Canned Food

I have a 3 year old cat that is starting to boycott her food. For the longest time she would eat her food no problem. Now I'm having difficulty with her eating what she had been eating for a long time.

I guess it's time to change???? My question is how and to what?

We only feed her canned food and have only done the pate types because I've heard they are the best.

We have done purina one, fancy feast and now are on a combination of fancy feast and wellness.

Suggestions as to what to try in the rotation? I'd like to keep giving her quality food.

Other question is how do I incorporate the new food? Someone told me to fix it with her other food but I don't want to turn her off.

Your help is appreciated.

Meshas mom said:

I have a 3 year old cat that is starting to boycott her food. For the longest time she would eat her food no problem. Now I'm having difficulty with her eating what she had been eating for a long time.

I guess it's time to change???? My question is how and to what?

We only feed her canned food and have only done the pate types because I've heard they are the best.

We have done purina one, fancy feast and now are on a combination of fancy feast and wellness.

Suggestions as to what to try in the rotation? I'd like to keep giving her quality food.

Other question is how do I incorporate the new food? Someone told me to fix it with her other food but I don't want to turn her off.

Your help is appreciated.

Click to expand...

I know how you feel. I transitioned my 2 cats to a wet only diet soon after I got them from the Humane Society. I had them on pates only, too. Sheba and Fancy Feast. They were eating them happily and then they weren't. They went on a hunger strike which upset me a great deal. They just didn't want it any more. Thinking back, I don't blame them. Who would want to eat he same thing day in and day out all the time? I went out and bought different foods, all good quality and let them try them to see what they like and did not like. We now have a rotation in place that they are happy with. they don't eat the same food 2 meals in a row and I almost always mix foods to give them a variety of flavors/meats/textures. They eat VERY few fish varieties and I only keep a few cans in the pantry. This is what we have in the pantry right now.

Nature's Variety Instinct chicken, duck, rabbit, lamb and venison. They will not eat this or ANY pate on it's own. It must be mixed or topped with something else.

Pride by Instinct chicken, duck, lamb and rabbit (this is a favorite as a mixer/topper to the above)

Nutro Natural Choice minced chicken and sliced turkey (also a favorite mixer/topper for pates)

Nature's Variety Prairie Homestyle Duck and chicken stew and turkey and liver stew.

Soulistic Good Karma and Harvest Sunrise (big favorite of Sophie's but Lilith likes it too)

Wellness Divine Duos chicken/duck and chicken/turkey (Lilith especially loves these but Sophie likes them too)

Halo Spot's Stew chicken, turkey and duck (new additions to the rotation, they will eat them but NOT by themselves)

Halo Vigor turkey & quail (brand new to the rotation- the jury's still out on this one)

Impulse by Halo rabbit & garden greens (also new to the rotation but they seem to like it OK)

Wellness and Natural Balance pouches (I keep a few in the pantry and they split one them every now and again as a mixer/topper for something else but not often)

So anyway, I mix and match foods all the time. They really like this. Sheba and Fancy Feast are no longer in the rotation at all partly because they don't want them and partly because they both contain synthetic vitamin K which, along with carrageenan are things I try to avoid when choosing their foods as these things are not good for cats. I try to keep them on a high quality diet with variety. They have good appetites and definitely enjoy their meals. When they went on their little hunger strike they were telling me that they were not happy with the menu and wanted something else. Pates are very good but if you read labels, you can find other textures (shreds, minced, sliced, etc) that are also very good and they mix with the pates to make them seem different. Good luck!

Meshas mom said:

I have a 3 year old cat that is starting to boycott her food. For the longest time she would eat her food no problem. Now I'm having difficulty with her eating what she had been eating for a long time.

I guess it's time to change???? My question is how and to what?

We only feed her canned food and have only done the pate types because I've heard they are the best.

We have done purina one, fancy feast and now are on a combination of fancy feast and wellness.

Suggestions as to what to try in the rotation? I'd like to keep giving her quality food.

Other question is how do I incorporate the new food? Someone told me to fix it with her other food but I don't want to turn her off.

Your help is appreciated.

Click to expand...

Merrick duck or chicken pate. Nutro natural choice chunky chicken loaf. Pride rockstar rabbit. Tiki cat puka luau chicken.

You mentioned a topper or something mixed with the pate???? Is this a treat? Or a food?

Meshas mom said:

You mentioned a topper or something mixed with the pate???? Is this a treat? Or a food?

Click to expand...

I use foods with other textures such as minced, sliced or shredded to act as a topper/mixer for pates. That's where the Pride by Instinct and the Nutro Natural Choice come in handy. The Soulistc (or Weruva) shredded is good for this, also.

Meshas mom said:

You mentioned a topper or something mixed with the pate???? Is this a treat? Or a food?

Click to expand...

A topper is anything put on top of the food to entice a cat to eat. This can be treats, gravy canned food, tuna from a can, plain cooked chicken, parmesan cheese, etc.

Kat0121 said:

 
I use foods with other textures such as minced, sliced or shredded to act as a topper/mixer for pates. That's where the Pride by Instinct and the Nutro Natural Choice come in handy. The Soulistc (or Weruva) shredded is good for this, also.

Click to expand...

We feed our cats a lot of the same foods as Kat0121... and I would also suggest, @Meshas mom, that you might want to try shredded foods, either as toppers or as primary foods. Beyond the Nutro Natural Choice minced and sliced foods, our cats like Weruva's Cats in the Kitchen foods with chicken as well as the same Soulistic chicken pouch foods as Kat0121 feeds. They also like Tiki's chicken recipes. The foods that truly are shredded meat -- like Weruva, Soulistic, and Tiki -- are generally fairly low in calories and pretty healthy as long as there aren't a lot of starchy ingredients in the sauces. (I always drain Soulistic's pouch foods a little for that reason: they're moderately high-carb because of tapioca.)

Good luck!