Cats may find food more appealing if it has a distinct odour Jaromir/Getty Images Cats that refuse their regular food might simply have become disenchanted by its odour – a discovery that suggests new strategies pet owners can explore to encourage their felines to eat. Many owners have felt the frustration of feeding finicky cats – buying food that the animals seem to like, only to see them turn their noses up at it a few days later. While that can give cats a reputation for being demanding, it turns out that simply tweaking the way the food smells could accommodate the pets and make mealtimes more enjoyable, says Masao Miyazaki at Iwate University, Japan. “This might include adding a topper, slightly varying the food or refreshing the feeding environment,” he says. “Cats may not be ‘picky’ in the human sense, but instead may lose interest when the smell becomes familiar.” He and his colleagues ran a series of experiments with 12 cats – six males and six females, none of which had been sterilised. They …