New cat owner's picky eater nightmare!

Hello everyone, a few months ago we adopted a beautiful tabby (3yrs old) from our local shelter & this was our first time ever being a pet parent. It has been a joy to have him in our lives but also like being a first time parent we were totally shooting in the dark & had no idea about cats. We bought him home from shelter (the process took about 20 mins or so) & were not guided as to what's good to feed him. Upon asking I was told they were feeding him science hill diet wet & dry both. So we purchased the chicken indoor variety wet & optimum health dry formula. That was the first time I had entered a pet store & was immediately overwhelmed with the choices. So I decided to do some research on net & figure out how to differentiate what's good or bad. In the meantime, I had been feeding him 2 cans 3 oz each of wet indoor & free feeding him dry food. He never finished the wet food left half of it each time I fed him (one in morning & one in evening). I read about grain free cat food & how to transition their food & switched to Natures Instinct chicken in wet & Natures Instinct dry formula. He liked the broth part of Natures Instinct but again wasn't eating it much. We were throwing 3/4th of the can each time. I looked in his file what his previous owner fed him & saw he had been feeding him only dry food called Alley cat & that he was vomiting hairballs every week & sometimes more. Since we first bought him home he had done so after 15 days & that was when we knew what hairballs are! (He now throws up one every month). That then took me to search for everything related to hairballs on the net & how to minimize them. While on my quest I came across articles in favor of feeding raw food to cats. Being a lifetime vegetarian I didn't want to get raw meat or have to do anything with it. But then I saw reviews for freeze dried raw food. I decided to switch my cats food to it as my cat was hardly eating any Natures Instinct wet food. I had tried all their flavors with him but he rejected them all. So I purchased Primal freeze dried chicken & salmon & also their turkey flavor. It was an instant hit with my cat. He was very excited at mealtimes & I was extremely happy to finally find something he liked & was good for him too. But it was short lived happiness...the new packet I ordered he wouldn't touch it. And these were expensive foods. I was stumped as I didn't know cats are finicky eaters. I went & purchased 2 more but this time small packets from another store. Out of 2 only one worked & then again we were back to square one as he was not eating anything else. Again I went to another store & tried to get Primal packets from there. None worked from there too. By this time we had spent quite a few money on them as each costs $11.99 small packet which he would finish in a week. The cost was even fine with us as long as he would eat it. That's when we decided we cannot continue this any longer & I bought several brands of canned foods which were all rejected by him. At my wits end I read everything available on net about how to make your picky cat eat! I tried enticing him with Parmesan cheese, sprinkling treats & since there was no previous favorite food to fall back on I didn't know what to mix the new food with! Then I stumbled upon Tikki cat Ahi tuna! That's the only brand & only fish he liked. But as everyone says cannot feed him fish everyday I got the Ahi tuna & chicken variety of Tiki brand. Atleast, now I had one of his "liked" food. I started to transition him to other flavors by mixing it with Ahi tuna. But that was becoming a bit expensive venture for me so I searched more until I came across an article about using Fortiflora to entice cats to try new foods. I prayed to God to make it work. And he for the first time was willing to try new varieties & different brands. Thanks to the forums & everyone's advice I have now found 3 brands that work for me as well as for him (keeping my fingers crossed). Tikki cat , Weruva Cats in the Kitchen & Fancy Feast classic. For the moment I am happy I have atleast 3 brands to fall back on & I believe they are good ones too. All three don't have carrageenan nor Menadione Sodium Bisulfite  complex source for Vitamin K except in Fancy feast classic. They are grain free & vegetable free & just pure meat. Thanks to all on this forum & others for helping me out with their advice's & suggestions. They were truly a great help! Thank you all!    

I'm glad, too, that you were finally able to find some foods your cat will eat! Our cats also eat Tiki and Weruva Cats in the Kitchen.

And don't give up on the Primal if you still have some lying around... maybe he'll decide to eat it again! Our cats can be picky like that: we have to rotate between lots of foods or they get bored with them, though they'll eat Primal consistently if we mix up various flavors.

Good luck!

I still have Primal...will try it again sometime later. My hope is that in future he won't need Fortiflora to get him to eat his food. Only food he will eat without Fortiflora is Tikki cats Ahi Tuna & chicken flavor. I have read Fortiflora is a probiotic so shouldn't be harmful. But don't know whether its a good idea to always mix it in his food. Here's a pic of my tabby

Yes, he's a beautiful cat! I've never used FortiFlora but remember reading that some people crumble PureBites on their cats' food to get them to eat it... I feed those to our cats every now and then and they go crazy for them.

Thanks for the compliments I use Nature Instincts freeze dried raw boost bites as treats & also greenies. I will try Purebites too. Also, I read cats like bonito flakes when sprinkled on top of their food. Right now he is willing to eat different flavors of food from the three different brands. I personally like tiki cat as I can see all the ingredients clearly when I open the can. I have stopped his dry food intake only wet food. And have noticed that he now poops after 1.5-2 days instead of everyday. Some forums say when the diet is more meat & less fillers the amount of poop also becomes less.

Yes, it's true what they say about diet and the litter box! Our cats' diet of about 60% raw and 40% canned has definitely cut down on litter box volume and smell, too! And I completely agree with you about Tiki. Tiki and Rad Cat are the two foods I'm happiest about feeding. If our cats didn't get so bored with their foods, I'd feed them in larger quantities!