Trials and tribulations of cats and wet food
Discussion
Good evening all,
Any tips with promoting better eating habits?! Our boys are really testing us at the moment with their pickiness and stubborn nature with wet food. Even fresh tuna at the moment isn’t a guarantee!
They have a bowl each of dry food which they graze on through the day, so their weight isn’t an issue (though the more active and outdoorsy cat I’d prefer weighed another pound or two), but they do still pester for their wet food at the usual times (morning and evening when we get in). We are just wasting pouch after pouch at the moment, we must throw away at least 75 percent of all wet food now, up from probably 40 percent when they were younger.
We are certainly offering a variety, four or five brands on the go at the moment! Any advice appreciated.
Any tips with promoting better eating habits?! Our boys are really testing us at the moment with their pickiness and stubborn nature with wet food. Even fresh tuna at the moment isn’t a guarantee!
They have a bowl each of dry food which they graze on through the day, so their weight isn’t an issue (though the more active and outdoorsy cat I’d prefer weighed another pound or two), but they do still pester for their wet food at the usual times (morning and evening when we get in). We are just wasting pouch after pouch at the moment, we must throw away at least 75 percent of all wet food now, up from probably 40 percent when they were younger.
We are certainly offering a variety, four or five brands on the go at the moment! Any advice appreciated.
robsco said:
Good evening all,
Any tips with promoting better eating habits?! Our boys are really testing us at the moment with their pickiness and stubborn nature with wet food. Even fresh tuna at the moment isn’t a guarantee!
They have a bowl each of dry food which they graze on through the day, so their weight isn’t an issue (though the more active and outdoorsy cat I’d prefer weighed another pound or two), but they do still pester for their wet food at the usual times (morning and evening when we get in). We are just wasting pouch after pouch at the moment, we must throw away at least 75 percent of all wet food now, up from probably 40 percent when they were younger.
We are certainly offering a variety, four or five brands on the go at the moment! Any advice appreciated.
Don't know if this helps but we have been giving our two cats 6-8 months old cooked chicken. All I do is buy a fresh chicken from Morissons cut off the breast meat for us then cook it for the cats. I keep the juices etc and strip it as best I can. I put it in a container in the fridge and serve daily, they love it.Any tips with promoting better eating habits?! Our boys are really testing us at the moment with their pickiness and stubborn nature with wet food. Even fresh tuna at the moment isn’t a guarantee!
They have a bowl each of dry food which they graze on through the day, so their weight isn’t an issue (though the more active and outdoorsy cat I’d prefer weighed another pound or two), but they do still pester for their wet food at the usual times (morning and evening when we get in). We are just wasting pouch after pouch at the moment, we must throw away at least 75 percent of all wet food now, up from probably 40 percent when they were younger.
We are certainly offering a variety, four or five brands on the go at the moment! Any advice appreciated.
Just to add we do give them kitten food too.
Edited by BIRMA on Tuesday 27th September 19:02
Cats are remarkably fickle, if your cats are genuinely hungry, they won't leave anything, never known of a cat starving itself in the face of food!! However, it does get difficult when they turn their noses up at the uneaten bits. Don't just feed meat, cooked or raw, if chicken is the base, not nutritious enough/balanced.
Dried food is less wasteful but not to all cats' taste, usually more palatable with increasing cost.
Hey ho, no magic answers but don't just give in to them lol
Dried food is less wasteful but not to all cats' taste, usually more palatable with increasing cost.
Hey ho, no magic answers but don't just give in to them lol
Cats can be quite weird. They like to know that they have some food available to them. That’s important. Eating it all - less so.
Last year ours wanted tinned tuna and pretty much nothing else. Then after a while he just switched off tuna completely. Defrosted white fish fillets, chicken, yes. But not tuna. And now he’s back to tuna sometimes.
But having something in his bowls seems the priority. He’s very vocal in the morning when both bowls are empty. Fill ‘em up and he will chomp for a bit then wander off as if he’s forgotten about food.
