Cats are comfortably the second most commonly kept pet in the areas where the majority of our readers live so it stands to reason that we would see a large number of questions from the cat owning community about taking food care of their pets.
Each month we see a huge range of questions about caring for pet cats but at this time of year, due to cats being prone to getting colds, we see a spike in the number of people specifically asking for advice on the smelliest cat food on the market.
The smellier the cat food, the more likely its strong scent is going to make it to your cat’s scent receptors in its nose if it has a cold and increases the chance of your cat eating its food.
Two of the smelliest cat foods on the market right now are Fancy Feast and Friskies with both being great options for anyone looking for a smelly cat food but Fancy Feast does tend to smell more.
A smelly cat food is far more likely to stinky your home out though, especially if it sits in your cat’s bowl without being eaten for hours at a time so you really do have to think of the advantages and disadvantages.
If you are trying to find the smelliest cat food due to your cat not eating due to having a cold then a smelly cat food is probably the most accessible option for the majority of people due to its low price and how effective it can be.
Is There A Benefit To Smelly Cat Food?
The benefit of smelly cat food is that the scent of the food is more likely to be picked up by a cat that has a cold or blocked nose increasing the chances that your pet cat will actually eat the food.
Some cats will simply refuse to eat anything if they are not able to smell it and a sick cat needs all of the energy it can get so the smelly cat food method tends to be a quick, easy, and cheap way to try and get a sick cat to eat.
Although using a smelly cat food to get a cat with a cold to eat is the most common use for the food mixes, they can also be used in the same way for a cat with an upper respiratory infection due to helping the cat smell its food.
Please note though, unlike a simple cold, an actual upper respiratory infection in cats can be serious so you may want to book a cheap video call with a veterinarian to have them check your cat over via the camera on your smartphone to get some professional advice.
Please keep in mind that if you put smelly cat food in then you will often get smell cat poop out so be sure to change your cat’s litter tray more frequently while on any type of smelly cat food.
The scent of your cat’s poop will depend on its gut bacteria almost as much as the actual ingredients in its good though with some cats having an optimized gut bacteria to prevent extra smelly poops even if they are fed a smelly cat food.
What Is The Smelliest Cat Food?
In our opinion, Fancy Feast is the best cat food on the market right now for this method with any flavor of the food tending to work well.
If you are not able to find Fancy Feast cat food in your local area then Friskies can also work but with Friskies, you usually have to go with one of their fish based recipes for it to really smell.
The cheaper cat food brands on the market can also have a strong scent but it may not actually be the correct scent that you require as your goal is to help your cat understand that you are offering it edible food so you need the strong smell of the ingredients in the cat food to come through.
The smell of the cheaper cat food brands on the market can often be due to oxidization rather than due to the scent of the ingredients and this can actually backfire and put your cat off eating its food.
We know that there are some scented gels on the market that can make your cats food smell more than it otherwise would but we usually just recommend that you go with a smelly cat food rather than the gels that you can get.
You will be purchasing cat food for your cat anyway so just sticking to a smelly wet cat food helps to keep your costs down as the smelly gels that you add on top of cat food can pump your costs up and sometimes, they don’t even work.
Does The Smell Of Cat Food Indicate The Quality?
The smell of cat food does not have a direct correlation with the quality of the cat food or its ingredients and there are multiple reasons that cat food may smell strongly with some being good and some being bad.
Poultry based cat food mixes tend not to smell as strongly as fish based cat food mixes but both options from the same brand can be equally as good as each other when it comes to quality.
As we mentioned in the section above, if cat food has a strong smell due to oxidization of the food then this is actually a bad thing and indicates low quality of the food with this often having an ashy, stale smell.
This smell can occur in cat foods of all ingredient types due to it being from the meat protein in the cat food oxidizing with the air and essentially starting to turn bad quickly.
Some kitten food mixes will smell stronger than food mixes for an adult cat too due to having a slightly higher protein to fat ratio but this is normal for a kitten food and to be expected.
This is mainly due to maximizing the protein intake of your kitten to help it make sure that it can grow at a rapid pace in its development year but this can cause the food to smell worse or stronger than some people expect, especially the fish based foods.
Conclusion
That brings our article going over the smelliest cat food products on the market to an end. We have suggested two cat food brands that tend to smell stronger than other brands while also offering the highest possible quality and nutritional values for your cat. Both options should be able to get your cat to eat if it has a cold or a respiratory infection due to their stronger scents but you have to keep in mind, this is not guaranteed and more developed respiratory issues will often block off even the stronger smelling cat foods.
