Transitioning To Wet Food And Rotation

[ginjaninja]

I've been feeding my cats strictly dry food for the 2 years I've had them, and now after doing a ton of research I've decided I should switch to wet food. I'm currently researching grain free/low carb/non-chicken/carrageenan-free wet foods, but I do have some questions.

1. When transitioning to wet food, should I introduce one new wet "flavor" at a time so they can adjust? For example, feed them a turkey formula for a month (after gradually introducing it), then gradually introduce a lamb formula, then the beef, then swap the three occasionally?

2. How often should I rotate wet foods? Turkey one day then lamb the next?

3. How often should I introduce a new food? When I got my first cat, I fed her a dry chicken formula; then I started reading cats can develop food allergies, so I switched to a turkey formula. For example, should I feed them turkey, lamb, and beef formulas for a year, then switch to completely different flavors the next year?

I've found sooooo much info about cat food and nutrition it's kinda making my head spin.

 

[MissMolly08]

My cat was free fed dry food for 9 years and I just recently found this site and started adding wet food to her diet. We've been at it about 6 weeks. I personally am doing 50/50 wet and dry since I can't afford all wet food. My cat surprisingly took to the wet food very quickly and has gobbled down everything I put in front of her with no issues so far. I didn't stick to any specific flavor for any length of time or anything like that. I started off only offering a little at a time though like still leaving dry out for most of the day but giving her 1.5oz of wet food for "dinner". Since 1 can of food would last me 2-3 days doing it that way (depending on if it was a 3oz or 5.5 oz can), she got the same food a few times in a row and if she handled it well, we moved on once that can was empty. In 6 weeks, I now have a rotation of 4 brands and include chicken, turkey, beef, rabbit and occasionally salmon in that rotation.

 

[lalagimp]

My boys are no problem at all. They will eat what I give them so it was really easy to change them from kibble to canned to commercial raw to homemade raw to changing the ratios. I knew this whole time that one of my girls would eat the canned food, but she eats with another female who strongly preferred kibble. Well, Yue, who will eat wet, just got her teeth cleaned and had sore gums to I put a split dish into their feeder and put wet on one side and kibble on the other. After a few days I saw Amalie licking the wet food, then slowly eating some of it. AMAZED. I think she prefers duck to chicken because I haven't seen her eat much since I got back from vacation and I found out Petco screwed up and my last case of canned in the pantry was chicken instead of duck. Yue is eating canned chicken right now up, between half a 5.5 oz can and a full can a day.
I have a variety new case of Blue Wilderness to start her on that was sent to me to review. It's got carageean and potatoes in it. Oh joy. I'm really sure Yue won't care and it's temporary. I've been using Nature's Variety Instinct.

Otherwise I don't really do rotation. If they like it I will usually stick with it. I know the boys will eat rabbit, chicken, turkey, duck but I haven't tried them on lamb or beef - I'm pretty sure they would have no problem. And the boys also like freeze dried blue and green mussels.

 

[ginjaninja]

My boys are no problem at all. They will eat what I give them so it was really easy to change them from kibble to canned to commercial raw to homemade raw to changing the ratios. I knew this whole time that one of my girls would eat the canned food, but she eats with another female who strongly preferred kibble. Well, Yue, who will eat wet, just got her teeth cleaned and had sore gums to I put a split dish into their feeder and put wet on one side and kibble on the other. After a few days I saw Amalie licking the wet food, then slowly eating some of it. AMAZED. I think she prefers duck to chicken because I haven't seen her eat much since I got back from vacation and I found out Petco screwed up and my last case of canned in the pantry was chicken instead of duck. Yue is eating canned chicken right now up, between half a 5.5 oz can and a full can a day.
I have a variety new case of Blue Wilderness to start her on that was sent to me to review. It's got carageean and potatoes in it. Oh joy. I'm really sure Yue won't care and it's temporary. I've been using Nature's Variety Instinct.

Otherwise I don't really do rotation. If they like it I will usually stick with it. I know the boys will eat rabbit, chicken, turkey, duck but I haven't tried them on lamb or beef - I'm pretty sure they would have no problem. And the boys also like freeze dried blue and green mussels.

I picked up a couple of cans of Nature's Variety Instinct to try it out; I fed them one can of the lamb over the course of 2 days mixed in with their current dry food and they gobbled it up! I think Oliver will eat whatever I give him since he's a little chunkster, but he also has tummy troubles so I need to be selective. Penny on the other hand, is a picky princess so I'll need to experiment lol. Thanks for your input!

 

[ginjaninja]

My cat was free fed dry food for 9 years and I just recently found this site and started adding wet food to her diet. We've been at it about 6 weeks. I personally am doing 50/50 wet and dry since I can't afford all wet food. My cat surprisingly took to the wet food very quickly and has gobbled down everything I put in front of her with no issues so far. I didn't stick to any specific flavor for any length of time or anything like that. I started off only offering a little at a time though like still leaving dry out for most of the day but giving her 1.5oz of wet food for "dinner". Since 1 can of food would last me 2-3 days doing it that way (depending on if it was a 3oz or 5.5 oz can), she got the same food a few times in a row and if she handled it well, we moved on once that can was empty. In 6 weeks, I now have a rotation of 4 brands and include chicken, turkey, beef, rabbit and occasionally salmon in that rotation.

I think I will end up doing 50/50 as well... man wet food can be expensive! Thanks for your input!