Food Tranistion Help.

Hi I'm new here excuse me if this is not in the proper place or if it has been asked before. I just really need some help.

I am trying to transition my cats from dry food to wet food. I don't have a lot of money for very high quality canned food so I choose the best one at my price range that I could get to first. I chose Sheba to start out with, I think it is okay there isn't grain in it and it is mostly comprised of meat. The dry food they are accustomed to is nine lives daily essentials.

My cats are a female who is 8 years old  her name is Gir, and who has been on dry food the majority of her life. The other is a male who just turned 2 his name is O'malley, and I started him at home on wet food and then went back to dry. At the time I did not know how bad it was.

The issue that I am having is that my 2 year old is puking. He is puking a lot. The first couple of days were fine, I gave them mostly dry and then gradually went down. I did go a little fast and at first I was mixing it with the dry. Then I got to the point that all I was giving them was the wet. O'malley did fine the first couple of days even when I was just feeding him the plain wet, but now he is puking nearly every day multiple times. At first I thought that it was the flavor (turkey) but now he is doing it with all the foods. So since he was puking I started leaving out a separate bowl of his dry food for him to munch on as well. He has been eating both but mostly the wet I believe. He likes the food and is excited at feeding time. He doesn't appear to be very sluggish but he might be getting there and he eats every time I feed him. His puking is starting to concern me and tonight it was particularly bad he has thrown up twice, and one time he made a strange noise that we have never heard him make and he heaved pretty violently. My husband who is wary about the change because he doesn't understand the issue with dry food doesn't want me to feed them the wet food anymore which at this point I am okay with so O'malley will stop getting sick. I do not want to give up though. I have taken the wet food away and given only dry for now.

My other cat is doing great with her transition. I don't think that she has a sensitive stomach, I believe she threw up the other day but it was the white stuff that I have read that they do sometimes if they built up stomach acid and didn't eat in time.

Can you offer any suggestions? O'malley's frequent puking is really worrying me. Should I try a different brand? Or did I transition too fast? It has been about a week or so since I started the transition.  I'm wondering if I should give him a break and just start over.

Thank you!

Also my name is Hannah! Nice to meet you!

That doesn't sound normal at all. Your first stop should be the vet, if he hasn't seen one already. Some cats are just sensitive to certain types of food. Your vet is your best bet right now at determining what kind of food you should feed. They would probably want you to do a food trial after checking him up.

At the time I did not know how bad it was.  

Click to expand...

Dry food isn't necessarily bad. If they can eat it and hold it down their stomachs, it's miles better than wet food that they pukes up every single time.

One of my cats had a drastic increase in hairballs when he was switched to wet. Maybe try Petromalt?

Well since I took the new food away and only fed the dry they are used to my boy has stopped getting sick and he is acting in his usual way. I'm still wanting to transition them but I am obviously going to go much slower than before since he had such an issue.

My question now is if I should still use the Sheba or switch to a different brand. I don't think there is anything wrong with the Sheba as my other cat didn't have an issue but since it made him sick i am a little cautious. Thoughts?

why not try the wet food in the brand of dry food that he likes and does well with? 

I tried mixing the food together this morning. He threw up again. I mixed it in the beginning and he did fine. I'm not sure why he is throwing up. I Guess I need to try a different brand now.

My husband is ready to quit but I'm not I'd love for my babies to be on wet food. So maybe a different brand? And very very slow...

You could definitely experiment with several different canned foods. Maybe try a limited ingredient can and see if it's a reaction to a certain protein (It may cost a bit more though). 

I've looked at the ingredients for Sheba and it looks like something I would consider feeding my own cats if they sold them here. The problem might be the non-specific by-products. The chicken pate just says "poultry by-product" so it could be any type of poultry. And the salmon and beef flavours are all mixed in with different kinds of poultry.

And yes! Please go see your vet if you can. 

One of my cats is 23 years old...he came into the marriage with my husband 12.5 years ago, and my husband had him since he was a baby. In all his life, he has been VERY pukey, especially when switching foods. He could never ever keep down wet food, especially. We have always assumed that he just has digestive issues, but he keeps down enough to sustain him, so we just stuck with whatever foods he kept down the best. Only very recently was I speaking to someone at a specialty pet supply store, and they were able to give more insight than all the vets this poor guy has been to. Apparently, besides hair balls, his biggest issue is eating too much to fast. They suggested to spread the wet food all over a plate in a thin layer so that he has to work harder and slower to get the food. He hasn't thrown up once since I started doing it that way, and is eating wet food every day. Also, as I thought about it, the dry foods that were in larger chunks always stayed down better, probably because they required more chewing. This may not be your issue, but it's worth a shot!

ishtar163 said:

One of my cats is 23 years old...he came into the marriage with my husband 12.5 years ago, and my husband had him since he was a baby. In all his life, he has been VERY pukey, especially when switching foods. He could never ever keep down wet food, especially. We have always assumed that he just has digestive issues, but he keeps down enough to sustain him, so we just stuck with whatever foods he kept down the best. Only very recently was I speaking to someone at a specialty pet supply store, and they were able to give more insight than all the vets this poor guy has been to. Apparently, besides hair balls, his biggest issue is eating too much to fast. They suggested to spread the wet food all over a plate in a thin layer so that he has to work harder and slower to get the food. He hasn't thrown up once since I started doing it that way, and is eating wet food every day. Also, as I thought about it, the dry foods that were in larger chunks always stayed down better, probably because they required more chewing. This may not be your issue, but it's worth a shot!

Click to expand...

That is why so many cat owners smear food over paper plate, slows them down and no clean up or chin acne! The only thing is that makes it hard to add water, like I do!