When Gracie, the youngest catkid was adopted in January, there were a lot of food issues. She wouldn’t eat anything. Then only dry. Then only real chicken. Then only chicken cat food. Then back to real chicken. (When I say real chicken I mean the stuff I roast myself without any salt or flavorings. She’s not fond of rotisserie chicken which would be so much easier.)
It took months to get her to a point where she ate the same stuff the others did. (In the meantime, tubby Hazel gleefully consumed anything she didn’t like. What a trooper.)
For most of the summer she was happy with chicken cat food. Now that it’s fall she is turning her nose up at chicken cat food.
She started this after I stocked up with two cases of chicken cat food. Turkey cat food is her current favorite. I even caught her eating beef cat food, a flavor which she tried to bury in the spring.
Mollie only eats gravy (and dry food). She will leave all the food lumps in her plate (for Hazel to clean up).
Morgan eats mostly dry with some wet. Sometimes she eats a lot of wet cat food and sometimes none at all. She is not fond of chicken cat food (yes, that’s the one with an inventory of two cases).
Hazel, glorious Hazel, will eat anything that isn’t nailed down. That’s the good news and that’s the bad news. Every family needs a Hazel.
Here is the typical dinnertime conversation.
Me: Dinnertime! Come and get it. Friskies chicken!
Hazel (with enthusiasm): Oh, my favorite. Feed me first, feed me first! (Picture a fireplug dancing around!)
Morgan (bored and not interested checking her nails to see if she needs a manicure): Again? Didn’t we just have that last week? Or was it yesterday? Just a little and not the big pieces. Don’t give Mollie all the gravy.
Mollie (with authority as the alpha cat): Just the gravy please. No lumps. Last time you tried to sneak in lumps.
Gracie (as the spoiled kid who only eats mac n cheese): Ewww! Like what were you thinking? Who would eat that? I want Fancy Feast. I want sushi!
In the meantime we are grabbing our car keys to get a pizza and beer!
Wow! Do you keep a food diary/log for them? I’m not sure I could keep this straight! I’m tempted to tell you the same advice mothers are given with picky children…”if they’re hungry enough…” but I won’t do that, since I would be doing the same thing! My dog knows exactly who to come to every time she wants a treat or scrap from the table. I’m the patsy! 🙂
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Yes, sometimes I keep a diary. Right now thinks are fairly stable except for the recent dislike of Friskies chicken (after I bought 2 cases). When Jake was alive I kept a journal. He was very finicky and with his diabetes he had to eat. He had me over a barrel and he knew it.
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🙂
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Mealtime in a multi-cat household is always fun! We have an extra dog in the house right now (dogsitting) adding to our chaos. Our cats have to slink around her to get to the feeding spots. They aren’t 100% sure about her. So that’s four cats and two dogs and five different feeding spots on two levels. Luckily no fosters at the moment. I just can’t do it until the extra dog goes home!
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We have four different eating spots. They don’t share well here.
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Hahaha! Sounds like Hazel is a wonderful helper.
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When it comes to food, she’ll help anyone out.
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One of the reasons I miss Pharoah is because he was my garbage scow. Anything left in the cat dishes, he would gobble it down. I don’t like dark meat chicken and he would eat that too. I can no longer buy a whole chicken as there’s nobody to eat the legs and thighs! But thank goodness now I only have to prepare two separate kitty meals instead of three!
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In his prime, Jake was like Hazel and would eat most things although he could be finicky too. He ate all the bits off of a rotisserie chicken that we didn’t eat and was happy with that.
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With the new cat we are trying to figure out a new eating regime as well. He lived for a year and a half with dry food available all the time and once a day some wet food. But now he isn’t so much into dry and when offered wet gobbles it down or just takes a nibble. But the desperation level before the gobble and the nibble are the same, so we never know. Oh, and never offer food from the fridge. That is yucky!
