Why does wet pet food smell so awful?

I don't like the smell of it either, but perhaps the pets do. Perhaps buying the pouches rather than tins would mean that there's less smell wafting around; I don't think they smell as strong.

I buy the pouches but for me it's the Whiskas dried food that smells

We used to feed raw tripe to our dogs - now there’s an aroma I won’t ever forget!

Georgesgran

We used to feed raw tripe to our dogs - now there’s an aroma I won’t ever forget!

Our Lab is raw fed and to be honest, the smell doesn't bother me - apart from the tripe! I think I've got a pretty strong stomach, but the merest whiff of the raw tripe has me physically retching.

Whiskas is relatively cheap cat food and has a very low meat content. A lot of it is fillers. If you look at the price of cat food like Untamed or Katkins you will see the difference. My cats have Untamed and it doesn't smell. I’m not a meat eater and don't like the smell of meat and I can tell the difference.

The wet cat food given to my cat is purina gourmet pouches and doesn’t smell noticeably at all.

Importantly - Roo woofs it down.

Mind you since covid, my ability to smell much has not been very efficient since covid.

Probably all the lips & arses they add to pet food. The smell makes me want to gip 😂

My dogs' Forthglade food smells appetising. No bad smells here.

I buy tins of Naturo in herb gravy for my dog. It smells really tasty as I'm putting it into her bowl and she scoffs the lot

Probably because they have got a load of horrible stuff in them. It is easy, and cheaper, to make your pet's food at home.

My terrier has had Butternut Box for years. Delivered to the door, smells good and at 12 years old she is as fit and healthy and only goes to the vet for her boosters.

My dog usually has Lily's Kitchen which not only smells good but looks it as well.

Our cats have nutriment frozen raw food, just smells like mince, and what comes out the other end does not smell at all!

My dog is raw fed, other than tripe, (which I remember feeding, cooked in milk to patients in the 60's) there is only the usual smell of raw meat. Unfortunately most dogs love trips !

Most dogs absolutely love tripe, yes. It's also quite an important component if you're feeding a raw diet. I usually let my OH deal with it, unless he happens to be away and I can't avoid it.

My Romanian rescue dog refuses Pedigree Chum pouches which ChatGPT says contains the best ingredients which is why Chum is more expensive.

I feed him eggs, tinned tuna, cheap pollock fillets, and complete dried dog food kibble from Tesco.

Mum used to boil ox heart for our wee dog.

Maremia

Mum used to boil ox heart for our wee dog.

We buy hearts for our Lab, but chop them up and feed them raw. I actually don't mind that. I can cope with anything but the tripe!

Must confess that if I had a pet cat - I'd be buying the health food type cat food. Think it's the one called Untamed?

Maybe it smells like rubbish because the brand concerned is basically the cat food equivalent of junk food? I did read the composition of yer standard canned cat food and thought "Yuk - wouldnt give that to a cat - there's only some teeny tiny proportion of it that is actually meat". So it would be the good quality stuff and, if I were a meat-eater (which I'm not) then decent quality meat of the type I'd eat myself and I'd think decent quality fish too.

I'd imagine decent quality stuff probably smells fine.

It should be possible to find a brand that doesn't smell so strongly.

Be careful with using only one brand - you will probably end up with a cat that refuses to eat anything else.

I stopped using pet food, after my neutered tom lost all the top layer of his fur all along both flanks and on his bottom last winter. (His half-sister was quite all right, strangly enough.)

Neither the vet, nor I could find the cause of his loss of fur, but he looked so uncared for and was obviously cold, so it was fortunate that his sister realised his diet was wrong, and took it upon herself to bring him live mice with appropriate instructions!

As I did not want him eating mice in the house, I stopped the wet cat food entirely, giving them raw mince most days, and a tin of tuna in water occasionally. And sometimes boiling the mince lightly.

His fur started growing in again, and he stopped eating dry food as well.

He still hunts, but usually eats the mice outside. So does she.

The reeder from whom we bought our Bearded Collies advised us not to feed them tinned food, so we never did, they lived long lives (14 years each one).

I watched a programme the other day about the development centre for Whiskas cat food and the recipe labs in Germany. The humans involved were actually tasting the products which I found to be a step too far - one actually said that they preferred dog food!
I agree with others that some do smell quite disgusting. When my daughter goes away I usually feed her cats, but fortuately they are a bit fussy so she buys some slightly less smelly ones for them.

When my husband and I had a dog (springer) the vet recommended Chappie. I don't know if this is still sold but the smell was disgusting - my husband always fed the dog so I didn't have to smell it too much but the dog would then run in to me and, very gently, burp a thank you to my face.