Cats urp up their food sometimes. *shrug* it happens. Having it happen one time, or 2 or 3 times over a span of weeks or months doesn't cause me any concern, unless there are other symptoms like no appetite, sluggishness, sneezing, coughing etc. I wouldn't worry too much about it.
And I've seen that same pattern in terms of my cats eating raw food mixes. The first time you serve a portion you took out of the freezer they love it. The next time they love it less, and so forth until they eventually refuse it completely. They may even refuse it the 2nd or 3rd meal! It can definitely be a question of freshness, so if it is, you need to finesse the situation by buying, or storing appropriately sized portions in the freezer. You need to learn what his tolerance is for freshness, and plan accordingly.
When your cat refuses his food, that's it, he's not going to eat it. If he has no other options, he'll just not eat, so you have to make sure he's getting food he will eat, all the time (especially at that age). So always make sure you have a plan b, c, and d, not just a.
Re: scratching around the plate. I always playfully say that he is just being a critic, and telling you that his feeble-minded pet parent accidentally fed him something that more resembles what is in his litterbox rather than something edible. I don't think that is necessarily quite accurate, but they do that routine with stuff they reject, not stuff they want to eat so...
Re: "bad batch", yes, absolutely it could be a bad batch, or just that it has become too "stale" for him, as I said above. As far as it "not smelling"... you have NO idea whether it smells, is the truth. Cats have soooo much better sense of smell that you or I do, that it's impossible to make that conclusion by using your own nose. It's what he smells that matters. The other thing is that the temperature of the food can matter greatly to cats. Too cold or too hot can be a deal-breaker to them.
Re: "over feeding", nah, I don't think so. Might even be underfeeding! But it's possible that this particular mix might not be agreeing with his tummy. Some cats are sensitive to certain type of protein for example. Trial and error will tell you that.
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