Won't eat Fancy Feast Pate

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Celle

Celle

Member Since 2019
I'm trying to get my Sophie onto a diet of raw, fresh meat, alternating with FF Classics.
She was already eating Jimbo's raw cat food (veal or beef) before she was diagnosed with DM, but at that stage she also ate Whiskas wet food (with jelly or gravy) and a little Purina One dry food.

At first, while she was desperately hungry, she would eat anything I put in front of her and she lapped up the FF pate, mixed with a little water.

Now her BG numbers have come down - almost always in the low yellows and blues - and her appetite has decreased. That's all good, but she's now refusing to eat the FF, no matter what I do. She's also refusing the Friskies pate foods. I think she just doesn't like the pasty texture - and I've tried all flavours.

I've tried sprinkling grated Parmesan cheese on top, mixing the FF with warm water, even mixing cooked chicken mince and its cooking water into the FF, but she won't even taste it. I've crushed some of the Royal Canin dry food for diabetic cats, - which she will eat - and sprinkled that on top too. No way will she go near it.

She will eat tidbits of food that I cook for ourselves - beef, chicken, pork, fish, scrambled egg, cheese - and I could probably cope with that, except that, in August, we are going overseas for almost 4 months and my cats will be going into a cattery. They've been there before and I trust the owner, who is very experienced. She's had diabetic cats boarding before and she used to run our local SPCA.

I need to get Sophie into a routine that will be more easy-care while she's in the cattery, which means that she won't be able to have special foods cooked for her. Getting the Jimbo's raw meat won't be a problem and nor would giving Sophie the FF or Friskies pates.
Here in NZ, we don't have a lot of choice for wet food suitable for diabetic cats and FF and Friskies seem to be the only readily-available choices.

I really need to get Sophie eating at least some of those, or she may not be able to go into the cattery, which would mean having her euthanized, because we have no one else who could look after her and we can't avoid the overseas travel.

I really want to avoid having her put to sleep - we love her so much - so please, I desperately need ideas on how to get her to eat FF or Friskies.
 
do you have stores that carry the bonito flakes? also called by Japanese katsuobushi --
https://davis.nz/exotic-foods/bonito-tuna-flakes
https://www.u-buy.co.nz/search/inde...atsuo-dried-bonito-flakes-3-52-oz/store/store
http://justbento.com/forum/japanese-ingredients-dunedin-new-zealand

bonito flakes are used to make dashi which is a frequent ingredient in cooking Japanese or allied cuisines

sprinkle these on top of what she won't eat -- many cats go absolutely crazy as they are overwhelmed by the succulent odor
 
Thank you. I'll go looking for those tomorrow.
Sophie's such a a sweet, loving girl. She's my constant shadow.
I'd hate to let her go.
 
Celle, nice to see you posting. How are you.?
Can you get weruva cat food over there ?
The ‘cats in the kitchen ‘ range of canned food is all low carb and the sachets are medium carb. We can get them at pet barn stores. Don’t know if you have them over there.
 
Do you have Gourmet Delight cat food in NZ? It is low carb.
Also Dine Desire trays that don't have cereals listed in the ingredients.
Also the Natures Gift range and the
Ultimate range that doesn't have rice in the ingredients.
Also quite a few of the Wellness range....scroll down in the list linked below until you get to the Wellness range and there are quite a few low carb options here
https://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf
Also look for the Ziwipeak range in the above chart. They are all low carb. And I think they are from NZ so you should be able to get them.

None of the above are pates as far as I am aware. I hope this helps
 
It may be the alternating with the real meat that is making her refuse the FF. Think about it--if you were alternately offered real meat, a burger or steak, and then some mushed up processed baby-food-in-a-jar-meat-like-substance, wuoldn't YOU hold out for the real stuff? Not that I'm saying FF is bad, that's what my cats get, but comparing the two, can you blame her?
Can you get her on just one food, not the alternating choices, and maybe that would work?
 
Bron and Sheba said:
Do you have Gourmet Delight cat food in NZ? It is low carb.
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Yes, we do have Gourmet Delight canned food. Sophie will occasionally eat the first serving from the tin, but she's not interested when the second serving comes around.
I haven't seen any of the other foods that you mentioned.

