Finding wet food that cats will eat is such a chore. I foster tons of kittens/cats and it seems like what one group ate, another won’t. My current batch is eating Fancy Feast, which I’m the first to say isn’t a terrific food, but no food is going to work if I toss it untouched. I have never had very good luck with EVO, but they like Innova; go figure. I agree with the poster who said that Tiki cat is kitty crack; they love it but it is outrageously expensive. The grain free Blue Buffalo feeds well, but no other Blue Buffalo wet food does, IMHO. I had one litter who would only eat Taste of the Wild chicken. Kittens seem to universally hate Wellness; I don’t know what is up with that. I suggest that you try various good quality foods and see what works.
Mine will only eat the Meow Mix wet. I have tried all of the expensive brands and they just wil not eat them. I do feed the Blue Diamond weight control dry in the morning and the wet at night. I wish I could get them to eat one of the “good” wet brands and I’d take them right off of dry, but have tried several times and it is just too expensive to waste.
[QUOTE=clint;5789405]
Kittens seem to universally hate Wellness; I don’t know what is up with that. [/QUOTE]
I had two batches of kittens that loved the kitten Wellness, but otherwise I’ve had a similar experience. And when I had one that had been with me for awhile and was mixing with my personal “herd,” the kitten who had been eating the Wellness threw himself on my cats’ EVO like he’d never seen food before. I just shrugged and transitioned him.
My orange beast couldn’t tolerate many ingredients as a kitten and was eating California Natural for his first few years. He’s been battling pancreatitis and after a bout it is sometimes the only thing I can coax him with to start eating. Both of my kitties really seem to like it, but not nearly as much as that Wellness CORE! They think that stuff is ambrosia.
Right now they’re eating low fat Innova, which they tolerate. But there aren’t a lot of wet foods out there with that low of a fat content, so it is what it is. :-/
Do you check the carb content of the food? Even some of the canned has too many. I found a list online at one point and used it with a cat I had who was over 20, and I thought she had diabetes. I used that list and her symptoms disappeared. I don’t have it now.
Funny thing was that she liked the low-carb ones and seemed to be able to pick them out.
As for taste, some of mine really liked the Fancy Feast Medallion best, but they all liked the Fancy Feast - except the old one I just mentioned. That list that I had, showed Fancy Feast to be pretty high in carbs, though.
I think it’s the low carb part that makes the canned food healthier than the dry - well, that and the moisture content.
Wysong has a new no-starch (not the same as no carb) food which I would love to try soon, though it’s a kibble, not a wet.
Wow, I can’t believe so many of you have such picky cats… I’m pretty sure that, if it comes from a can, my cats will do headstands to have it… The only time they get wet food is in their Christmas stockings (yes, really) or if we happen to run out of dry; I’m pretty sure it could be a can of green beans and they’d eat it.
[QUOTE=Coyoteco;5789986]
Do you check the carb content of the food? [/QUOTE]
I do, especially since one is 17 and has had high glucose under stress before. (She had a couple of seizure 5 years ago after an application of Frontline and when we took her directly to the vet after the first one her glucose was high.) That doesn’t seem to effect whether or not the cats like the food.
I ordered Wellness Chicken and Herring and Blue Buffalo Wilderness Turkey and will save this thread for future reference.
[QUOTE=grayarabpony;5790598]
I do, especially since one is 17 and has had high glucose under stress before. (She had a couple of seizure 5 years ago after an application of Frontline and when we took her directly to the vet after the first one her glucose was high.) That doesn’t seem to effect whether or not the cats like the food.
I ordered Wellness Chicken and Herring and Blue Buffalo Wilderness Turkey and will save this thread for future reference.[/QUOTE]
I’ve tried to find that site where a private person had an analysis of the carb content. It was not substantiated, but it certainly seemed to work on my 20 plus year old cat. I’ll try again, and if I do I’ll link it here. Most of the foods were cheap foods actually. A good basic was that the fish flavors were lower in carbs in Friskies food, and those were the best on the list as far as carbs were concerned.
