I have two 4 year old brothers who are driving me mad over their feeding.

They have always preferred a well known supermarket brand food to Whiskas or Felix & were eating the pouches but only those in jelly not gravy. I have always served them half each from the same pouch & things were ok until this last year when they both started "turning their noses" up occassionally at their food dishes. To cut a long story short I got so fed up with this that I tried the same supermarket brand foil dish foods & once I had found the varieties they liked all was well. However, over the last couple of weeks they have started "turning their noses" up again but not at every feed. I always give them half a foil dish each & I am wondering if it is something to do with smell as they both reject their dish, sometimes not even getting their noses to their food dishes & sometimes taking a sniff then walking away. Now I know they are both hungry as they continue to hang around me & ask for food looking very put out when I don't oblige but tell them & show them the food that is down. I have found that sometimes they will return to it, sniff, walk away only to return some time later to eat it. Sometimes in desperation I add some dried food on top of the dish to encourage them to eat it which does sometimes work.

I can't afford to keep throwing the food away & I don't want to let them win but is it possible that they find some foil trays just don't smell very appealing? I should say that this happens to all varieties not just one & not at every feed but always if one cat rejects the other does too. I am getting desperate!

Any advice or opinions would be welcome.

Thank you

i have 4 different brands i rotate - then you dont need to throw away current stock

Gently warming the food can make it smell more appealing.

Have you tried a feed with a high meat content, as this can be more tasty?

There is a great sticky on feeding that is worth a read

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Debs

Lives with a wonderful husband, 2 adorable rescue kitties Harry and Sabrina, and a flock of pampered pet chickens.

do they eat anything other than the wet food ie dry food?

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I would try rotation - they may decide that they like what you're feeding them again once they've had a break from it and it won't go to waste! I'm planning on rotating my two on three different brands

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Basil & Sybil

I'm another rotation fan - mine never get the same brand two meals running and it seems to work for us.

As an aside are you aware that whiskas and felix might not be the best quality food for them? Have you seen the wet food sticky?

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Harry: Ginger & White b. September 2002
Oscar: Black b. 7th May 2011
Kitty: Grey Tabby b. 7th May 2011

Our lovely cat family

Last year I went through the same thing. I tried everything from cheap to expensive.
Now they have gourmet which you can can 6 tins for £2 from the coop.
Fresh raw Turkey mince and also I get a large pack of Polock fish from Asda.
They have Felix and wiskas pouches and dryed food. They like James beloved
Turkey and rice at the moment.
Also they like cooked chicken.

Like others have said rotation is the way. You will find that they will go back to what you orignally gave them in a few months time.

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Yes they have always had dry biscuits at least once a day as a sort of snack

Thanks to everyone for their replies.

I bought them some Whiskas fish selection pouches which they ate fine on Sunday (Whitefish) & Monday (Prawns) but this morning the Tuna didn't go down well, all they did was lick the jelly off it!

I am going to try the rotation method though to see if it helps. Maybe I just have extra fussy eaters!