Good luck!

For the longest time my bunch was wild about Shrimp and Tuna. Nothing
would do but Shrimp and Tuna canned food. If I made the dastardly error of
putting out Salmon Entree or Beef Shreds, they would all sniff the food
and maybe eat a couple of bites, then go chow down on the kibble.

Now, though, they've decided that Shrimp and Tuna is no longer their
ideal. If I put down Shrimp and Tuna, Harri and Ranger go eat kibble while
the others eat the canned. If I put down Salmon Entree everybody but Harri
eats the canned. If I put down Tuna Shreds, everybody but Ranger loves it.

So my solution is to rotate between the flavors and make sure I've got
kibble down for them.

Dan

How about mix a little of the pouch food into the canned and also put a bit
on top of the canned; then every day put in less and less of the pouch food
until all the cats are eating is the canned.  This is a slow transition
rather than an abrupt one so that no one stops eating and it is also easier
on their digestive system to change over to another food slowly like this.

Janna

Well, they certainly won't starve.  But they might do even more damage
to the bird population ...

Oh boy, am I the wrong person to ask!  My four get free fed Science Diet
Senior Advanced Formula kibbles (very pricey).  PLUS every twelve hours, on
the dot, they get a buffet of four flavors of Fancy Feast (FF) - FF Gourmet
Chicken Feast, FF Liver and Chicken Feast, FF Turkey and Giblets Feast, and
FF Tender Beef Feast (45 cents a can and they eat 8 cans a day!!).  PLUS
they get bits of fresh chicken or turkey, or whatever we have in the house.

"Christina Websell" <spamfree@tinawebsell.wanadoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:45euhqF6fkpqU1@individual.net...

they

Food goes off, gets infested or otherwise goes stale if left out. Please
dont insist that they finish whats in their bowls before you give them any
more.

If they don't eat it, fine. Don't give them any more until next feeding
time - but at least accept that cats have preferences just like we do, and
give them something different at the next meal. If its dry food left out, it
can't be left out indefinatley as it does go stale and the oils in them
start to putrify, so it needs to be changed at least once a day. If its wet
food, you can always put it back int he fridge after 10 minutes or so, and
bring it out later, but even so, you will need to throw it out fairly
quickly if it isn't eaten.

Yowie

Been there recently.....the only thing that worked (Cougar was actually
losing weight because she wanted hoomin food not cat food) was tipping tuna
juice over the food I wanted her to eat. Try that. Then gradually reduce the
amount of tuna juice until they are eating normal food. And don't ever feed
them their preferred food again or you will have to start over. Good luck.

Ours are quite happy to eat kibble, no one cares for the pouches. They just
lick off the gravy and leave the bits. Of course they all like various
people foods, mostly chicken, although Cali has a thing for beef. The only
demand we can't ignore is Smokey's love of Cheddar. She stands in the
kitchen every day at lunch and YOWLS for the orange stuff. She's even
learned the word, which is scary for Smokems. :)

I have the same problem with mine.  When the kittens came to live
with me, I swore they were eating nothing but quality canned food.
For the first couple of months, they happily ate what I gave them.
Something happened, and I blame Shamrock and Bonnie. Rhett
discovered crunchy food again (his first food was Kitten Chow) and
he won't eat much canned food any more. Miss Scarlett, she's like
yours - "I just ate that, I can't eat it again!".  Bonnie, well,
she is a dry food junkie but the only canned she'll eat is a few
mouthfuls of Wellness Turkey.  She'll look for it and holler if I
don't provide it, but won't eat all of it.

Shamrock and Scarlett are my two that consistently eat canned for
two meals a day. But, they like variety. That's why I've settled on
mostly Fancy Feast for canned. Big variety, small cans (so I don't
have to try to save leftovers just to throw it out).

For breakfast, they get either turkey or chicken, grilled variety
Fancy Feast (shredded) or they get Pro Plan chicken and rice. (also
shredded consistency). Every day, its one of those foul flavors.  
The only meal where it doesn't have to be a variety. For supper, I
give them a variety, sort of a buffet, 2 small tins. It all gets
eaten, even if the two prefer one dish rather than eat the other.
Sometimes I have to split up a favorite between two bowls (or three
if Rhett decides he wants some) and leave the one that wasn't the
favorite for when the other is gone. They always eat it, even if
eaten later. I don't leave it out more than a few hours, but the
breakfast I have to leave when I go to work. No one has gotten sick
from eating turned food.

Bonnie is my biggest mystery. She prefers dry food, but the brand I
want her to eat must get rancid quicker than cheap brands. Cheap
brands use more preservatives, and ingredients and coatings that
must be more palitable to a cats taste, but aren't as healthy.
Bonnie was raised on cheap food because she was a feral eating from
a feeding station I set up that winter. Her dry food these days is
California Natural, and I buy 8 pound bags. I vaccum seal several
containers when I buy a new bag (she's the only one that eats it)
and freeze the containers, and only keep out about a weeks worth at
a time in a sealed container. When it gets close to being gone (in
a couple of months) it gets to where she won't touch it. It must go
bad even frozen and in airtight containers. Yet, she's the only one
who'll eat canned food (ONLY Wellness Turkey) that's been opened
and refrigerated, and is a leftover.

Cats. I'll never figure 'em out. I'll do what I can to keep them
eating, though. I never want to go through an experience of hepatic
lipidosis again. No, I doubt a healthy cat will get it. But since
they're so stoic, it's hard to tell if they aren't healthy
sometimes.