How To Transition Your Cat to Stella & Chewy's

October 29, 2018 Nicole Groshek Read Time: 2 min

We all want the best for our cats, but it can be difficult to know what is right for them in terms of nutrition. Sometimes the struggle is just to find a food they will eat! A quality, complete and balanced diet is beneficial to cats in many ways, including improved coat, proper weight maintenance and overall health. We’ll take you through the steps on how to transition your cat to Stella & Chewy’s.

How to Transition Your Cat to Stella & Chewy’s

Whether you’ve just adopted a new cat or you are looking to improve your current cat’s diet, there are so many reasons to choose Stella & Chewy’s. With best-in-class nutrition and a variety of complete and balanced diets to choose from, including frozen raw, freeze-dried raw, wet food, and kibble, we’re happy to offer cats premium food options where meat is always the number one ingredient. After all, cats are obligate carnivores so meat is what they need!

When it comes to transitioning to any food, a slow transition over 7-10 days is recommended. To start, we recommend mixing the new food in with what you’re currently feeding and slowly building up until the new food is the sole food that you’re feeding/that your cat is enjoying. Even if your cat isn’t eating their current diet, it’s important to start off small with new food and introduce it slowly, as sudden changes to diet can cause digestive issues. So, how exactly can you do this?

On days 1-3, it’s recommended to feed 25% new food and 75% old food. This percentage is based off feeding guidelines. Of course, the exact amounts will vary based on the weight of your cat (on the bags of both food, it will show how much food is recommended based on your cat’s weight). On days 4-6, the feeding ratio would bump up to 50% new food and 50% old food. On days 7-9, the ratio would again increase to 75% new food and 25% old food, and finally on day 10, your cat would be fully transitioned to the new food and there would be no need to mix in the old food diet.

Transitioning with the timeline above helps to limit digestive issues that can occur when feeding a new food, such as vomiting and diarrhea. It also allows for your cat to become accustomed to the taste and texture of the new food.

If you would like to keep your cat on their current diet, but supplement some Stella & Chewy’s nutrition in, simply remove the portion of current food you’d like to replace with the new food and add that amount back in to the daily feeding amounts.

Cats are notoriously picky eaters, so don’t give up if they refuse the new food the first time you try it. Cats strictly fed kibble or wet food in the past need time to get used to the brand-new smell, flavor and texture of frozen or freeze-dried raw if you’re trying it for the first time. For freeze-dried raw formulas, try crumbling the dry morsels and sprinkling them onto the top of the current diet. For both frozen and freeze-dried raw formulas, try hydrating them with both warm (never hot) and cold water in case there is one temperature your cat might prefer.