Transitioning to new food

Hullo everyone. I'm from New Zealand & new to the forum. I have a new cat, 8yr-old Bibby, a pretty tabby female. She has been fed exclusively dry food. Over the week I have been trying to introduce wet food, using all the advised methods, without success. She has accepted a bit of cooked fish, some sardine in natural juice, but won't have anything to do with other wet food. I have drizzled a bit of water & fish juice over the kibble, didn't work. Today she only wanted her kibbles; at least she gets a good variety of those.She does drink ok, her pees & poos are fine, & she's in good condition.
I have introduced VIP Fussy Cat Grain Free kibbles which she likes, & am looking at adding Orijen (grain & chemical free) next week.
I want her to get more moisture in her diet, but really can't afford to keep buying food she won't touch. What do I do? Any ideas? I know some cats do very well on dry food diets but I'm used to my cats having dry & wet.

Hi tiho,

Welcome to TCS.

It can take a lot more than a week to get cats transitioned to wet. Some cats are just stubborn. Lisa Pierson, a vet who advocates raw and wet food diets has written a guide on transitioning:

http://www.catinfo.org/docs/TipsForTransitioning1-14-11.pdf

Offhand, you can try:

--Various toppers such as parmesan cheese, bonito flakes, or FortiFlora

--Mixing kibble and wet, then decreasing amount of kibble slowly

--Try different textures of wet

Even though she drinks water, she needs to drink a cup a day to make up the difference between wet and dry. Nutritional deficiences and chronic dehydration won't make an obvious impact until health problems emerge, which cats are really good at hiding. So I encourage you to keep trying.

The best tip I know of for transitioning kibble addicts is to finely grind her favorite kibble into a powder and sprinkle it over the wet food. At first it may be more kibble powder than wet food. That's okay. You can gradually decrease the kibble over time. It's not a race. Given that she's 8 and only likes dry food, it may take a long time for her to transition to any amount of wet. Patience is needed here.

I agree that patience and slow transition is important.
If you think Bibby is more into texture than taste, you might also try sprinkling freeze dried treats onto the kibble. This one is commonly available in most pet stores in the USA. I hope/think New Zeland has something similar, if not for cats, maybe dogs. Look for 100% chicken/lamb/etc.

Thanks for all your advice. Tried putting fish food (tuna in juice) on top of new food, she wouldn't touch it. Tried grinding her kibble over the new food, no go. After about 1/2hour offered some lightly scrambled egg yolk with water), she had a few licks. A few hours ago offered her usual kibble, but no,not even a nibble. & she hasn't had any water.

Now she's under the bed & won't come out. I'm just leaving her be, hoping hunger will eventually bring her out, but it's such a change in behaviour as today is really the first day she's like this. Even her first day was better. I have to go out now, so will just have to leave her as she is. (sigh) It's going to be a long haul I guess.

It seems like a rather abrupt mood change. Keep watch over her. Cats need to eat at least every 48 hours or they run the risk of fatty liver disease.

Contacted our SPCA about what they were feeding Bibby when they took her in, as I thought maybe she was dealing with a different food. Although she likes the Fussy Cat Grain Free dry food I have been giving her, trying to introduce wet food was too soon. Anyway, they had been trying wet food & found she would only eat Whiskas Oh So Fishy.
So I bought Whiskas Dentabites Chicken Temptations to try as a topper, Orijen, & the Whiskas. What a turn about! By bedtime she had some Temptations, a few Fussy Cat & Orijen, & had finished a packet of the Fishy (I added some water). What a happy cat! And she got some water in her.
A friend suggested keeping the quality dry food as the main diet 3-4x day or more in small quantities, give her canned mackerel/Wild Alaskan Salmon/ sardines which are safer fish, & also try some cooked mince.
What do you think, sounds ok?

Glad to hear her appetite is back!

The general recommendation is to limit fish about once or twice a week.  I would use the Temptations and dry food as toppers for the Whiskas. Then find another wet non-fish food that she's OK with but maybe not so much as with the Whiskas. Slowly decrease the Whiskas and substitute more of the 2nd non-fish food.

I can't bring up the rest of your post here, @Raintyger.
I had to have a little giggle. Here in NZ mince means ground beef/pork/chicken etc. Cooked mice might be a delight (or would it?) to cats, but someone else would have to do it, I certainly couldn't - yuck!
Bibby wouldn't eat anything for must have been at least 11 hours after 11.30pm - not even her kibble. She came out finally and had (sorry but she has to have something) tuna & some kibble. She sat out on the deck for a while, went back under the bed. A few hours later2 small meals of tuna & prawns, then a few kibbles later tonight. We had a game of chase/catch the wiggly-feathers, she hung about a few minutes & has retired to my bedroom; under the bed again. Tomorrow I will try some chicken & fish.
Sorry about the long waffles, this is a new experience for me. Anyway, what do you think of cooked ground beef? What about some baby food meat??

