What do you think about my transitioning strategy?

[my_money_pit]

My soon to be 4yo cat was a wet food eater when I adopted him 3 years ago. He was good at following schedules and eating at the right time. I don't know how we got to this point but he is addicted to dry food and I cannot for the love of god get him to eat wet food anymore.
He likes cooked food but it has to be freshly cooked and not heated. I am fine cooking food for him 2-3 times a day since I already cook for myself.

I've been trying to get him off the dry food but I am failing. I added fortiflora to the wet food, he ate once and then i think he figured out my trick and won't eat wet food that has fortiflora. Same thing with nutritional yeast sprinkled on top of the wet food.
Right now, I was working on giving him 3 meals of wet food and dry food at night but he only ate some wet food in the morning and a tiny bit at noon. He is refusing any type of wet food even when i heat it up for him. He will turn his head and lick his lips. I know he's hungry but he is not cooperating.

My plan is to put him back on dry food as of tomorrow. With a schedule of 3 meals a day. First one at 7am with 20% of his meal, than at noon with 60% of his meal and lastly at 8pm with the remaining 20% of the daily food required.
This will go for 3-4 days until he get used to the schedule and the alarm.
Once this is achieved, i will start adding bits of freshly cooked chicken to his lunch and increase the portion overtime until we get the noon meal to be fully homemade food.

Is there a simpler way to do things? Do you have any input on how I can improve my strategy?

 

[Furballsmom]

I think this sounds solid.

 

[sophie1]

You have a bona fide dry food addict on your hands....

Go back to the old posts where Carolina, one of the EZ Complete founders, reported her experience transitioning her dry food addict to a 100% raw diet. She spent months giving her cat dry food meals with a tiny pea sized amount of raw food on the side, until the cat finally decided it was ok to eat.

I realize in my last post I said I tried to get my cats onto urinary canned food and failed. I'm sure I could have succeeded if I did something like the above - except I didn't have time for that given the situation. That's one reason I gave up. The other reason of course is that canned food is overcooked, filler-laden crap that does not fully meet their nutritional needs, and I hated the idea of my cats eating that full time.

 

[Furballsmom]

The other reason of course is that canned food is overcooked, filler-laden crap that does not fully meet their nutritional needs,

It meets their nutritional needs. A lot of people aren't willing to risk the issues of handling raw, don't have the extra time, freezer space etc.

Rotating several brands of canned food is a good way of getting different nutrients into cats, and brands such as Weruva are constantly researching to provide the best food possible.

 

[my_money_pit]

thank you all for your inputs!! will report back hopefully within few weeks ! Can't wait to receive my TC Feline sample.

 

[sophie1]

It meets their nutritional needs. A lot of people aren't willing to risk the issues of handling raw, don't have the extra time, freezer space etc.

It meets nutritional guidelines developed by AAFCO based on very limited feeding trials. I stated that canned food doesn't fully meet nutritional needs because many who have transitioned to raw or homemade food report that their cats become healthier in many ways: energy-wise, behavior, coat quality etc. That is why this forum exists, in fact! Also, see the many discussions we've had recently about bone & vegetable content in commercial foods that supposedly meet those same AAFCO guidelines, and yet have potentially significant adverse health consequences.

However, it is true that many people probably should not attempt to feed homemade food, because it's way too easy to get it wrong. Which could be far worse for your cat than simply feeding canned food. Witness any number of youtube videos promoting frighteningly inadequate diets. So I do see both sides of the issue here.

 

[2ShortTails]

Did your strategy work? Is your kitty eating soft food? Mine went off soft when he lost his sibling. I'm not knowledgeable enough to make my own cat food for him so i went on a hunt online on how to break the dry food only habit. After two months of no soft food, he's finally eating it again. I used this tip: Put both wet and dry food in the same dish. I have a widemouth one for whisker relief so it was easy to keep them separated. I put 3/4 of his dry serving in and a teaspoon of wet next to it. The article said not to force the change or they can give up food for too long, causing serious problems. The first couple days he avoided the soft. The following day he nibbled but left most of it. After a week of doing this, he progressively ate more soft until i was able to increase the soft food and have only a few kernels of dry. He always ate the dry so he was always getting food. He now chirps for soft food and can't wait to eat. I was heating the soft food up a little to encourage him. Hopefully your kitty is back to eating soft, but if not, I'll hunt down the article i found as she had some great ideas. This first one worked for us.

