Cat won't eat Iams

[Acrosstheuniverse123]

I have a four month old kitten. I have fed her whiskas and purina dry food since i got her but want to switch her to IAMS which is what my last cat ate . She just will NOT eat it. She ate nothing all day yesterday . In despair, I gave her tuna which she wolfed down. i hate the smell and mess of wet food. Now I am left with a whole pack of IAMS. What can I do to encourage her to eat it? The person who sold her to us was feeding her Royal Canine or something like it, and she ate a packet of that, but just doesn't seem to like IAMS or purina. Help!!

I think it's a bit mean of you to deny her wet food just because you find it inconvenient. Many/most cats seem to prefer wet food and it's usually better for them. Chuck out the Iams. Give her some wet.

Mine hates Iams and there are plenty of dry foods to try, many much better quality too. If it's a cost thing then try Zooplus.

Modern wet food, particularly some of the pouches, really doesn't smell any worse than a tin of tuna or a meat pie filling.

Well neither would I Iams contains fillers and meat byproducts imagine if that was your only diet! Please feed the poor kitten some decent dry food but she also needs wet food no matter how much you don't like it wet food and most importantly variety (but quality variety) is important.

Iams is rubbish (as is Whiskas). There are much better quality cat foods around with a higher meat content. I agree Zooplus is a good place to buy online.

Royal Canin is fine and you should really have fed that at least at first when you got the kitten then changed slowly, don't quite understand why you are so dismissive about any brand other than Iams? They all have foods they like and dislike just like people e.g. I adore broccoli but can't stand asparagus & a friend is the opposite, so maybe she just doesn't like the taste of Iams..

IAMS isn't great.
Feed your cat what it wants to eat. Why should it eat the same as your last cat?
Feed a small amount of wet food at a time. Bowl cleared. No mess.
Dry food isn't always great. They don't always drink enough.

Mine won't touch it
He loves (for dry food) meowing heads, Lily's kitchen and thrive. All have really good ingredients and usually one is on offer at pets at home
For wet food he eats all the above brands plus natures menu

Okay thanks. I always assumed IAMS was really good quality but perhaps it was 20 years ago when i got my last cat. I am not sure where to get Royal Canine?I think most tinned food is awful quality too.

Butchers Classic is a cheap, reasonable quality tinned food. There is some lovely quality wet food available now. Applaws organic in foil trays for example. And that has no smell at all - except a slightly herby fragrance.

I think it's sad to base what you feed you cat on what you find pleasant/convenient rather than on what the cat likes.

Honestly go to pets at home and have a browse. They even do their own range purely holistic. Cat food has changed so much! Look at the meat content etc and the list of ingredients

my rule is if it doesnt smell like i would eat it im not feeding it to the cat

Bit difficult for us vegos :) :)

She just will NOT eat it. She ate nothing all day yesterday

Yep, they're stubborn like that. There are some great quality cat foods that mine just won't touch with a bargepole . There are so many different brands now to suit all budgets, of wildly different quality - often what is in the supermarkets is at the lower end of the quality scale (check % meat content and look for low/no grains or cereals). Agree with pp about pets at home or zooplus.co.uk, get a few trial packs to see what your kitty will eat before committing to a big bulk purchase though! Another website you could look at is is the Happy Kitty Company.

Also wet food is only smelly/messy if they don't wolf it down straight away, which they will if you find one they like enough!

Applaws apparently is not a complete food apparently. Doing some research

Some of the applaws is, I think it's the pate type ones that are

Posted too soon! I feed a good dry as my complete then whatever decent wet stuff whether it's complete or not if that makes sense

Having tried my cat on all sorts of premium dry and wet foods it seems the only thing she likes is Purina One Chicken- I know it’s looked down on as a food but she is an absolute picture of health. (She also eats a fair amount of fresh food she catches herself).

This is the Applaws pate I was talking about and it is complete:
www.applaws.co.uk/product/luxury-pate-cat-multipack/

However the one I've got says 'organic' on it, and this doesn't, and I can't find the organic one on the website. It was donated to us, but I don't know who by, so maybe it's not available yet. Anyway this one is probably more or less the same.

Right.. I have bought James Wellbeloved wet food and Royal Canin dry. She ate a bit and walked off.... Utter despair. If she's hungry enough I guess she will eat it...

Why are you so determined for her to eat Iams?

If you put wet down, make sure it's a small amount too. Mine seems to get overfaced by big amounts and refuses to eat it
He won't touch James well stuff. I'm 99% sure pets at home have a guarantee thing about if your cat won't eat it, you can take it back. I've done it with their own brand food before!
Possibly buy a mix of single sachets/pouches/small tins and see which is preferred

Mine like AVA dry food from pets at home (grain free with decent chicken %). Mine won't eat pate style or stuff with too much jelly. Got a few wet foods from zooplus as kittens but they weren't that interested in the decent stuff. They eat the dry AVA and Sheba/gourmet perle which probably isn't great