Cats refuse to eat canned food

Anyone have any advice on how to get a cat to eat canned food?

I have 3 cats who refused to touch canned food. They were from the same litter. I try to put out canned food, put them in front of it to show it to them, put it on my finger to try to get them to lick it off, but they refuse it. I even tried putting it on top of the dry food but they just stopped eating it when I tried that.

You can try a number of brands, flavors, and textures. (That last one seems important to my cats, who often prefer shredded meat in gravy over pate or loaf-style.)

I think some people on this board have tried using bonito flakes or something similar. You can sprinkle them on top of the food to entice your cats. I haven't done it myself, but I've wondered whether it works.

I sympathize with you, because I have three cats, and there are only a couple of types that all three like. That makes economizing a bit difficult!

keep trying ... some like water added, others like shredded and still others just will not eat it

Dusty will hardly ever touch the dry stuff unless she is desperate!
But if she is any indicator, go buy an Arby's roast beef sandwich, remove the meat and put it on top of the food they won't eat! Dusty ate my whole sandwich the other day. She likes this better than tuna.

One of mine is the same, the rest get wet daily and cry for it if I feed them late but Bumper just walks away from his bowl and sits and watches them eat the wet. We found one he would eat by Fromm a few years back but they no longer make it and he wont eat any others (he also doesnt eat human food or Bonita so all the usual tricks dont work)

^I've never seen a cat that wouldn't eat some sort of human food! Usually I have to guard my food with the bunch I have around here. Even if it's something they won't eat they'll have to stick their paws in it.


So what flavors have been tried? What types of can were they?
If people could list what they're cats won't touch it could make it easier because others could share similar reactions to that food and maybe what their picky cat would eat.

Kizzy won't eat human food


Have you tried cheaper food, such as Fancy Feast? Most kitties will eat it, and yes some people refer to it as kitty crack. I personally disagree, and there are some varieties of it that are what I'd consider a med. good food

My kitties LOVE the grilled ones.... the consistancy is like that of a human can of flaked tuna, only with a little sauce.

They will not eat chunks n' gravy of any brand... and they will eat some pate styles.... but I really like the FF I described because they have to chew it. Some of the chunks are quite long and require chewing.

My advice, keep trying.... small cans till you find one....

The best wet food is the one they WILL eat.

Some tips that might help:

Put some wet on a plate right next to their dry food while they're eating for several days. Just enough so they can smell it while they're eating and begin to associate the two together.

Then drop just a couple of kibbles on top of the wet and offer that before their regular kibble for several days to see if they'll try it. If not, throw away the kibble pieces and put down the dry food next to the plate of wet for a few more days.

Also, in conjunction with the kibble, you could sprinkle freeze-dried meat treats on the wet food. Stella and Chewy's makes some, as does Whole Life and many others. Cats often find these treats irresistible and they sorta melt into the wet food, so they can't easily be picked out.

There are some more ideas in this article Transitioning Dry Food Addicts to Canned - hopefully, you'll find something helpful.

Good luck, Nekochan! Your cats are lucky you are willing to try to out-stubborn them.

Originally Posted by Auntie Crazy

Some tips that might help:





Also, in conjunction with the kibble, you could sprinkle freeze-dried meat treats on the wet food. Stella and Chewy's makes some, as does Whole Life and many others. Cats often find these treats irresistible and they sorta melt into the wet food, so they can't easily be picked out.



Good luck, Nekochan! Your cats are lucky you are willing to try to out-stubborn them.

Click to expand...

Good one Auntie , I use it alot but never remember to tell others

One of my kittens, Panther will only eat baby food. He will only eat very little canned food. I tried to add water to the canned food to make it a more soup-like texture, and he is eating more of it. So I agree texture of the food can make a difference.

Thanks for the tips! So far I've tried Wellness (most of the grain free flavors and some pouches), Solid Gold Tuna, Merrick Grammy's Pot Pie, two types of Tiki Cat (one was mackerel and sardine, I forget the other flavor), one type of "BFF" (forgot which), Evanger's chicken, EVO, and Felidae. Also possibly a few more I forget. They are different textures, some are the 'loaf' type, some are shredded, some are chunks in sauce. I also tried a sample of premade raw and when they wouldn't eat it I tried heating it up but they still didn't want it.

