Rotating Food Brands (To feed or not to feed..)

Hello fellow cat owners,

I would like to get your opinion on rotating cat food brands. I have noticed that after reading numerous threads, that many of you do this especially the holistic feeders.

My question to you is: If you rotate brands, how many are suitable and what are your thoughts and experiences on this. (i.e. foods that have not worked well or ones that you would recommend).

I have heard that the technique is good for preventing cats from developing a allergies. And would you want to do this strictly with wet food? Or can you do this with dry food as well?

Side Note

**Currently I am feeding my kitty Before Grain and have been rotating between flavours but not brands, but keeping the pure fish ones to once a week. However I have noticed that different brands contain different amounts and combinations of protein, vitamins, minerals and amino acids and it may be worth rotating so that she is exposed to variation in case there are some she is unable to properly absorb or the amounts are the bare minimum required.

I appreciate your input!!

I have a 9-month-old kitten with a VORACIOUS appetite. Thanks to this site, I learned about rotating foods and proper nutrition etc (well, I'm still learning, but I know more than I did before at any rate...).

I can only speak for myself and my cat, and everybody's cat will be different and you'll have to play a little by ear to see what works for them.

But I rotate between three (and sometimes four) wet foods as well as some raw at dinner time. Raw is usually deboned chicken breast meat or else chicken giblets or sometimes ground beef or turkey.

The wet food I've been rotating include:

Wellness Grain Free and Core (various flavors)

Trader Joes wet food (chicken and turkey flavors)

Authority wet food (various flavors)

Blue Buffalo Wilderness (Grain Free).

Sometimes I'll switch out BB for Nutro or try something else just to see what he thinks.

He also gets a few kibbles of Blue Buffalo wilderness (like maybe 15 pieces or so).

The only food that I've noticed he has not been keen on was once I stopped at different store than normal and they didn't have his usual brands and I got something with lots of veggies in it. He kind of ate around the veggies and was sort of whiney about the rest of the food (though he ate it), so I did not get that type of food again. Also I got him something with gravy once and he didn't seem to like that as much either, and prefers the pate in the wet food..

But I've never had any digestion problems with him because of all the switching or bathroom problems. When we first got him (he had been feral but had been caught by a  rescue group at 5-6 months old and they were feeding him Fancy Feast), he had a little gas at first when we switched him to the healthier food but that was only for a short while. He's been growing like a champ so far and his weight looks good. I estimate he's getting about 8 ounces of food per day, although he'd gladly eat more if we let him. I think he'd eat himself sick if we just left unlimited food out as he does not seem to have a filter to know when he's full...

Technically, I'm a Cat Parent, rather than a Cat "Owner" - may I still participate?  

Seriously though - good topic. It will be interesting to hear the different perspectives.

Violetxx said:

...However I have noticed that different brands contain different amounts and combinations of protein, vitamins, minerals and amino acids and it may be worth rotating so that she is exposed to variation in case there are some she is unable to properly absorb or the amounts are the bare minimum required.

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That is the main reason why I rotate brands and flavors.

Even though I do a lot of research and consider my choices carefully,

I clearly do not have infinite wisdom on Cat Food Nutrition and Safety, so I give different foods to take advantage of different benefits,

and to lessen the risk if it suddenly turns out that a certain brand, flavor or ingredient was harmful or dangerous.

I have been doing this for several years, and I typically will have at least 2 kinds of dry on hand,

along with at least 3 or 4 types of cans. Additionally, I give them homemade Chicken for breakfast.

Like you, I try to limit the Fish to one day per week.

Currently, we are using a rotation of the following:

Cans: Wellness Chicken, Wellness Turkey, By Nature 95% Chicken, and By Nature 95% Turkey.

Occasionally: Wellness Turkey & Salmon, Evo Cat & Kitten*, By Nature 95% (The Fish one.)

Dry: Innova Prime, Wellness Core

Occasionally: Blue Buffalo Salmon

* Neither one of my Grey Tigers will touch this, so the Tuxedo Kitties and the Ferals get the rest.

Speaking of which, I rotate the Ferals' foods as well.

We are using:

Cans: Innova Cat & Kitten, Friskies Poultry Platter, and a tablespoon or two of whatever the Indoor Kitties had that evening.