Generally no to ground beef, at least the kind you buy in the grocery store. Too much possibility of bacteria growth. Baby food meat plus broth only is okay as an occasional treat, but isn't nutritionally complete.

Thanks, @Ritz. I won't do those. I notice a few brands of cat fish food are labelled complete and balanced, with added vitamins & minerals. Does that mean they can be used more often than 1-2x week? The main thing is she's getting all the necessary vitamins, minerals etc. as well as higher protein & lower carbohydrates in the Fussy Cat & Orijen dry foods, the tuna/fishy foods will give her more moisture.

tiho said:

I can't bring up the rest of your post here, @Raintyger.

Click to expand...

I saw another post immediately after I posted that explained "mince," so I deleted my comment since it only had been a minute or two and really didn't add anything! I thought nobody read it, but I guess you caught me! 



The foods labelled nutritionally complete can be used more than once or twice a week, it's just that fish can cause problems if used too often.

--Higher phosphorus content can make kitty more prone to UTI stone formation. Especially bad for males.

--Mercury content in the fish makes it not good to use on a more frequent basis. Some fish are lower in mercury content that others, so it's best to pick those flavors. In general, predatory fish have higher mercury content because they eat smaller fish that have mercury and also have some of their own mercury.

--Cats can become addicted to fish, especially tuna. Then they get finicky and refuse other flavors.

Thanks Raintyger. I take it then that tuna must be a predatory fish. What ever is it about tuna cats love so much more than other fish?? I tried snapper & salmon yesterday, a couple of licks then a no, I won't have that! Never ever had food problems with cats before, & I've had cats since childhood!

As a treat and sometimes as a supplement, some raw feeders feed sardines, packed in water, no salt.
Ironically, one reason I transitioned Ritz to raw was because she was becoming 'addicted' to fish (Fancy Feast Classic and only FFC and only seafood....).
Now, 2.5 years later, she seems to have lost her taste for fish, even the talapia I eat. Now, oatmeal/oat bran, that she likes!

Thanks Ritz. It's only been 1 1/2 weeks since I started trying Bibby on wet foods - today I mixed in Dine Desire Tuna & Snapper with her Whiskas tuna,(no) last night I tried mixing in chicken (no).
Being on a tight budget, I really can't keep on trying out all these cans I'm having to buy.
I'm now thinking of trying some raw meat instead. Jimbos first (steak & kidney or veal or beef?). It's on special at the moment, I thought of putting a piece next to her tuna so she can at least get used to the smell then hopefully have a lick then a bite.
I'd like to (when I get a bit more money next week) try the Primal cans too, but will try Jimbos first. If she gets on with Jimbos it would be a cheaper option, then I can also occasionally give her sardines, a scrambled (or boiled?) egg yolk. She will remain on the Fussy Cat Grain Free and Orijen.

Ok so I've used the last of my miney on Jimbos & Butch Tasti Roll (not raw).
Jimbos was, in Bibby's reaction, revolting. I put a small lump next to her lunch, she took a sniff & bolted! Wouldn't go near the dish.
She ate one small chunk of the Tasti wouldn't go near it.
I'm going to leave things for now, she must have just had dry food all her life.

A slight breakthrough: she accepted homebrand seafood basker (sardines, shrimp & crab). This afternoon she accepted homebrand tuna with chicken, & a couple of small strips of cooked bacon. I added water to the first two offerings. None of these is really good quality, but they provide moisture which is my main goal for her, to make sure she is hydrated.
The dry food is high quality, especially Orijen, so I'm happy to give them to her - no grains, nothing artificial, biologically appropriate ingredients.

A slight breakthrough: she accepted homebrand seafood basker (sardines, shrimp & crab). This afternoon she accepted homebrand tuna with chicken, & a couple of small strips of cooked bacon. I added water to the first two offerings. None of these is really good quality, but they provide moisture which is my main goal for her, to make sure she is hydrated.
The dry food is high quality, especially Orijen, so I'm happy to give them to her - no grains, nothing artificial, biologically appropriate ingredients.

Ok so last night she had a meal of freshly cooked free range chicken with skin, & she loved it. Still no success with other canned foods though.

That's great, she seems to like chicken.

Have you tried shredded or natural meat textured wet food? Brands like Weruva, Fussie Cat or Petite Cuisine? These foods look like people food. Maybe she needs a slow introduction using food that looks like meat.

Please do be careful that the homecooked meals are either nutritionally balanced or not frequent enough to cause nutritional deficiency problems.

Thanks. Um, I've never heard of those brands in NZ. Thete is one called Primal I could try. Don't know much about the canned variety but think the food is natural human grade.
I thought maybe cooked chicken could be a supplement to the dry foods. She does like the pouches of fish & chicken broths for cats, & also goats milk. Can these all be supplemental foods & provide added moisture to her diet?
She is well hydrated, in very good condition, her poops & pees normal. Orijen is very good quality, is biologically/species appropriate with all the necessary vitamins, minerals, etc. It's the moisture Bibby needs in additiin to water. I'm not sure she can have goats milk regularly though.