My 17 year old cat is a picky eater. She'll lick the gravy off

[raccoon]

Fancy Feast meals with gravy, eat Ham flavored baby food (I mix it with warm water,
about 50-50. Eats some people leftovers. Won't do dry food at all.

She seems to be doing fairly well, but I hate it that she licks the gravy off the meals but wastes the rest of the food. (And vet says her teeth are good.)

Any suggestions?

[R. P. McMurphy]

1. My boy Jitters is the same way with wet food.

He'll eat the gravy but not the solids. He does eat Meow Mix and Friskies dry treats even though his few remaining teeth are not in great shape. Fortunately, there is a feral cat here (a beautiful tortoiseshell) that is glad to get the solids.

My best friend has the same problem with her boy. She even does the baby food for him! That is such a good idea and I'll try that too.

The only suggestion I have is to boil some inexpensive chicken (I've used leg and thigh quarters). The broth and meat can be frozen in small containers (since you usually have to buy a large package to get a good price). It's time-intensive but you can tailor the broth density to suit your sweetie and there is no sodium or other preservatives as there would be in a canned gravy or broth.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could buy containers of gravy-only?

Wish there was more help to offer. It's hard to see them not eat.

Good luck!

[LiberalElite]

2. Everytime I feed my cats food with gravy

they lick off the gravy first (and usually eat the food under it). It's always been a two-step process when they eat gravy-covered food. But you're not the only one who has a cat that eats the gravy only : https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=how+to+make+gravy+for+cats

[Mosby]

3. Older cats and dogs lose their sense of smell little by little

I always had good luck with making their food stinkier like with a little canned tuna.

The brand below is packed in it's own juices, pole caught and sustainable.

It's the best tuna I have ever eaten.

http://americantuna.com/

[alfie]

4. We had the same problem

And solved by getting the pate style Fancy Feast. Good luck. It is frustrating when they waste so much food.

[csziggy]

5. My cat has done this since he was young

Then we had another cat. Tashi would lick off the gravy and Eddie would eat the solid parts. Since we had to put Eddie to sleep (he was 17 years old and very decrepit) Tashi just leaves the solid bits of most cat food. What's odd is Tashi has always liked crunchies and will eat them dry, no problem.

Tashi won't drink broth, seldom licks up the tuna juice we put down for him, so making gravy for him probably wouldn't work. The best food we've found for him is Friskies® SauceSations which my husband found at the clearance shelf in the grocery store. We thought it had been discontinued, but when I looked for the name it's still listed: https://www.friskies.com/cat-food/saucesations

Tashi still leaves some of the bits if we give him very much, but he eats more of it than any of the other cat food we've tried.