Cat won't eat Aldi's cat food!

[Scarletohello]

Went to Aldi's yesterday and bought a big box of their dry cat food. Cat normally has Purina Gocat and is quite happy with it. The brand from Aldi's is Vitacat. Should I persevere or is this just crap..? Had to give at some of my own dinner tonight ( liver ) as felt so guilty.

Have you tried adding warm water and making it all mushy?

My cats love the vitacat wet food pouches from Aldi!

No not tried adding water. Why would that help, does it make it taste better?

I seem to remember Fluffy (who uses Aldi's wet food I think) saying that they'd recently changed the formulation and her boy was turning his nose up at it. Maybe they've changed the dry as well?

Depends how much you pander to your cat. In my house you eat what you are given if you dont eat it you get nothing else. This goes for kids, cat and dog.
The cat wont starve to death whilst ignoring food which is there however much she doesnt particularly fancy it.

My FIL used to feed his neighbours cat with the Lidl's version and even though I am not a cat, I always thought it looked unappetising! Is cost a reason you've changed brands or something else? Be careful it doesn't give your cat the runs as switching foods can often have that effect if its not gradually introduced!

Sorry I can't help, but it made me laugh, we're having a battle too but with the tinned food.

We are having to cut our cloth and get used to aldi, I don't see why the cats think they're too superior for it.

I have to pander to Seniorboy, I'm afraid. He's so elderly that if I didn't give him toothsome food, he'd just stop eating and fade away. (A younger cat, I'd hang much tougher.)

Scarletohello, it's something my vet suggested I tried when my girl was refusing food.

The warm water apparently helps release the smells more. It worked for fussy pants so might work for you?

I just tried mixing it with water, plonked the cat down next to it and he literally ran away! The Puravina Gocat stuff isn't expensive so may just have to go back to that. God knows what's in the Aldi stuff as this cat will eat pretty much anything!

Eeek. Best to give up and go back to a tried and tested food he will eat.

Goodluck!

One way is to gradually introduce it so one night 95% normal 5% new food then every couple of days increase the percentages.

I'm not really bothered as it wasn't v expensive but I've just got a massive box of it now I'm gonna have to chuck away. ( I do wonder what's so bad about it tho that cat won't eat it...)

Do you have a local shelter nearby you could donate it to? Or a supermarket with one of those pet food donation bins? Rehoming places are always after donations of food and they may have some residents who are less fussy about the taste of Aldi! Or some people food banks accept donations of pet food to include in boxes for people with cats/dogs.

A local shelter is a good idea. (I suspect that the food banks/supermarket bins wouldn't be so successful because the box has been opened and they get edgy about product adulteration - I could be wrong though so happy to stand corrected.)

Good ideas about what to do with the stuff! Off to buy some more Gocat today...:)

I started shopping at Aldi but my cat refused to eat their food. I have given in and reverted back to Felix as I feel bad making her eat something she clearly doesn't like.

DS - tough luck, eat it or go hungry, haha :)

Could you mix it with another food he likes? I used to do this to keep the cost down and it work (try one sachet first). Now I have to feed iams as it's the only thing that doesn't upset their tummies (house cats) - typical!

Cats are funny creatures, I have a freezer full of raw cat food from natural instinct that the blighters will not eat now.

One day they just decided they didn't want it anymore after wolfing it down for 3 months.

So just given puss Gocat. He wolfed it down so we're both happy now! :)

Yay! Go kitty and scarletohello

They've changed recipes & not marked it on the label.

It's a pity, the tins were 9% protein, now it's 7% and it looks like crap.

My cat did try it but to be honest it didn't look nice at all.

Go cat is on offer in Asda at 1 a box.

Sometimes I think you have to be persistent when changing cat food... they can be fussy but they'll get used to it :)

Re Aldi dry food, my three rescue pets would not eat it, so rather than waste my money, I buy them GoCat Dry Food (Any Flavours), Purina Dry Food (Chicken Flavour), and recently Whiskas New Dry Food (with soft centres). They eat that, but they will only eat Whiskas wet food pouches, and only a few of those flavours. Modern cat foods are obviously less high-quality than before. Cats are not stupid. My neighbour leaves out ALDI dry food for the feral cats, and they don't touch it, the birds don't even eat it. I put out my own dry cat food for the ferals under the bush and they eat all of that, each day. If you have cats, you just have to find the money to feed them, so I try to work more hours, rather than waste cheap cat food that is left uneaten.

Don't throw away the Aldi dry food - the blackbirds love it, as do hedgehogs! I keep a saucer filled with it near the back door, and the blackbirds come to the window, seeming to ask for it if it's empty, and I hear the hedgehog clattering the dish every night as he gobbles it down.