What do you do if your cat starts turning it's nose up at food it previously loved and you have shed loads of it left?

[ProperLavs]

9 month old kitten always has dry food out and has 1-2 pouches a day when he asks for some.
In a previous life last week he was quite happy with Felix having turned his nose up at his once beloved Sheba, which I also bulk bought.
He will sometimes just pick out the jelly or simply turn his nose up and walk off.
It's driving me nuts.
Should I just keep on putting the food down anyway?
He has a high quality dry food and is healthy and active with a shiny coat.
Thanks

Take away the dried food and only give a handful of it once a day. If he's hungry there's a greater chance he'll eat. I sometimes mix two pouches together and split it into two meals.

I have been told kittens need to free feed until a year old?

I don't think of him as a kitten any more though. He is a ferocious hunter and pretty aloof. His sister , who was a friendly loveable lump disappeared about 6 weeks ago. So we are left with the one who plays fetch like a dog and only let's you stroke him when fast asleep.

yes I did,

Mine does this, but he's an old cantankerous man. Currently I have 20 pouches of Sheba he ignores. If I give him it in any quantity it's left. He fucking loved Sheba. Dh (who hates him) panders to him arseyness and now we have a selection of 4 different foods.

My kitten roughly same age has done exactly the same thing. She is turning down all wet food now and she used to love it. I'm just leaving her on dry as she eats that very happily.

My cats are utter bastards. I would keep hold of the food and reintroduce a few months/weeks down the line. We currently have around 7(!) different brands in rotation. Bastards

I gave my spares to a cat rescue - they are always grateful for any food.

The food has a long sell by date keep it for a few weeks when he'll have changed his mind

When this malarky started I did give all our spares to the local pdsa.

He's on Royal Canine kitten food, so I know he's getting nutrients. He sits by the cat food cupboard and stares at me then follows me round the house. When I give it to him he sometimes eats it. This morning he has eaten the rest of a half of pouch that he rejected yesterday. I have a feeling he prefers some fish rathe than meat but actually, who the hell knows anyway.

You won’t win this battle his mind is made up and that food will not be eaten! Cats are really stubborn about food once their minds are made up. I’d give in and donate the extra food you have to a local shelter or cats protection. I wouldn’t buy too much of any food in future

I have an eight year old cat who does this. Yesterday I cracked and took away the wet food completely. She followed me round the house yowling for an hour - but if I put wet food down she just leaves it! Aargh! Fed up of scooping stinky cat food into the bin every day, let alone the waste!

Interestingly when we had another cat, who would eat all his own food and then hers if he could, she ate all her food every time!

I get this with mine. To be honest I just keep it now for when he goes off his latest choice - there's a good chance he'll start eating it again. Felix Meaty Loaf has been inhaled today - he went off that about a month ago. 🤷🏼‍♀️

If I try a new one that he won't eat at all I feed it to the local stray. Interestingly even he won't touch Sainsbury's own, but loves a bit of Tesco's own.

I never bulk buy cat food now. I would buy a different type of food for a few weeks and then try the Felix again. I rotate three different wet foods to try to avoid my cat getting bored.

Have you tried altering the food at all by adding stuff to it?

We had a dog like this when I was a kid and when he went off the dry food we would make up a big batch of meat stock/gravy (no salt) and stick a bitof that on the biscuits for a few days.

Only did it because it was cheaper than replacing the bulk load of dry food but it worked. Then when she got bored of that she would go back to the normal way.

I'd keep it, eventually he'll eat it again. Variety is the spice of life though, we wouldn't want to eat the same thing every day either.

I free fed my kitten too. Mainly because I was mugged every time I went to the kitchen.

Have you tried putting some dried food over the leftover wet food? My cat will sometimes leave half a pouch (or just the jelly) but usually eats it if I put a sprinkling of dry food over it.

I would keep the food for now, my cat goes through phases of leaving certain food but a month later might happily eat it again 🤷🏼‍♀️

My cat who is now 18m, when she was around the 9 months mark went thru this "stage", I went with it for a day or 2 leaving food for her to ignore and me to scrape into bin. She was still nibbling the dry but leaving the wet.

After 2 days one morning there was nothing in her bowls no wet, no dry just the water bowl was changed, i left it till about 90 mins after her normal feeding time of 7am so 8.30am and set my alarm when it went off i put down literally a couple of tablespoons of dry food and half a pouch which was snaffled immediately when she was done i gave her a ear rub and a single treat and had to endure the daggers coming from her eyes over the hours that followed,

her next normal snack time was also delayed by 90 mins and i repeated it again to the sound of the alarm but this time she got same amount of dry food, second half of pouch

3rd meal of day - 4 tablespoons of dry food (she looked forlorn) when realised that was it and nothing being left to snack on

4th meal and bedtime - full pouch (snaffled immediately after alarm went off she was waiting for it to be put onto the ground), dry food down for during the night with water

I carried this "regime" with alarms for about 3 weeks to give her time to settle with it so she knew what was happening and when and no problems ever eating anything since - when my phone alarm goes off for some reason for myself, she goes straight to her food bowls, or if i need her to eat something (that ive added medication to lol), thats the bit goes on the dish and the alarm goes off

I give her a rotation dry food wise of iams, purina, go cat, tiger, tesco own brand,

Wet food - whiskas, any kind of cat soup will bite hand off for, gourmet , sheba, felix, tesco own brand, asda own brand,

Does this sound like our cats?

Thanks for all the tips. I haven't got the patience for setting off alarms. I'm glad it worked for you though smurfy.
I am wondering whether he isn't actually that hungry since he has access to dry food. You know a bit like
" I'm a bit peckish, what shall I eat? I know I'll pester the human. No, I didn't fancy the pouch. A bit of tuna would have been ace. I'll go and have a nap."

I will never bulk buy again though.

I do wonder as well whether he'll ever be Mr friendly or will always be Mr "piss off and leave me alone. I might play with you in a couple of hours. Here's another dead rodent. No I won't sit on your lap or let you pick me up. I just want to use your favourite chair as a scratch post and sit on anything you are doing on the floor. If you are exercising I will sit down right next to you so you can't carry on, then when you stop and stoke me I'll walk off"