Cat Hates Canned Food

My oldest cat, hes 4 soon refuses to eat canned. Ive tried every single brand I can find from crappy to quality. Pate, slices, chunks, fillets...anything. He licks it for a couple minutes then walks away. I feed canned food at night with added water to try to get more moisture into their diet and want him to eat it to. Does anyone have any ideas on how to get him to eat it? I even tried the starve method and he went 15 hours without eating a thing

I have 2 that way than my other 2 are pigs....my 2 that done I have kitty treats also I have hard food now...ur gent maybe picky or just dont care for it...I probably rambling ....good luck n no worries keep water and food available

That's a tough problem.  How about giving him some wet food with a topper of dry food or treats?  I have one cat who's a treat addict and I have used treats to get her interested in the wet food.

www.catinfo.org has transition strategies.

Toppers might include parmesan cheese sprinkled on top, or some tuna juice mixed in.  Or crush up some kibble and sprinkle on top with a bit mushed in so he has to eat around it to get it.   

Do that for awhile, then gradually reduce the 'Topper' such that he doesn't notice it missing. Could be weeks or months.  You'll find something that will entice him to revisit wet food. 

good luck...,.thanks for for future info if needed

I have one cat who really just doesn't like to eat.  Period.  He'd much rather be off doing other things .  So every mealtime is a challenge.  And IF I can get him started eating, then if there is the slightest sound, he gets distracted.  It's exhausting .  But he's been this way every since he was a kitten, so that's just the way it is.  I always just assumed he was picky, but have finally figured out that he's just not food motivated.  My husband is the same way....he only eats to survive (how boring ).  So, anyway, there will be days that Tinky will suddenly gobble down anything I put in front of him because he's reached that stage where his body has told him he is in "survival mode", but otherwise, I have to use every trick in the book to get the minimum amount of food in him to keep him from getting sick.  I have at least 8 different freeze dried meats to use for toppers (two brands of chicken, turkey, cod, salmon, beef, beef liver, chicken liver, bonito flakes) and sometimes use Parmesan cheese.  Lately I have discovered that if I just ignore him and set his bowl of wet food next to the desk while I am using the PC, he will come around and eventually eat.  The danger with that is, I get distracted and his brother sneaks up sometimes and eats it  .  As a last ditch effort, Tinky is such a Mamma's Boy , he does love eating freeze dried treats out of my hand, so when i'm really desperate, I will actually put a little bit of the wet food in the palm of my hand and he will usually eat that.  THEN I will put the bowl up to his mouth and he will start in (and I PRAY for no distractions )  Oh the things we do for our furkids

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Last night I got a new canned food (science diet turkey pate) and I added water and made that sucker into pure liquid and he lapped it up and ate his 1/4 of the can. Going to try doing that again tonight and see if he eats it. I may try the Parmesan cheese trick to

@mrsgreenjeens

Haha! I so feel your pain!

I feed my two cats 4 times a day. Why, you may ask, when they have an autofeeder? Because my youngest is much like your boy, Tinky. When he was a kitten and then a teen, he was so scrawny, visitors would gasp and say, "You have to feed that poor baby!!! I can practically count his ribs!"  At which point I just wanted to lie down on the floor, drum my heels and scream.

Made sure he had his own special dining area. Tried every brand, carried him to his dish, rubbed it on his lips, blended it into mush in the little mini Cuisinart I bought specially. Dry food? He would eat MAYBE 4 pieces and that was it. Stood over him like a prison warden. Begged and pleaded. Nada.

Had him to the vet, who said yes, he's a bit underweight, but couldn't find anything wrong. "Just not a foodie.", she said, "Some kitties are like that."

Meal times were (and still are somewhat) the Battle Royal. Jams eventually would eat the heavily gravied Fancy Feast and has developed a fondness for the special flavor bags of the Fancy Feast kibble and he will eat the indoor kitty chow occasionally.

Six years in on this food saga, he will now come find me and tell me when he wants his wet food (usually by sinking his little pins into my posterior when I'm at the computer). He dictates the food schedule around here, btw. Breakfast at 5 am, lunch at 11:30, dinner at 4:30 and pre-bedtime snack at 10:00 pm. Sharp. I can almost set my watch by him.

He is still extremely picky and wants to be carried to his bowls (peel me a grape!), but he has gradually put on weight and muscle and is pretty sleek. Me? I have a LOT more grey hairs and a nervous stick that starts up around meal times. LOL!