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I had a cat who wouldn’t eat it cold. Fortunately even Gracie will eat it from the fridge if it’s what she wants at the moment. I am still trying to get a pattern going but it’s usually a can of Friskies in the morning split between all four (Mollie gets 2 tbsp. of gravy only). Dinner is another story. It’s a full Fancy Feast for Gracie and the Friskies gets split between the other 3. Sometimes she will holler at lunch time too. I am so grateful she’s eating. BTW according to the rescue, she wasn’t like that at all at the shelter.
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Tigger liked the gravy best . . . and he didn’t hesitate to bury anything that didn’t meet his exacting specifications.
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The more you pay for something the more likely it is to be buried! In the spring I tried the high end wet. Not a hit (except for Hazel, wonderful Hazel — then I wonder why she’s tubby!)
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Does Gracie have any medical problem that makes her not want to eat or is she just picky?
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At this point she’s healthy. Teeth were taken care of and no blood in the urine anymore. My take is that while she was having issues, I was catering to her and she liked it. I don’t know if the case of chicken cat food I bought tasted different or if she got tired of it. Morgan isn’t fond of it either but she will eat it.
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I love Hazel. A dancing dream at meal times. We had a Mollie gravy cat once, but the vet put a stop to that. (and they say they will eat anything if they are hungry enough – wrong!)
Have you tried duck? (The food, not the action) RC was fond of it…for a can or two – long enough to con me into buying an expensive brand case for a delicate cat tummy….of course, nose up once the case came. (It’s now in hurricane emergency pile….Molly Malamute would be thrilled with it.)
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I tried duck in the spring and it wasn’t a hit (except for lovely Hazel). I get a duck dry food that works when mixed in with other dry. Before Gracie, when I had Jake and the other two, one flavor (I think it was the beef) was so boycotted I donated the rest of my supply to the local shelter. My vet says that only a cat will starve before eating something they don’t want. My cats never get anywhere near starvation because of their neurotic owner.
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I remember going through the finicky cat stage with my kitty but she eventually settled into a routine as long as I mixed things up a bit now and then. But, dealing with only one cat is so much easier… I don’t know how you keep everything straight.
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I used to keep charts when I had Jake but as the cats aged, they mellowed out. I try to give some variety and the “other three” are usually good about it. Gracie is another story. She wants what she wants when she wants it.
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So Hazel will clean up your 2 cases of chicken inventory that you have, right? 🙂
Here I thought my child was the pickiest eater! I think she would fit right in with your cats though! 🙂
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Does she eat cat food?
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LOL! Hasn’t tried any yet! 🙂 But who knows she may like it better!
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Have you tried Stella & Chewy’s freeze-dried chicken? It’s meant to be reconstituted, but my picky kids love it as treats or small meals. I know what you mean about how the minute you stock up on a food they don’t want it. These guys are keeping us busy!
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No. Back in January I bought so many different kinds and brands to try to get Gracie to eat. Once she ate the chicken I worked to get her onto something that everyone ate and wasn’t too expensive. Jake had a mind of his own but Gracie may give his memory a run for the money.
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So annoying! Gracie is going to call the shots!
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She already does in many ways. She screams until she gets her way. I’ve never had such an opinionated, demanding cat.
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What a big personality! My friend who has six cats is fostering a teeny kitten that was found by the road. The kitten is as small as a 5 week kitten, but is probably older than 8 weeks and is very opinionated and acts much older than her tiny big-eyed size. She describes her as a “horror.” hahaha Maybe a little Gracie ;).
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Sounds very familiar.
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Good grief. I find it challenging just trying to keep up with Theo’s loves and hates de jour. Today he is eating food he rejected last week. Situation normal.
Hazel is a clever one. I’d suspect she was at the root of the problem, convincing the other girls that their food is unacceptable. She’s probably snickering into her paw right now, happy in the knowledge that her plan actually worked and no one is the wiser 😉
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I wouldn’t put it past her. She is the “good” cat but you know how that goes. I just don’t catch her!
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Kudos to Hazel! Well played 😎
btw – I LOVE the name Hazel.
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🙂
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I’m available for adoption any time, Kate!
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Do you eat Friskies cat food?
