no one eats pate...

I feed wet food in addition to dry, but my biggest problem with wet food is that almost everything comes in pate form. Galen won't touch anything in pate, though he'll lick it if I mix it with water and turn it into a soup (but he still ignores most of it). Marcus will try to eat it (he tries to eat everything) but he won't eat very much and doesn't finish it.

Why does 3/4 of all wet food come in pate form? Is there anything I can do to get my cats to eat it, or do I have to buy only things that say flaked or the suchlike? I want to feed them really good food (right now they eat Evo dry, and tiki cat/BFF/soulistic wet) but so much of it is pate.

The issue i face with all my indoor cats, they won't either. Basically you need to read cans, pouches etc..

wellness, and i believe natural balance now as well have some chunky wet foods.. basically go into your local shop and start reading lol

and to just add to the confusion, my barn cats will only eat pate!

Yeah, if I buy the natural balance pouches and smash them up with a fork, they'll eat it. It's 50/50 with the wellness pouches when I mash them. It's a shame because so many of the good foods only come in pate! BFF I mash up and they love it that way. But like, it has to start out chunky before I mash it or they won't touch it.

I do so wonder why I do this for my cats. I sit there mashing up expensive food so they'll eat it and then I'm like...but they're cats. Then my brain goes, but they're *my* cats and I love them!

Originally Posted by doctorprilicla

Yeah, if I buy the natural balance pouches and smash them up with a fork, they'll eat it. It's 50/50 with the wellness pouches when I mash them. It's a shame because so many of the good foods only come in pate! BFF I mash up and they love it that way. But like, it has to start out chunky before I mash it or they won't touch it.

I do so wonder why I do this for my cats. I sit there mashing up expensive food so they'll eat it and then I'm like...but they're cats. Then my brain goes, but they're *my* cats and I love them!

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yep, what we do for our cats! i have stood in the aisle like a fool shaking cans to see if there chunky many times.

Originally Posted by followedbydolls

yep, what we do for our cats! i have stood in the aisle like a fool shaking cans to see if there chunky many times.

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Hahah I do that too! Glad to see I'm not the only one.

Zee will walk away from anything even remotely pate, but Moe is like "hot diggity, more for me!!!!" I try to read labels and have gotten the wrong "texture" a few times LOL Its such a pain. I wonder if this is a preference learned as a baby? My nakeds came to me at 5 and 6 months old, breeders preference to keep them a minimum of 16 weeks They get home and refuse fish, pate, beef upsets the tummy, oh no not lamb! Hey is that duck..ewwww It never ends

As I've posted many times, I have this problem, too, and I don't understand it, either. My first cat (well, the first one I had as an adult living on my own) loved *anything* that came out of a can, so I was taken aback by the behavior of my current finicky three.

Now that they're a little older, they *do* sometimes deign to eat some of the premium pate/loaf-style foods, but they're not consistent about it, especially if I feed a pate food two days in a row.

Sometimes mixing water in until it's kind of a slurry will convince kitties to eat pate.

I make my kitties eat the pate kind, I don't buy the chunky kind anymore. They never eat the chunks--just lick the gravy off--and I can't put up with that kind of waste.

Originally Posted by doctorprilicla

I do so wonder why I do this for my cats. I sit there mashing up expensive food so they'll eat it and then I'm like...but they're cats. Then my brain goes, but they're *my* cats and I love them!

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I feel your pain. Holland refuses to touch pate too. She won't even taste it. I've tried several different brands on several different occasions and all I get is a tentative sniff followed by a disgusted look in my direction saying "What is this slop you're trying to feed me?!?"

I was unemployed and on a tight budget for a while, and the only wet food I could get her to eat was Friskies (chunky style of course). She loved the poultry mixes, the salmon and the whitefish (she won't touch beef either), and unfortunately she became addicted to it like crack.

Once I got a job and was able to improve the quality of her food, I came here for suggestions for a picky eater and I finally had luck with Soulistic, but it's still difficult to find and the chunky styles are much rarer than the pate. The only place I've found Soulistic is PetCo; my PetSmart doesn't even carry it.

To whoever suggested it might be a learned behavior - good question! Holland was at the shelter for two months before I adopted her at 5 months, and was fed dry Science Diet at the shelter AFAIK. Before that I have no idea, though she was just a kitten, so I can only hope she was nursing. She only ate dry for her first year with me, because her mommy was pretty ignorant about how to take care of cats (she's my first). She didn't get wet until she had her teeth pulled (stomatitis) which is when the Friskies addiction came about.

I don't get it either, and I've tried mashing the pate up, mixing it with a little water, heating it up for a few seconds in the microwave, etc. I thought I just had a super-picky eater, so it's nice in a way to know I'm not the only one! If anyone has an idea of how we can work up a petition to the cat food companies or something, I'll be 100% on board!!

