Best medium range wet cat food in Europe?

Hey everyone,

I 've in the Netherlands. For over 2 years I've struggled with my extremely picky cat. Mew is now 9 years old. The only foods he seems to like are low quality brands like Whiskas, Felix, Gourmet, Kitekat, Iams, Hills Science plan, Sheba, and things like that. I'm doing my best to stay away from the extremely low quality wet food and to at least stay in the medium range cat food since he refuses the higher end. It is tricky though since the lowest end are his favorites. I feel responsible and I know part of it is my fault. While we were living in California, he ate Meow Mix and other low brands since the beginning of his life. At the time, I didn't realize those brands were bad and that they were full of junk. Since then, I've became a lot more educated about cat food and I have been trying to provide the best for him. Switching dry foods was extremely easy and I had no problems. I feed him Orijen and he absolutely loves it. The wet food has been a huge problem though. I've bought great quality wet food for him through out the years, but he absolutely refuses to eat any of it.

I've even tried mixing a little of it in with the old food, but then he refuses to eat that. I've tried Bozita, Catz Finefood, Geringa, Granatpet, Alomanda Carny, Grau, MAC's, Natures Menu, and more with no success. It does make me really sad since I do want to provide the best quality wet food I can for him and for him to be healthier. I would love any suggestions on foods that are medium quality and hopefully that are better than Whiskas or Felix. Right now he has been eating Royal Canin, Porta 21, sometimes   Animonda vom Feinsten, Miamor Fijne Filets, Pro Plan, and I've tried Miamor pastei pouch but he doesn't seem to like it that much. His favorites at the moment are Pro Plan, sometimes Miamor Fijne Filets, and some times Royal Canin. At the moment tough, he seems to be getting tired of Royal Canin and Miamor Fine Fliets. How do Pro Plan/IAMs/Hills Science plan compare to Royal Canin? Are those considered low or medium quality? I know that Royal Canin isn't the highest quality food (About Medium Range), but that it's better than Whiskas/Felix.  

First and foremost, always remember that the best food to feed your cat is the one that he likes to eat! The best food in the world is useless from inside the tin

When it comes to comparing cat food, I look at the ingredients. With wet food, you want to see meat as the first and primary ingredient. If its a named meat that's even better, but any kind of meat is good. These articles go into more detail if you're interested:- [article="29707"][/article][article="32669"][/article][article="31127"][/article][article="31120"][/article][article="32765"][/article][article="33544"][/article][article="31138"][/article]

Personally, I steer clear of foods containing flour (as is often used in gravy coated foods), and I'm not keen on things like 'derivatives of vegetable origin' or other non-meat ingredients that are ambiguous. Having said all of that, my childhood cats were all fed supermarket foods, and all but one (who came to us with aids) lived well into their teens! In short, don't beat yourself up or stress out too much over Mew's preferences

My old boy (14 now, and still acts like a kitten :lol3: ) spent the first 12 1/2 years of his life eating supermarket foods and was very resistant to changing to better quality foods. The first transition food that he really took to was Thrive Complete, and that remains a firm favourite. It is more expensive than many, but I have zero wastage (Shadow's so fussy that it's relatively common to have to throw food out :rolleyes2 ) so it's more economical that it first looks in my case.

Which Bozita varieties have you tried? My guys love the tetrapacks in gravy, and they're the only gravy cat food I've found without fillers. Smilla is well worth a try too. I've just tried out My Star (Zooplus) too, after getting a mixed pack for free. It's not quite as high quality as some of the other foods out there, but it's not a bad food overall (I like that they list ingredients percentages too, as that definitely makes a difference imo ) and Shadow loves it. Catz Finefood is another one well worth a go (assuming you haven't already).

Have you tried experimenting with toppers at all? I buy tubes of Cosma Snackies and crumble a couple over the food, especially when it's a less flavoured type/flavour. It can make all the difference, and my girl will eat food she's previously rejected if I add a couple of Snackies on top. They're pure freeze dried meat, so are very healthy too

Do pay attention to flavours/varieties too. Just because Mew rejects one flavour of a brand, it doesn't mean he'll reject them all. Shadow is very particular about which flavours he'll eat Also, just because he rejects a food now, it doesn't mean that he'll never like it. For example, when Shadow first tried Thrive, he wouldn't touch the Chicken & Liver flavour. A year on, he'll happily eat it. In my experience with cats, NO food preference/dislike is for ever! Keep trying, and you'll get there.