Cat decision tree:
Is it for me? Yes. Cat: I don’t want it.
No, it’s not for you. Cat: I want it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Grab a handful of different cans from the store and just see what she likes. My 3 cats won’t eat the same food day in & day out, so I mix it up. Some they flat out refuse so I pass it on to a neighbor. I read somewhere about cats needing diversity in their protein sources and that they are naturally programmed to seek it out, so maybe there is some science to their pickiness?

Mine would rather starve than eat food they don’t want or like. It’s beyond maddening.

I've heard cat owners say this before, but I've always thought the cat will any cat food if it's hungry enough.

My cats will begrudgingly eat food they don't like as much but it takes them longer to finish it. I just leave it out until they do and don't give them anything else. I feed a variety of foods and observe which ones they like best so I can order more of that kind. But I do try to feed less favored foods when I know they are hungrier since they will eat it. (Foods can change from more favored to less favored arbitrarily...).

I strongly disagree with the pp about leaving out kibble all the time. All the cats I know with free access to kibble are obese including the one I adopted from a coworker. To maintain a healthy weight I feed on schedule and for the obese cat I measured out food/calories accordingly. Of the three cats I've had, only one is great at self regulating. One is a little chubby because she steals food from the other cat and the obese one needed strict portion control.

Cats are picky. I give mine a combo of wet and dry. She much prefers the dry, but wet is better long term for kidney health.

My cat hates straight up pate, but also hates wet food with chunks that are too big. She is like goldilocks. She is a fan of wellness gravies - turkey and chicken flavors. But she won't eat wellness chunky in the same exact flavors, because the chunks are too big. She is only 2 years old and perfectly healthy, just picky.

For dry, she eats IAMS proactive health salmon flavor.

She gets approximately 1.5 small cans of wet food and 2 tbsp of the dry food per day.

Anonymous wrote:Grab a handful of different cans from the store and just see what she likes. My 3 cats won’t eat the same food day in & day out, so I mix it up. Some they flat out refuse so I pass it on to a neighbor. I read somewhere about cats needing diversity in their protein sources and that they are naturally programmed to seek it out, so maybe there is some science to their pickiness?

Mine would rather starve than eat food they don’t want or like. It’s beyond maddening.

I've heard cat owners say this before, but I've always thought the cat will any cat food if it's hungry enough.

Grab a handful of different cans from the store and just see what she likes. My 3 cats won’t eat the same food day in & day out, so I mix it up. Some they flat out refuse so I pass it on to a neighbor. I read somewhere about cats needing diversity in their protein sources and that they are naturally programmed to seek it out, so maybe there is some science to their pickiness?

Mine would rather starve than eat food they don’t want or like. It’s beyond maddening.

I didn’t realize fancy feast is bad for cats - when my prior cat had diabetes I read on the message boards that the pate’ is good for diabetic cats.

Weruva has a lot of different flavors. The Mideast Feast flies off the shelf in our store. That one seems to attract even the pickiest cats. Earthborn is also a good brand that many of our customers have success with. If your main concern is making sure she’s getting enough moisture, you could also try raw goat’s milk.

My cats used to eat the Purina Indoor Chow for dry food and any wet food brand that I brought home.

I think my cats got started on the Purina dry food because I didn't know any better and there was a small bag on the shelf, so I took it home. The wet food, I just bought the cheapest and they ate it.

I hate to say this, but you can spoil your cats. When I was a child, our cats ate our leftovers. They all lived long lives.

Anonymous wrote:We had to try out a lot of different types of wet food before we found one our picky cats would eat. We tried all the fancy ones. Finally tried Science Diet canned food, and they all love it - though one will sometimes turn his nose up in the morning when I put it out, I guess just to remind me that he's still in charge.

We used Fancy Feast for a while because the cats loved it so much but the vet said it's not good for them and to try to wean them onto something else.

Does the vet sell Science Diet?

We had to try out a lot of different types of wet food before we found one our picky cats would eat. We tried all the fancy ones. Finally tried Science Diet canned food, and they all love it - though one will sometimes turn his nose up in the morning when I put it out, I guess just to remind me that he's still in charge.

We used Fancy Feast for a while because the cats loved it so much but the vet said it's not good for them and to try to wean them onto something else.

She's a cat. They are fussy.

Also cats love small kibbles. The big ones hurt their tenths with time.

If she is kitten still I would try Royal Canin for kittens. In general Royal Canin is good.
When she will be fully grown buy her few different bags and give in each ball next to each other and leave, see what
she will be coming back to and which bowl will go first.. Three four kinds will do the trick. Then you can pick the two
that she likes most and you can give her two at the same time in separate bowls.

This is our system also.. we free feed, NEVER feed on schedule , aside from wet food, we just give some and leave till clean
whatever cat can manage in short time.

Dry food always available. NEVER EVER any weight gain problems. Once you feed on schedule cats start panic and overeat to store.

Anonymous wrote:Try some other brands/flavors and see what she likes. Cats seems to like variety and not the same things every day. Also it can change over time, our cat will love one flavor and then refuse to eat it but if I take it out of the rotation for a couple of months, she'll love it again.

Thanks. We've had a dog for a while but this is our first cat. It sounds like you can switch cat food more easily than dogs? We had to slowly transition when we switched dog food.

Try some other brands/flavors and see what she likes. Cats seems to like variety and not the same things every day. Also it can change over time, our cat will love one flavor and then refuse to eat it but if I take it out of the rotation for a couple of months, she'll love it again.

We have an 8 month old cat (our first cat). We get some fancy, grain free wellness food that was recommended but she doesn't seem crazy about it. We give her 1/2 can at breakfast and 1/2 at dinner plus dry food. She sometimes eats it but other times barely touches it, and she likes to eat our dogs food (luckily our passive dog just steps aside and lets her in). She doesn't eat much of the dogs food but she seems to just not love hers. I guess I should try something new, but what? Fancy Feast or something would be so much cheaper!