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My cat won't eat new food after switching. Is he addicted to old food?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Cat | Mixed Breed | Male | neutered | 6 years and 8 months old | 17 lbs

I used to feed my cat Purina indoor formula cat food, which i knew was the greatest by any means but I was a struggling college student at the time. A year later now, I'm trying to introduce him to a better cat food, Taste of the Wild, and he ate the first 2 bowls fine, but now he just sniffs around for reminisce of the old stuff. Is there something wrong? or do cats get addicted to bad food like people do to junk food and he will just take awhile to adjust?

1 Answer

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Dr. Melanie, BVSc MS

Veterinarian

Published on September 18th, 2017

Purina certainly isn't the worst of foods available for cats, but unless it was Purina ProPlan, it isn't the best brand of food out there for cats. It's cheaper because it's made with ingredients that are not as high quality as those you would find in more high brands such as Royal Canin, Hill's Science diet, Purina ProPlan, and Iams. Now it could be that Jabba (love his name!) simply does prefer the taste of the Purina to the Taste of the Wild, especially since Purina will have grains. Cats due utilize grains for energy, and I never recommend giving a cat a grain free diet unless they have a diagnosed grain allergy. Given that only 10% of allergies in pets is food related and the majority of these allergies are due to protein, so a grain allergy is rare. Jabba may be missing having grains in his diet, and that could be why he doesn't like the new food. You can keep trying him on it for another few weeks, but he has to eat daily so do not keep offering it to him if he won't it. Cats will develop a fatty liver which is fatal without treatment if they don't eat, so it's important to avoid that. Should he not eat it, then I would switch to another brand of it such as one of the above I recommended. Good luck, I hope this helps!

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