Cat food flavors

I have been feeding my cats the same brand of cat food for almost two years. Its an all meat protein food that comes in all the flavors of the other brands. A few months ago all of a sudden they started not liking the chicken flavor, then the beef. So I thought maybe they changed the recipe or something and tried other brands with those flavors and they don't like those either. Now, they are only liking Turkey and whitefish as well as the foods with gravy.

Does anyone else have cats that just up and stopped liking flavors? I just thought it was strange that they have both just up and stopped liking them like that.

Not so much flavours as brands. Jeeps was on Kitten Iams which we can only get in chicken here, she ate them without complaint for 4 months then decided she hated them She's on purina pro plan now, for how long I can't say

I think cats like variety, just like we do.

Actually cats like routine and they wouldn't mind the same food day in and day out. You don't want to changeover to often or it could cause stomach upset for your cat, and when you do change, you do so gradually so they never notice.

My father is so funny, he has a beautiful black and white cat name of Boots that he found on his walk on day, someone had dumped it! So he brought Boots home and proceeded to spoil the heck out of this cat. It is so funny to me when we visit, because Dad buys cases of fancy feast (ugh junk food for kitties!) But he will open a can, and put the food down in the bowl. Boots may eat it, but if he doesn't he fixes Dad with his stare, until Dad capitulates and opens another can, and then another can, and another, until boots finally deigns to eat it! LOL At least the stray cats in the area are getting fed. My father won't waste the cat food, he puts it out for the ferals! LOL

I have tried to gently tell my father that he has created a monster, but the cat brings him so much joy I really didn't get to far with my daughter father talk!

Originally posted by hissy

I have tried to gently tell my father that he has created a monster, but the cat brings him so much joy I really didn't get to far with my daughter father talk!

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seems boots has your Dad trained quite well LOL what a cute story

Hissy-- I have a question for you. Why is Fancy Feast considered kitty junk food?

I've fed a variety of canned foods to my kitties, and by looking at the labels it's difficult for me to see why you would say this. Fancy Feast seems to have meat listed as it's first few ingredients. There are by-products, yes. Is that why you say this? I' m not necessarily totally against by-products, but don't want them as the primary ingredient, either. In most Fancy Feast varieties I've tried it isn't the case. Or is it something else? Just trying to become educated. Thanks.

Jill

My cat does get a variety of flavors, they've just started not liking some of them. I try and give them at least two flavors each day.

Loki eats the same food every day and I never had a minutes problem - I guess I can consider myself luck!

My cats refuse to eat the same flavor of food twice in a day. If I forget and give them the same flavor at nite as I do in the morning, they sniff at it and give me a dirty look as if to say "you have got to be kidding"

I'm lucky too, I suppose. My cats get Hill's weight reduction food every day. The only thing I change is the flavor of treats I buy them. I can't possibly afford to feed them a ton of different things! Thank goodness they like their food!

My vet says that FF is junk food for kitties, and when the kitties get sick and won't eat, they will eat FF. Dr. Shirl says it is sort of like giving a human a huge bag of M&M's and a big bag of potato chips and telling them not to eat it- the attraction is to great and the food is inhaled.

According to the ingredience, FF sounds healthy. The first several ingredience are wholesome, no by-products, fillers, corn, gluten etc. I always read ingredience and know that they are listed in order of amount in the food. I hate to hear that it's considered junk food cause I just switched and bought ALOT of it because it has healthy ingredience listed first and often, no bad ingredience at all. Help !

I'm curious too as to what to look for when buying cat food. I have always bought 9 lives, is it bad for them as well? What brand of food is considered the best for cats to eat?

From readings I've found that whole, natural products are best and should be listed first. Ingredience are listed in decending order of amount. Bad things are by-products, wheats and flour, gluten, corn, soy. These are fillers and hard for the cat to digest. That's why I'm surprised to hear this about Fancy Feast. Any more ideas, feedback and/or opinions on this?

