You can tunafilter, but you can't tune a fish.

December 24, 2006 12:35 PM

Why don't my mother's cats like tuna?

I'm taking care of my mother's cats for the holidays, and I'm supposed to give them medicine with their food. I was clearly instructed to mix the medicine in with the oil from a tuna can and feed that to them, rather than feeding them the meat... which she claims they won't eat.

This surprised me, and while I followed instructions precisely for the medicine, I experimented, and sure enough, none of her cats will eat the meat. When I was a kid, if you gave a cat tuna it would gorge until its belly stuck out and looked ridiculous, but these won't eat it at all.

I'm assuming that, since the cats aren't related, something is different about the tuna these days. Is there some pollutant in it now that the cats can smell? Does she just buy crappy tuna? (maybe it was Bumblebee? I didn't think about it until I was on my way home for the day.)

Do your cats still like the stuff?

posted by Malor to pets & animals (21 comments total)

Or maybe they just don't like tuna? Cats aren't all exactly the same. One of my parent's cats loved green beans, and wouldn't touch a dish of cream if it was the only thing in the house. The other two would elbow each other out of the way to get to it.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 12:46 PM on December 24, 2006

We've bought everything from expensive salmon to canned tuna as a treat for my cats, and they won't touch the stuff. For some reason all they will eat is Fancy Feast and no other canned food will do. Do they eat any canned food at all? You might try mixing the stuff with something they are familiar with.
posted by haplesschild at 1:03 PM on December 24, 2006

Perhaps they had a bad experience with tuna as kittens? Foolishly, I once gave my cat the oil from a can and she gobbled it up, then was promptly sick everywhere.
posted by doublesix at 1:26 PM on December 24, 2006

I have one cat that likes fish and another that dislikes it. Maybe it's just the personal preference.
posted by b33j at 1:37 PM on December 24, 2006

My cat that eats moist food LOVES tuna or chicken, but that's it. No salmon, no whitefish, and definitely no beef.

De gustibus non disputandum as they say.
posted by briank at 1:43 PM on December 24, 2006

I adopted a brother/sister pair of former ferals who spent the first 4 months of their lives eating whatever their mom caught. Neither will touch canned foods, including tuna (which surprised me too, since previous cats I've had couldn't get enough, but both are wild about fresh fish, including sashimi-grade tuna (though I suspect they are taking advantage of me now that they know they can hold out for the good stuff).

Cats have amazingly sensitive senses of taste and smell (well, except for sugars, which don't register) so perhaps the taste of the metal from the can puts them off--can't say I blame them, I loathe the metal taste notes from canned tuna as well. Another theory would be the texture: canned tuna is grainy/flaky/dry compared to the succulent and moist flesh of raw meats.
posted by jamaro at 1:50 PM on December 24, 2006

cats are very idiosyncratic animals. my madeline likes fancy feast ocean fish, which seems to be the least processed of their varieties, the other flavors, not so much. she also likes leftovers from my table, particularly poultry and lamb.
the cats of my childhood were innards cats. mom would get beef spleens from the butcher (known as "melts" in the trade) and simmer them for 10-15 minutes. it was their favorite food, dirt cheap, and the liquid could be saved to pour over kibbles later.
posted by bruce at 1:52 PM on December 24, 2006

Speaking as the owner of one of the pickiest cats in existence, it's likely they just don't like the taste, much as many people don't like brussel sprouts.

My cat will eat exactly 3 flavours of one specific brand of moist cat food, and one flavour of one kind of dry food. He will rarely eat a few kinds of fresh meat, but inconsistently....not the same meat at different times. newsflash: cats are picky as all hell.
posted by Kickstart70 at 1:57 PM on December 24, 2006

You actually have two issues to contend with. As pointed above, cats can be particular about the odors of certain foods, but it should be noted that they'll smell the medicine, regardless of whether it's concealed or not. Your best bet is to stir the perscription into something they're more accustomed to, and waiting until they eventually consume the food, which could take awhile. It's preferable under these instances to keep them indoors until they've concealed the meal, as they'd be too tempted to forage outside.
posted by Smart Dalek at 2:28 PM on December 24, 2006

I think some cats are just like that. My cat won't eat any "people food" at all - and she also won't eat canned cat food. She only eats dry cat food.
posted by Amanda B at 2:31 PM on December 24, 2006

Hmmm... my cat is like that with canned chicken breast. If I take out most of the meat with a fork and give him the can, he loves the canning water, but won’t touch whatever meat is left. Other than that he scarf's down whatever chicken he can get.
posted by Huplescat at 3:33 PM on December 24, 2006

Not necessarily related but I'd be careful with cats and tuna in oil. I have a friend whose cat died after eating it.
posted by dgeiser13 at 3:43 PM on December 24, 2006

My cat won't eat any "people food" at all - and she also won't eat canned cat food. She only eats dry cat food.

