Food variety

[SukiSuki]

Do you feed your cat a variety of foods, or do you feed them the same thing every day? I thought that switching foods messes up their stomachs? But I have read in a few places that they need variety? I'm still trying to figure out what brands of canned food I want to try. Right now I am giving only dry food. But if I give her a certain brand of canned food, can I give her different flavors of the same brand? Is that what they mean by variety? What's your routine and brands??

 

[misty8723]

It depends if you're cat will eat different brands. My RB kitties were pretty easy to rotate brands/flavors but my current two are much fussier. Canned food is easier to rotate than dry, you need to do that gradually. What I did was find a local store that sold individual cans of many varieties and bought a bunch to see what they would eat.

 

[game misconduct]

i try to feed graycie a variety with different brands/meats with canned foods and those are hit or miss with her like 1 out of 3 or so got refused and trashed wasted lots of tiki cans until she got ok with the pates the dry foods is where if i swapped to fast she ended up with soft messy poop that stuck so lesson learned with that has to be gradual mixing of the new dry

 

[Maurey]

It only upsets their stomachs if every new food isn’t introduced slowly. It’s ideal to feed a rotation of brands and flavours, feeding fish no more than once a week.

 

[SukiSuki]

It depends if you're cat will eat different brands. My RB kitties were pretty easy to rotate brands/flavors but my current two are much fussier. Canned food is easier to rotate than dry, you need to do that gradually. What I did was find a local store that sold individual cans of many varieties and bought a bunch to see what they would eat.

Individually do you mean the really small cans?

 

[arr]

I feed one dry food and several different brands and flavors of wet food. They enjoy the variety. The only thing they ever turned down was Wholehearted by Petsmart.

 

[LTS3]

It depends if you're cat will eat different brands. My RB kitties were pretty easy to rotate brands/flavors but my current two are much fussier. Canned food is easier to rotate than dry, you need to do that gradually. What I did was find a local store that sold individual cans of many varieties and bought a bunch to see what they would eat.

Individually do you mean the really small cans?

No, you can buy single indivudual cans of food of any size at any pet store or even supermarket. You don't have to buy a whole case of 12 or 24 cans that your cat may or may not eat.

 

[SukiSuki]

If we're using different brands if canned food, how do we know how much to give them? I am like a detailed oriented person lol so I need exact information.

 

[SukiSuki]

Are there certain brands we should stay away from?

 

[Babypinkweeb]

If we're using different brands if canned food, how do we know how much to give them? I am like a detailed oriented person lol so I need exact information.

I go with calories. For example my younger cat actually eats a mix of 3 foods every meal, a pate, a tiki cat shredded variety and some freeze dried. I want to make sure he learns to enjoy different flavors and textures while young so he doesn't become imprinted on one food. His daily calorie needs is about 200 which I notice helps him maintain his ideal weight of 9 lbs. No matter the food I feed him as long as it adds up to 200ish cal a day it's easy.

 

[LTS3]

Your 8 month old kitten doesn't need to eat as much food as an 8 week old so you can probably start measuring amounts of food and going to scheduled meals. You generally want to feed 20 to 25 calories per pound of body weight daily. Calorie content is listed on the label as kcal. Dry foods are super calorie dense per cup, as much as 600 calories per cup which is way too much for any cat except for maybe pregnant and nursing cats. Canned foods have less calories and it's easier to figure out how many cans per day to feed.

Are there certain brands we should stay away from?

Just the ones that are labeled as supplement / complement only. These have no vitamins / minerals and are not a complete diet. They're ok to feed as a treat or in addition to dry food but not on their own as the main source of food. The Applaws canned / wet foods sold in the US is one such brand. Fancy Feast Broths are another treat only food and its far too easy to mistake those as just another regular Fancy Feast food. Always read the teeny tiny label. If you buy such foods, keep them separate from the regular nutritionally complete foods, maybe in a bin or shelf labeled as "treat foods only". If you or someone accidentally feeds the cat one of these for a meal, no big deal. It happens and no harm will be done to the cat.

 

[ladytimedramon]

I used to feed Delilah on a rotation of 5 Sheba flavors (no pate). When Sheba's shortage started and I could only get the turkey cuts, with chicken once in a blue moon, Delilah started refusing. I switched her to Fancy Feast, which she is eating happily (unless I try to sneak meds - she has super radar when it comes to that). I try to give her a different flavor at least every other meal so we don't have the "meal fatigue" and she starts refusing.

 

[SukiSuki]

I go with calories. For example my younger cat actually eats a mix of 3 foods every meal, a pate, a tiki cat shredded variety and some freeze dried. I want to make sure he learns to enjoy different flavors and textures while young so he doesn't become imprinted on one food. His daily calorie needs is about 200 which I notice helps him maintain his ideal weight of 9 lbs. No matter the food I feed him as long as it adds up to 200ish cal a day it's easy.

Welp I gave her some wet food this morning and she liked it so much, she doesn't want to eat her dry food. This is good, but now I'll worry about tummy upset!!

 

[Maurey]

Welp I gave her some wet food this morning and she liked it so much, she doesn't want to eat her dry food. This is good, but now I'll worry about tummy upset!!

Realistically, if she doesn’t want dry anymore, and it’s in your budget, I’d take the chance to cut it out completely. It’s often a huge pain to transition cats as they can become kibble addicts, so may be the right play, if she doesn’t want it anyway. Would be a good idea to get some probiotics or S.bouliardii to help with any potential tummy upset, though.

 

[SukiSuki]

Realistically, if she doesn’t want dry anymore, and it’s in your budget, I’d take the chance to cut it out completely. It’s often a huge pain to transition cats as they can become kibble addicts, so may be the right play, if she doesn’t want it anyway. Would be a good idea to get some probiotics or S.bouliardii to help with any potential tummy upset, though.

Sounds good to me! Do you have any recommendations on specific probiotics?

 

[ladytimedramon]

Realistically, if she doesn’t want dry anymore, and it’s in your budget, I’d take the chance to cut it out completely. It’s often a huge pain to transition cats as they can become kibble addicts, so may be the right play, if she doesn’t want it anyway. Would be a good idea to get some probiotics or S.bouliardii to help with any potential tummy upset, though.

Whenever I've had to change Delilah's wet food I usually wind up adding a probiotic for a week or two, especially if I can't do a gradual transition. I had to do the same when I adopted my new kitty.

I use Fortiflora, generally for a week or two.

 

[Maurey]

Sounds good to me! Do you have any recommendations on specific probiotics?

I’d personally go for Adored Beast, if it’s available where you are. Fortiflora is great as enticement, but it’s not a great probiotic as it has only one strain in fairly low CFU. It also gave my cats diarrhoea that said, that last bIt is individual, though surprisingly common.

Eta: you’ll probably be best off with Love Bugs Love Bugs | Pre & Probiotics40g the website is Canadian, but there are retailers in the US and UK, as well.

 

[misty8723]

Individually do you mean the really small cans?

I should have mentioned the better quality food than just supermarkets or petsmart.

 

[SukiSuki]

Maybe I should hold back and give the probiotics for a while first before switching. Lord I do not want anymore stomach issues. She had enough of that while on antibiotics for so long.

 

[Maurey]

I should have mentioned the better quality food than just supermarkets or petsmart.

You can generally email a company and they’ll send you samplers. Chewy also has a refund policy if your cat doesn’t like the food, I think? Don’t live in the states, but heard mention of it.