How To Transition My Cats Diet
Welcome & Congratulations on your interest in transitioning your kitty to a healthier diet. Below, we share tips and tricks we use to transition our pickiest felines from a conventional kibble and/or canned food diet to a more species appropriate raw food diet. Please keep in mind that each cat is an individual with unique preferences, health backgrounds, and intolerances so there is no one guaranteed effective way to transition all cats. Nevertheless, there are some methods that work very well with most cats. Let’s explore those.
The Basics
Some kitties can transition to a new diet cold turkey, others can’t. If your kitty imprinted on whole fresh foods during weaning and has maintained a very diverse palate, chances are you can introduce a new food with minimal hesitation from your cat. On the other hand, cats who imprint on the dry crunchy texture of kibble during weaning generally require more patience, and trial + error to transition to a species appropriate cooked or raw diet. Essentially, the food type a cat imprints on during infancy – dehydrated, canned or raw – will determine what the cat recognizes as food later on.
the 2 choices
the cold turkey switch
Best suited for healthy kittens.
Only for confident, well prepared owners.
Not recommended for adults, seniors, sensitive cats, or cats with unknown health statues
Not recommended to transition from kibble to raw food; adjusting to cooked foods before raw is advised.
The Cold Turkey Switch is the method we use to transition our newcomers from feed-grade kibble or canned food to human grade food; freeze-dried, canned or cooked (not directly to raw). We do not allow any feed-grade food into our home.
The Gradual Switch
Suitable for all cats
Least likely to cause digestive upset.
Food type and flavor must be customized to your cats individual needs and preferences.
Timeframe – can take weeks to months to fully transition a cat to raw; 2 -4 weeks is enough for most.
We use the Gradual Switch method to transition between the different categories of food – dry to freeze-dried or canned or cooked to ultimately raw. We add digestive supplements to mitigate tummy upsets and we adjust their food based on symptoms presented. We employ the art and science of Food Energetics as discussed in Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine.
Our goal is to gradually switch between raw proteins until our cats express a very diverse palate and will enthusiastically eat at least 7-8 different proteins/flavors a month.
Recipe To Transition
- Patience
- Trial and Error
- Pre + Probiotics
- Digestive Enzymes
- AntiInflamatory Herbs
problems to avoid
- Maldigestion
- Diarrhea
- Vomiting
- Allergic Reaction
- Obstinance
Before You Transition, Prepare Your Medicine Cabinet
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, right?
Below are a few things we use during each transition to mitigate digestive upset. We recommend you purchase these products ahead of time, as it is best to be prepared before a problem arises, then to scour your city last minute for remedies or wait 2 – 5 days for an online delivery to arrive. Also, using some of these products for a week ahead of time can help ‘prime’ your kitties microbiome for the incoming dietary changes. If you don’t prepare ahead of time, you might find yourself in a vets office with a hefty bill and a lecture by a conventional vet that is poorly trained on nutrition.
Recommended Products
We’ve had great success using the above remedies when transitioning our kitties diet. Balancing the microbiome, reducing inflammation and removing toxins are essential parts to a seamless transition. Nevertheless, what works for one kitty may not work for all. If you have specific questions regarding a product, either contact the company or consult a HOLISTIC veterinarian. Stay away from feed-grade supplements and to ensure optimal quality purchase directly from the parent company of the product, not from third party retailers such as amazon.
If you are interested in knowing more about popular yet deceiving products, false and misleading product marketing, view this podcast by Dr. Katie Woodly:
Lets Transition
Add digestive aids to all meals during the entire transition or as directed by the supplement company or your holistic veterinarian. Note, meals do not have to be balanced during a transition.
Step 1:
If you are allowing all day access to kibble, remove it and set specific feeding times.
- You need to encourage and control hunger. Do this for at least a week before attempting to transition.
Step 2:
Transition from a feed-grade food to a human-grade food.
- If your kitty is a kibble addict, consider transitioning to a dehydrated freeze dried food first, as its texture is most similar to dry food. When your kitty adapts to the freeze dried without water, add water. After they adapt to the new moist texture, try transitioning to a cooked food. If that doesn’t work, try a human-grade canned food, then cooked.
- We’ve had great luck pleasing our kitties palates using homecooked boiled chicken (from chicken thighs) offered in its own broth, warm.
- Once your kitty will eat a species appropriate cooked food for a few days and produces normal formed stools, continue to step 3. Until then, play with the ratio of new to old food type and/or consider changing or adding digestive supplements to help with digestibility until stool normalizes.
Step 3:
Choose a raw protein source that is energetically cold or neutral. Introduce it gradually and exclusively.
Example: Try pork, rabbit or turkey. Avoid beef because it tend to be warming and very inflammatory (unless 100% grass fed/pasture raised).
Feed meat without organ tissue, vegetables, vitamin & mineral supplements. Mix it with ‘old’ food in varying ratios over at least 5 to 7 days until kitty is weaned onto the new raw food. Transition slower if required for kitties stool to normalize.
Once your kitty shows good tolerance to the raw protein, slowly slowly introduce organs of the same animal source, supplements, fiber, etc. or transition to a complete commercial recipe of that animal.
Step 4:
Introduce New Proteins into Rotation
- Slowly introduce new proteins into rotation. Add digestive aids to each new proteins for at least a week during the transitionary phase. If stool looks normal, you may stop adding the supplements and if stool continues normal, congratulations – you have successfully adapted your kitties microbiome to that protein!