These are the first two cats I've ever had that exhibit zero interest in people food. Ivy recently has shown some interest in a bit of chicken or pork, but not much. Never had any animal that would turn down bacon or cheese... until these guys. Raw shrimp? Or even cooked, for that matter. Turned up noses.

Reading the stories in here of how some folks feed raw food, I try to picture that scenario in my kitchen and it runs something like a B movie kitty horror flick with cats rearing back in fear and disgust and running, shrieking, from the room.  Anyway...

What I was going to suggest to Chloe is the mini Cuisinart if she decides to mush or liquefy. It does a pretty good job of it. They have them on Amazon.

Chowder is a good eater, but I have a friend with an older cat (9 years old) who refused canned food and she topped it with those little feeze dried seafood treats.  The Pure Bites shrimp and also Cat-Man-Doo bonito flakes.  It seemed to help.

@SanTan, I wonder if this lack of wanting food on our kitties' part could have something to do with the heat?  I see we both live where in the same area.  Or, OMG, maybe our furkids have the same biological mom or dad .  Wouldn't THAT be strange? 

BTW, I DID feed raw to Tinky for awhile, then he decided he didn't like it anymore and just up and quit, cold turkey (no pun intended   )    His brother still loves it, however.  This morning I was in a hurry and tried to feed Darko an entire meal of canned, and he looked at me like I was trying to punish him, poor baby.  It's ok if he "nibbles" on Tinky's, but I dare not serve it to him .

@Chloe16, that's wonderful that your little one ate his "soup".  That's the way I get my kidney cat to eat her food.  She's a licker, to be sure.  Funny how she can eat her freeze dried meat treats just fine, but when it comes to her meals, she licks and licks and licks and will not take any bites, so if I don't make it into "soup", she ends up leaving all the meat in the bottom of the bowl   I use a Magic Bullet to really blend everything up nicely into a puree and that way can add in other supplements if I need to. 

That would be hilarious!  I see, however, than none of your brood are ginger babies and Jams comes from a litter of six, all gingers and all boys. I have often wished I had the phone numbers for the other "parents", just to compare notes.

Maybe the climate, but... doesn't explain the same behaviors even in the colder months. *sigh*

From your comments to Chloe, sounds like your guys have an aversion to chewing, too. Haha! Funny how they can crunch right through their cereal, but if, eating their canned, heaven forbid, they inadvertently slurp up a solid piece of meat of fish in the process, you'd think they accidentally swallowed a bug.

*hack* *hack* *cough* *PTU!!!*

Out it comes. Usually on the floor.

I just don't get it.

my furry brats look at me like its my fault that their canned food is different even though its the same as always ..,..
but....
heaven forbid I dont get their crunchies rite ....lol

My 2 eat dry food. St the moment it's merrick and they're free fed. Before bed they share 1/2 a tin of wet food as a treat. They're both good eaters.

my guys are piggies

This was my cat last year. The starve method didn't work because she went on a 24 hour hunger strike. Ironically, she now gobbles up her wet food and even meows for it!! I NEVER thought that would happen. For my kitty, she will only eat Friskies, and she won't eat the pates. I wanted her on grain free and that was the whole point of converting her to wet food, but she just won't eat it, no matter what. I figure at least she's getting moisture so there's nothing I can really do about it there... The toppers and all that stuff never worked with her, she snubbed her food for nearly 8 months straight and I can't even tell you how much money I wasted or how many cans I threw out.

She will ONLY eat the wet food if I blend it up in the blender, and she laps it up like a meat soup. Disgusting, yes, I know. But every other day, I take 2 cans of the wet food (usually the filets) and dump them in my blender. Then I blend until it's smooth and doesn't have any chunks. Then I pour some into her bowl and microwave it for a few seconds until its warm (she won't eat it cold from the fridge), and then I add about a tablespoon of water and stir until liquidy and smooth. This is the only way she'll eat it. I store the rest in the fridge, she gets some in the morning and some again at night. Once I got a routine, it wasn't as complicated as it sounds. If your kitty licks it, they probably like the taste just not the texture, they might eat it if you liquefy it. Worth a try?

@sparklexo

I so feel your pain. I actually bought a Cuisinart mini chopper to do what you are describing. My eldest will eat most anything, but my youngest is the pickiest of the picky pickers.

Mine eat grain free dry food.