Mixing Foods??

[2rescuekitties]

Is it okay to mixed brands and foods? I know it says that when you are transitioning from foods to do it slowly or my vet even said try to stick to one type of brand and food if I can but I feel like I would get bored eating the same chicken dinner every night so wouldn't my cats get bored too?

Right now for the kibble I have a big airtight jar that I mix in 1 2lbs bag of Nature's variety Instinct protein chicken flavored, and then 1 2lbs bag of wholehearted salmon flavored or the Solid Gold quail flavored. So they are getting two flavors mixed together and they seem to like it.

For wet canned food I rotate between the Lamb, duck, salmon, chicken and rabbit flavors of the Natures Variety Instinct brand and they love the wellness core signature selects skipjack tuna and salmon, and sometimes as a treat I do give them fancy feast because they just love it
So is it okay that I am mixing flavors and brands? or should I just pick one and stick with it?

 

[maggie101]

You will find many threads about rotating. I have started doing it. Brands and meats. Never any fish. I use Tiki,weruva,wellness core,wellness complete,fancy feast. Plan on trying Soulistic,against the grain,fommers
Chicken,duck,lamb,beef,turkey. Beware! Cats love shredded meat! I stopped buying signature select after reading the chart that it is high in carbs.

 

[2rescuekitties]

You will find many threads about rotating. I have started doing it. Brands and meats. Never any fish. I use Tiki,weruva,wellness,fancy feast. Plan on trying Soulistic,against the grain,fommers
Chicken,duck,lamb,beef,turkey. Beware! Cats love shredded meat!

If fish not that good for them? I have seen quite a few posts about people that say they don't want to feed fish just poulty meats or things like that..Is that something I should watch out for?

 

[maggie101]

Something about high mercury. Don't remember all the details

 

[2rescuekitties]

Something about high mercury. Don't remember all the details

Ahh okay that would make sense...maybe I will keep that to once in a while just like the fancy feast. Thank you for your input

 

[maggie101]

https://www.darwinspet.com/should-cats-ehttpsat-fish/

Oops, page no longer exists

 

[Neo_23]

I don't feed dry food but usually it's hard to mix between different dry foods because they are so processed and full of carbs. They can be really harsh on cats' stomachs. Cats get used to one type of dry food and then can't handle new dry foods well. (Although I have known some exceptions to this rule where some cats do just fine on different dry foods).

Wet foods should be easy to rotate for most cats unless they have sensitivities or digestive problems. I rotate different kinds of wet foods - I feed about 4 different brands in a week, but I only feed raw and canned food.

I find it kind of silly when vets tell you to stick with one kind of food. That's like a human eating the same meal their entire life. There is no one food that is the most nutritionally complete for all cats. Rotating is good because it gives your cat variety both in terms of textures, flavours and proteins as well as nutritional diversity. It also prevents your cat from becoming a stickler about what they want to eat (hopefully) and from building sensitivities to a particular kind of food because they've been fed it consistently every single day.

 

[2rescuekitties]

I don't feed dry food but usually it's hard to mix between different dry foods because they are so processed and full of carbs. They can be really harsh on cats' stomachs. Cats get used to one type of dry food and then can't handle new dry foods well. (Although I have known some exceptions to this rule where some cats do just fine on different dry foods).

Wet foods should be easy to rotate for most cats unless they have sensitivities or digestive problems. I rotate different kinds of wet foods - I feed about 4 different brands in a week, but I only feed raw and canned food.

I find it kind of silly when vets tell you to stick with one kind of food. That's like a human eating the same meal their entire life. There is no one food that is the most nutritionally complete for all cats. Rotating is good because it gives your cat variety both in terms of textures, flavours and proteins as well as nutritional diversity. It also prevents your cat from becoming a stickler about what they want to eat (hopefully) and from building sensitivities to a particular kind of food because they've been fed it consistently every single day.

I wish I could stop feeding kibble but my female cat that is all that she basically eats and I have heard cats will go on a hunger strike because they are just that stubborn and I have tried adding water to the wet food or trying morsels, sliced, pate...all she does is lick a little bit of the juices and then turns her nose up at it..sometimes she doesn't even lick the juice and simply smells it and walks away

 

[lalagimp]

Since last summer, I started offering my girls wet food along with their kibble. Shortly after I started a rotation because we're trying out products for Chewy or get manufacture samples. Princess Yue Pants is 9 years old this spring, and has never really been a serious foodie... but... yesterday she kept harassing me for fried chicken. She'd tap me on the arm, she's try to touch the chicken, she'd try to take a bite while I was holding it.
Underneath the skin and seasoning, I let her have some of the meat. She surprised me 2 years ago when she asked for bacon.

They were eating Nature's Variety Instinct chicken kibble and we switched to Dr Elsey's cleanprotein chicken kibble. We foods we eat or tried are Nature's Variety Instinct chicken or duck, Meow Mix Simple Servings, American Journey, Weruva Cats in the Kitchen, Tiki After Dark, I and Love and You, Nature's Variety Instinct minced recipe chicken,
and they did not like Blue Wilderness. I have a few days left to document and try them on Stella and Chewy Duck Duck Goose for this month's #Chewyinfluencer

 

[2rescuekitties]

Since last summer, I started offering my girls wet food along with their kibble. Shortly after I started a rotation because we're trying out products for Chewy or get manufacture samples. Princess Yue Pants is 9 years old this spring, and has never really been a serious foodie... but... yesterday she kept harassing me for fried chicken. She'd tap me on the arm, she's try to touch the chicken, she'd try to take a bite while I was holding it.
Underneath the skin and seasoning, I let her have some of the meat. She surprised me 2 years ago when she asked for bacon.

