Switching Pet Foods Can Be Challenging; Especially For Cats

Wednesday, April 18th, 2007 by Elle Woloszuk 0 Comments

0 Comments

These days, switching pet foods is common because of all the pet food recalls. Dogs, in most cases, are not very picky. They love to eat and will pretty much gobble up most of what is given to them. They even work hard to grab things out of their reach!

Cats, on the other hand, are known to be finicky. This trait is one their brains are programmed to do. Cats imprint on certain things as food or not food; probably because they are decendants of wild cats that need to know poisonous plants and small animals from non-poisonous ones.

With patience and good planning, the switch can be made.

Be patient. Your cat will appreciate it. Switching foods is stressful for your pet, and with love and patience, she will grow to accept her new food (she will also start to get pretty hungry which helps). Careful planning will be to your advantage, too. Plan out her meal times, at first, so she doesn’t have constant access to the new food. It will be fresh and tastey to her if you designate meal times then put her food away.

If the switch is for dietary or medical reasons, put a little of the old food on the new food so the cat gradually accepts the new food. If it has to be a rapid switch because of recent recalls, try warming the food slightly, and adding tuna juice on top, or puree the food and put it into a plastic squeeze bottle (cut the top opening so the food can be squeezed out), and then basically bottle-feed your cat. Most cats will imprint to this new food in about three days using this method.