Also: in the evenings the weird b
d likes to eat with us. By which I mean he will get very vocal for food, but then when his bowl is topped up he will just keep looking at us while supper is being made. We sit down, start eating, and he will start eating.
Anyway: try defrosted white fish fillets. See how that works out.
Last year ours wanted tinned tuna and pretty much nothing else. Then after a while he just switched off tuna completely. Defrosted white fish fillets, chicken, yes. But not tuna. And now he’s back to tuna sometimes.
But having something in his bowls seems the priority. He’s very vocal in the morning when both bowls are empty. Fill ‘em up and he will chomp for a bit then wander off as if he’s forgotten about food.
Also: in the evenings the weird b
d likes to eat with us. By which I mean he will get very vocal for food, but then when his bowl is topped up he will just keep looking at us while supper is being made. We sit down, start eating, and he will start eating. Anyway: try defrosted white fish fillets. See how that works out.
robsco said:
We are certainly offering a variety, four or five brands on the go at the moment! Any advice appreciated.
The only wet food my cat will eat reliably is Felix 'As Good As It Looks' or 'Doubly Delicious'. And sometimes she gets Sheba for a change. She won't touch Whiskas or any own-brand stuff.As for human food, chicken, ham and sliced beef go down very well! Also likes little bits of cake and pastry....
Edited by Simpo Two on Tuesday 27th September 23:08
I had many trials and tribulations when I had my cat, as he was a very fussy eater. I ended up finding a brand of food he seemed to enjoy called Bozita (from Zooplus). There’s quite a wide variety available and I thought it was excellent value for money too.
I lost count of the number of brands or flavours he refused to eat!
https://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/canned_cat_foo...
I lost count of the number of brands or flavours he refused to eat!
https://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/canned_cat_foo...
LimaDelta said:
Do they go outside? Probably getting their fill of mice/shrews/birds/rabbits if anything like ours. They'll eat the pouches if they are hungry enough.
Yep, my two have dried food (Whiskas 1+) and that's it. We feed on demand, so some days they might just get a handful, on another they will scoff it down and ask for more. Tried wet food but they would eat a bit and leave the rest, and then we would have flies in the kitchen and it stank, so they only get dried food now. They top up with rodents as required. We have two cats, getting on a bit now. Until a few months ago they were quite happy eating Gourmet Perle all their lives, then started getting picky with it. We switched to a senior brand, fine for a few weeks then started refusing it. Switched brands another two or three times, same result.
I posted on here back then and was recommended to try Katkin (https://www.katkin.com/). It's a bit like Hello Fresh for cats
Pick your cats' menu, the food arrives frozen. Keep a few pouches in the fridge to defrost and feed them from that. The food itself is almost entirely just meat, steam cooked and mashed up. Way better than the ~6-8% meat content of supermarket brands.
Our two love it, they're still happily demolishing it. They both seem brighter, more energetic and playful, their coats are far nicer to touch. The contents of their litter trays are now far, far less offensive too.
There is a referral scheme, you can get a trial box at half price I think, if you are interested PM me and I'll send you my referral code (we get money off our next box if you use it).
I posted on here back then and was recommended to try Katkin (https://www.katkin.com/). It's a bit like Hello Fresh for cats
Pick your cats' menu, the food arrives frozen. Keep a few pouches in the fridge to defrost and feed them from that. The food itself is almost entirely just meat, steam cooked and mashed up. Way better than the ~6-8% meat content of supermarket brands.Our two love it, they're still happily demolishing it. They both seem brighter, more energetic and playful, their coats are far nicer to touch. The contents of their litter trays are now far, far less offensive too.
There is a referral scheme, you can get a trial box at half price I think, if you are interested PM me and I'll send you my referral code (we get money off our next box if you use it).
Ours is 17 now and getting increasingly picky (she's not called Precious for nothing!!)
We currently have 8 varieties of Royal Canin plus a box of Whiskers fed in rotation. She used to be happy with Felix until they changed the recipe and it made her ill.