Our other cat, Feydi, has to be on the same diet as Sophie, since both cats are grazers and Feydi usually ends up eating what Sophie won't touch, although even she isn't keen on the FF. Darn! I bought 40 tins of FF while it was on special, too!

I'm considering trying to find a butcher who will cut up and mix gravy beef and heart, 1/3 heart to 2/3 gravy beef, cubes about 1/2 inch in diameter. Our first Burmese cat had that all her life, but independent butchers are hard to find nowadays and most of our meat comes from supermarket chains. It's already packed and wrapped in plastic.

Thank you everyone for the suggestions.
 
Are you adding anything else to the beef and heart? Like kidney and liver? They need about 10% of kidney and liver in the mix (5% each of kidney and liver) to make it a whole meal.

Have you looked in animal shops, not supermarkets for the other foods. The Ziwipeak is made in NZ so it must be for sale somewhere in NZ. If you ring the company they will tell you where it is available.
 
Also Celle I meant to ask when you feed a raw diet do your kitties eat bones or do you add a replacement for it? Such as egg shell powder.
Hope your search for food is going well.
 
They get bones when we humans have tinned salmon - I remove the bones and give them to the cats. They also both like a bit of grated cheese every day, so I think they'll be OK for calcium. While they've never had milk, they do tolerate and enjoy cheese.

I had success yesterday with a tine of Gourmet Classic Turkey and Giblets feast. On top of it, I put a little bit of cold jelly from a supermarket-bought, cooked chicken that the humans were going to have for dinner, and that enticed both girls to start licking at the Gourmet. Between them, they ate the whole tin-full over the course of the day. Keeping the tin at room temperature instead of putting it in the fridge helped, too.
 
I’m glad you had some success.
@flyingduster lives in NZ and she may be able to help with food available.
Celle when I get the cats food out of the frig I plate it then sit the plates in a little bit of hot water in the sink and it warms the food.
 
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Thanks for the PM and tag Bron!

I haven't read all the posts!

Celle, where abouts in NZ are you? I'm down in Otago. :)

I feed my girl the Gourmet cans and she takes it fine, but actually I'm pretty sure whiskas and chef would be ok too if not the gravy or casserole ones and just the jellymeat style? I keep meaning to do a food test with them and see for sure.

Also local to me is the NZ pet food company that does mixes of raw food including organ meat that might be suitable if you're in the south island, otherwise I am sure there are raw food options up north too.

The other thing is that my kitty refuses food when she's feeling bad. Have you had your girl checked out that there isn't anything else going on too??
 
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Thanks Amy!
@Celle . I've just been reading about another brand in NZ on a raw food site here in Australia on FB. It is called Felines Natural and is made in NZ so should be available to you. It looks good and everyone said their cats loved it.
 
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Hello Amy, and thank you for responding so quickly.

I'm in New Plymouth, so quite a long way from you.

I see that your Jasmine is a Burmese - so is my other cat, Phaedra (Feydi for short). She's a 14-year old lilac Burmese. Statistically, she should be the one with diabetes, but I tested her as well and her BG was fine.

Sophie is 1/4 Blue Burmese and 3/4 farm cat.
I'll persevere with the Gourmet and look for some of the Whiskas that aren't gravy. Unfortunately, both cats prefer the gravy style.

The Jimbos raw meat that my girls will eat comes from a place in South Auckland and it's readily available in our local supermarkets, so that has been mainly what I've given Sophie.

Yes, Sophie has been tested for everything you could think of. Last year, she lost a lot of weight while in the cattery. Andrea at the cattery took her to the vet and she stayed there for 2 days, having lots of blood tests, X-Rays and scans. Everything came back negative and it was assumed Sophie was fretting. Andrea took my girls out of the cattery and had them in her own house, where they had the run of the conservatory during the daytime and sat by the fire with her in the evenings. She started feeding Sophie on her dog's Jimbo's raw meat and Sophie loved it and started to regain the lost weight.

Earlier this year, Sophie lost weight again and I took her back to the vet, where she was again tested for kidney and thyroid function (both normal) and for diabetes. She was diagnosed with diabetes in April.

Since starting on Insulin, Sophie has improved. Just before she was diagnosed, she had been spending most of her time hiding in our wardrobe. Now, she's bright and interested in everything again, she purrs a lot, and she is back into all her normal behaviour, so I think she's feeling OK. She just doesn't like the Fancy Feast.
 
