Help switching food

My kittens started with dry food, they now eat canned twice a day and I leave some dry out I case they are hungry when I'm at work. They drink a lot of water so I'm ok with this. I have tried a bunch of canned food with no issues, but only 1 kind of dry. I would like to switch the dry to a different brand. Should I mix them like it's recommended, or since they are ok with different canned, can I just start a different brand?

Switching between different cans is different when compared to switching dry foods. Dry foods are processed differently so a lot of cats can't tolerate a "cold turkey" switch between dry foods, and they need a gradual transition. My cat was one of those examples, it would take 2-3 weeks to slowly switch dry foods. She's now only on wet, since dry food wasn't agreeing with her.

I would recommend doing a slow transition!

I agree with @Nora1. Dry food has a higher bacterial load, so you need to transition slow. Do a 25% replacement every 3 days to a week, depending on how slow you wan to do it.

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Nora1 said:

Switching between different cans is different when compared to switching dry foods. Dry foods are processed differently so a lot of cats can't tolerate a "cold turkey" switch between dry foods, and they need a gradual transition. My cat was one of those examples, it would take 2-3 weeks to slowly switch dry foods. She's now only on wet, since dry food wasn't agreeing with her.

I would recommend doing a slow transition!

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Interesting I was wondering why I always heard to switch slowly, but then people just gave whatever from a can. I couldn't find any "kitten" dry food that was grain free so we are going to stick with what we had for a bit anyway.
How old should they be before I start set times feedings? I'd like to just do canned but I don't want them hungry all day.

When I needed to transition dry food, I placed a bowl of the new food next to the old, so my cat wouldn't feel his old supply was threatened. I did this for 2 weeks, then would place a kibble or 2 into the old dry, slowly adding a little more each day. I still had a whole bowl of just the new still next to the first bowl. It took a good 3-4 weeks and then I just put new in both bowls, before leaving it in just the one bowl.

kitcatmeow said:

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Interesting I was wondering why I always heard to switch slowly, but then people just gave whatever from a can. I couldn't find any "kitten" dry food that was grain free so we are going to stick with what we had for a bit anyway.
How old should they be before I start set times feedings? I'd like to just do canned but I don't want them hungry all day.

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I would do set feeding at one year 4 times a day if possible, if not twice and a snack at bedtime. It is not necessary to find word kitten on food, this is pretty much a marketing ploy.