How often do you switch brands?

Currently I have been doing a 2 month with this food, 2 month with that food. I just can't seem to feel comfortable with feeding one brand only. Different manufacturers have different compositions for vitamins, minerals, etc, that's why I feel the need to change up, so their bodies get different things.

@msserena, i think you've got the right idea to make sure your kitty gets variety as well as all the nutrition s/he needs. i like to have a rotation of different brands/flavors/proteins of canned cat food that my snick likes. snick is a very picky eater, so serving a variety of canned cat foods is important to make sure she's motivated to eat well. i serve snick one brand/flavor and when she finishes that can i'll open a different brand/flavor, and so on.

there are other benefits to having a canned food rotation for cats. they get variety, it's much more likely they'll get all the nutrition they need, serving a variety can also help cats be more flexible about what canned foods they'll eat, if there's ever a recall then you've got other brands that kitty already likes (so you can simply remove the recalled brand from the rotation), and if a brand changes (even slightly) the ingredients and kitty no longer will eat it then you're able to remove that brand from the rotation.

also, if some cats (like my snick) love one brand and eat that every day, after not too long they can get to the point that they no longer want to eat it. a rotation can help prevent this from happening.

bear in mind that brands/flavors that kitty doesn't like or has stopped liking after a while, you can try again after two or three months to see if they'll want to eat that again.

My cats get a new brand/flavor everday. We are trying new kinds. But plan to have 7 different ones every week.

I keep a constant rotation. Once I finish one can, I open another of either a different brand or flavour. I tend to mix two or more different flavours for any given meal, so each meal will have different proportions of different foods. The bit of dry they get is also a mix of two brands.

I wish I could rotate brands but I can't . My cats will only eat Fancy Feast ..

Gosh I seriously had no clue that people changed their cat food brand so often. I was told by my vet & with all my cat food research, to gradually change brands because cats digestive systems are so touchy. Wow I guess if no one has potty issues then bravo! I wish I could do that.

When my kitties were new, I gave them tons of different brands to see what they would like but then when the potty was always runny, that's when my vet told me you can change flavors, just not brands. You should always do a slow transition when switching food brands & that did it. Potty got firmer.

Thanks guys

I think this is more the case for dry food, or for introducing completely different foods (like going directly from all dry to all wet, or even adding raw). I wouldn't switch dry food cold turkey all the time, but I would introduce blends. If their tummies are used to one thing, their bodies get used to the same gut flora everyday, so they can get upset tummies if fed something else they're not used to digesting right off the bat. Since I don't feed one straight food all the time, the cats end up with something they're familiar with and something they're unfamiliar with so it keeps a sense of variety going.

I think it's common, especially for wet food, to offer a variety often to avoid cats getting too stubborn and either only choosing one brand or one flavour of food (which is bad in case of recalls and discontinuations) and to keep cats from getting bored and put off by a flavour or brand. Even for dry, I would still recommend at least introducing more than one brand you know they'll eat so you can have a backup if you're in a bind finding the one they usually eat.

I'm feeding Nutram dry and my cats really seem to be enjoying it right now. The pieces are large which forces my bolters to chew and everyone seems to like the taste. They get a huge variety of canned food, though, and never get the same thing twice in a row. This seems to keep them happy.

My one exception is my little Peepbean who is on vet diet and cannot eat anything else. If he does, he gets very ill very fast. He doesn't make the connection though and can be quite sneaky. He's one cat who would love to try everything!

msserena said:

 
Gosh I seriously had no clue that people changed their cat food brand so often. I was told by my vet & with all my cat food research, to gradually change brands because cats digestive systems are so touchy. Wow I guess if no one has potty issues then bravo! I wish I could do that.

When my kitties were new, I gave them tons of different brands to see what they would like but then when the potty was always runny, that's when my vet told me you can change flavors, just not brands. You should always do a slow transition when switching food brands & that did it. Potty got firmer.

Thanks guys

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ok, it sounds like maybe your cats have a little more sensitive systems as far as changing even wet foods. my snick has IBD and so i'm careful introducing new wet or dry foods.

do your cats do ok (ie, no runny stools) when you switch brands every two months? if so, maybe you could transition one new brand at a time in until you develop a rotation of several brands that your cats like and do well on (that they don't have runny stools when they've eaten). you could start with your current brand and make servings with 80% current brand and 20% new brand, (as long as the stools don't start getting runny) the second day move on to 60/40, etc until you're able to serve 100% new brand. then you could see how it goes for a while rotating between the two brands, giving it maybe a month or two. if that goes well, then you could start transitioning in a third brand.

Sometimes "if it ain't broke don't fix it" is a good way to look at things. If Fluffy's good with X and gets the runs on T,U,V,Y, and Z maybe X is what's going to work for Fluffy. The only thing that can be said about all cats is that no two are the same.

Yes I agree, cats are all different! 

mickNsnicks2mom  - did you get a diagnosis from the vet about IBD or did you just figure it out on your own? I don't know if there is some sort of test, I wouldn't mind sending my kitties through it if it will help me figure out what to feed. I won't feed my cats carrageenan, grain, over 11% carbs, fruits or veggies, so for me, that really narrows down the list. I settled on Weruva & Natures Variety Instinct. They do wonderful on both.

When I first started out on the cat food trail, I wanted to find brands with different varieties under their belt & what I realized was, I really don't have much to choose from! I still have to try Tiki Cat Gourmet Carnivore & Hound & Gatos. That's about it for "new" foods. There are other decent food brands out there but I don't want to only feed chicken or have seafood in every meal. I even tried Wild Calling & Wysong Au Jus meals but they kitties didn't like them!

I will buy raw turkey or chicken, one day they eat it & the next day they won't. They do eat Rad cat though everytime I put it down but I can't afford to buy the tubs all the time. I wish I could.

@msserena -- at the time my cats were diagnosed (they were litter mates), our vet and i decided to treat the symptoms and if the treatment was successful there would be no need to have endoscopic exams done. there is some risk with endoscopic exams, so i was glad when we were able to successfully treat the IBD. i would not want to have an endoscopic exam performed on my cat unless it became necessary. you might discuss with your vet if s/he feels it would be helpful to have an ultrasound done, though those aren't inexpensive.

my cats have done well eating weruva and natures variety instinct too (among other brands).

my snick, who is 14 years old now, eats 4 brands, two of which are weruva and petco's soulistic (which weruva makes exclusively for petco). she's a very picky eater, but i've learned how to entice her to eat well. snick has the IBD as well as a couple other medical issues, so i'm not planning on trying to switch her over to a home cooked diet. however, i will be serving all future cats a home cooked diet -- possibly some raw too.

Now, what I wonder about is, I would think it's ok to feed 1/2 can this brand 1/2 can that brand. Is it ok to mix brands? What my thinking is, if Weruva is low fat, high moisture & NVI is higher fat, less moisture, wouldn't be become the perfect cat food if I mixed them together? I don't see why not, I hope someone can explain it if it isn't ok to combine brands.

As long as it agrees with your cats, no, nothing wrong with doing that. I suppose the biggest "problem" might be if you don't want to open 2 cans :tongue2:. Feeding them at separate meals would be fine too.