Post Punk Kitchen Forum

We are trying to find a healthy dry/wet food balance with Puddy and I'm wondering what works for your cats. She REALLY loves tuna, but I've heard it isn't the best to be relying on. When we feed her primarily dry food she tends to get constipated, so we're looking for a non-tuna wet food that she won't refuse (she hates anything that I spend money on or get from the health food store). Cat whisperers?

Have you tried tiki cat? I'd recommend it. My cat is picky but loves it.

We feed our furry-beasts Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance Limited Ingredients Diet formulas, and we alternate between the Chicken & Green Pea and the Duck & Green Pea. They LOVE it. I mix-in a tablespoon of pureed pumpkin and a few drops of fish oil into their breakfast - the pumpkin adds easy-to-digest fiber and extra water (cuz my kitties don't drink much) to help in digestion, and the fish oil is anti-inflammatory as well as helping Simon's skin and digestion. They totally gobble their breakfast.

Kibbles are a sometimes food, cuz Simon gets constipated on them quite easily. I save them as a bedtime snack.

If your kitty loves tuna, try mixing a teaspoon of tuna into a few teaspons of wet food and see if that works. We had to do that when we changed Simon's food for the first time (back at the time of the Iams recall), and it tricked him into eating a new brand. We didn't have to keep-up with mixing-in the tuna for very long, either. Maybe 10 days.

Tiki Cat looks interesting but we unfortunately can't get that up here, judging from their website.

Those are great tips about the fish oil, and adding a tiny bit of tuna to some of the more nutritious wet foods we can never get her to eat. As for dry food, I've tried the natural brands and she hates everything that isn't the cheapest kibble you can buy. I assume that's what she ate at the SPCA, and with the people who surrendered her, but I keep hoping she'll change her mind! She also hates ALL treats, so I can't even coerce her in to eating with those.

If you don't have your heart set on a more organic/natural dry food, we feed our cats Royal Canin. It's expensive, but our vet highly recommends it, and since we switched the youngest over he's softer and shinier and healthier than he's ever been. Plus his poops are nice and healthy, and not nearly as stinky as they were when he ate the Science Diet they fed him at the shelter. Just another option to toss out there. Also, you might splurge a bit on a water fountain to entice them to drink more, which might help with the constipation. We have a Drinkwell for our cats and they adore it. They like it even more than drinking out of the toilet, which is saying something.

We feed one of our cats Royal Canin (Urinary SO) because without it she regularly gets UTI's. She seems to like it pretty well. The other cats are on the dry Blue Buffalo sensitive stomach stuff.

ophelia ate wellness dry and weruva canned before i had to switch her to a more restricted diet for her kidney disease. she's always been a fairly picky eater, but she never seemed to get bored with those, and she was healthy and happy and soft and shiny even as an old lady while she was eating them.

did you try transitioning her over from the cheap stuff to the expensive stuff? She might be ok with if if you start out giving her mostly friskies or whatever and then adding a bit of the better stuff in small increments. some cats won't be fooled, but others might start to be ok with the new stuff after a while. Same idea as with tuna in the wet food.

I alternate food about every 4 months. Currently I'm using Wellness grain free 12.5 oz cans. Wet food only. When they get fussy I crumble a few pieces of freeze dried chicken, turkey or shrimp on top. They love them. They are called "Purebites" and I get them at Petco. There is also a sprinkle called "Halo" I ordered on Amazon they like a lot. Wellness also has 5.5 oz cans of minced or cubed food that they really love but it has a lot of gravy so I don't feel they are getting enough real food with it- so sometimes I'll mix about 1 teaspoon of it in with their regular food. They lick the plate. I have 4 babies so getting them all to eat the same food is a challenge sometimes. The reason to alternate every 3-4 months is in case the food you're using is short on a vital nutrient that they need you have a better chance of covering their needs by switching. Even the best foods have had problems. Of course the switch has to be done gradually over about 4-5 days so they don't get upset tummies. Dry food is a definate no-no. I posted a referral to "catinfo.org" Please take the time to check it out. Hope this was helpful.

I only feed wet food, but one of my cats refuses to eat the fancy brands. I've tried them ALL. But she is a Fancy Feast fan. As a compromise, I only buy the 6 flavours of Fancy Feast that have less than 10% carbohydrates.

(You can see the nutrient breakdown of different brands here: http://binkyspage.tripod.com/CanFoodNew.html)

Our kitties get the vet branded Royal Canin Urinary SO since Gersh had a full crystal blockage once. They also get wet food. They LOVE Friskies pate, but I'm trying to get them on a more natural formula like Dick Van Patten. They're fussy as fork though.

Our office cat is super picky. She will eat Fancy Feast (but only the pieces in gravy, not the pate, and she gets bored with it after 2-3 weeks), Weruva (but not the fish ones, although she normally likes fish), and Fussie Cat (just got a few cans of this donated, and she LOVES it).

I think Frisbee was used to cheap friskies canned and dry food from the shelter and I switched him over to Wellness/Newman's Own/Tiki Cat canned foods. He didn't love any of them at first with the same obsession he had for the friskies stuff but that was his only choice so he learned to like it well enough. He especially likes the tuna varieties of tiki cat. He also gets Wellness grain free kibble.

Natural Balance Salmon and Green pea formula, with mixed Natural Balance canned foods.

Fromm grain free surf & turf. It's the only higher-end food we've tried that they like enough to eat. I've tried Honest Kitchen and Wellness too, and they won't touch them. They loved cheap grocery store food and Science Diet before we really knew better.

I've tried a lot of the fancy, expensive canned foods with my cats and my particularly picky cat has so far been semi-enthusiastic about the Wellness Core chicken flavor, Fancy Feast Classic salmon & shrimp, and the Fancy Feast flavors that have "cheese" in the name. My other cat basically hates anything that seems like health food and also really goes for the Fancy Feast. Neither of them have liked Friskies shredded canned food. Picky cat also liked Purina DM wet cat food (it's smelly!), which I think can only be purchased from the vet.

Before picky cat got sick and developed food aversions to nearly everything, she also liked the Simply Nourish stews, but I'm not sure if they sell it anywhere except for Petsmart.

As far as dry food goes, again, I went for the expensive stuff initially but have resorted to grocery store brands just because they seem to be smellier, which appeals to picky cat more. So I've fed Blue Buffalo Wilderness before... the duck flavor seemed to go over the best, but all were okay at the time. I also experimented with the Blue Buffalo Basic before (not popular with the cats), since I was trying to see if picky cat had some sort of food allergy that was making her food averse. I then switched to Innova, which went over well for a while, but I guess picky cat got sick of that because she refuses to eat it now. Neither of the cats were crazy about the Simply Nourish turkey dry food. We discovered the picky cat went crazy for the Purina One Beyond dry food, but she refuses to eat the chicken flavor now and will only eat the salmon one. I also tried Fancy Feast dry food with her today and she seemed okay with that. Ugh, cats! They'll drive you nuts! Haha.

The canned foods that work best for my kitties are Weruvya, BFF (best feline and friend) and Almo Naturals. The kibbles they like are Now and Holistic Blends Chicken and Salmon. I have a lot of fosters that hated anything but the crepe friskies to begin with and have managed to convert all but one now!

I second this one. My kitty is a recovered diabetic, and she only eats the Fancy Feast Classic flavors

If you can get Taste of the Wild, I recommend it! My tuna-loving cat is crazy for it.

I feed my two adult cats Ami cat food: http://www.veggiepets.com/shop/ami-vega ... -10kg.html, although I don't know if you can get it outside of Europe.