Food transition for cats – this is how it always succeeds.
Cats are known to be "creatures of habit" and are hard to convince to try new cat food. This is especially unfortunate when you actually want to do something good for them and switch from low-quality to higher-quality cat food. You would actually think that cats would gladly accept it and eagerly dive into the better food – unfortunately, this is often not the case, and the new, usually not cheap food is rejected with protest until the "old" familiar factory food is back in the bowl.
Cats are not "food experts."
The reason for this rejecting behavior has to do with the cat's genes – in nature, it is very dangerous for the cat to eat something it does not know. Cats are genetic "neophobes," meaning they are basically afraid of everything new at first. In nature, this protects them from unknown dangers such as poisonous plants and animals. Once the cat has learned that "mouse" or "lizard" is "good" food, it sticks to it to avoid accidentally eating "poisonous snake" or "scorpion." Unfortunately, this is less helpful when switching from factory food to high-quality food.
Cats therefore cannot judge what the better food for them is; they do not orient themselves to the quality of the food, but only to which food they are used to eating. Cats are therefore very poor advisors when it comes to food quality. In nature, this is not a problem because there are no mice with high-quality and low-quality ingredients – unfortunately, it looks different with canned food.
We humans have to decide what food quality our cat gets! If the cat "doesn't like" the unfamiliar food, that only means that it is not used to the food and that we are now responsible for reconditioning our cat(s) to the new, better food.
How to successfully switch your cat(s) to new food is explained here below:
With luck, it already works with the "two-bowl method."
The simplest method that works for many cats is to simply place a small bowl with the new, unfamiliar food next to the usual food for a few days. In the first days, it probably won't be eaten yet, but your cat can already "casually" get used to the unfamiliar smell. With some luck, the new food will be tried and eaten after a few days, and the "old" food can be completely omitted. If this doesn't work, the "substitution method" described below will probably work.
Patience is the key to a successful food transition.
If your cat(s) are used to receiving different types of food, you are lucky. Scientific studies show that imprinting on a certain food already begins in the womb. Cats whose mothers were already accustomed to different types of food usually eat the new food immediately, especially if it is higher quality than the usual food. Cats whose mothers received factory food during pregnancy are already imprinted on it before birth. Unfortunately, this does not work for all cats. If you have a "picky" cat that is only used to a certain food, you need to be patient when changing the food. Especially since many food manufacturers add so-called "acceptance enhancers" to their food, which are not declared but to which cats get used.
The most successful method for changing food is called the "substitution method" and is basically quite simple: The old food is replaced in very small steps by more and more "new" food. The trick is to increase the addition of the new food very slowly so that the cat can gradually get used to the new taste. How long this takes depends on your cat – as an average, please assume two to three weeks during which the food must be replaced very slowly. In extreme cases, it can take 6 or 8 weeks – so you need a lot of patience.
1) First day: mix in only 1/4 teaspoon of new food!
There are even cats for whom this is already too much. Usually, 1/4 teaspoon – well mixed with the usual cat food – is eaten without objection. If even that is refused, use only 1/8 teaspoon.
And this continues for at least 14 days. Every day, a very small amount the usual food is replaced by a small amount of the new food. After four days, you may already be able to mix a whole teaspoon of the new food without any protests. After about 2-3 weeks, your cat will then get a food mixture that already consists mostly of the new food. From then on, simply reduce the old food using the same method.
To keep track of the exact amounts, it is best to measure in teaspoons or weigh the amounts on a precision scale - in any case, note the corresponding ratios in a list. You can download and print the list shown below here. Please note that much less of very high-quality food is needed than of cheap food (in extreme cases half) to provide the same amount of calories, as the cat can utilize the food much better and the contents are much higher quality. THEREFORE, BE SURE TO COMPARE THE FEEDING RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE MANUFACTURERS.
2) Introduce fixed feeding times.
You can make the transition to new food easier for your cat by only feeding at fixed feeding times and not giving treats in between. Dry food should also not be offered all day in the bowl unless this is necessary for health reasons (underweight, etc.). A healthy, natural feeling of hunger, as every free-living cat in nature has, promotes appetite and helps overweight cats to feel satiated again and encourages thin cats to want to eat. Once the cat has learned that food is only given when the owner decides, the risk of fussiness is also significantly lower!
Feed adult cats 3-4 times daily at fixed times, young cats at least 5-6 times. Food that is not eaten within half an hour should be taken away and only offered again at the next feeding time. You will be amazed how quickly cats can adjust to fixed feeding times. However, hunger breaks of more than 12 hours should definitely be avoided as they can quickly lead to health damage. (Hepatic lipidosis).
3) Transition without having to throw away food – the "food cube method."
Wet food is only good for a few days even in the refrigerator and normally you would have to throw away large amounts of unused food when switching to new food. To avoid this, we recommend the "ice food cube method." Take a standard ice cube tray and on the first day of the food transition fill a can of the new food into the container and freeze it.
Now you can thaw one or later several "food cubes" every day about half an hour before feeding, depending on the need. If the amounts of "old food" / "new food" are roughly balanced, you also freeze a can of "old food" this way. This way you can put together the amounts of the two types of food as needed and don't have to throw away any food.
We wish you much success with the transition and would like to take this opportunity to point out one of our favorite cat blogs. On "Katzen-Fieber.de" there is a lot of well-founded information about healthy nutrition for cats and also an informative page on the topic of "food transition": http://www.katzen-fieber.de/futterumstellung.php
Further information on the topic of cat food
What is good cat food?
How to get your cat to drink more
Lucky-Kitty Cat Food Sample Set