Help for very fussy cat!

[doobiedoowop]

DCat is 12. Healthy, has been the same healthy weight for years. But over the last year or so she’s become very fussy about her food.
She usually has pouches from various standard brands - Sainsburys, Lidl, Felix, Whiskas etc. Over the nine years we’ve had her, her likes and dislikes fluctuate between brands but usually there’d be one that would enjoy for a while until she didn’t iyswim. Now she turns her nose up at pretty much all pouches. She’ll go back and eat them later but quite begrudgingly, or just leave them to rot.

I bought a taster box of Untamed. She loved it. But I absolutely cannot justify £58 a month on cat food. I accidentally ended up with a second month’s worth (didn’t realise I’d signed up, grrr!) but there’ll be no more.

This week I’ve tried IAMS and Purina - not gone down well.

She has biscuits too as an add-on.

So what do I try next that will be nice but not leave me in financial ruin?

Oh and I do suspect she’s getting some food elsewhere but I don’t know where and she’s never stayed out for longer than is normal for her and still sleeps on my bed every night so I’m not too worried about her being catnapped.

Harringtons?
HiLife?

Mine like those, not too pricy but decent quality, worth a try

Thrive? That’s not too bad.

Thanks both. Are they brands I can by as I need them or are they a subscription like Untamed?

Have you tried her on Rosie's Farm from Zooplus? My cats are very keen on this (though they are not remotely fussy 😂)

Both the ones I suggested you can get from Zooplus, Pets at Home or on the companies own web sites, and Harringtons in most supermarkets.

We have a fussy boy and our vet said that chopping and changing his food was the worst thing we could do, and that if he was hungry he would eat it eventually. He loves any and all biscuits except Scrumbles tiny round balls, but we cycled through alllllll the wet foods trying to find one he liked, and then rotating through the ones he doesn't hate when he gets fed up, and it was actually exhausting! Our local Cats Protection branch - where we adopted him from - were thrilled with his rejects, so not all bad.

He now has Untamed wet food one tin a day, and Royal Canin biscuits split into four small meals, and eats it all up because he knows that's what's on offer, and the magic cupboard just contains more of the same! What he does really like and might be worth a try is a "topper" I buy from M&S that gets sprinkled over wet food, it's crunchy freeze dried chicken I think. (I saw it on TikTok and thought it looked fun, but when he was on a wet food diet after a dental and really not keen I got a similar thing on Amazon which was specifically billed as being an appetite stimulant/for fussy cats.)

My cat is fussy and is 20, she prefers pate and mousses now and loves the Gourmet range. She also likes purina one for dry biscuits. I always have dry and water out then put out wet a few times a day.

Applaws is very similar to untamed, good quality meat and fish.
I've found it cheapest of all on the repeat order from Zooplus. Still nowhere as cheap as supermarket cat food but at least it's stopped him screaming when he goes for a poo.

Our cat is very similar, its very frustrating as we throw out so much rejected food (even though she liked it a few days ago)! Maybe we should stop swapping foods, as suggested above. She will also eat food happily from a spoon (yes..... i know.....!), but then look at the bowl of the same food horrified.
She eats OK when we go away and have cat sitters, and occasionally goes through good phases with us. She does eat her biscuits and isn't thin so shes OK really. Currently rotating between Harringtons gravy, Sheba (all sorts) and Gourmet, all from Asda. In the summer we bought the smaller pouches so less food to go smelly in the heat. She was horrified by Whiskas and Felix hence the change but happily gobbled up,a much of out of date Felix we gave her by mistake!
Its just cats I suppose. She's a an older rescue cat who was very thin and used to gobble down everything, making herself sick, when we first got her!

My fussy cats love anything from royal canin, i usually get different bags of food: urinary, sensible, hairball and mix them. This one is their fave:
https://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/dry_cat_food/royal_canin/royalcanin_health_nutrition/2451803

Zooplus has loads of options and dos trial packs - my old cat loved Animonda brand food and it’s not too expensive.
If all else fails, crushed up dreamies sprinkled on top seems to make most food acceptable!
Assuming she’s been to vet for a checkup to make sure there’s nothing making her feel sick or in pain when she eats?

Encore do a chicken one that might be similar to the untamed

My recently fussy boy 14 months inhales scrumbles in gravy. When I say most cat food smell makes me feel sick scrumbles actually smells quite nice ! And it's not a very expensive one about 7 pounds for 8 pouches and is gut friendly with high meat no cereal.

£58 is less than £2 a day. Id stick with it.

i too would stick with the £58.
if the cat loses weight it’s really hard to put it back on them when they get older.