ASPCA Pet Nutrition Q & A: Ch-ch-changes
Our seven-year-old indoor cat has problems with seasonal allergies. Our vet recommended that we slowly switch her to a sensitive-skin diet formula, but no matter how little of any new food we introduce, her stomach reacts unfavorably. What can we do?
—Beth
Don’t give up, Beth. It may benefit your cat significantly to make a slow transition to a new food. In general, the best way to make the switch to a new product is to start by adding a very small amount of new food to the old food on the first day, then over a number of days or even weeks, slowly increasing the amount of new food while decreasing the amount of old food. This type of slow transition can help to prevent gastrointestinal upset and helps most pets accept dietary change.
Since it sounds like you have already tried this approach, you may want to contact your veterinarian to see if other options exist for your cat. You may be able to try a different brand of food. You should have at least a few good choices when it comes to a sensitive skin diet. There may also be a supplement that you can add to your cat's original food to improve the health of her skin. Your veterinarian should have more information about these supplements.
—Beth
Don’t give up, Beth. It may benefit your cat significantly to make a slow transition to a new food. In general, the best way to make the switch to a new product is to start by adding a very small amount of new food to the old food on the first day, then over a number of days or even weeks, slowly increasing the amount of new food while decreasing the amount of old food. This type of slow transition can help to prevent gastrointestinal upset and helps most pets accept dietary change.
Since it sounds like you have already tried this approach, you may want to contact your veterinarian to see if other options exist for your cat. You may be able to try a different brand of food. You should have at least a few good choices when it comes to a sensitive skin diet. There may also be a supplement that you can add to your cat's original food to improve the health of her skin. Your veterinarian should have more information about these supplements.
Labels: ASPCA, Pet Care, Pet Nutrition
posted by ASPCA at 3:50 PM PERMALINK
1 Comments:
Have you thought about switching your cat to an all-natural diet? I can’t believe how much disinformation is out there about pet nutrition. There’s so much artificial flavoring and chemicals in our packaged pet foods. I think it’s interesting that we aren’t even feeding our pets the foods they were born to eat. The diet of the average American pet is no where close to what these animals eat in the wild. I recently wrote a post about all-natural cat and dog food. I thought you pet lovers out their might be interested. Most generic pet foods on the market are primarily carbohydrates but cats and dogs are carnivores. You can read more at: http://thisgreenlife.wordpress.com/2007/04/26/a-healthy-diet/
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