Cat puking when switching from dry to wet food

Hi folks!

I adopted an overweight (13lbs) ten year old cat from a shelter about three weeks ago.  She had been free-fed wet and dry Science Diet in the shelter, but didn't eat much of anything when she got home for a few days.  I took her to the vet and she got one dose of an appetite stimulant and has been fine with food since then, but she has only been eating dry up until a few days ago.  I now feed her about 1/2 cup Nature's Variety Instinct Chicken flavor kibble a day.  

I switched her to meal times (7am and 8pm) to try to stimulate her to eat wet food, since she turned her nose up at it when dry was available.  I then started trying to transition her to wet food by placing a tiny amount of wet food in the middle of the kibble, then doubling the amount each day over a few days.  Today, I tried giving her 1/2 of a 3oz can of Fancy Feast Chicken and Liver in gravy on its own and she ate about half in one sitting and half an hour or so later.  After eating the second half, she proceeded to hack up the whole meal on my bureau.  She has vomited once before (last week) but that was a hairball and not food.

So I have a few questions on what to do here.

1) Should I continue mixing small amounts of the wet food with the dry and increasing the amounts slowly?  I'm really not sure how to be doing this, my last cat ate everything and anything with no issue haha.

2) Should I stick to one type of canned food when making the transition, or try different flavors and textures?  She ate two different types so far, both with a flaky sort of texture.  I'm just using "kitty crack" types like Fancy Feast to get her used to eating the wet food.

Thanks in advance for any help!

It may have been a fluke or it may have been the food. The gravy may have been too rich for her, since she's not used to it. "Gravy" foods tend to be pretty carb filled so it may have upset her tummy. I'd try some of the Fancy Feast Classics (Pate) and see how she holds those down.

How many times are you feeding her each day?  Could you try feeding more smaller meals throughout the day?  I strongly recommend having at least three timed meals a day.

My husband and I feed our two kitties four times a day -- when I wake up in the morning at 6am (I'm a teacher), again before my husband leaves for work between 8 and 9am, a third time when we get home in the evening around 6pm, and one last time before bed at 11pm.  On days I'm at home in the afternoon, I'll also give them a treat to help tide them over to dinnertime (typically one of the CET chews for dental health).

I also second @Paiger8's suggestion to try the Fancy Feast Classic varieties, which are lower in carbs.

If the vomiting continues, however, I would seek guidance from your vet.

Okay, from reading you post, I have two words for you.

SLOW DOWN...........way down.

Cats are finicky eaters anyway, and they do not like rapid and often changes of their diet. Ideally, when changing even from dry food to a different brand, the transition time should be as long as possible, like a month, with graduation in serving amounts of each food at a slow pace. Week one, 75/25 old/new. Week two 50/50, week three 25/75, continued until the old supply is gone. That is one method.

Getting a cat that had been on dry food for most her life, and going through the stress of diet and home changes, needs a lot more stability. Getting her to eat one type of food, that she doesn't reject, is extremely important. Having that stable, will allow for you to better understand when there is a problem. Changing foods constantly will mask any serious illness that may be dismissed as "food adjustment" symptoms.

I know you have the best intentions at heart, but sometimes the best thing to do is not change anything at all. First see what her baseline lifestyle is like, then make alterations to her diet for weight loss and overall health, but do it slowly please. Sincerely, the kittykeepers.

I agree with all the previous pieces of advice!

@Paiger8's suggestion of switching to only Fancy Feast pates is great because the FF "gravy" foods are loaded with wheat gluten, an ingredient that causes digestive issues in some cats because cats don't handle plant-based ingredients very well. Beyond that, if your cat is overweight, the carbs could be a problem. I'd plan to focus on meat-based foods and avoid ingredients like wheat, corn, potatoes, and peas; if your cat's already used to foods that have those (and not vomiting), I'd take her off them slowly since she's newly adopted.

@dorimon's thought of feeding more, smaller meals is perfect, too, because some cats (like one of ours) tend to vomit food from eating too fast if they're not fed frequently enough and/or vomit bile because acid accumulates in an empty stomach. (I say "and/or" because our cat has both these problems. Feeding five or six meals a day pretty much got rid of them.)

