Changing food for cats - this is how it always works.
As we all know, cats are “creatures of habit” and are difficult to convince to try new cat food. This is particularly unfortunate if you actually want to do something good for them and want to switch from lower quality to higher quality cat food. You would actually think that the cats would happily accept this and happily go for the better food - unfortunately this is often not the case and the new, usually not very cheap food is spurned in protest until the "old" factory food they are used to is back in the market Bowl is.
Cats are not "food experts".
The reason for this negative behavior has to do with the cat's genes - in nature it is very dangerous for the cat to eat something that it does not know. Cats are genetic “neophobes” so they are basically afraid of anything new. In nature, this protects them from unknown dangers such as poisonous plants and animals. Once the cat has learned that "mouse" or "lizard" is a "good" food, it sticks with it so as not to accidentally come across "venomous snake" or "scorpion". Unfortunately, this is less helpful when switching from factory feed to high-quality feed.
Cats cannot judge which food is better for them; they are not guided by the quality of the food, but only by what food they are used to eating. Cats are therefore very bad at themselves Advice when it comes to feed quality. In nature, this is not a problem because there are no mice with high-quality and low-quality ingredients - unfortunately things are different with canned food.
We humans have to decide what quality of food our cat gets from us! If the cat "doesn't like" the unfamiliar food, it just means that it is not used to the food and that we are now responsible for getting our cat used to the new, better food.
We have explained below how you can successfully switch your cat(s) to new food:
With luck you can do it using the “two bowl method”.
The simplest method, which works for many cats, is to simply place a small bowl of the new, unfamiliar food next to their usual food for a few days. It probably won't be eaten in the first few days, but your cat can get used to the unfamiliar smell without any obligation. With a bit of luck, the new food will be tried and eaten after just a few days and the "old" food can be left out completely. If that doesn't work, you can probably use the "substitution method" described below.
Patience is the key to a successful feed change.
If your cat(s) are used to different types of food, you're in luck. Scientific studies show that the imprint on a certain food begins in the womb. Cats whose mothers were already used to different types of food usually eat the new food immediately, especially if it is of higher quality than the food they are used to. Cats whose mothers received factory food during pregnancy are imprinted on this food before birth. Unfortunately, this doesn't work for all cats. If you have a "picky" cat that is only used to a certain food, you will need to be patient when changing the food. Especially since many food manufacturers add so-called "acceptance improvers" to their food, which are not declared but to which the cats get used.
The most successful method for changing feed is called the “substitution method” and is, in principle, very simple: the old feed is replaced in very small steps with more and more “new” feed. The trick is to very slowly increase the addition of the new food so that the cat can slowly get used to the new taste. How long this takes depends on your cat - as an average, please assume two to three weeks in which the food must be replaced very slowly. In extreme cases this can take 6 or 8 weeks - so you need a lot of patience.
1) First day: only mix in 1/4 teaspoon of new food!
There are even cats for whom this is just too much. As a rule, 1/4 teaspoon - mixed well with the usual cat food - is eaten without problems. If even that is refused, take only 1/8 teaspoon.
And it continues like this for at least 14 days. Every day there will be one very small amount of the usual food is replaced with a small amount of the new food. After four days, you may be able to mix in a whole teaspoon of the new food without any protests. After perhaps 2-3 weeks, your cat will be given a food mixture that largely consists of the new food. From there, simply reduce the old food using the same method.
To keep track of the exact amounts, it is best to count in teaspoons or weigh the amounts on a precision scale - be sure to write down the corresponding proportions in a list. You can download and print out the list 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 use the food much better and the contents are of much higher quality. THEREFORE, 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 giving food at fixed feeding times and not feeding treats in between. Dry food should not be offered in the bowl all day unless this is necessary for health reasons (underweight, etc.). A healthy, natural feeling of hunger, like every free-living cat in nature, promotes appetite and helps overweight cats feel full again, and in thin cats it promotes the desire to eat. If the cat has learned that food is only available when the owner decides so, the risk of complaining is significantly lower!
Feed adult cats 3-4 times a day at set times, young cats at least 5-6 times. Food that is not eaten within half an hour should be put away and only offered a portion again at the next feeding time. You will be amazed at how quickly cats can adapt to the fixed feeding times. However, hunger breaks of more than 12 hours should definitely be avoided, as these can quickly lead to health problems. (Hepatic lipidosis).
3) Change without having to throw away food – the “food cube method”.
Wet food only lasts for a few days, even in the refrigerator, and you would normally have to throw away large amounts of unused food when switching to new food. To avoid this being necessary, we recommend the “ice food cube method”. Take a standard ice cube maker and, on the first day of changing the diet, pour a can of the new food into the container and freeze it.
Now you can defrost one or more “food cubes” every day half an hour before feeding, depending on your needs. If the amounts of “old food” / “new food” are approximately equal, freeze an additional can of “old food” in this way. This means you can combine the amounts of food for both types as needed and you don't have to throw away any food.
We wish you much success with the change and would like to point out one of our favorite cat blogs at this point. At "Katzen-Fieber.de" there is a lot of well-founded information about a healthy diet for cats and also an informative page on the topic of "changing food": http://www.katzen-fieber.de/futterumstellung.php
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