Bron and Sheba said:
A The Ziwipeak is made in NZ so it must be for sale somewhere in NZ.
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One can order Ziwipeak online from Pet . co. nz. & similar stockists. There is no-one near to New Plymouth that sells it from what I can see.

Felines Natural is also available here.

I do feed Dusty some Jimbo raw meat and she does love this but am always aware that it is not a complete food for cats.

There is Rawpawz but I do not know if that is a complete cat food or not.
 
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Bron and Sheba said:
Hi @PussCatPrince - GA lovely to hear from you. I didn’t know that you would be online much or I would have tagged you. Thanks for that information. So valuable to get input from Kiwis.
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Tiz OK @Bron and Sheba . I dip in and out at the moment so not too reliable really. Some days in. Some days out. It depends on me this past year if you know what I say.

Shame I'm not up the New Plymouth way at all. Hope that Celle manages to settle Sophie's diet for her.
 
Hi Celle. I recently started using a supplement that's added to raw food called EZ Complete--made by Food Fur Life. A lot of members here use it, which is how I found out about it. It's simple to use (just add to raw meat and mix with cold water) and cats seem to love it. I have 5, mostly old heads, and 4 of them now prefer the raw over the canned food. (But Dede doesn't agree!) It's very complete and includes everything needed in a cat's diet. And they ship international. https://www.foodfurlife.com/#/
 
Daddy Jack's Mommy said:
Hi Celle. I recently started using a supplement that's added to raw food called EZ Complete--made by Food Fur Life. A lot of members here use it, which is how I found out about it. It's simple to use (just add to raw meat and mix with cold water) and cats seem to love it. I have 5, mostly old heads, and 4 of them now prefer the raw over the canned food. (But Dede doesn't agree!) It's very complete and includes everything needed in a cat's diet. And they ship international. https://www.foodfurlife.com/#/
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I think I looked into this and found the shipping was expensive. Also they do state

"Orders from Australia and New Zealand are a high risk for seizure by customs and are shipped at the buyer's risk."

.. which is likely a truth as I once had someone send me some bisto gravy granules for fun but which were seized forever .
 
@Celle

Just reading up on your posts to date.

You probably have already tried this but have you thought of getting in a house sitter at all? I am thinking of perhaps one that is a vet nurse . Someone willing to feed with care, ear test and administer lanctus accordingly. I was considering this myself at one point.

I did read you having trouble understanding the lanctus forum and perhaps the spreadsheet numbers. It gets easier , honestly.

It would be so sad to have your pusscat put down. Before that, perhaps you could try to rehome her and her companion cat through one of the re-homing agencies or perhaps someone at the vet practice or cattery might able able to network in that way.

All the best to you Sophie and Feydi.
 
PussCatPrince - GA said:
I think I looked into this and found the shipping was expensive. Also they do state

"Orders from Australia and New Zealand are a high risk for seizure by customs and are shipped at the buyer's risk."

.. which is likely a truth as I once had someone send me some bisto gravy granules for fun but which were seized forever .
Click to expand...
That's unfortunate, as the food really is good and very easy to use. Thank you for letting me know.
 
PussCatPrince - GA said:
You probably have already tried this but have you thought of getting in a house sitter at all? I am thinking of perhaps one that is a vet nurse . Someone willing to feed with care, ear test and administer lanctus accordingly. I was considering this myself at one point.
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Thank you for this suggestion. However, I live in a retirement village and, while we can have relatives and visitors to stay with us, we aren't allowed to go away and leave someone else occupying the house.
 
Celle said:
Thank you for this suggestion. However, I live in a retirement village and, while we can have relatives and visitors to stay with us, we aren't allowed to go away and leave someone else occupying the house.
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Oh poops then.
Yes. Retirement villages are wonderful things I feel but no good for pet sitters.

Forget that idea then @Celle . Wish I was closer but we are in Mapua. Other side of the pond.
 
