Hi all!
I just brought home the third member of our cat family. Unlike our two boys who were both adopted from the SPCA, Mindy was adopted directly from her previous family; her prior owners are moving to a seniors home that does not allow cats. Her first family clearly love her an enormous amount, and so I don't want to imply that any of their food choices for her were made out of not caring, but her current diet is not ideal in at least three ways.
1. Mindy is currently free-fed, and I would like to transition her to eating twice a day like our other cats do.
2. Mindy is currently eating brands of food that I would not choose for her (her dry is Meow Mix and she has a variety of wet foods that aren't the brands I prefer for my cats after the research I've done).
3. Perhaps as a result of 1 and 2, Mindy could probably stand to lose some weight.
Now, our sweet girl has already experienced some enormous changes - today she came home with us to a whole new environment (although she's in a secluded spare room with lots of hiding spots and cozy places to rest, litter, food and water, and a Feliway diffuser, so we are doing our best to mitigate that stress), and in the coming months she will be (slowly) introduced to our resident cats. I don't want to stress Mindy out more than necessary, so I know all the aspects of food transitions should be done slowly. My question is, what should we focus on first when we start adjusting her diet?
Your thoughts and suggestions are greatly appreciated!
I just brought home the third member of our cat family. Unlike our two boys who were both adopted from the SPCA, Mindy was adopted directly from her previous family; her prior owners are moving to a seniors home that does not allow cats. Her first family clearly love her an enormous amount, and so I don't want to imply that any of their food choices for her were made out of not caring, but her current diet is not ideal in at least three ways.
1. Mindy is currently free-fed, and I would like to transition her to eating twice a day like our other cats do.
2. Mindy is currently eating brands of food that I would not choose for her (her dry is Meow Mix and she has a variety of wet foods that aren't the brands I prefer for my cats after the research I've done).
3. Perhaps as a result of 1 and 2, Mindy could probably stand to lose some weight.
Now, our sweet girl has already experienced some enormous changes - today she came home with us to a whole new environment (although she's in a secluded spare room with lots of hiding spots and cozy places to rest, litter, food and water, and a Feliway diffuser, so we are doing our best to mitigate that stress), and in the coming months she will be (slowly) introduced to our resident cats. I don't want to stress Mindy out more than necessary, so I know all the aspects of food transitions should be done slowly. My question is, what should we focus on first when we start adjusting her diet?
Your thoughts and suggestions are greatly appreciated!