 

[my_money_pit]

Did your strategy work? Is your kitty eating soft food? Mine went off soft when he lost his sibling. I'm not knowledgeable enough to make my own cat food for him so i went on a hunt online on how to break the dry food only habit. After two months of no soft food, he's finally eating it again. I used this tip: Put both wet and dry food in the same dish. I have a widemouth one for whisker relief so it was easy to keep them separated. I put 3/4 of his dry serving in and a teaspoon of wet next to it. The article said not to force the change or they can give up food for too long, causing serious problems. The first couple days he avoided the soft. The following day he nibbled but left most of it. After a week of doing this, he progressively ate more soft until i was able to increase the soft food and have only a few kernels of dry. He always ate the dry so he was always getting food. He now chirps for soft food and can't wait to eat. I was heating the soft food up a little to encourage him. Hopefully your kitty is back to eating soft, but if not, I'll hunt down the article i found as she had some great ideas. This first one worked for us.

Hey! Yeah it was a bit of work to have him off the dry food. I was giving him wet food during the day and a bit of dry at night. The issue was the wet food I had. Since he had UTI, he was on prescription but I was told to get him off the prescription because it’s useless for his case since it’s stress related. Than i got him almo complete he would eat it but sometimes he won’t. He will follow me to the kitchen and begs for a cooked chicken even tho his almo food is shredded chicken in gravy. So i started adding some freshly cooked chicken on top of his food. Just a few bits nothing too major. This helped him forget about the dry food. At one point, i was giving him turkey but I can’t find extra lean turkey or meat so I have to use chicken :/
For the homemade food, i just started him on it yesterday. He likes it! I mean it’s chicken, liver and an egg yolk so it’s normal that he loves it.
i am using TC Feline, the recipe comes with the order. Pretty simple to use. You can make a cooked or raw version. Since i’m using chicken, i cooked the food. Took me maybe 20 mins to get the food done. The only thing i regret is blending the ingredients much. I prefer to have shredded chicken instead of a watery pate like result.

i noticed he prefers to eat off the floor. I have no clue why. His plates are wide and stainless or glass. Such a fussy cat! Sometimes i have to hand feed him which i enjoy. It’s a nice bond between us.
The next step will be making the supplements myself so everything will be homemade. I am waiting a bit on that because i want to get him a blood test before i start him on that and another blood test in 3-4 weeks after we have switched. It will help me figure out if the diet is good for him or anything needs adjustment.

 

[2ShortTails]

Hey! Yeah it was a bit of work to have him off the dry food. I was giving him wet food during the day and a bit of dry at night. The issue was the wet food I had. Since he had UTI, he was on prescription but I was told to get him off the prescription because it’s useless for his case since it’s stress related. Than i got him almo complete he would eat it but sometimes he won’t. He will follow me to the kitchen and begs for a cooked chicken even tho his almo food is shredded chicken in gravy. So i started adding some freshly cooked chicken on top of his food. Just a few bits nothing too major. This helped him forget about the dry food. At one point, i was giving him turkey but I can’t find extra lean turkey or meat so I have to use chicken :/
For the homemade food, i just started him on it yesterday. He likes it! I mean it’s chicken, liver and an egg yolk so it’s normal that he loves it.
i am using TC Feline, the recipe comes with the order. Pretty simple to use. You can make a cooked or raw version. Since i’m using chicken, i cooked the food. Took me maybe 20 mins to get the food done. The only thing i regret is blending the ingredients much. I prefer to have shredded chicken instead of a watery pate like result.

i noticed he prefers to eat off the floor. I have no clue why. His plates are wide and stainless or glass. Such a fussy cat! Sometimes i have to hand feed him which i enjoy. It’s a nice bond between us.
The next step will be making the supplements myself so everything will be homemade. I am waiting a bit on that because i want to get him a blood test before i start him on that and another blood test in 3-4 weeks after we have switched. It will help me figure out if the diet is good for him or anything needs adjustment.

That is awesome!!! I've recently become VERY interested in making my own cat food but have no idea where to start. I'm fearful of throwing off any levels and the more i read, the more confused i get. Can you make different size batches to see what a cat likes? I have 2 kitties (one is 6 months and the other 2yrs)....do you know if can both have the same recipe?

Is TC feline a company that also sells food? I've never heard of them but I'm new to the idea of making homemade food for my boys as it's nearly impossible to find a truly healthy cat food. Long story short, i lost a less than 2 yr old cat to cancer recently that tested negative to the FIV/FELV and am wondering if him growing up on cheap kitten food in foster played a role. It's NOT the fault of the foster that relies on donations, but in cat food companies adding/allowing known carcinogens in our furbabies food. I want to give my boys the best food possible (as we all do).

We are staff to cats and I'm perfectly fine with that. I had to hand feed one of my kitties years ago and it was a great way to bond and i enjoyed it as well. I hope your boy blossoms with homemade food, made with love and his blood test comes back excellent!! Hugs to you both!!