ( As I write this, the pickiest one just ate the Blue Buffalo for the first time! Yes!). I'll revisit all the other foods in the future if need be. Then I'll be able to transition them the proper way.

Thanks again for the input!
 
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