How much food variety do kitties need?

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Jennifer & Saima (GA)

Jennifer & Saima (GA)

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Our cats eat 3 different varieties of Wellness and 3 or 4 different varieties of Merrick. Is there any benefit to feeding them different flavors/protein sources (and they're not all that different anyway... seems like just about everything has chicken in it) or is it just as good to just feed them their favorites? They have some pretty clear preferences, and it would be easier to just buy cases of 2 or 3 kinds, but something keeps stopping me. It's like I'm nervous they won't get enough variety in their diet, and that will hurt them somehow.
 
saimasmom said:
Our cats eat 3 different varieties of Wellness and 3 or 4 different varieties of Merrick. Is there any benefit to feeding them different flavors/protein sources (and they're not all that different anyway... seems like just about everything has chicken in it) or is it just as good to just feed them their favorites? They have some pretty clear preferences, and it would be easier to just buy cases of 2 or 3 kinds, but something keeps stopping me. It's like I'm nervous they won't get enough variety in their diet, and that will hurt them somehow.
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Some cats like to have a variety of meats/flavors/textures in their diet, others prefer just one. I don't think there's any right or wrong way to feed canned food (or raw) to a cat :smile: Two or three different meats and/or brands and fed on a rotating basis is good enough if you are comfortable with that :smile:
 
I'm feeding all 12 of mine the same thing - Great Choice (formerly named Sophisticat) Turkey and Giblets.

I need the food to stay as consistent as possible for Spitzer, to reduce food variability as source of glucose fluctuations. He's still all over the chart (no, its not up to date) when I test him.

Also, when novelty isn't a factor, I don't get binge and purge behavior from some of the other cats.
 
OK, thanks! I was kind of suspecting my preference for "variety" was more for my benefit than theirs anyway. :smile:

I'm at least gonna cut out the Grammy's Pot Pie... they really don't seem to care for it that much.
 
Mine has been on Dr. Lisa's recipe for over a month know.

I just bought some fancy feast just to have around- anything but chicken! She ate it all in about 3 hours in different sittings. I noticed that when she was eating dry whenever I switched bags (even on the same kind) on her she would barf up at least once until she got used to it but she didn't care much for variety.

I will keep the FF for a special meal treat when she has had a bad weekend with me poking her ears a lot.
 
Vyktor has one main food but he will lose interest if I don't remind him how good it is by giving him something he likes a bit less a couple of times a week.
 
@hmjohnston, I'd like to feed raw, but I'm pregnant and they say cats can shed parasites on a raw diet. Maybe someday. I think I would probably use the prepared raw diets. Unfortunately I know myself, and I don't see myself grinding rabbit at home, etc. :smile:

You bring up a good point... Saima ate the same dry food for years and I didn't worry about that (though obviously I should have, for other reasons... just didn't know dry was bad at that time). So sticking to a couple of kinds of canned shouldn't really be a problem either. Thanks all!
 
I probably go a little overboard, but I like to have variety in Bandit's food. I stick to the same two brands (Merricks' and Fancy Feast), but I do get a lot of flavors between them. Probably about 4 different flavors for Merricks, and 5 or six different flavors of Fancy Feast (Yes, that's 9-10 different flavors in my cupboard :smile: ). The Fancy feast only comes out a few times a week, so for the most part I rotate between the Merrick's flavors (Cowboy Cookout, Surf & Turf, and either Grammy's Pot pie or Turducken).

I think it's a mental thing leftover from when I was treating Gabby's stomach cancer--she would get sick of things so quick I had to be able to pull a different flavor out for her often, and Bandit would of course get the remainder of her cans so it didn't go to waste (as long as they were low carb). I would keep a variety of all different brands of food, so I would say there was probably about 20-30 different flavors in my cupboard back then. So even though I can count the times on one hand that Bandit has ever refused food in his life, I guess I keep a variety to guarantee I have choices to coax him to eat if I ever have to.

Mainly, though, I think it's preference thing for me--I wouldn't want to eat the same thing all the time, so I transfer that to Bandit--even though I'm pretty sure he doesn't even taste the food as he gobbles it down, so I highly doubt he can distinguish between foods. His mental process is more like "food!food!food!" and not "The lobster in this Surf and Turf entree adds such a delicate seafood flavor to the beef in the Cowboy cookout."
 
I rotate between 3 Friskies (all pates, of course!) : Turkey and Giblets, Chicken Dinner, Chef's Dinner. Once a week they get a treat of Salmon Dinner or Tuna and Whitefish. No one is complaining ... so far! :lol:
 
I like to feed at least a couple of different brands and flavors. My reasoning is:

There is no perfect food. I hope by feeding a variety that whatever excesses/deficiencies in one brand are made up by different excesses/deficiencies in other brands. I have no proof that they are.

Pet food companies periodically change formulas, have production problems and/or recalls, discontinue flavors, etc. If your cat eats only one food, you may be forced to make a sudden change. That can lead to refusal to eat and/or stomach upsets.
 
I don't know that they NEED a variety but some seem to prefer it while others only like one thing. DC (GA) would only eat tuna flavor - period. He'd suddenly get tired of a specific brand between cans (regardless of how much I'd bought.. :roll: ) so I'd play the 'try this' game until he decided another brand of TUNA would be fine for a while. We did that for 20 years....

Now I buy a variety but that's because between 9 of them, they each have different favorites but no one gets a whole can by themselves (other than KT's small ones). There are some kinds that one just loves while another tries to bury it...then there's Spike. Regardless of what I give him first, he says it's bad and wants something else. I can trick him and wait a few minutes, give him the SAME bowl and he says 'THAT'S what I wanted'....silly kitty....

HUGS!
 
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