Daddy Jack's Mommy said:
That's unfortunate, as the food really is good and very easy to use. Thank you for letting me know.
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I know @Daddy Jack's Mommy . I tried really hard to find a way to get this & I think @Bron and Sheba may have too. Only way is to make the raw food and mix in what is needed to ensure a whole food cat diet. Bron has a recipe for this which I printed off as I want to get the Dusty 'The Cat That Came In From the Cold' onto a quality cat diet. This would be a bit too much for Celle I feel but she could get close for her lovely pusscats.

A lot in NZ can be really quite expensive as Celle can probably agree especially on pensions and the like so you need to get inventive.
 
There is a company here in Australia now that makes a mix that makes a complete food when meat is added. They are based in Perth. I found them on Facebook and they have an active site. I will ask them if they can ship to NZ and the cost and get back to you all. It makes it easy. Just add this supplement to the meat and bingo ....a great meal.
 
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I have spoken to the lady who owns the company in Perth that makes the Raw Meow Mix to add to muscle meats. And YES! They ship to NZ. They ship everything except the frozen meals. They have some great looking freeze dried treats as well. The mix that is added to the meat to make it a complete meal is called Raw Meow Mix.
I'll link the site below. Have a look through the site.
Might be good for you @PussCatPrince - GA and @Celle It might be suitable for you to make up meals for your two.
They also have freeze dried meals that just need water added (and time to let the food rehydrate) and you have a complete meal. Celle these freeze dried meals might be really good for you when you are away. There are two different ones to choose from for variety.
shippimg is $16 to $23.50 depending on weight. They are packets and don't look too heavy.
So look at Raw Meow Mix, Freeze Dried Meals, and Freeze Dried Treats
Here is the site
https://rawmeow.com.au/
 
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Bron and Sheba said:
The mix that is added to the meat to make it a complete meal is called Raw Meow Mix.
I'll link the site below. Have a look through the site.
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Thank you for the suggestion. I'll look into it.

However, having looked at the list of ingredients, I'm concerned that a shipment would be stopped by NZ Customs and Agriculture. They are so fussy about the importation of any meat products and I see there is meat listed in the ingredients.
 
They must be allowed into NZ because they already ship there and I spoke to another girl who is in NZ and she gets her things from there no problem.
Are you on Facebook? When I get home I can give you the link and you can talk to them yourself
 
@Celle I just heard back from Laura Antonia the owner of the raw food site I gave you and she said they have never had any trouble with their food being stopped at customs in NZ..
You can contact her through the site I gave you under "contact us" or if you like you could post on the Australian Raw Fed Cats Facebook page and speak to her. It's a closed site but you can join. She answers quickly and is lovely. She might be able to give you ideas as well if you are interested.
 
Thank you all for taking so much trouble, time and interest.
I have to get Sophie onto some food that is easy-care, so the cattery owner doesn't have to go to a lot of trouble. While I will take in enough food for the first month, it will also have to be something that is easy-buy, from the supermarket.
I'll already be asking a great deal of Andrea, looking after my two girls for almost 4 months.

Today, I had some success putting a little bit of tinned tuna in spring water (human food) on top of the Fancy Feast. I'll pursue that option for a few days, as I still have about 30 tins of FF - I bought 50 tins when they were on special.

I did try to order the Japanese tuna flakes and discovered that the cost of shipping was over NZ$30. It was a great idea, but we're on a pension and I can't afford that. I'm reluctant to buy anything on line unless I can try a sample first - don't want to buy in bulk again and find it goes un-used.
Sophie's vet fees have already cost a small fortune.

By the way, the vets charged NZ$90 for 50 CareSens testing strips and I found I could buy them from a Pharmacy for NZ$39.95. When I told the vet this, he took a copy of the pharmacy receipt and was going to ask his supplier why it was so expensive for vets.
 
