Off Purina Pro-plan wet(the by-producty stuff w/ artificial flavors)

I'm trying to get my cats off the Purina Pro-plan wet food, it's their favorite but it has by-products and artificial flavors and isn't the best. They don't like the natural Purina Pro-plan stuff that has no by-products. Should I just stop buying the stuff cold turkey.

They do eat limited amounts of Iams chicken and Avoderm. I want to add other brands to the rotation such as Nutro and Organix since Petco carries the stuff. Natural Balance seems to be too bland for them so I won't buy that one. If I take the "eat or go hungry approach" serve the food, leave it out for an hour or two, then take it away. Fall back on the dry food so they're not starving (give them the dry food one or two hours after the wet has been rejected) what are the chances that they'll learn to eat what I put in front of them. I don't want to mix purina pro-plan with a new wet food, I would have to refrigerate and microwave too often and it's just too much of a hassle as I really don't like microwaving my cats wet food all the time, I feel it destroys some of the nutrients. Can I do this cold-turkey or do you think my cats finickiness will take over and I will fail?

I just need to get my cats eating natural brands. It's my fault for introducing Purina Pro-plan to begin with but now I need to know how to fix this. Or I guess another approach is to still buy the Purina Pro-plan but gradually reduce to fewer cans of this brand once I see they're eating the natural stuff. I can occasionally give in to feeding a can of purina Pro-plan and don't have to mix it with another brand (I really hate to do this). I also don't like wasting tuna fish by pouring the water from the tuna can over the food because I don't want to eat the tuna fish so I must throw it away.

Wysong au jus is what I used or moew mix pouches to get the good stuff transitioned

Mine don't like Meow Mix and Wysong au jus is only available on line.

can you get EVO 95% meat or Wellness??? both are similiar to wysong but not labeld cat ...

Good luck. My cats will only eat the occasional Avoderm Chicken or Nutro Indoor can for naturals. They like FF and ProPlan. We do use Meow Mix pouches a lot. I gave in to the FF/ProPlan because otherwise they go off their wet food altogether.

Originally Posted by sharky

can you get EVO 95% meat or Wellness??? both are similiar to wysong but not labeld cat ...

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How I wish my cats would eat Innova or Evo canned. Then I would just order a regular supply on line. But they've rejected it when I fed it to them. Wellness has garlic in it and I've been cautious since Rosie's weird reaction to Foster and Smith which happened a day after I mistakenly fed Rosie a piece of steak seasoned w/ garlic and pepper (which I tried to wash off but wasn't successful) so I don't know if I can blambe the food or not. Plus my Rosie has had mixed reactions to Wellness. I also wish the best foods were more convenient for me to buy. I either have to order them on line or go out of my way to a different store. I'm not saying my cats aren't worth it, just inconvenient for me, especially when they reject the food.

I'm trying different kinds. I was really surprised when my cats rejected Evanger's mackeral in gravy. It looked good enough for me to eat. And I ordered a single can from www.onlynaturalpet.com.

My cat Spotty ate some Organix yesterday. Rosie rejected it. But I didn't like how much rice was visible in the food.

What about mixing a little of the old with a little of the new... like when your weaning a kitten from kitten to adult food. 1 part new to 3 parts old... just keep increasing the new while decreasing the old over a week or so? Worked for me, but my cats aren't finicky either so I could very well have just gotten lucky

Originally Posted by MadAboutRags

What about mixing a little of the old with a little of the new... like when your weaning a kitten from kitten to adult food. 1 part new to 3 parts old... just keep increasing the new while decreasing the old over a week or so? Worked for me, but my cats aren't finicky either so I could very well have just gotten lucky

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That's what I didn't want to have to do with wet food because of the refrigeration and microwave issue. Dry no problem, wet too complicated. Plus once wet food comes out of the fridge and gets microwaved my cats aren't as interested.

I recently got a coupon for two free cans of the pro-plan wet food and my cats really didn't seem to like it (I wouldn't eat it either after seeing the green flecks in it, yuck!).

I feed nutro max, natural choice, and petsmart's authority wet mainly with some meow mix market selects cups and other "not-so-good" brands ocassionally for varietie's sake.

Art

Well, it turns out that's what I have to do is mix it. I tried the boiling water trick this morning to warm up cold food but it didn't warm it very well and it made it too soupy.

I'm going to have to refrigerate and microwave cold wet food since the only way to make a reluctant cat eat a new wet food is the same way with dry food. Mix 1 part new with 3 parts old then 2 parts new with 2 parts old then 3 parts new with 1 part old until the cat is eating only the good stuff. It's just more work with wet food than it is with dry but it's not like it's hard. I just hate microwaving wet food because I think it cooks out some of the nutrients in the food and it just isn't the same to the cat as it is fresh out of the can.