Transitioning Dry Food Addicts to Canned Food - Pt 3

This would scare the cat and harm the scale.

All of my cats lost weight during the three months that it took to switch them to canned but none of them became too thin. They slimmed down to a nice lean body weight - losing fat while maintaining their muscle mass. They also became much more active.

If your cat is overweight, please see the Feline Obesity page.

Resign yourself to the fact that you will be very frustrated at times and you will be wasting canned food as they turn up their nose at it. Also, you may want to immediately switch your cat to a dry food that has fewer calories from carbohydrates than most dry foods. (e.g., EVO)

The low-carb dry foods are very high in fat and therefore are very calorie dense. These foods must be portion-controlled otherwise, your cat may end up gaining weight. Note that dry Innova EVO has 612 calories per cup. One quarter of a cup contains 153 calories so be very careful to pay attention to how much of these high calorie dry foods you feed.

The caloric needs of an average cat can range between 150 - 250 calories/day depending on their lean body weight and activity level.

The low-carb dry foods are also very high in phosphorus. This is especially detrimental for cats with compromised kidney function.

And, of course, these low-carb dry foods are water-depleted - just like all dry foods - putting your cat at risk for serious urinary tract problems. They are also cooked at very high temperatures in order to dry them out.

I do not recommend these dry foods for long-term feeding for all of the reasons stated above. Please use them only as transition diets.

Be sure to stay away from any "light" varieties since those types of foods are very high in carbohydrates.

Here are some various tricks for the stubborn ones.

Keep in mind that different tricks work on different cats:

If your cat has been eating dry food on a free-choice basis, take up the food and establish a schedule of 2 - 3 times per day feedings. I really do prefer just twice-daily feedings when trying to transition them. A normal, healthy hunger response after 12 hours goes a long way to convince them to try something new.

Once the cat has transitioned to canned food, I prefer to either free-feed them (if they are not too fat) or to put out a meal 3-4 times per day. Small cats in the wild eat 8-10 small meals per day. I do not worry about leaving canned food out for up to 12 hours at a time. Keep in mind that a lion is not going to eat his entire prey immediately.

If you want to take the transition very slowly, you can feed the amount that your cat normally consumes in a 24 hour period - split up into two feedings to get him used to meal feeding. Many people, however, are unsure as to how much their free-fed cat really eats so I would start off by figuring out the calories that your cat needs to maintain his weight if he does not need to lose any weight.

Again, most cats only need 150-250 calories/day. The dry food bag should tell you how many calories are in a cup of food but if it does not, you can call the company.

Leave the dry food down for 20 minutes, and then remove any uneaten portion. Repeat in 8-12 hours depending on if you are feeding 2 or 3 times per day. During the first few days of transitioning to a set schedule, you can offer canned food during the dry food meals, or in-between meals. The stubborn ones, however, will not touch it. Do not despair - all cats will eventually eat canned food if their caregiver is determined, methodical, and patient enough. Once your cat is on a schedule you will notice that he is more enthusiastic about food during his proper mealtimes and will be much more inclined to try something new.