@Thekittykeepers also has a good point about not changing too much too fast on a recently adopted cat. It took our cats several months to really settle in and get on an eating routine. We weaned them off dry food over about a month or so: they came to us underfed and very skinny so would eat about anything but taking a cat off dry food can be difficult in many ways.

Good luck!

My question to you is...did your cat throw up almost immediately after eating this mixture of dry and wet food?  If so, it's probably actually regurgitation versus vomiting, and that's normally from eating too fast!  That is actually a good sign if you want him to eat wet food, because that means he likes it .

Now, to avoid his regurgitating his food he probably just needs to slow down.  For that you can (if possible), feed smaller meals more often, as suggested above, raise his dish, spread his food out on the plate, and best of all, place an obstacle in how bowl, like a clean golf ball or even a clean rock that he had to eat around. 

I totally agree too that if you are going to feed Fancy Feast, the CLASSICS are the way to go, especially if you want him to lose weight.  The gravy foods have way too many carbs,  he's already at risk for diabetes,

mrsgreenjeens said:

 
Now, to avoid his regurgitating his food he probably just needs to slow down.  For that you can (if possible), feed smaller meals more often, as suggested above, raise his dish, spread his food out on the plate, and best of all, place an obstacle in how bowl, like a clean golf ball or even a clean rock that he had to eat around. 

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We do the things I bolded and they've worked great to keep Edwina from throwing up!

And good point about diabetes, mrsgreenjeens, I'd meant to mention that in my previous post: it's all the more reason to go with low-carb foods. Tapioca is another ingredient that's used moderately frequently, as a thickener and increases the carbs quite a bit.

Following the helpful advice you all have offered, I have slowly been transitioning Charlie from Nature's Variety Chicken dry to Nature's Variety Chicken canned over the past week. I have been putting the kibble and wet in the same bowl and changing the ratio in favor of wet.  I have also split the servings into three meals: breakfast at 8am, snack at 7 and dinner at 10.  I also mush the food all around the plate instead of making a mound in the middle.  

She has been doing ok so far, no puking at all.  I think the gravy or texture of the other foods may have been the problem; she seems ok with pate and no gravy.  I think she may have some sort of mild allergy to something in it because she is scratching herself more than usual and shaking her head some, but I'm going to keep her on this food for a couple of weeks before I try gradually introducing another flavor.  Thank you all for your wonderful suggestions!!

Lots of great advice already posted. The only thing that I can add isn't advice but an example from what happened to our cat.

The one and only time she vomited her food was when she hadn't eaten from 6pm till 5:15am the next morning (almost 12 hours) and she scarfed down her breakfast too fast. I usually feed her 4 small meals per day plus a snack or two in between and a little snack between 9-11pm at night after a play session, but my parents were babysitting her that night and went to bed early without a nighttime snack. She must've been starving by the time her next meal came around so she inhaled the food and it came right back up.

CharlieGirl said:

 
Following the helpful advice you all have offered, I have slowly been transitioning Charlie from Nature's Variety Chicken dry to Nature's Variety Chicken canned over the past week. I have been putting the kibble and wet in the same bowl and changing the ratio in favor of wet.  I have also split the servings into three meals: breakfast at 8am, snack at 7 and dinner at 10.  I also mush the food all around the plate instead of making a mound in the middle.  

She has been doing ok so far, no puking at all.  I think the gravy or texture of the other foods may have been the problem; she seems ok with pate and no gravy.  I think she may have some sort of mild allergy to something in it because she is scratching herself more than usual and shaking her head some, but I'm going to keep her on this food for a couple of weeks before I try gradually introducing another flavor.  Thank you all for your wonderful suggestions!!

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Yay!  Great news

I am glad things are working out for you. Been busy, and did not have time to read all the threads, but here goes.

I am glad that the transition is going better, hope you find a food that works consistently, and it sounds as if you have. One thing I noticed at the end of your reply, is the scratching. Is it to the ear(s)? Sounds like ear mites, which cause the cat to shake their head, their ear to move with no relation to sound, and endless scratching, some will scratch until they are bleeding. If your cat is still scratching the ear(s), then you might want to get them checked for mites, they are nasty and treatments are simple. Good luck, the kittykeepers.