Changing Food Questions

oreo88

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Hello all..just recently became a cat parent to a rescue cat and had a few questions.  I'm currently feeding him Purina Pro Plan True Nature dry food and a variety of wet foods.  A 1/4 cup and then 3oz wet.  My partner kind of went to the store and got a bunch of random items and seeing if it's ok to incorporate into his diet.  

I was wondering if this purina pro plan is an alright dry food and if I were to switch how would that go??? He currently has no issue with changing out wet food and seems to like eating everything.  

I have two flavors of the dry so do I need to mix it in or is there not really a change in ingredients to need to do that?  I also have a bag of Wellness Core. Do I just follow what's on the bag and incorporate into the diet in 7 days?

Thanks!
 

molly92

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Although there are worse foods than Purina, it's definitely not my favorite brand. I'm looking at the first several Turkey and Rice flavor ingredients as an example:

Turkey, brewers rice, soy protein isolate, Chicken meal, dried egg product, soy protein concentrate, pea protein, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), cassava root flour, natural flavor, sodium caseinate, gelatin, phosphoric acid, L-Lysine monohydrochloride, calcium carbonate, potassium chloride, salt....etc.

Brewers rice is a cheap filler. Cats need NO plant based carbohydrates in their diet; they only get converted to fat and can contribute to lots of health problems. Soy protein isolate is a cheap way for them to say their product has a lot of protein without using actual meat. Soy is from plants and does not contain the kind of proteins cats use. Same for pea protein. 

Some cats will do just fine with ingredients like these all their lives, but many gain weight and have other health problems, some develop sensitivities to the ingredients, and all cats will do better when fed a healthier diet. It's always a balancing act between what your budget is for cat food, what you have time for, and what's best for your cat. Feeding a raw or home cooked diet is the healthiest, although it takes a lot of work and research to get started. The next best option is to feed only canned food, because canned food uses fewer cheap fillers and it contains a similar moisture level to a cat's ancestral diet. Dehydration causes a lot of issues for cats because they do not have a high thirst drive, and feeding canned will help a great deal.

If you can't feed all canned, some canned is better than nothing.

Wellness CORE is a much higher quality food:

Deboned Turkey, Deboned Chicken, Chicken Meal, Whitefish Meal, Herring Meal, Peas, Turkey Meal, Potatoes, Chicken Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Tomato Pomace, Natural Chicken Flavor, Ground Flaxseed, etc

There are still peas and potatoes, but the first 5 ingredients are all from animals which is significant. Fish is not a great ingredient, though. Fine in moderation, but they're not great nutritionally and large fish species like whitefish have a lot of heavy metal and toxin buildup due to pollution.

So Wellness CORE is much better, but it's hard to find a perfect dry food because most contain fillers of some sort. Their canned is pretty great, but it's very expensive compared to other equally good canned foods (possibly dry too, I haven't comparison shopped for dry foods in a while), so you may want to do some shopping around and learn to judge quality from the ingredient list. Chewy.com is a very convenient site to order a variety of foods at a good price if you're in the US. 

Sorry for the crash course on cat nutrition. It's good to learn how to make your own judgement based on a list of ingredients, though, because brands keep changing formulas all the time. If you really want to spend a few hours reading about how and what is best for your cat to eat, go to catinfo.org. It's very reliable information written by a vet who has a lot of experience.

When switching foods, it's generally recommended to make the change gradually just in case, mixing the new in with the old, adding more new and less old each day. Be careful to go by the calories and not amount of cups, because that can vary dramatically between brands and even flavors. Some cats will be fine switching without a transition, but some will get diarrhea or just won't like the sudden change. I've think I've heard that dry foods tend to cause more upset when switched than wet, but I'm not positive on that. It doesn't hurt to be careful, at any rate. If your cat has a sensitivity to an ingredient that you don't know about, switching slowly can also help you identify that quickly. For example, if you're giving 10% new food and your cat starts having symptoms, the problem is probably with the food and not with the transition. 

Feeding a variety of wet foods is a great idea. It can keep cats interested, it gives them a variety of nutrients so more bases are covered, and it reduces the likelihood of developing food allergies and sensitivities. 

It's so wonderful he's such a good eater! What a good cat! That is going to make your life much easier! Thank you for rescuing this cat!
 
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oreo88

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Very helpful. Thanks for the information.
 
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