Japanese bonito flakes should be a staple in any grocery which caters to those who enjoy cooking Japanese food
ditto for the dried sardines or anchovies (or herring) -- both are used in making dashi, common soup base
 
We're a small, rural town, though, and there's only one shop that sells Asian food. I asked there about the Bonito flakes and was told "No. Japanese. Only Chinese here." They did have some dried squid flakes but they were labelled as "hot, spicey", so not suitable.
 
small rural town here too, the groceries where we can get bonito flakes are about 45 minutes drive away, though we have people from many different countries here, because of a school or conference center that recruits throughout south Pacific countries

perhaps you have friends who visit from larger towns? or the shipping cost within-country is not terrible ? (they're very light weight)

I'm not sure cats can taste hot spices .. I put black pepper and turmeric in Catcat's main meals and he eats it right down
I know when I raised chickens, they could and would eat the "hottest" spicy things without pause
 
CandyH and Catcat said:
I'm not sure cats can taste hot spices .. I put black pepper and turmeric in Catcat's main meals and he eats it right down
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I guess it's a case of ECID.
I'm quite sure that Sophie can taste at least black pepper.
She enjoys having a little scrap of pepperoni salami when we have it in a sandwich, but we have to be careful to remove any visible pieces of pepper, or else she spits it out and then keeps pawing at her mouth. It's the same story with anything containing chilli.
 
you are most likely right -- I add those condiments for their anti-inflammatory value, will discontinue when his cat acne clears up (getting better by the day)

according to articles on Google, you are right and I'm not
 
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@Celle
I was at the pet shop today looking at the k9freeze dried green tripe for my cats, and had a look at the feline natural and ziwi peak brands.......both NZ brands. They both look very high qualityfoods. They both have small and larger cans, freeze or air dried food and treats. I was very impressed with the range and quality of both and they are all low carb.. if you can't get them locally you will be able to get them online. You can look at both online .....just google both brands.
I was given several free sample packs to try..
I'm sure your kitties would love the canned food they both have
 
Thank you, @Bron and Sheba
I went to the pet store today. They only had the dried Ziwi Peak for cats, although they had several one-meal packet serves of wet food for dogs.

I looked at the Ingredients on the packets and discovered that only the Chicken flavour had ground bones listed. Apart from that, none of the varieties had calcium listed.

I bought one packet of the chicken flavour (NZ$23.99) and put a small amount in a plate for my two cats to pick at. Neither of them was interested at all. I've now added it to some raw beef that I know they both like. We'll see what happens now.
Incidentally, I tried one of the dried pieces. It had no smell and no discernible taste.

I can't afford to keep buying food that they won't eat.
 
I checked the ingredients list as I have samples of the air dried ones and they list lamb bone Or chicken bone etc on the back of the pkts.
I hope you enjoyed the piece you ate!:eek::joyful:
I think the canned k9 naturals look quite appetising. I’m going to buy a couple to see if mine like it although they usually get raw.
Maybe you can rehydrate the dried pieces to make it more appetising.
 
Bron and Sheba said:
let me know how it goes.
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It didn't go well. The pieces of dehydrated meat don't re-hydrate at all.
I poured some boiling water on them in a plate and stirred them around about every 15 minutes. I even chopped them up into smaller pieces.
Some of the colour and smell mixed in with the water, but the pieces of meat stayed hard. I thought they might soften and become more like biltong - not dissolved, but chewable and (hopefully) tasty.

Sophie lapped up the coloured water, but she carefully left all the lumps of dehydrated meat. She did something similar when I mixed the Ziwi Peak in with her raw meat. She ate the raw meat OK, but dissected all the pieces of Ziwi Peak out of it and left them.

I will continue to feed Sophie on a mixture of raw meat, Royal Canin dried food for diabetic cats and the one flavour of FF that she has eaten a few times. Not buying or trying anything else. She does get cheese daily, as well as fish, chicken, or scrambled egg when I cook those for us.
 
Yes. The drawback is that it isn't always in stock at our local Countdown supermarket. I grabbed 3 bags yesterday, and froze 2 of them.
You can't buy it on line, either, and when I tried a message came up that said "Not available in your area."
 
Hurrah! Your kitties can't get by on just meat; some essentials (taurine, for one) must be added. I think if I were a cat I'd prefer raw meat too, and turn up my nose at canned. M'row likes catnip sprinkled on his food when he's feeling fussy. Can you ask your Countdown market to order several bags of food at once, so you'll be all set for your absence?
 
Amina&M'row said:
Hurrah! Your kitties can't get by on just meat; some essentials (taurine, for one) must be added. I think if I were a cat I'd prefer raw meat too, and turn up my nose at canned. M'row likes catnip sprinkled on his food when he's feeling fussy. Can you ask your Countdown market to order several bags of food at once, so you'll be all set for your absence?
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Great idea.
 
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