When they were kittens they ate Felidae canned but now they won't touch it.
I feed my senior cat Sneakers the grain free Wellness canned food all the time so that is available to them almost every day (sometimes I give her the Solid Gold tuna instead) but those younger cats just won't eat it... They usually won't eat people food or treats either.
I haven't tried cheaper foods like Fancy Feast though.

Try some of the "lesser" quality ones ... try something maybe in beef or venison

If you look at the ingredients in Meow Mix, it really isn't too bad. Also the new fancy feast appetizers or whatever they are called, those have pretty good ingredients. You might give those a try.

Ok I'll try those. I'm not looking forward to cleaning the litterbox afterwards though! One thing I remember from previous cats and friends' cats is those cheap foods make the boxes stink to high heaven!

Originally Posted by Nekochan

Anyone have any advice on how to get a cat to eat canned food?

I have 3 cats who refused to touch canned food. They were from the same litter. I try to put out canned food, put them in front of it to show it to them, put it on my finger to try to get them to lick it off, but they refuse it. I even tried putting it on top of the dry food but they just stopped eating it when I tried that.

Click to expand...

my vet said that was fine because canned cat food can cause all kinds of teeth problems.
our turkish van will not eat anything except dry food, she has been this way since we took her inside.
when she was outside (as a kitten) we feed them canned food and she ate till she couldn't move when we made her a house cat, she would never touch it again.
but she is healthy and has not teeth problems so the vet said that was fine, dry food was good for her anyway.

Your vet is very much mistaken, Jimanuel. Dry food is not at all good for cats (google "the dangers of dry food"); it causes chronic dehydration, diabetes, IBD, obesity, and a whole host of other issues.

Nor does it do a thing for their teeth, on the contrary. Imagine how our teeth would like after a lifetime of eating cheerios with no milk, no water, nothing to soften or moisten it. Here's a study about periodontal diseases in cats: Colyer Institute Research Diet Consistency.

Originally Posted by Auntie Crazy

Your vet is very much mistaken, Jimanuel. Dry food is not at all good for cats (google "the dangers of dry food"); it causes chronic dehydration, diabetes, IBD, obesity, and a whole host of other issues.

Nor does it do a thing for their teeth, on the contrary. Imagine how our teeth would like after a lifetime of eating cheerios with no milk, no water, nothing to soften or moisten it. Here's a study about periodontal diseases in cats: Colyer Institute Research Diet Consistency.

Click to expand...

I agree with the above.. The study is Zoo cats but obviously can be thought of toward are little kittys

Vet who went to school 15 plus years ago were taught DRY only for dental health... Well It has been proven over and over that cats do NOT chew the way we do ... they rip , shred , tear and swallow ...

I read that 80% of dry food isn't chewed by a cat (book was by a vet)... which makes alot of sence if you think about it, anyone ever have a cat barf after eating? Notice that the food isn't chewed up, it's whole peices.

Back to the OP, have you tried people tuna? I would try Meow Mix fishy flavors, and/or FF, I think they would eat it, and if they do you could slowly transfer them onto a healthier food by addind in very small amounts over a period of weeks.

Picky cats are hard, lol, it took me over a month to transfer mine from cheap food to high quality food, they would pick it out.

Hey I wanted to update. I tried a variety of Fancy Feast including the 'appetizers' as well as some of the other cheap food brands (and some more of the 'good' brands) and they still won't eat any of it!
I even tried taking away their dry food overnight and putting canned food out instead, but they still wouldn't touch it.

You mentioned you tried finger feeding. I had to do this so Neko would start eating it. But, i actually opened her mouth gently, and placed some wet food from my finger in her mouth. She ate it and eventually started eating wet on her own, realizing "hmm, this is good stuff!"

Maybe you can give this a try. Be gentle and patient.

pate/loaf styles worked for me as well as adding warm water.