Why does wet pet food smell so awful?

We use Butternut Box made from fresh ingredients and comes frozen.

I agree, it's absolutely vile.

One of my mutts had a bad case of gastroenteritis (literally coming out both ends) 2 days in vets, half that time On drip, sent home with tin of gastro food!

The food stunk before she ate it and her poo stunk exactly the same!

I defrosted chicken breast and cooked that for her so half the tin was binned and she had chicken and rice 3 times a day then I put her back On her kibble.

Made us realise how their poo DOESN'T pong on kibble (not cheap stuff either! They both get fed 3 times a day and each meal is a different flavour, trust me, they won't eat the flavours at the wrong time, each will sulk, beef breakfast, duck dinner, chicken tea. Yes, the one will answer back and really whinge if you try to give the wrong flavour!)

I've bought Purina Gourmet - which the kitten quite liked - and Sheba which she ate reluctantly. The sachets are only 50g each, whereas the Whiskas is 85g per pouch.

I'll have a look around for some more brands. The rescue people did tell me to vary the brands, so that she doesn't 'stick' on just one brand.

And I agree about it being impossible to get all the food out of the pouch.

Does anybody remember Kit E Kat from back in the day?

My God you could virtually smell it from 200 yards away. It made my sister feel nauseous. No she didn't eat it.
And my mother had to really scrub the cats bowl to get the smell out of it.

I worked for Quake Oats in my teens - they made dog and cat food then. There was a whole load of testing and research to ensure that the right amount of nutrients and vitamins were in the can. Then there were colour, smell and taste tests first with kennels, and then blind tasting with members of the public all over the country, to ensure the taste and smell was making your pets happy. Then the labs would take a sample can every so often from the production line to ensure that the standard formulation was being met.
You may not like it but bet your pet does

@Whitewavemark2

It’s actually “wolfs it down” - not “woofs”.

My adult son decided ordinary cat food pouches didn’t contain enough goodness for our two cats so he ordered some frozen very expensive stuff online. They hated it!!!!
I’m back to ordinary pouches now but does anybody have an idea as to how to get all the food out of the pouches? I pull the top off and squeeze the pouch down but invariably some food refuses to come out! I wish there was a little roller or something that I could feed the pouch through.

I use Purina Gourmet for my cat, mainly because he won't eat anything else, I have never noticed a bad smell, whereas when I feed next door's cat who eats something I've never heard of. it smells vile.

Our vet advised that cats "taste" food with their nose - smelly to hoomans may be delightful to our puddycat!

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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!

Mum used to boil ox heart for our wee dog.

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.

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 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 !

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

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.

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.

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

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

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