My vet is excellent, but she is very cautious in having the very old cats come in. This cat would have gotten too upset with a vet blood test. I bought a blood glucose monitor kit (a people one) to try to test her sugar level, but she was so old I couldn’t get a blood drop. That’s supposed to be a way to test cats’ blood sugar levels.
This old cat definitely changed her diet as her health condition dictated. I have several cats so there is a variety of food choices, and her changes were so dramatic, it was easy to follow. I haven’t seen that in my other old cats. I’ve had several that were over 20, and one that was 25 or 26. I didn’t see that in them, but she was very clear. She also had the diabetic symptoms which went away with the food change.
[QUOTE=Coyoteco;5790716]
I’ve tried to find that site where a private person had an analysis of the carb content. It was not substantiated, but it certainly seemed to work on my 20 plus year old cat. I’ll try again, and if I do I’ll link it here. Most of the foods were cheap foods actually.[/QUOTE]
If the cat food site was “The famous Janet & Binky’s Food Charts”, here is a link to a good page that has links to J&B’s “old” and newer canned cat food analysis charts:
http://felinediabetes.com/diabetic-cat-diets.htm
When one of my cats was diagosed diabetic several years ago, I followed the J&B charts with much success.
[QUOTE=Liberty;5790738]
If the cat food site was “The famous Janet & Binky’s Food Charts”, here is a link to a good page that has links to J&B’s “old” and newer canned cat food analysis charts:
http://felinediabetes.com/diabetic-cat-diets.htm
When one of my cats was diagosed diabetic several years ago, I followed the J&B charts with much success.[/QUOTE]
I don’t think this is the exact one, but it if very similar and very close. It could be the same one if I print it off, I could tell better. I appreciate the link as it is information that I definitely want to have available.
I have a comment on cat food. It may not be significant, but I’ll say it anyway. My mother’s cats lived to 20 and some well into their 20s. She did not feed expensive food, but just your regular grocery store foods. She fed canned food, with some dry food along with it, but it was more canned foods - your Friskies, 9-lives, Whiskas type of food. She would also feed them some “people” food: boiled, deboned chicken, canned fish (tuna/mackerel) and cooked hamburger meat.
Her cats were rescues who didn’t start their lives healthy, and they were small. delicate-looking cats. They were healthy cats who lived long lives, which is the goal, so I thought her success was relevant.
[QUOTE=Chall;5789016]
My cat has been hurling Friskies canned Tuna and Fancy Feast makes her left eye water. .[/QUOTE]
Interesting you should say this. My sick kitty has to eat wet food to keep her calories up so have been feeding her whatever she wants to eat which includes a lot of Fancy Feast (which normally I would never let in the house) and I have noticed her eyes watering, too. And it started when the Fancy Feast started. I wonder what the connection is.
OP - I like the Blue Buffalo food. It seems like a high quality food. My other cats ate what sick kitty left and they loved it!
I have a remedy for picky cats - it works because believe me I have “broken” many a fussy kitty. I’m not running BK - you either have it my way or you don’t have it at all. (except for Tessa and since she is ill, she gets whatever she will eat. Age and ill health have privileges.) Put food down, if they don’t eat it, it goes away for 30 minutes. Put it out again, and if still no eating, away it goes for another 30 min. Try again and if no eating, away it goes with everything else edible until the next meal time. I only had to do that once with any of my cats and next time they ate WHATEVER was served. You ain’t eating, you ain’t hungry. Try it…
Does the runny eye sound like an allergy?
What is so bad about Fancy Feast?
FWIW my (not picky) cats just inhaled, attacked with gusto, Holistic Select Chicken & Lamb
When all else fails; chicken of the sea 
My cat will eat Science Diet wet food (pretty much any flavor) and he’s currently working through a bunch of Friskies.
