There are many articles on the internet about domestic cats that are picky eaters and how to encourage them to stop being so picky 🙄. But are they picky? What do you do when your cat takes a few bites from the expensive, wet food you’ve just given her and walks away?
Do you give the food to the local wildlife such as a fox? I do sometimes. Or do you wait a bit and throw it in the waste bin (trash can) when your cat still fails to eat it a few hours later?
Or do you wait longer? Wait overnight. That’s what I do sometimes. For what it is worth, I’ll tell you about last night.
Yesterday evening I gave my cat a bowl of Encore, super-high quality wet cat food after he asked me for it. He took a few bites and walked off. I left the food in the bowl from the time I put it down to this morning and the bowl had been licked clean. Not a scrap left. He’d eaten it all with relish during the night.
For me, here is the difference between a cat being a so called ‘picky eater’ and a cat not being ready to have his meal but still asking for it. He is not hungry enough and he doesn’t realise it until confronted with the food.
Cats do sometimes ask for food when they are not ready to eat it. This may be because we set up routines which encourage our cats to expect food at certain times rather than when they are hungry.
Or, they are a little bored and decide to have something to eat because you often give them their favourite food treats at certain times (or at any time) and they are asking for that treat not regular food.
Arguably no domestic cat is a picky eater. It is a misconception. If a domestic cat is genuinely hungry, they’ll eat any decent cat food that you give them.
Pickiness is only possible if the cat is not hungry enough to decide to make a choice. If they are really hungry, they’ll dive in with relish.
Another point worth making is that some cats like wet cat food that has been in the bowl for several hours rather than fresh out of the sachet or can. This is probably because it warms up and smells stronger. The latter being the likely reason. This mirrors a cat in the wild scavenging. Cats are not known scavengers but they do it occasionally and domestic cats are nearly always scavengers 💕.
This is because we put food down for them as if it is a dead animal; I guess which it is. They never have to chase and attack it. The puzzle feeder approaches hunting for food but is a poor substitute and it has to be dry food in a puzzle feeder which is not ideal.
The conclusion is that when a cat refuses to eat their wet cat food because you think they are being picky, you should wait and see if they’ll return some hours later. And if you feed them wet in the evening, leave it out all night and see if it is gone in the morning. And if not, then give it to the foxes if you do that and the neighbours don’t complain about it.
This plan is dependent on the ambient temperature. If it is in the mid-thirties inside the home all the time you can’t leave wet cat food in a bowl for hours. It’ll deteriorate and become obnoxiously smelly and you might get maggots.
But in a room temperature of 21 degrees Celsius this plan might work fine and you’ll save some money as cat food often costs more than human food.
