At my wit's end with feeding my cats!

[EmptyTheFrickingBins]

I have three cats - one seven, one a year ish, and one who is five months old.

They've been getting Felix as Good as it Looks, older one on 7+, kittens on the kitten variety. Getting up to four packs each a day, plus dry food down.

I was made redundant very recently, with no redundancy pay because I hadn't worked there long enough. Have a current fixed income of 800 a month from UC and decided to try them on a more affordable food. I'm also sick of throwing so much plastic away so bought tinned wet food for them.

I bought a big bag of decent kitten dry food (scumbles) with the aim of this being their main food. Switched it over gradually (from Puriena one). They won't eat it.

Won't eat the dry, won't even try the wet despite it also being switched gradually. I'm using up the last bits of the Felix but it'll be gone tomorrow and there's no way I can afford to keep paying for it until I get another job.

(this isn't a begging post, I promise - I don't want anyone's money)

Have a kitten currently biting me because she's starving apparently when there's a plate of wet food and a bowl of dry down. How can't I get them to eat the food?

Please don't suggest rehoming - I've already spoken to CPL, RSPCA and a couple of local charities and they can't help.

Not sure I made it clear - the only wet food they'll eat is the Felix! I've also tried different pouches and they won't touch it.

I doubt they'll starve themselves OP.. stand firm!

You have to wait them out.
Our cat does this, refuses food sporadically because she is being a sod.
There isn’t anything else though so she just has to get on with it.
She caves eventually.
4 packs a day is a lot in my opinion. We only give 2 and dry food.
If they are leaving it so it goes dry and yucky only put down half a pack at a time.

Were they eating the Purina One?

Yep it's a battle of nerves!!

What's your budget, per day, for all three cats?

I'd stick with the Purina one. I'm pretty sure it's not that much more expensive than scrumbles.

Agree with PP that four pouches per cat is way too much. My largish cat eats about 200g of wet food per day.

For Purina, I’ve found Pets at Home is far cheaper than anyone else. If you can get to one, the 3kg bags are an excellent deal there (£15.50) and should last a month or just less.

Order in bulk from Amazon on subscription. That’ll save you at least 5% - up to 15% if you add a few more subscriptions to be delivered at the same time

Op we’ve some local fruit and veg shops nearby and a weird kind of two euro shop that does whiskas six euro cheaper for a forty pack. Can you start asking about to see if there’s anywhere local to you much cheaper?

They won't touch whiskers 😬

I've just ordered a big bag of purenia from zooplus.

EmptyTheFrickingBins
I meant is there any chance there’s random shops in your area stocking the pet food your cats do eat at a discount? Maybe ask about!🤞

If they'll eat Purina, I'd carry on with that but drastically reduce the number of pouches they eat. I'd probably split one pouch between the 3 of them twice a day (so 2 pouches a day instead of, what, 12?) which will make the Felix more affordable.

I'd ditch the wet food completely and just stick with the dry food.

I fe your pain though, my fussy cat will only eat James Wellbeloved dry food and it's pricey!

Give them the Purina wet food and 1 pouch each morning and 1 pouch each before bed. I think cats want what they've always had. They won't understand you have less money. I've always fed my cats Aldi wet tins of food. 2 cats share a tin morning and another tin at night. They have crunchies down sometimes at lunch time, they nibble a few then they turn their noses up at them.

1 tiny pouch between 3 cats is ridiculous. It's like sharing 1 roast potato between 3 adults.

The war of attrition is a fairly regular occurrence in my house. He sees the new bag of food that is identical to the previous one which hasn't quite run out yet, and thinks that the new one should immediately be served to him.

Same if the pet shop haven't got his usual food. I win every time.

I disagree. If they won't eat cheaper wet food then giving less of the wet food they like seems a good compromise to me. Their nutritional needs will be met by the dry food.

Zooplus have reduced the 40 pouch pack of Felix AGAIL to £11.24 if that helps.
Sorry you are having this situation it is really difficult when they reject food.

When I worked in R+D for a catfood manufacturer (which I keep quiet about these days!) I was told that cats are either neophobic- hate something different or neophilic -will try new stuff.
I know it is difficult but can you switch one thing at a time gradually

Ooh I didn't see that but will take another look! Thank you!

I must have three neopathics! 😕

My lot just have dry food down at the moment but don't seem to think of it as actual food - I've just had to remove a pack of dreamies from the youngest's mouth!

Four pouches per day plus dry food is a huge amount, IMO.

We have three (aged 9, 4 and 1) and they each get an 85g pouch of Sheba per day, plus a small handful of Purina biscuits. The younger two also share a Lick-e-lix or get a few dreamies each, plus the odd bit of chicken - the older one doesn't get anything extra as the vet put him on a diet last year

If they will reliably eat Felix then I would just buy it but feed a lot less of it. A pouch each per day (split into three meals) plus a small amount of dry. Cats really don't need massive amounts of food.

I know that but they're all healthy weights - the middle cat is also huge - he's 6.5kg but not fat, just big.

If they will eat dreamies could you put some on the dry food see if that helps them to start eating it?

But if you can’t afford to keep feeding them four pouches each a day (and I’m not surprised, that’s extortionate!) and you know they’ll reliably eat the Felix, surely it makes more sense to feed them less of what they like rather than waste money on food they won’t touch?