Have a stray cat who has worked his way in doors and also feed several others .
All of them seem to treat the food the same way and that is to lick the jelly or gravy up and leave the meat.
With my "indoor" cat, Bootsie, this is almost total and with the other stray that comes twice a day for food it is almost as bad.
It doesn`t matter whether the food is Aldi`s or Whiskas it gets treated the same.
Bootsie is not a large cat and he seems to have grown since he came in doors so must be getting enough food.
My dogs will always eat the cat food, given the chance, and the cats eat all the left over dog food.
Understand dogs should not eat cat food as it is too rich for them but what about cats eating dog food?
Any recommendations for food gratefully received.

Also find that dried food is only eaten as a side line

My cat will only eat Felix in jelly, she would just lick the gravy/jelly off any other brand.
As far as I am aware dog food does not have enough nutrients for cats and you should never just feed a cat on dog food. I don't think it hurts them though when they just pinch the dogs food as a sideline to their main meals.

If I buy cheaper cat food my cats will only eat the gravy/jelly from it... they will do this with Whiskas too. However they will wolf down Felix or Natures Best.

Cats are fussy buggers!

My cat does that, although he does go on to eat the meat.

If I give him dry biscuits he looks at me as if to say is that it.

Is there a high content of animal fats in the jelly/gravy? Could be why they devour that first.

And there was me thinking it was just my fussy little feline. She also licks all the gravy off and leaves the lumps of 'meat' to moulder.

We then have several hours of brinksmanship and bluff calling as I leave the lumps in the hope that she will eventually be hungry enough to eat them and she thinks if she waits long enough I'll replace them with something new. She usually wins.

I feel like I've been through every brand of cat food known to man and sooner or later we regress to the same situation of her licking off the juicy bits, leaving the lumps and looking reproachful.

Oh and it has to be gravy. She won't even consider licking any of the jelly varieties - just sniffs them and gives me her "You can't possibly be serious" glare.

Maybe they have bad teeth and it's painful to eat

Felix "As Good as it looks" - my two wolf this down in about 10 seconds flat.

Mid you they will eat anything if they get the chance - bread, lettace, used tea bags - so we have to be careful!!

My Impossible Princess stopped eating Whiskas.

She now eats Paws from Sainsbury's which is a lot cheaper and obviously nicer.