I think there are just some cats that love variety. Our cat eats several brands of dry and canned food every week. He won't eat the same food more than twice a week, and usually decides he can't stand a certain food after about three months. So I'm constantly "rotating" brands and flavors for him. It's really fun when I'm away - I have to draw up a detailed "meal plan" for him, and stack the cans in the right order.
As far as "Fancy Feast" is concerned, I've heard many people call it junk food, though I'm sure it's better than many other supermarket brands. I give JC a can occasionally, but prefer brands such as Innova, Solid Gold, California Natural, etc., containing human grade meat as the first ingredient.

Reguarding fancy feast... I think it has sodium nitrate in it, which is a bad preservative. Sodium nitrate is also found in Hot Dogs. It usually keeps meats "pink".

I also think it depends on what variety of Fancy feast you give your cat. Some are more likely better than others. Unfortunately the Fancy feast site does not list ingredients. I've found some ingredient lists on epinions.com, here's one for Chunky Chicken Feast:

Chicken broth, Chicken, Meat By-Products, Liver, Fish,Turkey, Wheat Gluten, Poultry By-Products, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Soy Flour,Soy Protein Concentrate, and a full complement of vitamins and minerals.

I'd say in that list, meat by-products, wheat gluten, poultry by-products, artificial flavors, and soys are bad.

I'd agree. Soy is an absolute "no-no" for my cat, as he's hyperactive, and goes into overdrive when he gets soy. The term "by-products" also covers a multitude of sins. From what I understand, that can mean feathers, feet, etc..

One of the speciality pet stores here in my town has a pet nutrionist. She said that by-products are not the beaks and feathers, but the heart, liver, etc. They cut the feet and the beaks and feathers off the chicken before they send it to the plant that makes the pet food. I thought that was interesting.

Originally posted by octoberdana
One of the speciality pet stores here in my town has a pet nutrionist. She said that by-products are not the beaks and feathers, but the heart, liver, etc. They cut the feet and the beaks and feathers off the chicken before they send it to the plant that makes the pet food. I thought that was interesting.

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I think it depends on where you live. We reside in the EU, and here by-products do include beaks, feathers, bones, etc..

The more I read and learn about cat food composition, the more confused I've become!

I've just spent some time researching the canned food products that are available at a chain store such as Petsmart--and based on what I've found out, there are no truly 'good' foods there (the ones that have been mentioned on this site--Solid Gold, Innova, etc-- are not sold there). My kittens like the Nutro pouches, but in checking the ingredients, there's no by products, but there is wheat gluten. Other canned foods-- Science Diet, Iams (some of them, others looked pretty good, IMO, and I may check them out further), ProPlan, Fancy Feast, Nutro cans) all had at least some of these less desirable ingredients.

We've also fed some Fancy Feast varieties--all of them have byproducts in them, as well as wheat gluten, but some of them have more of those ingredients than others. Not necessarily much 'worse' than other canned brands that you can find, based on my observations. The nitrites (spelling?) don't particularly bother me. I think they probably should--but in taking a personal reality check, I realize that I do feed my children hot dogs on occasion, and the fact that they have this ingredient hasn't stopped me from doing that. They will eat hot dogs, and I don't think they're such a terrible thing in the context of a well-balanced diet.

I've come to the conclusion that I need to really take a step back and stop worrying so much about what my cats are eating. I've come to realize that I don't worry this much about what my young children eat, and that has really made me stop and think. I'd like to feed the cats a decent diet that we can all feel good about, that I don't have to travel far and wide to find. I guess I just can't believe that every canned variety sold at a place like Petsmart is bad or is junk food for cats. Many of these are supposed to be 'premium' foods. I have to believe that there are a number of foods out there, even among the more 'commercial' or well-known foods (for lack of a better way to say this) that cats can eat and thrive as a result.

Just a few thoughts--thanks for all who answered my question. I have learned so much from this site.

Jill