Our cats are the same way, and furthermore are extremely picky about the treats they'll eat. When TJ's stopped selling those cheap little "Loves The Cats" treats, my cats stopped eating treats all together.

I have no earthly idea what I'll do if they need medicine some day.
posted by padraigin at 4:07 PM on December 24, 2006

Cats learn from their mothers when they are kittens what is food and not food. Maybe your mom's cats never learned that tuna is good eats?
posted by Pollomacho at 4:48 PM on December 24, 2006

my cat likes tuna juice, but not tuna.
but he will eat the occasional cooked green bean, go figure.

once i fed him the interior of an entire chicken mcnugget, bit by bit. he begged for each piece like a crack hit. as soon as he finished the last little piece and i showed him "no more", he wandered over to the rug, barfed wetly, and left the room.
posted by twistofrhyme at 6:23 PM on December 24, 2006 [2 favorites]

My 2 cats won't eat wet food or tuna, strictly dry food and my god, what a fit they throw if Science Diet alters their recipe.

What's interesting though, is if I open any can of people food they both come running. If it happens to be a can of tuna they come running and meow incessantly until I put the can with some tuna on the floor for them. Then they will sniff it, turn up their nose, and wander off.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 6:57 PM on December 24, 2006

I guess I'm just confused because NONE of the cats (she has several) like the tuna, and when I was a kid, we had outdoor cats that just flipped out for the stuff. It's not like they were starving, either, they had plenty of food... but if offered tuna, they'd eat it ravenously. All of them liked it. They'd fight over it if we didn't have a separate bowl for every cat, and even at that we had to watch carefully to make sure the big cats didn't finish theirs and then steal the smaller cats' shares. They turned into greedy little monsters, basically.

So, I have tuna tagged in my head as 'universal cat feast', and it's very odd to see a whole houseful of them refuse it. So I'm still kinda wondering if the tuna has changed. jamaro's comment about his cats loving sashimi-grade tuna but hating the canned stuff makes me wonder if that's confirmation... he's the only person who seems to have tried two different kinds. They seem to like real tuna but not the canned stuff... which tends to imply that there's something odd with the canned stuff.

The general comments of 'cats are strange' are good observations, but it seems strange to me that ALL of them would refuse it.

I suspect, though obviously I can't prove, that something has changed about canned tuna in the last twenty years. I wish I could try a can of the stuff we had when I was a kid. I do remember it as being flaky and oily, and the stuff in the can today was very dry, even though it was packed in oil.

Thanks for the comments, everyone, appreciate your time.
posted by Malor at 6:58 PM on December 24, 2006

Don't know - we never buy tuna in oil, just tuna in water, and both of our cats love it.

On the other hand, my cat loves salmon and poultry (canned, fresh, cooked, etc.) while my wife's cat (who also happens to be my cat's littermate) won't eat either. Both cats love Greenies treats, but any other variety makes my cat vomit. My cat loves ice cream, his brother doesn't care. My wife's cat loves saltine crackers. Both cats will gnaw your arm off for grape nuts - it seems to be cat crack. Neither will touch canned pumpkin even though my cousin (who works at a vet office) keeps telling me her cats love it.

In short, nothing is up with the tuna. Cats are just weird. That's all.
posted by caution live frogs at 8:47 PM on December 24, 2006

I had a cat that loved chickpeas. We raised him with three of his siblings, as well as his mother, and he was the only one who liked them. He'd follow me around the house when he saw me get the can out of the cupboard and everything until I gave him some. Weird little bastard.

The same family of cats would not touch any commercially available cat treats, especially cheeze flavoured ones. We would feed them tidbits off our cheese platters (brie, camenbert, even really salty feta) so their palates were absolutley ruined for crappy cheeze flavourings. Maybe something similar happened with this family of cats. I doubt the tuna itself has changed.
posted by Jilder at 4:16 AM on December 25, 2006

Canned tuna's certainly changed over time. When it was cheaper to purchase years ago, a number of varieties would be chosen (or even mixed) for canning. Recently, the overall fat content has been reduced due to dietary concerns, while rising prices have limited most canning to albacore and skipjack varieties.
posted by Smart Dalek at 11:02 AM on December 26, 2006

Well, it took me nearly seven months, but I finally noticed Dalek's answer. I think that's the MOST correct one, but I'll leave the other 'best' answer up just in case.

I do think tuna has changed. It used to be pink and flaky, and now it's white and kind of nasty.
posted by Malor at 4:11 AM on August 21, 2007