The Diamond Naturals Finicky Cat Food is a strongly flavoured dry food aimed at cats that pick at their bowl, built on chicken meal with salmon oil for palatability as well as DHA.

Key Features

• Made for the cat that walks away from its food. Chicken meal leads the recipe and the fat level is high, which is what drives palatability in a dry food.
• Salmon oil supplies DHA and adds the fish note that many fussy cats respond to.
• Diamond lists taurine, DHA and a full vitamin and mineral pack, and describes it as suitable for cats of any age.
• Superfoods from the wider Diamond Naturals range: kale, chia seed, pumpkin, blueberries, oranges, spinach and carrots.
• 1 kg bag, which is the sensible size to buy when you are testing whether a fussy cat will eat something at all.

Good To Know

• This is an export formulation, not one of the North American recipes, and Diamond does not publish its guaranteed analysis on the same product pages as the rest of the range. Check the panel on the bag, and ask us if you need the figures before you buy.
• Fussiness is worth taking seriously. A cat that suddenly goes off food, or eats less for more than a day or two, needs a vet - cats that stop eating can develop hepatic lipidosis within days, and it is far more dangerous than the same thing in a dog.
• Dental pain is the commonest reason a cat becomes a fussy eater. Have the mouth checked before you assume it is preference.
• Warm the food slightly and serve it in a wide, shallow dish away from the water bowl and the litter tray. Whisker fatigue and a badly placed bowl account for a surprising amount of picky eating.
• Cats evolved to take most of their water from prey and are poor drinkers. A cat on dry food alone takes in far less water than one eating wet food, so if yours has any history of urinary trouble, talk to your vet about adding wet food rather than relying on the bowl.
• Change food gradually over about a week - a little of the new mixed into the old, increasing the proportion each day. Diamond suggests up to 14 days for a sensitive animal. A sudden switch is the commonest cause of loose stools.
• Keep it in its own bag inside a sealed container rather than tipping the kibble loose. The fat in dry food goes rancid on contact with warm air, and in a UAE kitchen that happens faster than the date on the bag suggests.
• Diamond states that the facility which makes this food also makes food that may contain other ingredients. If you are avoiding a specific protein for a diagnosed allergy, that cross-contact statement is worth knowing about.
• A food change is not a treatment. If your pet is itchy, losing weight, vomiting or has ongoing loose stools, see a vet before you switch - changing diets repeatedly makes a diagnosis harder, not easier.