My cat begs for food but doesn't like anything I give him

theryester

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I adopted a cat last October. He was used to eating Fancy Feast Classic. I weaned him off of it. It took a good month but I switched him to Weruva. I notice that my cat only licks the gravy and leaves the meat behind. I tried Primal raw food, Halo, Merrick, Blue Buffalo, Wellness and Blue Buffalo. My cat will smell the food and then scratches the table near him to let me know he is not happy with the food. It's an odd, albeit very cute, behavior. I googled this and figured out that the scratching behavior is the cat's way of letting you know he is dissatisfied. No joke but I could go through 5 cans in the morning and the same in the evening. I tried every brand of food from expensive to cheap and my cat will go near the food and smell it, and then he will do that scratching and will not eatit. Then what he will do is jump on thr table waiting for me to give him something else. He's a smart cat because he'll motion upward at the cabinet where I keep his food. My cat gets so excited when I give him the food I'm eating, especially organic chicken breast that I cook. However, I work and cannot keep cooking for him. All that said, any advice which food to give and what to do afterhe scratches the table...ignore and leave the wet food out.
Thanks in advance!

P.S. I tried Orijen and Acana dry food. I notice he will eat a few or leave it all untouched during the day but he likes wet food better.
 

chromium blues

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Fancy Feast is better than no food at all, and it isn't the worst thing to feed your cat.

That said, there are a many, many different brands of food and you're just going to have to choose some different ones and see how it goes. I suggest you try pates mainly, as he was used to pates with the Fancy Feast. Merrick, Solid Gold, Royal Canin, Go!, Science Diet, Nutro, Natural Balance, and Purina Pro Plan are just a few others that are available.
 

js124

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My little cat won't eat anything either. Really has no desire for
Food. I feed her grain free dry food/I think it's blue buffalo because it is literally the only thing she will eat.
Did you try different textures? I find that she once Ina while she will eat cubed wellness chicken ( she ate minced, will not now) and lately I have been lucky with Merrick food, tuna an chicken casserole. Have you tried duck? Cats seem to like that.
Good luck! I know the struggle!
 

lisahe

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Fancy Feast is better than no food at all, and it isn't the worst thing to feed your cat.

That said, there are a many, many different brands of food and you're just going to have to choose some different ones and see how it goes. I suggest you try pates mainly, as he was used to pates with the Fancy Feast. Merrick, Solid Gold, Royal Canin, Go!, Science Diet, Nutro, Natural Balance, and Purina Pro Plan are just a few others that are available.
I second this advice: cats can be really picky, so it sounds like the best food for your cat right now, @TheRyester, might be whatever he will eat.

That said, if he likes pieces of real cooked-for-a-human chicken, you might want to try some cats foods with a similar texture. Shredded chicken from Weruva might work: our cats love their the Chicken Frick a Zee in Weruva's Cats in the Kitchen line. Tiki Cat also makes some shredded chicken foods that are expensive but very good: just shredded meats (one has little pieces of egg, too) in consomme. Our cats like them a lot. Another option might be some of Soulistic's pouch foods, sold only at Petco: Autumn Bounty and Good Karma are both shredded chicken. Our cats like those a lot, too.

Good luck!
 

kathyv

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You can get canned chicken breast (human food) at Walmart for only $1 for a 5 1/2 oz can.  I have a one super picky cat and it is hard to know what to feed him because he may like some type of food one time and then the next time I try it he won't eat any of it.  Canned chicken breast (for humans) seems to work best.  It is a problem to even give him what he likes because my other two cats want it also and he won't eat it unless they are either outside or I give them some also.  One of the other cats is very fat and needs to eat less.  The third cat is about almost 10 years old and extremely high energy and has a high metabolism and huge appetite to support his high activity level.  It is hard to keep the picky cat's favorites available at all times, because of the other two cats propensity to eat everything in sight, so I feed the picky cat whatever he wants to eat.
 

lokhismom

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Do you feed him kitty food as well or supplements? Kitties need those essential vitamins in cat food.
 

aly822

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@KathyV my mother has 2 incredibly finicky bengals and they  eat the canned (human) chicken, too!

Cooked, fresh chicken is pretty much a no-go though.

They were raised on home-cooked FISH (at the breeder's recommendation), raw beef and dry food.

She cooks (poaches) mahi-mahi and albacore tuna steaks for them. Sometime sushi grade ahi. They used to eat wahoo, but don't touch most other fish.

Sometimes they'll eat roasted turkey, not always.

Sometimes they'll eat what she makes, sometimes they walk away. Drives her nuts!

One cat will eat Wellness canned chicken and some of the Tiki canned flavors.
The other won't eat any canned food, but likes the Whole Life Dehydrated Chicken (which gets mighty spendy as it is only supposed to be a treat!)

She's searching high and low for something that will please them. Seems an endless frustration :(
 
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