Originally Posted by Mystik Spiral

Once I got a job and was able to improve the quality of her food, I came here for suggestions for a picky eater and I finally had luck with Soulistic, but it's still difficult to find and the chunky styles are much rarer than the pate. The only place I've found Soulistic is PetCo; my PetSmart doesn't even carry it.

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I believe Soulistic is sold exclusively by Petco. PetSmart does have a new brand called "Simply Nourish," though, that might fit the bill. I haven't tried it yet myself, but it looks like something my guys would probably like; maybe Holland would, too.

An interesting thing I found was alot(all???) non pates were high carb. Wonder if you guys are seeing carb addicted cats?

I know this from when benji was in hospital and went on all wet after he came home after being dxed as diabetic. I have mainly used pates as I find them easily eaten and not just the gravy eaten and thats what comes in the big cans now(friskies at petsmart) Gravy lovers gets thrown in sometimes WITH the pate

Originally Posted by motoko9

I believe Soulistic is sold exclusively by Petco. PetSmart does have a new brand called "Simply Nourish," though, that might fit the bill.

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That's good to know, thanks! I didn't realize that Soulistic was a PetCo brand (or whatever deal they have going). I tend to go to PetCo more than PetSmart because it's more convenient, but I had a gift card to PetSmart and didn't find the food I wanted. I did pick up some AvoDerm just so I could use the gift card, and I mixed it in with some Soulistic I already had and she has eaten that. If I get in the same situation again I'll give the Simply Nourish a shot!

Originally Posted by catsallaround

An interesting thing I found was alot(all???) non pates were high carb. Wonder if you guys are seeing carb addicted cats?

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I'll have to pay more attention, but this seems backwards to me. Of course, most commercially produced ca tfood is more processed than we would like, but I would think that it would be easier to "hide" carbs in pate style food? It just seems that when you're getting chunks of food there's likely to be more meat than in the paste of pate.

Whatever the issue, my cat Zee is just not having it. I am trying to change them over to grain free and he is looking thinner =( I am starting to worry that all he is eating is the bit of dry I leave out for them.

Why do they have to make it so difficult!!!!!

Originally Posted by catsallaround

An interesting thing I found was alot(all???) non pates were high carb. Wonder if you guys are seeing carb addicted cats?

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I know that a lot of foods with "gravy" are made with wheat gluten, but I didn't realize they were "high carb" per se. In any case, almost all of the brands I feed are grain-free (I have several different brands and flavors in rotation).

I vaguely remember another poster saying once that she thought some cats had to *learn* how to eat loaf-style food, and I wonder if there isn't something to that. Mine are definitely more accepting of it than they used to be, and cutting it up a little seems to help. I keep trying, because variety is a good thing, and there are a lot of good pate brands that are easier to find than non-pate.

Originally Posted by Mystik Spiral

I'll have to pay more attention, but this seems backwards to me. Of course, most commercially produced ca tfood is more processed than we would like, but I would think that it would be easier to "hide" carbs in pate style food? It just seems that when you're getting chunks of food there's likely to be more meat than in the paste of pate.

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IF the chunks were actually meat, that might be true. But most "chunks" or "flakes" are made of wheat gluten or texturized soy protein mixed with a little meat. Real meat chunks not mixed with stabilizers would probably turn to mush in the can.

I'm not sure about "cutting up" patè foods? I've always just mushed it up and spread it all over the plate. Everybody else I've seen feed their cats canned food does the same. Do some people just plunk the can-shaped food on the plate, no mushing?

I work at ye olde petco so I buy soulistic a lot 'cause I'm already there, it's shredded, and I know they'll eat it. When I try mashing it up and adding water and turning it into soup, I get some licks from them, but still most of it goes ignored. I'm always on a budget so I hate getting something I know they won't eat because that's money I can't waste. So they usually get soulistic. I just don't like it because I want to get them good things in wet but they're always pate! ugh. I'll try cutting some up tonight but I don't think it'll make a difference.

Galen is a tuna addict. I'm trying to work on that as well.

for dry food they're getting evo. It's making quite a difference in Marcus' coat.

Sirius doesn't seem to care as long as it's a flavor he likes. He totally ignored the duck and chicken Feline Holistic Select I put out for breakfast, but scarfed down the chicken and quail 96% meat BG yesterday and the tuna 96% meat BG I gave him for dinner(all were pate.) The ferals happily gobbled down the chicken and duck(they'll eat anything) so it didn't go to waste. He'll also eat Soulistic either the chunks or the gelee kind so he's not picky. He especially likes Petite Cuisine(which is chunks of real meat and shrimp) but as it only comes in small cans and it contains wheat(and only comes in seafood flavors) it isn't an everyday food, just an occasional treat.

Taryn