Ideally I’d like to keep him consistent on brands so as not to induce any tummy problems, but when I see 20 cans for $8 at my Giant Eagle… well, that’s what he’ll get :lol:
[QUOTE=Coyoteco;5792121]
What is so bad about Fancy Feast?[/QUOTE]
If it’s all your cat will eat, nothing…
But if YOU’RE picky about what you feed your animals (and I am): Poultry broth, chicken, liver, meat by-products, wheat gluten, soy flour, poultry by-products, soy protein concentrate, artificial and natural flavors
That’s the beginning of the ingredient list from the “Roasted Chicken Feast”: http://www.fancyfeast.com/wet-cat-food/roasted-chicken-feast/
The first three ingredients are OK, but after that - they get pretty icky (in my opinion).
To compare - here’s the beginning of the list from Wellness Chicken formula (which is grain free): Chicken, Chicken Liver, Turkey, Chicken Broth, Carrots, Natural Chicken Flavor, Sweet Potatoes, Squash, Zucchini, Cranberries, Blueberries http://www.wellnesspetfood.com/product-details.aspx?pet=cat&pid=2#ingredients
I feel more comfortable with those ingredients - the zucchini and berries end of the list is probably more to make the human feel good than the cat, but “named” ingredients (chicken liver, etc.) are pretty much always preferable (in my mind) to “by-products” or things that come from unnamed protein sources - chicken fat is OK, “animal fat” isn’t.
But that’s just my take on it - YMMV, and it’s your pet, so you get to decide!
[QUOTE=Schune;5792230]
Ideally I’d like to keep him consistent on brands so as not to induce any tummy problems, but when I see 20 cans for $8 at my Giant Eagle… well, that’s what he’ll get :lol:[/QUOTE]
I used to shop at a Giant Eagle when we lived in PA… down here in NC we have Food Lions.
[QUOTE=Coyoteco;5792121]
What is so bad about Fancy Feast?[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=bdj;5792423]If it’s all your cat will eat, nothing…
But if YOU’RE picky about what you feed your animals (and I am): Poultry broth, chicken, liver, meat by-products, wheat gluten, soy flour, poultry by-products, soy protein concentrate, artificial and natural flavors
That’s the beginning of the ingredient list from the “Roasted Chicken Feast”: http://www.fancyfeast.com/wet-cat-food/roasted-chicken-feast/
The first three ingredients are OK, but after that - they get pretty icky (in my opinion).
To compare - here’s the beginning of the list from Wellness Chicken formula (which is grain free): Chicken, Chicken Liver, Turkey, Chicken Broth, Carrots, Natural Chicken Flavor, Sweet Potatoes, Squash, Zucchini, Cranberries, Blueberries http://www.wellnesspetfood.com/product-details.aspx?pet=cat&pid=2#ingredients
I feel more comfortable with those ingredients - the zucchini and berries end of the list is probably more to make the human feel good than the cat, but “named” ingredients (chicken liver, etc.) are pretty much always preferable (in my mind) to “by-products” or things that come from unnamed protein sources - chicken fat is OK, “animal fat” isn’t.[/QUOTE]
Not all Fancy Feast varieties contain wheat gluten and soy. The only kind of Fancy Feast I feed my cat is the “Classic” variety:
http://felinediabetes.com/glutenfree.htm
with some Wellness Grainfree from time to time since he loves that too.
Interesting what I have read about Wellness and some of the other “premium” canned cat foods, and that is that most Fancy Feast varieties have higher protein counts than the more expensive “premium” muscle-meat brands:
http://www.catinfo.org/?link=cannedfoods
My family hasn’t owned many cats but we did the same with ours and they lived long lives too. I’d be still feeding Fancy Feast if it weren’t that the recent unpleasant “incidents”, and probably will again but I’m a little gunshy right now. I was feeding EVO wet but if I ran out Fancy Feast is right there at the grocery store…
I dunno, is “cheap” food worse quality than it used to be? Does anyone know?