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No, thank you. But I’ll take the home-roasted chicken. And if you are making gravy, I’d also prefer no lumps!
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You are fussy! You could be a cat!
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Yes! Every family needs a Hazel–LOL!! I was chuckling through this entire post because 66 years of fussy cat memories were flooding my brain. Love those cats who will eat anything. 😉
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Most of my cats had their favorites but it didn’t change day to day!
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My cat, Reboot, will eat many things. Problem is, I see them on the carpet later. She has always had a sensitive stomach. I finally have her on a dry food that doesn’t make her sick.
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Mollie is like that. I suspect that’s why she sticks to dry food with just a little gravy once in a while. The dry I use is grain free and it’s made a difference for her.
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LOL they don’t know how lucky they are. I am definitely not so accommodating. Whatever is on sale is what she gets.
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I don’t have the stamina to do that. For the dry food it’s easier although I usually go grain-free or limited ingredients but I mix the new stuff in the old and all goes well. I have diet dry for Hazel. Not her favorite but she eats it. Crackers she says.
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My cats will eat anything. It’s handy — I can tell if they are sick pretty quickly.
Hazel was your semi-feral, right? See, those rescue cats from the street KNOW you never pass up an opportunity to eat.
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Yes Hazel likes to stock food…in her body. Gracie was a hoarding situation cat who would dumpster dive and run off with pork chop bones and other things. Now she’s a gourmet prima donna. How did that happen?
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maybe she just got used to a lot of variety?
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I don’t know what you get when you are in a hoarding situation. I would think you’d be grateful for any scraps. Grateful is not in her vocabulary.
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Unlike Hazel, I drove my mother crazy with my finicky eating habits.
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We weren’t allowed to be finicky. We could have favorites. I never was a big meat eater but could eat a bowl of mashed potatoes!
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Hazel… such a funny girl! Gracie sounds so much like Z Cat. We had to keep an assortment of all kinds of flavors and brands to try to keep her eating some kind of wet food and she usually just licked the gravy. Morgan, I can see her just as if I was there! Maybe Mollie would like pizza and beer! We had three kitties that loved spaghetti and meatballs. And they got a full Thanksgiving dinner. That was before we knew better and began thinking about nutrition.
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Old Jake was the only cat that ate people food and only meat or potato chips (no, I don’t know why…maybe the salt?) That’s a blessing as there is no begging. Jake was also somewhat finicky. He like seafood (which isn’t good for cats) and sometimes got stubborn. Gracie is the worst with eating habits. While Mollie and Morgan aren’t all that big on wet food, they will eat enough dry food. Gracie, who isn’t starving by the looks of her nicely filled out body, gets all persnickety and wails loudly to get her way. She’s come a long way from her dumpster diving days.
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Teddy and Jack eat whatever is in their dishes….until they don’t. Teddy finishes what Jack leaves. Guess that’s why he is 14 pounds and Jack 9. Right now their favorite food is Sheba pâté. I don’t stock up on any particular food. When I do they go on strike and want something different. They are not spoiled ! They just have me well trained as any cat servant should be.
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Four cats dictates that I buy cases. I used to get the mixed varieties but there was always one flavor they didn’t like. (Can a batch taste different from another batch?) I tried to hone in on buying specific flavors they all like. They all love Fancy Feast which is twice as expensive as Friskies, made in the same factory. But even with FF they would go through stages. Fortunately if I have something the others aren’t eating, Hazel will eat it. It wasn’t all that complicated before Gracie came. For an 8 lb. cat, she eats a lot.
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Soooo true! I hate the burying routine. It makes me feel so inadequate as a cat mom. 🙂
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Yes! And they are so theatrical about it, clunking the dish to be sure I know what they are doing. Funny thing is, if I think Gracie had enough and don’t give her what she wants, she will go back and eat the stuff she tried to bury. Not always but sometimes.
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Your cats have the most interesting conversations. It’s been a LONG time since we CATered to cats. You won’t CATch us doing it again any time soon. Meanwhile, I love reading about yours.
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I’m willing to share my experiences with you! It’s much easier than having cats.
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