They also get a half can of the Indoor Kitties' Seafood selection on "Party Night"  

Dry: Innova Cat & Kitten and 4Health.

Occasionally: Blue Buffalo Salmon

Oh, the other reason I rotate is simply that I cannot imagine having to eat the same food 3 times per day indefinitely,

so I like to give my Kitties some variety! It seems to me that once they get used to it,

it might actually be good for their tummies as well - since my Kitties eat a wide variety of foods on a regular basis,

it is extremely rare that I see any evidence of stomach upset.  

The cats that I do feed canned get four different brands - but Before Grain is the main one.  However, those cats get half canned/half raw.  For raw they get:

Beef: Cheek, Heart, Liver, Kidney

Pork: Shoulder Cushion Meat

Chicken: whole fryer chickens, liver

Turkey: plain meat

I have been rotating wet foods since I started transitoning wet a month or so ago. I thought that was the way most people did it . So Hobo has had a different brand and flavor every day.

There are 5 or 6 brands of canned food I feed my 6 and my feral. The elderly foster gets different brands. I feed some dry, too. The dry is Wellness Healthy Weight. The feral gets TOTW dry, but the same canned as my 6 others.

The brands of canned are Wellness, Natural Balance, BG, TOTW, and Solid Gold. No other brands for a long time now. I feed almost all poultry, with fish about once a week. Never beef. All of them like these brands, all flavors.

I believe in variety to keep them interested, and happy. I believe in variety for safety and a balanced diet.

The only treats are only a couple times a week. They are Stella and Chewy cubes. Not all my cats will eat them.

My cats are all healthy, active, and happy. We have very little hair ball problems. Most have no problem at all, and I give them nothing for this. The only supplement I give is L-lysine, but only to the ones who need it.

Robin

Thank you for all your input. This has been very informative and surprising. I predicted that people would probably feed between one or two. I did not know it was possible to feed 5 or more (of course it would involve a slow transition at first). Its funny that I never heard about this from my vet or anyone else. I always assumed feeding one brand was what you did.

I too have been looking into the world of cat food for many years and its nice to know that others have the same interest Many of the brands you are feeding your kitties are exactly the ones I have been thinking about trying.

I feed all wet and tend to stick with the one brand just cause it's something they all agree on and no waste.  Dry is outside if I won't be home to monitor the cats coming(3 current outside cats come daily and a few visit at times) and is one brand.

Violetxx said:

Thank you for all your input. This has been very informative and surprising. I predicted that people would probably feed between one or two. I did not know it was possible to feed 5 or more (of course it would involve a slow transition at first). Its funny that I never heard about this from my vet or anyone else. I always assumed feeding one brand was what you did.

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Rotating wet food doesn't involve a slow transition - if you rotate dry you definitely need to take a week minimum to transition.  But unless you have a very sensitive kitty or one with health problems, you should be able to plunk down any wet food you want without worrying about stomach issues!    Rotating brands is a good idea to ward off addiction (imagine if your cat won't eat anything except one brand and that brand goes out of business!), and limits your risk in the event of a recall, nutritional imbalance, formula problems, etc.  Lots of people actually rotate manufacturers for that reason - though this can be a lot more difficult.

Just to be clear about how I rotate, my cats never get the same brand two days in a row. The way it works is they won't get the same brand again for four or more days. And they seldom get the same protein two days in a row, though this is harder to do as they mostly get chicken and turkey.


Robin

We've always got a minimum of 3 brands of dry food (currently all struvite prescription food: Hill's, Royal Canin and Eukanuba) and 3 of canned (catz, Almo nature and Applaws; atm also some Fancy Feast) in rotation. Jamie doesn't want to eat one brand more than twice a week, and I always worry about availability, possible recalls or nutrtional imbalances. I usually have to switch out a brand every couple of weeks because he gets tired of it. Miezi isn't as picky, but seems to enjoy the variety.

I guess I only use one brand of canned food (Friskies), just because they didn't like any other brand I tried and I can't afford to waste any. But I give them all 4 flavors that Petsmart has in the biggest can size, so that's sort of a rotation, I suppose :lol3:. I don't really "rotate" dry food in the usual sense (using a different brand/protein with every new bag, like I do with the dogs); I mix 5 different brands. 4 of the brands are always the same, and one varies.