- Goal is to rotate through a minimum of 4 protein sources a month, 7 to 8 a year, and to alternate between proteins of different energetic categories – cooling, neutral and warming – to prevent nutritional deficiencies and disease from forming.
- We offer 3-4 different proteins a day. You can offer just 1 or 2 a day or 1 every 3 days to a week, then rotate; whatever works best for you and your fur baby.
If you’ve made it this far, congratulations! You're officially a 2.0 pet parent!
Tips
4 top tips
Keep in mind that most cats will sample small amounts of new foods and naturally increase their portion size as they learn to trust that food. This is an instinctual safety mechanism. If the new food settles their tummy well, they’ll gradually increase their intake; if it doesn’t, they will associate the food with pain and likely refuse more. Also, a ‘normal’ portion size of a raw food is often less in volume than that of an ultra-processed or cooked food because raw foods are nutritionally denser so most cats will be naturally satiated with less.
We’ve had terrible luck with beef – lots of vomiting and diarrhea; generally for a day, sometimes for 2, rarely for 3. The only exception we make is when the beef comes from regeneratively grown cattle, is super fresh and fed independent of other proteins and organs in small portions. But generally, we introduce beef as a tertiary or quaternary protein. We’d hate for you to have a negative experience so we recommend you consider the same.
Quality control, temperature control, and counterfeit items are a big concern. Your pet might have a hard enough time transitioning without the added stress from questionable products. If the parent company does not offer their product directly to you, don’t buy that supplement. Better safe than sorry.
The recommendations of a conventional vs holistic vet are often contradictory. We find that conventional medicine aims to mask symptoms while holistic medicine aims to treat the cause of disease. Our views do not generally align with conventional practices.
Regarding The Microbiome
It can be difficult to gauge what our pets have and need. Adding high quality digestive supplements such as pre+probiotics, digestive enzymes and anti-inflammatory herbs is very important. A tactic of trial and error with supplements is sometimes a must.
These are momentary and may give the appearance that your cat is worsening but truly, the body only has so many ways of getting rid of toxins so you must be patient and understanding. Sometimes, things appear worse before they get better.
According to fresh pet food formulator, Dr. Steve Brown, “After about a week the microbes that feed on real meat and real dietary fiber will proliferate and those that feed on dry [cat] food will dramatically reduce in numbers. Your cat’s gut will be healthier, and so will your cat!”
Specific Food Tips
Nevertheless, this is a momentary solution as cooking changes the nutritional profile and ‘complete’ nature of the food by denaturing enzymes, vitamins, and proteins.
Viva recommends that if you plan to cook their food to cook their balanced formula over their PMR formula. Cook gently over low-medium heat for 3-5 minutes until lightly brown and feed with all juices.
Note, we typically import kittens and young cats that do not have a longstanding history of GI disease; most are fed feed-grade kibble and canned food by their breeder before we transition.
We recommend this approach, unless you are savvy and confident following a recipe. If so, check out our kitty recipe in our diet page or Dr. Judy Morgans cat recipes on her website.
Personally, we feed most our kitties room temp or cold foods, but we also live in Florida where it is generally 90+ degrees outside and they have access to rooms (or the catio) with those temperatures. Therefore, feeding foods slightly cold or room temp for us has not caused many problems. During winter, however, and especially for kitties who run cold like our sphynx, feeding them cold foods often results in vomiting.
Concerns
Some kitties develop a quick and insatiable appetite for fresh or raw foods during a transition. If you suspect this is your kitty, reduce their portion size until they learn to self-regulate.
Technically, we fast our cats for a day every month (when not pregnant or nursing) to induce cellular autophagy. But hepatic lipidosis is a concern, especially for chunky, metabolically unhealthy cats. Best to air on the side of caution. A few small bites will eliminate this concern.
To avoid this, you must rotate between a min of 4 or more (animal based) protein sources a month and ideally 7-8 a year. If you are making your own cat food at home, use different recipes. If you are purchasing them commercially, rotate through different brands. Different brands use different sourcing, sterilization methods and ingredients. We personally rotate through a min of 8 proteins a month and we offer homemade foods, plus foods from 3+ different brands a month.
Holistic vets have a deep understanding of herbs, supplements and nutritional science that conventional vets are not familiar with. So seek advice from the right person, and be patient, because disease reversal for these kitties can take much longer, sometimes months to a year, to become fully asymptomatic.
Find the right veterinarian
Finding the right veterinarian is critical for your cats successful transition to a healthy diet. You must keep in mind that most veterinarians are general practitioners, not nutritionist. Conventional veterinarians amount to over 90% of the industry and are unfortunately, not trained to give sound nutritional advice.
Holistic Veterinarian Dr. Karen Becker explains:
“If a seasoned holistic veterinarian isn’t participating in the dietary transition, it can go so poorly for some of these animals that they end up being hospitalized. These unsuccessful attempts at a dietary transition are why traditional vets will say:
‘Some pets just can’t tolerate raw foods or fresh foods. You just need to leave well enough alone and continue feeding kibble.’
But it’s important to recognize that with good effort and professional guidance, these animals, too, can be transitioned to better, healthier diets.”
certified feline nutritionists
Click on nutritionists name to view their website.
The feline nutritionist listed above are all provide tele-health consults. They will work with your local veterinarian to improve the health of your cat. If your cat has any preexisting chronic disease, we highly recommend you work with a nutritionist during the transition.
Fear is a mile wide & an inch deep.
You must take the first step to realize you won’t drown.
- Take The Step