How To Incorporate Freeze Dried Food Into A Wet Diet?

[Salmonbisqueluvr]

So I have 3 1/2 month kitty that we adopted 1 month ago as of tomorrow. Her diet has been grain free wet food, mostly Merrick Purrfect Bistro with some Performatrin Ultra. I want to eventually feed her freeze-dried raw food, but I understand I have to slowly incorporate it in her diet. I recently went to PetValu and picked up a small bag of Stella & Chewy's Duck, Duck, Goose just to see how she reacted to it. She, like everything I place in front of her, loved it and devoured it like we never feed her. Unfortunately, I f'd up a little because I read something wrong on the S&C website: It said to incorporate 25% of the new food into her diet, and since I feed her 4x a day, I stupidly assumed that meant one of her 4 meals should be the new food.. lol. After the next meal, she puked, but she's been fine ever since.

So for the last few days, I've been breaking up about 3-4 nuggets, adding water, and then adding her wet food. She's been enjoying it and hasn't had any form of disagreements (litter box or puking.) I eventually want to switch over and try Primal, but I'm a little unsure about a few things.

I purchased two cases of Merrick from Chewy and I still have a few cans of Performatrim Ultra and I still want to use them. After I finish this bag of S&C, I'll be switching to Primal, but what kind of ratio should I be doing while I still have all of these cans? Meaning, should I eventually work up to where half of her day (2 feedings) will be freeze-dried raw, and the other half will be from a can? Also, once she's primarily on freeze-dried food, will the occasional day of wet food cause her any digestive issues?

I probably have more questions, but that's all I can think of right now. I'm just feeling a tad overwhelmed because I certainly don't want to upset her stomach!

Thank you!

 

[lisahe]

I think my main answer to you questions is "it depends." Some cats, like mine, do fine eating some canned meals and some raw meals. Others might not, though it seems like most people here who feed various kinds of foods don't see problems. The main thing seems to be staying consistent in feeding just wet foods. Given the vomiting after your initial try with S&C, the thing I'd probably be most careful with is switching from Stella & Chewy to Primal, just to be sure the change doesn't upset your kitten's stomach. It can be so hard to predict these things! (And sometimes it's impossible to figure out the exact cause of vomiting, particularly if your cat has a habit of hoovering up weird things like dust and tiny bits of food for humans that fell on the floor... we have a cat who seems to find every last grain of rice that fell after a spill... and she is of course an occasional vomiter. Plants, even non-toxic ones, are now banned after she barfed yesterday because she snarfled up something stemmy from a rosemary plant!)

Good luck and good for you for deciding to feed your kitten raw food!