A grown cat shouldn't go without food for longer than 24 hrs.

But if I were you, I would feed him the wet foods that you know he will eat for a couple of days. Then I would pick one brand that you would quite like him to eat and slowly mix it in with his old food. Start with just a tiny amount (yes, there will be waste initially) and over subsequent days increasing the amount of new food he gets.

If that is too arduous, then try mixing it with a little water to make it wetter (ZP is quite a wet food for a pate food; i.e. it has quite a bit of gravy). Or you could try warming the food just a little bit (by putting the food bowl into another, bigger bowl of warm water) to see whether the more intensive smell will whet his appetite.

Or or in addition to, as the others have suggested, sprinkle some of his favourite treats (or crushed-up dry food) on top to see whether he will eat that.

Hope that helps and that he will eat your culinary offerings.

I tried this in a way... but he found the part with the new food and left it away lol

Would it worth the effort? Shall I just stick to ZiwiPeak?... (which btw happens to be the most expensive one )

ZiwiPeak with Applaws treats from time to time + some Orijen dry once in a while sounds good to me... you think it's ok?

I´m just another struggling cat owner like you (still bent on giving mine mainly wet much to his distaste for most brands). However I have found in this very long year that what he likes is shredded or cut in very tiny bits. So I´m just getting those brands, the problem is that not all of them are complete. Anyway don´t get frustrated, Merlin also walks away when he doesn´r like the food. Sometimes he won´t even come into the kitchen, he decides from the doorway

I tried to chop it to small pieces. Still nothing... He doesnt like the smell at all. Shows no interest at all. He just walks away. And he was hungry! He was trying to tear the bag with the cheap supermarket kibble I buy for the outdoor cats and eat from it rather than eating his wet food...

And Ziwipeak is 2.15 EUR / 170g!

Not to mention he eats more than 170g/day...

I had to throw ZP away as it was one of the foods Merlin decided I could have if I wanted. I am atleast trying to change the little dry he gets to better quality and looking for good shredded wet food.

Merlin have you tried mashing the food with a potato masher and adding a little warm water?

Holly wouldnt try any wet food at all - but if I mash it with a masher so its really fine she will eat it.

At the moment this is Felix as she wont eat anything else, but at least its wet - before all she would eat was dry

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Tomorrow morning I will try another taste from GranataPet...

Hi Panos, I wonder if this might help, do you have a freezer?

If you do you could try this to avoid wasting the new foods, especially the dense pate style ones.

Decant the food from the original container, cut into slices or into small cubes depending on the consistency, if you have a ice drawer in the freezer, pop the pieces on a baking sheet / other flat surface and sit it in the ice cube drawer or just put in the freezer on the tray, they will freeze pretty quickly, once frozen tip them in a tupperware / any other suitable container, label the tubs or write the name on a piece of paper and put in the tub so you know which one he's trying.

To prepare take out one small cube or part of a slice to add to the wet food you know he will eat, put it on the plate first, add a smidge of hot water this will thaw and thin the new food, mix the new food with the thawed mixture.

As mentioned the proportion of the new food can be critical, sometimes you need to start with as little as 5% sometimes with very imprinted cats even less, like a finger nail size piece or smaller, start small and increase very gradually, go at his pace and go back a step if the increase is too sudden.

I'd also continue to offer him some of the whole new food as well, it can take take a great deal of repetition with some cats, he needs to become familiar with and trust the new food. Most kittens will eat almost anything, if he is very addicted to the kibble this could be playing a part, he'll smell it even if hidden in a cupboard, is there anyway you can store this out of the house?

If you don't have a freezer keep the wet food in the coldest part of the fridge, I hate waste as well but with getting new things introduced sometimes there is some waste, you can only try to keep it to a minimum and I guess if there is any it could go to the outside cats you feed.

I've sat on the floor with mine when they were young and pretended to eat a new offering, yum yum! This often arouses interest at least and is what their mums do, she eats they get interested and learn to trust the substance as food, keep going it will be worth it.