[Music] changes turn and face the strange changes i just want to be a different man
time may change me but i can't trace time you know your cat can change food and i can't show you
[Music]
i'm david my little mojo tears jackson galaxy you're ever loving singing his heart out cat daddy
here today to talk to you about chitchat changes what [ __ ] changes do you think i'm talking about
i'm talking about food which is what you guys are talking about after our three-part series on
dry food wet food and raw food now we're talking about how do i switch that food cat daddy so today
we'll be talking about whether we're talking about going from dry food to wet dry food raw wet food
to raw same kind of techniques involved now let's pause for a second and give you this news flash
news flash is i want to make sure that i'm saying this before i start talking after i finish talking
and in the description below this is something that you should initially consult your vet
about you should talk about because each cat is an individual i want to make sure that you're making
these changes chit chat changes with your vet so the first thing that i want to get out of the way
is that whatever change we make here dry it wet wet to raw dry to raw you know all of those it
should be a gradual change you never want to just go bang bang one day you're eating this no that's
gone you're eating this cats don't like rapid change of anything and so you presenting that
and then expecting them to just go for it and and not stone while you're there for the first little
bit is you know come on you guys you know cats by now you know that that's not going to work you got
to stop free feeding your cats if you want to get anywhere with this change they have to be hungry
number one and number two we want to get them into the ritual of meal times if there's food available
to your cats 24 7 then why would they have to choose something that ordinarily they wouldn't
they won't is the answer to that optimally i would have you guys feed three meals a day you
can do four meals a day as well but it gets them on a schedule i'm hungry i eat i'm hungry i eat
meal times no more free feeding do not pass go do not stop at the diner there we have it okay
moving on this is something that was always a given um and i think really over the past
10 years when there has been so much variety that's come out in the marketplace that we've
started talking about variety it's not okay to feed our cats one food for their entire life
you know it's if someone had said to you uh listen i'm gonna give you this food pill here
and all you gotta do is eat this food pill every day three times a day and you will live a normal
happy life well not happy but you know lengthwise you're gonna rebel a little bit because you like
variety well animals do too they have variety in nature so why wouldn't we replicate that so when
you get that change done think about rotation think about you know every meal can i give them
something a little bit different every day it's not healthy for the gut not to ever be challenged
in all of your years but the other thing is god forbid something happens to you and your cat winds
up in the care of someone else or in a rescue or shelter if they've only ever eaten one thing dry
you know blank blank bran chicken and you got people trying to figure out what else that cat
will eat now the cat is stressed out they're going to stop eating so it's just something
to think about ahead of time just for their emotional physical and behavioral well-being
so now we've laid the groundwork about how to change our cat's diet from
one type of food to the other now it's into just basically some tips and tricks we know that we're
going to try to feed them nothing but meals what i'm gonna assume is that if you're going from dry
and you want to get to raw i would say transition from dry to wet first and then go wet to raw
that's just a more careful way of doing it and it's just trying to get your cat to to go for
that texture of meat of wet when it comes to dry food one of the things that i would recommend
is that you cut down the amount of dry food that goes into every meal cut it in half because what
i would think is the best way to go is you put the dry food down they extinguish that food in
no time flat because they're used to eating twice that much then they look up to you what
else you got for me now we're going to bring in the wet food and we're just going to put it down
and they're going to be like huh yeah maybe or maybe they go for it and if they don't go for it
that's fine we pick up their meals after about 30 45 minutes max meals come up we don't let them
graze for hours and then when it's time for the next meal again we do the exact same thing again
your cat's gonna be hungry but the good thing is we know they ate something perhaps at that point
they're going to be more willing to try it bribery is okay and i think in this case bribing is just
perfectly fine so for instance let's say that your cats are just dry food junkies sometimes what you
might want to try is you've got the wet food you ground up their dry food and or their junky treats
into a dust and sprinkle that magic dust over the wet food mix it in with the wet food just giving
it a little bit of the smell that they're used to that might be something you want to try another
thing that i'm really crazy about especially for you know dry food attic cats is the tube treats if
you've ever seen these treats we sell them over at jacksongalaxy.com a bunch of different varieties
