Transitioning from Commercial Food to High Quality Food

Hi there,

I'm new to feline nutrition, and since reading this forum I have realised that giving my kitty Whiskas wet and Royal Canin dry food isn't doing her health any favours. After research, I've decided to transition her to a combination of Applaws/Almo Nature wet food and Orijen/Applaws dry food.

My question is, how quickly should I do this? She gets a small measure of kibble and a 50g sachet of wet food 3 times a day. Yesterday, the first day of the transition, I replaced the first of her wet meals with an Applaws sachet, and gave her a small amount of the new kibble alongside her old kibble at the second meal. The third meal was the usual Whiskers + Royal Canin.

Since she seems to really like the new kibble, should I change and start giving her full portions of that straight away? Or is it important to keep the change gradual? And the same question for the wet food really. There seems to be a lot of info about fussy cats, but not so much about compliant cats. I did read somewhere that if you change too quickly, they can accept the new diet for 3-4 days and then go on hunger strike, which I want to avoid because of the risks associated with fatty liver disease (even though she's a healthy weight). The responsibilities of a kitty mummy are quite overwhelming!!

Thanks,

Jade

Some cats have guts of steel, and can handle an abrupt kibble change well. But for many cats, such a fast switch causes digestive upset. It is recommended to change the kibble slowly, over a period of a week or two.  Every couple of days, you can increase the amount of the new, and reduce the amount of the old brand.  Some recommend 25%, then 50%, then 75%, until you're at 100%.  Others recommend a bit slower... 20%, 40%, 60%, etc...

Canned food, is usually not as big of an issue. I'd give her one meal of the new canned each day, for maybe two days in a row...and if she's doing great then you can switch the canned brands straight to the new stuff.

I did want to mention, that I think the Applaws brand is NOT nutritionally complete. If I remember correctly, I think most varieties of Applaws are just protein, broth, and some rice thrown in. It doesn't have any of the added vitamins & other nutrients that cats need on a daily basis. So, unless you are adding something to make up for the nutrients it lacks, you should not be using it for more than 15% of her diet...or over time she will become malnourished.

Also, I would keep in mind the personality of your cat--does she/he accept change relatively easily?
I transitioned Ritz from wet food to (commercial) raw food in retrospect perhaps too quickly--almost within a two or three day period. She developed what I believe to be a stress-induced UTI shortly after she was on full raw. Now, Ritz is a nervous cat to begin with, so the fault was with me, not raw food.

First of all, Applaws wet and Almo Nature wet are supplementary feeds, which mean it shouldn't be more than 15% of the total diet, as it was alreadt mentioned. They lack the vitamins and nutrients a cat needs, they are extremely low in fat and they do not respect the ca/ pho proportion. They are good foods to use as treats or toppers, but used as the main part of the diet will lead to vitamin deficiencies in time.

That being said, transitioning to a different dry food is more complicated than transitioning to a different wet. Of course that each cat is different so the digestive reactions can vary a lot, but I think it would be safe to switch the dry food over a period of 10-14 days, by mixing the foods. It should be easier to switch the wet, but pay attention to the litterbox - if all is well, keep doing what you are doing. If kitty has an upset tummy, take one step back.

Good luck!

All I can do is echo the above posters: Applaws and Almo are supplementary foods and shouldn't be fed every day. The good news is that there are quite a few very good complete European wet foods. irinasak gave a good summary here. For the most part, they're available at zooplus.ch The English descriptions can be found here.

Hi all,

Thanks so much for your replies - I didn't get a notification so have only just come back to check the thread and seen them all!

I am feeding the Almo Nature and Applaws wet foods in addition to a full portion of the Orijen and Applaws Dry (alternating - both say they're complete foods) mainly because I don't like the idea of an all-dry diet and because Lyla doesn't tend to drink very much, so even though she usually only licks the gravy of the wet foods, at least she's getting a bit more moisture in her belly.

I've been transitioning very slowly, and so far so good. She likes the new grain-free dry food, and tolerates most of the wet foods, though isn't impressed by some of the Applaws flavours, so it's still trial and error.

Eventually, I'd like to transition to a complete wet food in the day, with grain-free kibbles left out overnight, or when I'm not going to be around during the day. I'm going to investigate the complete wet foods from the posts you linked to.

Thanks for sharing your wisdom with a newbie!!

Jade (and Lyla, currently sleeping on half of the laptop's keyboard...)