The war of Zara's diet change begins

[iloveeverykindofcat]

According to every possible test and insepction (thanks Petplan), Zara has no parasites, bacteria, infections, illnesses or any other reason for loose stools. She presents as a 5 yr old cat in rude health. So, the war of the diet change must begin.

Bear in mind, this is a cat who gets huffy about me using the wrong bowl for her food. Round one commences tonight.

She'd probably like to be! I guess the real test of willpower will be when we run out of the old food and I have to try to get her to eat it alone, which she won't yet.

How long will the old food last - in its 'mixed in' capacity?

Might it work best if you reduce the old food slightly each day and increase the raw accordingly? So after a few weeks there's very little old food being served at all, but she might not have really realised .

I think feeding raw is a bit like Marmite or a Mooncup: you either love it or you hate it, and there are a whole bunch of people who think, eww, sounds dreadful, but once you try it out and see the advantages, you're converted. It just takes a bit longer for the feline punters to be convinced that it's in their best interests too.

And minced up bone is one thing, but you should try listening to a cat sitting next to you munching an entire raw chicken neck. Now that's a noise!

I think another week. I've been trying to reduce it but was in a hurry today and actually put too much

Oops. That will likely be regarded as a sign of weakness. Strengthen your resolve!

Victory!
Zara eats raw. And has perfect stools.

(Though I did at one point find myself encouraging her to try the 'lovely dead things' in my sweet-kitty voice. And I'm vegetarian).

Now I just need to find the right amount for her to maintain her weight. Zara is very slim, eats quite a bit more than Bibi, and Bibi is a chunk. Life's not fair I guess!

Oh well done. Poor bibi. Life is not fair.

Is bibi doing any diet 'supplementation' though?

Nah, we don't get many birds etc in the yard and I've never seen her catch anything....when Zara was on tins Bibi used to go through the recycling in the night looking for leftovers but that's stopped now. She can sense any crumb of food in a five mile radius. Ex-stray skills I suppose!

Mice?

This cessation of bin-raiding sounds mighty suspicious to me.

It took 6 months to break my cat's addiction to Felx. Now she will eat other stuff as long as it's not fish or chicken or beef, at room temperature, every meal must be different from the last, no raw food, no dairy or eggs.
Also she can only eat a small amount without throwing up, so needs 6 tiny meals a day.
See? It's easy!

How did you manage it, orange ?