What should I do ?

[papa cat]

I feed my cats with equal measures of dry and wet food.
I try to vary my cats wet food by buying different sachets of popular cat foods, just to gve them a variety of tastes, but sometimes they decide they don't like a certain brand or variety. If it's plainly obvious they wont eat something (for example cheap supermarket brands) I don't buy that again.

Normally I buy Whiskas in jelly , but recently I bought some Felix in jelly and they seem not to like it and don't eat it all.
Would you:-
1 give them an extra feed of what they like
2 give them an extra feed of dry biscuits
3 ignore their dislike and think " I have given you food if you don't like it tough luck "

[booktigger]

I put food down 3 times a day, and if they don't eat it, they get nothing till the next meal, as long as they are healthy and young - older and poorly animals obviously get different, but I don't want to make them fussy by thinking they'll get something better.

[papa cat]

In cat years,they nearly middle aged (one is 6 the other is 7)
They are both healthy indoor cats (one has always had loose bowel movements ... squits !!!!)
Maybe I give them too much food (6 meals for 2 cats) which means they won't starve but they may feel hungry if they choose not to eat a particular brand !

[Ruth B]

Mine get fed three times a day and what is put down is left until the next meal time, if they don't eat it it goes in the bin, but they don't get offered an alternative until the next meal time. I do however try and buy what they seem to be eating at that point and when they go off something I'll put the rest to one side and put it down for a single meal bit by bit, they normally rotate back onto things eventually, but they are fussy and Whiskars and own brand do take a while to get through a box.

At the start of the year I adopted my Mother's 17 year old cat when Mum had to go into a nursing home. Mum had fed her on demand and if she turned her nose up at something she would be offered an alternative, to the point where Mum could have 4 pouches and tins part finished in the fridge as she tried to find something Stroppy would eat. Stroppy has had to adapt to my routine as I don't feed on demand. I do try and buy the Gourmet Gold Ocean Fish pates for her in addition to the normal boxes of Gourmet and Felix, and everyone seems to be preferring the pates at the moment so I'm buying that more than the Felix. Several different flavours are put down at each meal as 2 or 3 tins are split between the 4 of them, and Stroppy is thriving on the routine.

There is always dried food available as fortunately none of mine binge on their food, and water bowls in several places around the house as well as various natural sources outside, the pond has always been popular as a drinking hole.

[Kay]

older cats do seem to favour the Gourmet Gold pates - there are more flavours available through Zooplus than can be found in the supermarket, and as you would expect they are cheaper there

I find the small plastic containers handy to pop over uneaten food, and opened tins, to keep flies away and stop the uneaten food drying out - I got a fair few of them by buying icecream in the little tubs in Lidls - the cats' food stays fresh and I enjoyed the icecream