They were eating Nature's Variety Instinct chicken kibble and we switched to Dr Elsey's cleanprotein chicken kibble. We foods we eat or tried are Nature's Variety Instinct chicken or duck, Meow Mix Simple Servings, American Journey, Weruva Cats in the Kitchen, Tiki After Dark, I and Love and You, Nature's Variety Instinct minced recipe chicken,
and they did not like Blue Wilderness. I have a few days left to document and try them on Stella and Chewy Duck Duck Goose for this month's #Chewyinfluencer

I tried the Stella and Chewy the chicken one and once again my picky one would not touch it so that was a no go for us. But I hope it works out for you because it seems like a wonderful brand! I wish my female cat like eating things that were good for her

 

[duckpond]

I feed both wet and dry. I feed two wet meals per day, all they will eat, and leave dry out all the time. works for us.

I dont normally mix dry foods together, but i dont really see a problem with it. For dry i normally only feed Dr. Elseys chicken, very high protein and low carb, hard to find in a dry food. Occasionally i will give them a bit of Farmina, its fairly low carb too, but not as low as elseys. but my guys LOVE the farmina venison and pumpkin. since i free feed dry the low carbs is really important to me. I have one girl that really wont eat wet either, i still offer it to her, and if its fish day she will eat some. I try not to feed fish often, but i do feed a meal a few times a week. but only a few trusted brands of fish.

For wet, its kind of a free for all...lol i rotate quite a few wet foods. I feed weruva, mainly paw lickin chicken or chicken frick a zee, sometimes goldie lox, it has fish. I also feed quite a bit of the Tiki after dark flavors. Against the grain chicken and cheese, and the tuna and mango. i feed Fussie cat super premium, the chicken and beef, and the chicken and liver. I feed several of the almo nature complete foods. Nutro minced chicken, and the sliced turkey. Nulo, the minced flavors only. Lately they have really enjoyed the American journey minced poultry flavors, you can only get them from Chewy. Sometimes they will eat the chicken pate from american journey. The occasional fancy feast, mine are hit and miss with this. sometimes Rawz turkey, but again hit and miss. They also like all of the Earthborn fish flavors. If im in a pet store i will often pick up new things to try, but these are my go too foods. Needless to say i support rotating

 

[Neo_23]

I wish I could stop feeding kibble but my female cat that is all that she basically eats and I have heard cats will go on a hunger strike because they are just that stubborn and I have tried adding water to the wet food or trying morsels, sliced, pate...all she does is lick a little bit of the juices and then turns her nose up at it..sometimes she doesn't even lick the juice and simply smells it and walks away

You may find this information helpful: http://catinfo.org/docs/TipsForTransitioning1-14-11.pdf

 

[maggie101]

For some odd reason my cat Coco will not touch the tiki after dark but loves Weruva. Even if I pick the chicken out she will not eat it

 

[cheesycats]

I’ve rotated foods (quickly) for a long time now. At one point my cats were eating just a big mixture of nb wild pursuit (has been discontinued) solid gold indigo moon and merrick back country all at once cus I found a good deal on them and paid 60$ for almost 60 lbs of food. With cans i feed a large variety of different kinds. My female is very picky and will not eat the same canned food twice in a row. In my opinion a cat or dog who can’t handle switching around foods quickly isn’t very healthy. I mean if you ate the same meal everyday for years your stomach would freak out if you ate something different too. And it just can’t be healthy to eat the same thing forever. No food is perfect and you certainly don’t want a dog or cat to be unable to make a quick switch of an emergency pops up and you have to feed something different. I think it’s just good to know the types of proteins and textures your animals like so you can have back ups if need be.

 

[2rescuekitties]

I’ve rotated foods (quickly) for a long time now. At one point my cats were eating just a big mixture of nb wild pursuit (has been discontinued) solid gold indigo moon and merrick back country all at once cus I found a good deal on them and paid 60$ for almost 60 lbs of food. With cans i feed a large variety of different kinds. My female is very picky and will not eat the same canned food twice in a row. In my opinion a cat or dog who can’t handle switching around foods quickly isn’t very healthy. I mean if you ate the same meal everyday for years your stomach would freak out if you ate something different too. And it just can’t be healthy to eat the same thing forever. No food is perfect and you certainly don’t want a dog or cat to be unable to make a quick switch of an emergency pops up and you have to feed something different. I think it’s just good to know the types of proteins and textures your animals like so you can have back ups if need be.

That's good advice and I am glad so many other people agree..I wasn't quite sure what to think when my vet said to basically find one food and feed them that for as long as I can...I just don't find that fair. Although my vet kinda sucks and I don't feel like he really cares to thoroughly discuss things with me. He's the type to do a quick check over and be done and pass my off to his assistant.

 

[sunflower7]

My cats have always eaten mixed dry food brands. 2,3 even 4 at once.

Also When I get samples from pet food store I let them try straight to see if they like. then add to the mix. I think I have maybe 5 brands in my container at the moment.
And they eat about 5 brands of cans. 3 brands a day.
All 3 cats.
I think variety is good.
If you have Netflix there’s a cool cat documentary there. One thing the animal nutrionist said was cars in the wild will always try to eat a meal they didn’t just eat. They crave variety.

 

[Ladewyn]

Rotating wet food is great imo! I think it definitely helps with the boredom.
Fish food is actually completely fine for cats (from reputable brands). You can't feed fresh fish or fish prepped for people, but fish flavour foods for cats usually don't contain that much fish (usually they're with chicken or another meat), and are balanced to provide full nutrition. It's honestly mostly for the flavour, which is appealing to cats.