Cat's Diet

Hi everyone!

This past month, I switched my Cat's diet from dry to wet food. I made the mistake of doing it cold turkey, thinking it wasn't a big deal because she had switched easily between different brands of dry food. There wasn't an issue at the beginning. In the last two weeks, however, I've noticed the volume of her feces and urine has decreased a lot. She has been eating less of her wet food. My friend suggested going back to dry food and mixing it with her wet food, or trying different wet foods as she's not eating the one I've had for her. 

Last night, she walked by the food and make the "throwing sand over poop" motion with it! (So sassy!)

I've noticed she really likes the broth, but doesn't like to chew the food. I've been feeding her Nature's Variety Instinct No Grain/95% Meat. 

What brands would you recommend? She likes the sauce so I've been looking at wet foods with lots of gravy. Do you agree that I should go back to dry and mix it with wet food? She's been on this food for the past month and didn't have an issue the first two weeks.

Besides the decrease in volume, she's been acting normal (friendly, cuddly, wakes me at 7am for the food) and the feces/urine is normal. 

I'm also considering taking her to the vet later this week.

Thanks in advance for any and all input,

Cat's Mom

The decrease in the poop volume is probably because you got rid of all the indigestible stuff in the dry food.  Cats eating a raw diet or natural prey do not poop a lot.  Also, some dry foods now contain added salt to make them drink more, since cat's do not have a strong thirst drive, so she may be getting less salt in her diet now  If you are feeding wet food that has broth and chunks, rather than pate, read the label and make sure there aren't a lot of additives (i.e. wheat gluten to make the chunks or potato starch to make the gravy).    Your cat may also be going through carb withdrawal to a point, because on dry food she was eating a lot of carbohydrates, and with the wet food diet, carbohydrates are lower (at least if you dont get foods with lots of gravy!  Again, read the ingredients.)   Just as carbs make you crave more carbs and eat more, cutting them back reduces cravings.  Its like the Atkins diet, once you get off the carbs for a couple of weeks, your body settles down and you don't crave them like you used to.  I don't believe you should go back to dry and mix it with the wet food. That's like telling your child he can have cookies with his dinner.  Cats are like kids, and we have to choose what's healthy for them.  Yes, you should have transitioned more slowly, but since it's already done, don't backslide! She may be bored with healthy food, but as long as she's eating enough to keep a good weight, don't worry about it.  If you want to give her a little crunchy dessert after she finishes her dinner, that should be fine.  Just remember, in the wild she would be eating birds, bugs, small mammals and reptiles, and the only crunch would be their bones.

Gravy foods aren't that great for cats because they tend to be heavy on the carbs from the thickening agents and some brands are mostly gravy (ie water) with very little actual food. You can take pate food like the Nature's Variety and add water to it and mush it up. Some cats just like to eat soupy food. It's ok to rotate in some gravy and sauce based foods once in awhile. Weruva and Soulisitc and Tiki Cat are good. I think Wellness has some gravy / sauce foods too. Don't feed seafood too often.

Many cats poop a little less on canned food than on dry food. Dry foods tends to be not very digestible because of all the fillers so a lot of it ends up as poop. As long as your cat is peeing and pooping just fine, don't wory about her litter box habits

I suggest adding some variety to the diet. Try both different meats and different brands. Nature's Variety Instinct has a few different canned foods: the originals, Pride by Instinct, Ultimate Protein, etc. http://www.instinctpetfood.com/for-cats Give them all a try.