I don't rotate dry food, at all, just their canned, which is one meal a day. I think rotating dry is too hard on their systems.

If I changed dry food, I would do it gradually over at least a week.



Robin

bastetservant said:

I don't rotate dry food, at all, just their canned, which is one meal a day. I think rotating dry is too hard on their systems.

If I changed dry food, I would do it gradually over at least a week.



Robin

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It depends on the cat(s). A few will react to a change with digestive problems, while others have no trouble at all. My two apparently have cast-iron stomachs, because they've never had the slightest problem with switching brands. Neither did any of their predecessors.

Sometimes I think it's the cat food producers that have managed to convince people that switching brands is hard on cats, as they naturally want you to stick to their brand. :lol3:

jcat said:

Sometimes I think it's the cat food producers that have managed to convince people that switching brands is hard on cats, as they naturally want you to stick to their brand. :lol3:

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Haha, I think so, too! I'll switch my dogs' food with no transition period.. . .we go to visit my mom and they'll eat what she feeds her dogs. . .I can give them a different food at every meal for a week. . .and they're fine. I think it's all about what they get used to. Of course if they eat one kind of food for every meal every day for 10 years and THEN try to switch, there'll be some tummy trouble. But if they're used to it, there shouldn't be a problem.

parsleysage said:

Rotating wet food doesn't involve a slow transition - if you rotate dry you definitely need to take a week minimum to transition.  But unless you have a very sensitive kitty or one with health problems, you should be able to plunk down any wet food you want without worrying about stomach issues! 

  Rotating brands is a good idea to ward off addiction (imagine if your cat won't eat anything except one brand and that brand goes out of business!), and limits your risk in the event of a recall, nutritional imbalance, formula problems, etc.  Lots of people actually rotate manufacturers for that reason - though this can be a lot more difficult.

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This is exactly right Parsley. Rotating kibble is where you can run into problems with the digestive tract. I rotate wet brands to give my kitties a different texture and flavor.  Of course their main brand of wet and dry are Nutro products but I do rotate their wet among 3 other premium brands. My major concern when buying other brands is who manufactures the product, what quality/safety checks the company has in place as well as their ingredients.  I know of one very well known brand that has 6 different manufacturers making their food.  They don't have plants of their own.  If they ever have a major problem it will be next to impossible to trace the origin of the problem. Just a couple of other things to worry about when choosing food for our children.

Does anyone ever mix the foods together? I have six cats and what I have been doing is mixing 6-8 large cans of different varieties/brands together in a large container and putting it in the fridge. When that's gone I make a new batch. Haven't had any issues so far. Wondering if anyone else does this.

Cat dad72 said:

Does anyone ever mix the foods together? I have six cats and what I have been doing is mixing 6-8 large cans of different varieties/brands together in a large container and putting it in the fridge. When that's gone I make a new batch. Haven't had any issues so far. Wondering if anyone else does this.

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Hi!

This is an old thread from 2012 so you might not get responses from the posters above.

I do mix brands of wet food all the time but not the same way that you do. I have 3 picky eaters on a 98% canned only diet. Dry food is only used as an occasional topper or snack. I mix foods by giving them all some pate and then use another type of food such as shredded, sliced, minced, diced, etc as a topper to the pate. I mix and match a lot of brands, proteins and textures to make their meals more interesting so they are less likely to reject something. They do anyway sometimes and I think they do this so I don't forget who is really in charge! :lol3:

If the way that you mix works for you, then that is great. Not one of mine will eat canned food that has been refrigerated. it doesn't matter if I warm it, leave it cold, add a topper, leave it plain. They will not touch it. This is life with 3 divas :rolleyes2 :king:

I used to rotate a lot of brands, now I just have 2 brands, 4 flavors which they like best, Soulistic pate and shreds chicken dinner in gelee, Merrick rabbit pate, whole earth farms (Merrick) duck pate and beef pate. Chicken is breakfast and dinner is rabbit, duck, or beef which I rotate.

because a cats digestive system is sensitive, I was told to stick with one brand, switch around all the varieties within that brand. When you switch brands around, that could lead to possible stomach upset. When I try to see what other brands my cats will eat, I only give them a new food every few days instead of hitting them all at once with different brands.