She has Hyperthyroidism, so has to have medication twice a day, so the morning drops go on a spoonful of poached salmon and the evening drops ona small amont of wet food. She'll often ignore the evening food (the rest of the pouch being added before we go up) and then scoff the lot plus half her biscuit overnight.
She hangs around us when we have our supper in the hope of ice cream or pastry/biscuit base from cheescake or crumble and she can be anywhere in the house and comatose, but 30 seconds after the lid comes off the butter, she's there!!
Bloody cats
We currently have 8 varieties of Royal Canin plus a box of Whiskers fed in rotation. She used to be happy with Felix until they changed the recipe and it made her ill.
She has Hyperthyroidism, so has to have medication twice a day, so the morning drops go on a spoonful of poached salmon and the evening drops ona small amont of wet food. She'll often ignore the evening food (the rest of the pouch being added before we go up) and then scoff the lot plus half her biscuit overnight.
She hangs around us when we have our supper in the hope of ice cream or pastry/biscuit base from cheescake or crumble and she can be anywhere in the house and comatose, but 30 seconds after the lid comes off the butter, she's there!!
Bloody cats
Update to this thread! We have since, sadly, lost one cat and our remaining cat is, to be quite frank, now taking the mick with the wet food malarkey! These are the brands we have tried (and failed) him with in the last fortnight:
Felix “As Good As It Looks”
Sheba
Felix Original
Whiskas
Purina One
Royal Canin
Felix Soup
Tiger (own brand)
He does tend to graze on eating small amounts of dry food on a regular basis. He does also hydrate remarkably well for a cat, he has always been very good with water intake. Is it a case of now just moving to dry food completely, and refusing him wet food? He is still asking for it at the times he’s become accustomed to, but then just sniffing and walking away! No signs of weight loss or suchlike and seems happy enough in himself.
He’s never been big on eating meat either, so a troublesome little bugger when it comes to feeding time.
Felix “As Good As It Looks”
Sheba
Felix Original
Whiskas
Purina One
Royal Canin
Felix Soup
Tiger (own brand)
He does tend to graze on eating small amounts of dry food on a regular basis. He does also hydrate remarkably well for a cat, he has always been very good with water intake. Is it a case of now just moving to dry food completely, and refusing him wet food? He is still asking for it at the times he’s become accustomed to, but then just sniffing and walking away! No signs of weight loss or suchlike and seems happy enough in himself.
He’s never been big on eating meat either, so a troublesome little bugger when it comes to feeding time.
I have always given my cats a tin of tuna in spring water for dinner with an ever changing variety of dry food to graze on if they fancy at other times of the day. Never had any issues and they seem happy enough,
An odd prawn or bit of salmon may be dropped from the kitchen worktops sometimes which they appreciate also.
An odd prawn or bit of salmon may be dropped from the kitchen worktops sometimes which they appreciate also.
Also jumping back into this thread (apologies for the hijack) - since my last post we're sadly now down to only one remaining cat. She was quite happy with the Katkin I recommended before but lately has been very fussy with it and can't seem to keep it down. I gather they had some quality issues but I don't know more than that.
The Vet recommended switching to Hill's Science i/d Digestive Care food, she's OK with the dry stuff but as far as the wet stuff goes she just licks all the gravy off and leaves the chunks. We gave her some tinned tuna over the weekend though which seemed to dramatically reduce the vomiting.
How safe is it to primarily give her tuna going forward? Presuming she should get the stuff in spring water as opposed to olive oil or brine? She's around 14 years old and her last blood tests show she's edging towards thyroid issues, but not crossed that threshold yet.
The Vet recommended switching to Hill's Science i/d Digestive Care food, she's OK with the dry stuff but as far as the wet stuff goes she just licks all the gravy off and leaves the chunks. We gave her some tinned tuna over the weekend though which seemed to dramatically reduce the vomiting.
How safe is it to primarily give her tuna going forward? Presuming she should get the stuff in spring water as opposed to olive oil or brine? She's around 14 years old and her last blood tests show she's edging towards thyroid issues, but not crossed that threshold yet.
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