For those of you who rotate foods

How often do you do the rotation? How do you go about doing it?

So far I've found two foods my cats really like, and I'm considering rotating between them and maybe one or two other foods.

Any suggestions would be great!

you really don't need to switch or rotate foods. It can cause digestive upset, vomiting , diarrhea, if you find a food they like, and they are doing well with it, then just keep them on it.

My neighbor will not listen to me.. she changes her cats food all the time. Granted its all high quality but she feels they need variety. She is so stubborn

Everytime I have ever tried to switch dry foods I get at least a couple of mine with diarreha for a while. I might mix in a small amount of something different for a little while to give them variety, but that's it. They also get a small snack of canned food nightly, and will mix up the flavors with that. Recently I started mixing in some SD Oral Care with their SC Maintenance, and it really perked them up again on their dry food (the Oral Care chunks get eaten out of the bowls first).

I rotate brands every 3 - 4 months and have done so for over 2yrs now. When I switch from one brand to another I always do so gradually over 1-2 wks....no digestive upsets here although some cats seem to be more sensitive to food changes than others.
Personally, I don't think its imperative to switch brands frequently but I do beleive that it helps keep mine from becoming finicky by giving them some variety. Now that I've found several brands that work well for my cats I will start rotating less frequently - every 6 months.

I dont necessarily rotate, but I blend 2 brands together. 1 is the Chicken Soup for the cat lovers etc. I use both the light and the regular, about 50/50. Then I use one other, cant recall the name offhand. I blend the 2 Chicken Soups and this one, about 75/25. I also do this to try and keep them from being finicky. None of my 3 have a problem with the blend. It may vary slightly in proportions but not by much.

For wet foods, I rotate with a few brands. They split about 3 cans a week between the 3 of them and again, no problems there.

I also mix innova with chicken soup. I also give a different canned brand every night...precise, innova or pet guard.

JC has an iron-clad stomach, and he dictates when and how his dry food is rotated. He refuses to eat the same brand more than twice a week, so I buy three different brands, usually in 2 kg. bags, and feed them on consecutive days (right now Solid Gold, Eukanuba and Innova). After he has been eating a brand that way for about 3 - 4 months, he stops eating it, so I have to replace it with something else (Felidae and Nutro will be on offer next). He's not quite as bad with canned food because of the different flavors available, so I can stick to the same 3 or 4 brands (Innova, Solid Gold and two European brands). However, the food has to be in little (2 - 3 ounce) cans, and pouches or aluminum foil dishes are unacceptable. No diarrhea or vomiting, so I give into his demands.

I just read online that it's good to rotate food so your cat won't become "addicted" to one food and refuse to eat others, thus not getting proper, complete, balanced nutrition. What do people think of this?

Bailey - I have heard this too. You can read about it in a veterinary text book called Canine and Feline Nutrition (Linda Case, et. all).

They say: "More so than dogs, cats are susceptible to the development of fixed food preferences if fed a diet that contains a single type of ingredient for a long period. Some cats eventually accept only this one food item and will refuse to eat any other type or flavor of food. If the food is not complete and balanced, nutrient imbalances may occur..." (pg 191).

IMHO, I think a lot of companies tell you not to rotate foods because they only want you to buy their brand and stick with it (all about the $$). My cat does fine with a food change, as long as it is a quality food.

Aquarius, thanks for the input. I think rotating is OK as long as it's good food and there's no suffering from the kitties. I want to find the best there is. So far I've got samples from Dr. Jane Bick (Life's Abundance), and Flint River Ranch and am trying for samples of Solid Gold, Chicken Soup etc. They are doing fine with these and I'm going slowly.

Ive read so many conflicting things , Its had for me to form an opinion . I hear on the one hand it can cause tummy problems on the other it prevents boredom / addiction . are there any sites that talk about this subject?

I found this article:
http://www.vet.cornell.edu/Public/FHC/feedcats.html
"VARIETY
Feeding your cat two or three different cat foods provides flavor variety. It also prevents the cat from developing a preference for a food that may not be 100 percent nutritionally balanced. However, if your cat is already a finicky eater that craves an unbalanced diet, you can break the habit. A good method is to convert it to a new taste slowly by mixing the new food with the old. Increase the amount of new to old food by one-quarter increments (i.e., 1:4, 2:4, 3:4) until your cat accepts the new food. However, if your cat is content with a single nutritionally complete and balanced cat food, there really is no reason to change its preference."