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Old October 10th, 2010, 11:51 PM
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MissPurryJess MissPurryJess is offline
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Question Cat food rotation or constant variety?

My kitties are SOOO picky about their food - I mean, I am as well, so I get it, but it does get frustrating.

So my question is this - is it better to give them a constant variety of foods in rotation (like have 2 or three they like and switch them off daily), or to give them one kind of food until they get sick of it and then start giving them another kind of food?

I offered them a variety of canned foods to begin with, but I'm really limited in what they can eat because one has an allergy to chicken, I don't want to give them seafood, they only eat the grain-free good stuff, and the cans have to come in small 3 oz sizes because they shun refrigerated leftovers (this is embarrassing to admit how picky they are ). I offered them Merrick Thanksgiving Day Dinner, Natural Balance Duck & Green Pea, and Instinct Duck - they shunned everything in favor of the Instinct! They were really enjoying it - and now all of a sudden they're over it. I gave them some of the Merrick today, and they ate all of that and none of the Instinct. I'm not a huge fan of the Merrick - I really prefer that they eat the Instinct - so I was wondering if you guys have any suggestions in how to rotate their food choices so that we don't have a kitty uprising here.

So to summarize, would you guys do a constant rotation, or only switch foods as they lose interest? And please tell me if I'm being weird about the Merrick - it just looks weird to me with all those chunks, and this whole anthropomorphism deal with making the food sound and look like human food is also off putting to me.
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Old October 11th, 2010, 07:24 AM
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Loki Love Loki Love is offline
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I can completely sympathize - we have chicken allergies with one of our cats too! We have used the various Instinct flavours - but the cats lost interest after a bit. I don't know - it seemed to be a bit dryer than other brands.

My cats used to be fussy with the whole refrigerated food thing too - now, I either warm up the food for a bit in the microwave prior to serving, or add some warm water to it - they haven't turned their nose up at it since. Maybe you will be able to fool your kitty like I was able to mine?
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Old October 11th, 2010, 11:02 AM
Chris21711 Chris21711 is offline
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I buy different varieties each week. For a while I was buying primarily Wellness, but they lost interest. Now I buy Instinct, the rabbit and lamb flavours seem more juicier than the others. I'm also buying Van Patten's even though it is not grain free, right now it is a hit. I always mix warm water with their food, it is a good way to make sure they are getting plenty of moisture....One of our Cats has megacolon, his, I mix to a soup consistency.
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Old October 11th, 2010, 12:22 PM
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sugarcatmom sugarcatmom is offline
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I rotate flavours with each meal. My suggestion is not to feed the same food until boredom sets in or they may never go back to liking that food again. Rotate the flavours that you know they like, and occasionally try adding in a new one, or even one that they previously shunned. Sometimes it takes repeat exposure before a cat decides they'll eat something.
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Old October 11th, 2010, 03:20 PM
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MissPurryJess MissPurryJess is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Loki Love View Post
My cats used to be fussy with the whole refrigerated food thing too - now, I either warm up the food for a bit in the microwave prior to serving, or add some warm water to it - they haven't turned their nose up at it since. Maybe you will be able to fool your kitty like I was able to mine?
I'm going to try adding some warm water to their refrigerated leftovers. I tried it once (a long time ago) and Daisy freaked out - she went up to the bowl, looked at it, and slowly backed away from the bowl, like it was going to reach up and smack her or something. It was so weird! But I think trying a drop or two of warm water and just mashing it around is worth trying.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris21711 View Post
Now I buy Instinct, the rabbit and lamb flavours seem more juicier than the others. I'm also buying Van Patten's even though it is not grain free, right now it is a hit. I always mix warm water with their food, it is a good way to make sure they are getting plenty of moisture.
Which Van Patten's are you using? Ours is grain-free - the Duck & Green Pea is grain- and chicken-free - Daisy used to love it (I'm going to try putting it back into the rotation). I looked at the Instinct rabbit, venison, and lamb formulas - I just can't get past the pork liver. They've never had pork before (or rabbit or lamb). Is that a common ingredient? I'd never seen it before, so I was hesitant to introduce an entirely new protein to them.

So it sounds like a constant rotation/daily variety is the way to go - I'll give it a shot! They had turkey for breakfast/lunch, and we'll try some Natural Balance for dinner.

Thanks as always for the advice. I'll update very soon and let you know how it all plays out!
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