How to train a cat to dry food?

The desire to transfer a pet to a correct and complete diet in the form of dry food sooner or later visits every pet owner, who is forced to be absent often and for a long time during the day. Ready meals can indeed be a simple and convenient solution to the feeding problem. But how do you teach a cat to eat dry food in adulthood? Often, pets who have received only natural food since childhood simply refuse the unusual delicacy.

How to transfer a cat from natural food and wet food to dry food? How long will it take, is it possible to do without radical measures such as completely stopping the dispensing of habitual food? What are some common mistakes to avoid when feeding your animal? Only after studying the answers to all these questions, it is worth moving on to decisive action in practice.

For what reasons is the transfer of an animal from a regular diet to a dry one - consider the most common ones.

1. Imbalance in the diet. If the animal does not initially eat any foods, it can lose valuable amino acids, vitamins and minerals that ensure normal development and maintenance of health.
2. Having dietary restrictions related to health... At high risks of developing urolithiasis in spayed cats, it is recommended to transfer the animal to ready-made food.
3. Lack of control over the freshness of products. If there are doubts about the quality of meat, fish, and other ingredients of the cat's diet, ready-made food will allow you not to waste time looking for them.
4. The need for long-term storage of prepared food. Dry food is not ventilated, eliminates the risk of poisoning, reproduction of pathogenic microflora.
5. Variety of flavors. Offer the animal shrimp or salmon pate for breakfast, and not every owner is ready for beef for dinner.
6. Compliance with a diet. If your pet has gained weight on a regular diet, it can be quite difficult to determine the optimal calorie intake on your own. Dry food allows you to build a diet taking into account a certain calorie content and frequency of meals.
7. Features of the breed. Almost all pedigree cats require a specialized diet tailored to their individual needs.

The process of transferring an animal from regular food to dry food can begin at any age after reaching the actual weight of an adult animal for the breed. Even if the cat has eaten all its life exclusively food prepared by the owner, or, conversely, lived on the street and ate irregularly, in any case, switching to a full ration menu will be useful for it. Upon reaching the year and until old age, the chosen time will be successful.

Consider how many days it takes to force a pet to completely switch from a natural diet to a ready-made commercial food. Cope with a task in one or two days will not work. It will take much more time, on average - from 7 to 10 days, and the process should take place gradually. You cannot immediately deprive the animal of its usual diet, it can be dangerous to health.

The older the cat, the more difficult and longer it will be to switch to a new diet. But in any business, consistency and severity are important - you should not interrupt the process begun, follow the animal's lead. When combined with wet food during the transition period, it is recommended to use only one brand of food, so that the pet gets used to its taste faster.

The phasing is manifested in the amount of dry food added to the usual food. On the first day, you can offer your cat 10% of the new diet directly in granulated or soaked in broth. Dry food is mixed with regular food. Its volume should increase daily. An average increase of 10-15% will allow you to spend no more than 10 days on translation.

It is important to stop stirring the food from the third day of changing the diet, and from the fifth day it is no longer mixed with ordinary food, but given in a separate portion. One feeding necessarily includes only dry ready meals. By the tenth day, you should completely abandon any other food, carefully monitoring the health of the pet. Alarming symptoms include:

• persistent stool disorder;
• pain, colic in the abdomen;
• reduction in the amount eaten;
• lethargy, changes in behavior;
• the appearance of discharge from the eyes, nose, ears, indicating an allergy;
• manifestation of aggression towards the owner.

Getting enough fluid is very important for a cat switching to dry food. The animal must have constant access to clean and fresh water. The volume of the pet's need for fluid during this period, indeed, increases, and its lack will lead to excessive dryness of the stool, less frequent urination, and general dehydration.

When switching to a new menu, the animals are offered a much larger amount of water. At first, it is better to place drinking bowls in several places. You can offer a large capacity or purchase a special drinking fountain, many pedigree animals prefer running water.

When accustoming a cat to dry food, you need to remember a number of simple rules, allowing to make the situation the least traumatic for the animal.

1. Phased. You should act gradually, carefully and carefully. You need to be prepared for changes in eating behavior, stool disturbances, flatulence.
2. Lack of coercion. Even if the feed remains intact, it can be chopped up, mixed into regular food. It is necessary to get the animal accustomed to the smell and taste of new food.
3. Combination with wet feeding... It is worth stocking up on spiders or canned food from the same manufacturer, and in the first days, give them along with dry food.
4. When mixing the granules, you need carefully combine with your usual food, to make it harder for the animal to separate them.

Finding the right food is difficult. It is worth offering your pet a choice of products from several manufacturers. Perhaps, after finding the desired flavor combination, the problem of getting used to unusual food will be completely solved.

The transition from wet to dry food is usually straightforward, especially if it happens without a brand change. To facilitate the assimilation of food, it is worth increasing the dose of the granular version gradually.

When accustoming a cat to dry food after natural food, it is imperative to choose food that can completely replace the previous diet. It is worth giving preference to products of premium, super-premium classes, which include natural meat of the usual varieties. This category includes pellets from Hills, Royal Canin, Eukanuba, Acana... For pedigree animals, neutered and neutered cats, food is selected with the appropriate marks on the package.

When switching to dry food, owners often find it difficult to accurately dose the pet's nutrition. Overeating should not be allowed, the daily amount of food for an adult animal is 30-35 g / kg of body weight. The timing of food intake should also be carefully observed to ensure that the correct daily routine is formed.

There is a list of the most common mistakes that almost all pet owners make when starting to transfer their pet to dry food. The first thing to avoid is forceful methods of influence. This can scare the cat away and even cause negative psychosomatic reactions. Veterinarians advise to act gently, unobtrusively, gradually helping the animal to adapt to an unusual diet.

Another mistake is to refuse to feed the cat any other food. If the pet categorically refuses to eat ready-made food, instead of the usual dishes, it is worth gradually and gently offering him dry food. Poor absorption of food can become the cause of trouble.

Buying the cheapest pet food for a pet who is about to change their diet is a very bad decision. Cheap products from the mass market segment are not suitable for pedigree animals. The older the cat, the more careful it will be to select food. The best solution is super premium or holistic food, made from natural raw materials by well-known brands. Allergy in 99% of cases to ready-made food is associated precisely with the purchase of low-grade goods, and not at all with individual intolerance to ingredients.

The animal's refusal to eat dry food may be due to the fact that it is not stored properly or loses its attractive taste and smell. The container for granules must be hermetically sealed. After eating, the bowl with food debris should be emptied and thoroughly cleaned of food debris.

For information on how to transfer a cat to dry food, see the next video.