to think if they're as hungry as they claim to be, they'll eat what I've given them

[freddiefrog]

The cats are staaaaarrrrrvvvving. If you could hear them, you'd think they haven't been fed for weeks.

I've run out of cat food (I thought there was another 2 pouches in the box), kids both asleep, DH away overnight for work

So I poached some chicken, and gave it to them with rice and scrambled eggs.

They've picked out every scrap of chicken and turned their noses up at the rest

what, you gave them chicken. in my days you kicked them out and told them to catch their supper not really

YNBU
My cat is the fussiest person in this house. She will only eat purina and the only if it's in gravy, no jelly or pate allowed. No other brand. She has iams dry in the morning but must be wet in the evening.
She won't take tidbits of chicken or fish, although will try and sneak a link of cream.
My dcs would never have got away with this fussiness.

They're 15, so would struggle to catch a cold now

They guilted me into the chicken

I'm not surprised they didn't eat rice and eggs. It doesn't even come close to cat food. I'm just imagining their tiny confused faces asking themselves 'what is this my human has presented instead of food.'

My cats love eggs, not sure about the rice but I can see why they have prioritised the chicken!

Chicken is probably more filling than normal catfood, which has lots of water in it, so they might be full on a small amount of chicken.

I try to think ' if they are hungry they will eat whats there' with my tribe, which usually means the biscuits that have been in their bowls for more than five minutes, when they are sat begging for fresh ones but I think not eating their existing food, while begging more fresh stuf is just one of their little methods of controlling us .

Mine can hold out for days or so it seems if they think that not eating whats there will lead to something better. Probably because I will often revert to the 'tuna test' if I think one of them is off their food - if they won't even eat tuna then they are sick and need to go to the vets.

I had a cat who would turn his nose up at lovely fresh meat scraps from the butcher, UNLESS it was fillet steak

He wouldn't eat regular Cheddar either, but would go mad for Parmesan.

Cats are just little buggers really

My cats love sardines in tomato sauce, we have to mash it all together or they will just eat the sauce. Although they will nick anything that has been left, they too would turn their little royal noses up at rice.

We have a fussy feline at the moment too.

We are clawing back on our budget, and have had to move from pouches back to cans for cat food, as it is so much cheaper.

We still use the same brand, we still get the one in gravy, but he is turning his nose up at it, and scratching the furniture in protest.

We are locked in a battle of wills.

Mine would leave it too - they are very particular, and like Binkys will eat the tomato sauce off pilchards/sardines if we've run out of cat food.
Sometimes we'll try buying tins to save money, and always end up donating it to cats protection

Be strong, people - as mankyscotslass said, it's a battle of wills and cats usually win because owners feel guilty . (Cats hardly ever feel guilty so they have a running start.)

I have this. Mine are spoilt given a certain brand of dry food, and then have the occasional pouch between them of a different brand. this, if anyone is interested

So we thought we'd try the wet food brand version of dry food. Do they like it?
No.

Fussy buggers. You'd think that I'd presented them with poison.

YABU OP. Don't you know that you should cater to their every whim and present them with a menu next time?

My cat woke me up the other night howling in rage that her bowl was empty...I must remember to check herbowl is full before I go to bed. She is getting fussier and fussier. Only eats Iams dry and drinks stagnant rainwater.

She likes though whiskers temptations and a a lick of a yoghurt lid.

I have to give in to them, if I don't they find their own food and then sit there on the patio crunching it whilst giving me 'The Look'.

What is with the stagnant water drinking? I used to give mine filtered water. I know, I know. PFBs

They now have a bowl outside to collect rainwater for them as I didn't want them getting ill from puddles

They've honed 'The Look' over years of living with humans, Binky. Develop some resistance.

(Having said which, Cozieseniorboy has managed to up his food requirements a bit but that's only down to the fact that he has to have twice daily meds in his food so I need him to eat it at roughly the right times every day. Before he had his meds, he could go whistle if he didn't like what I gave him - he ate eventually.)

Yes I know - I always have water down but tap water is not palatable for her apparently. I watched her eat some food the other day, nip out the window and drink from the toy truck in the garden.

They generally prefer 'natural' water to tap water, Mac. (Maybe it's the additives in tap water.) If you get tap water and leave it to stand overnight - so that chlorine or whatever can evaporate off maybe) they prefer that to straight out of the tap. Dogs also.

Knickers Cat is v. cross with me.
She gets as much Iams dry as she likes, and one pouch a day of wet food. Which has been until very recently Tesco cuts in jelly. The sort that came in a black box of 12 for £2.49. I prefer the jelly as it comes out of the pouch clean, whereas gravy used to get all over my fingers, ewww... We'd ended up on this as she'd turned her nose up at Waitrose o.b., Felix, and KiteKat. She liked Whiskas but I can only afford it when it's BOGOF. But price is no guarantee with her, she was given some extremely posh catfood in little tins as a birthday present by ddtwins and ignored it all except the one with tuna in.

Tesco have now moved the catfood, repackaged the box, and increased the price to £2.65. So I''m trying Claude sachets, which she treats as though I had placed dung in her plate.

I'm going to have to bulk buy when Whiskas next goes BOGOF aren't I?

I once put the bone from a roast lamb, with lots of juicy bits of meat on it, down for my two cats.

They sat politely waiting sniffing it slightly until I got a knife and cut all the scraps of meat off for them!

Now times are more frugal and I'd be getting several more people meals out of the roast leftovers.

I'm surprised that they turned their noses up at scrambled eggs though. Maybe as someone else has suggested the chicken filled them up.

And with water, she ONLY drinks running tap water. She follows you into the loo, leaps onto the basin and mews until you turn the tap on. Apparently her litter sister is exactly the same. She has access to outdoors at all times and there is plenty of water out there god knows, but no, it has to be FLOWING.

When my first sighting of a robin this year was when it was being crunched by the cat, I think I will continue to give in and pamper the little princes occasionally.
The little buggers have also learnt that digging your claws into people's legs and pulling, usually gets the person to bend down to shoo you off and you can then nick the piece of naice ham they've forgotten they're holding.

Cats and toddlers may not have much in common but have surprisingly similar attitudes towards food...

Well, they held out all night, rice and scrambled eggs still in bowls this morning

Anyone would think I'd taken a dump in their food bowls, the disgust emanating from them

Am now back from school run with cat food, you should see the relief on their little faces, the room service in this hotel is back on track

And yes, mine never drink the nice clean fresh water I put down for them, dirty water from puddles is their favourite, or they like to annoy the dog by drinking his water

Fancy Feast, only the 'grilled' ones, and even then she'll turn her nose up at a flavour she'd normally eat. Or raw or cooked fish or meat.
And Fancy Feast is about $1.10 a can! And she (and she's a skinny thing, no meat on her at all) sometimes eats 3 cans a day!!! She must have a ridiculously high metabolism..... When we have dared to try other (read cheaper) brands we get THE look. The one where you know she is wishing a thousand deaths on us for not obeying her every him. She is the master of 'looks'.
I tell ya, I'm coming back as a cat. Madam has the life of Riley.

Oops whim not him!!

And josie we have noticed a surprising amount of personality traits that our cat and our 19 month old share. And as DS is a mini version of DH I feel outnumbered sometimes!