they just open up the treat which is a tube and then you give it a gentle squeeze and and once you
find that flavor that your cat goes for and to be honest i would say a good portion of the cats that
i've worked with find out one flavor they're into so then you found that flavor they like now we got
a texture that's different from dry now you take that entire tube treat out you put it in a dish
it's a way to start the process going now we can transition over to food and the bonus is you found
a flavor they dug there are so many brands out there of wet food the market has just gotten
full of different tastes different textures and when i say textures i mean your cat might not go
for a pate but they might go for those sort of shreds and if they don't go for the shreds they
may go for the mints then if they don't go for that they may go for the extra gravy or you put
a little bit of warm water in there and you turn it into gravy because they like to to lap it up
a little bit more are you gonna wind up wasting a little bit of food yes you're going to do that
so try not to be frustrated with it that's just something that's going to happen we have to do
a bit of experimenting to find out what your cat won't turn their nose up to so another trick that
we can use to get your cats into meal time ready for meal time and ready for something new in terms
of the wet food is the thing that i talk about all the time hunt catch kill hunt catch kill eat when
do i not talk about playing with your cat never is the answer that i'm always talking to you about
playing with your cat playing interactively hunt catch kill it's what cats are uniquely
built to do and what are they also built to do eat meat so they're built to hunt it catch it
kill it eat it so what do we do before meal times we get them excited about a little bit of play a
little bit of hunting and interactive toy a little bit of getting down and dirty and grabbing it and
biting it and doing whatever then we take that away we present the meal we are now speaking to
the ancestor to the raw cat we're saying here you go this is what you're built to do in this world
now you get to eat meat and then they can go into it so we get them excited we get a little bit of
exercise burn off a few calories so they're ready to put a few more calories in and that's something
that that i would tell you as you transition to meals at least one of those meals a day
get into the hunt catch kill eat you'll see a difference in your cats i mean and i'm not just
talking about in terms of their willingness to eat but i'm just talking about that vibrancy that
vitality that thing that that gives cats what am i when i do this what am i talking about
mwah i'm talking about mojo and this gives your cats mojo i like going from dry to wet to raw
just because it's a little easier on the belly in terms of transitioning and besides that it's just
sometimes a lot to ask for but let's say you've made this transition and you're going from wet
to raw or dry to raw then the one piece of advice i would give you first of all we've got another
uh video that you might have seen last week on raw food and you know now that there's commercially
prepared frozen raw diets that you can get really at this point most pet stores which is miraculous
but if you're doing that here's a a little cheat not a cheat but sort of that i've picked up
over the years cats don't like cold food they're hunters so when you think about it what are they
going to be drawn to something that's about body temperature so about 98 to 102 degrees somewhere
in that neighborhood so whether you're taking uh wet food adding some uh warm or hot water to it
and just letting that you know become a little tiny bit of a stew which is great also by the
way because you're adding more hydration which is always a good thing or whether you're defrosting
something that they're going to eat later when it comes to the raw i would say defrost it
throw it in a pan for all of a minute uh what you can do is just brown it a little bit bringing
it up to that that that temperature that body temperature now we're working on something here
that smells right to them now they're going to explore a brand new texture maybe it's something
i haven't really been around before you can then take that if they're not into eating it right
off the plate at that moment maybe you roll it up into you know little meatball looking things that
looks like treats more if it looks like something they've eaten before and maybe it smells vaguely
like something they've eaten before maybe they'll eat it again one more little tip because i'm
always full of these tips i have found that yes there are bowls that we've talked about before
that uh avoid whisker stress meaning that they're wider and a little flatter and cats don't have to
really bury their faces in it that affects some cats a lot and some cats a little i have found
a lot more success using plates just flat plates when it comes to especially the raw diet and don't
ask me why that works it just works that's what you're here for these weird tips that i can't even
explain but it happened and maybe it'll happen for you as well so let's talk about what you can
expect to see in terms of changes in your cat's body we've talked about before that when you go
to a raw diet you can expect to see a loss of fat and a retention of body mass in the form of muscle
uh so you might see some weight loss and that's okay again you know you have to be the judge of
how much is too much but a one percent uh loss in body weight per week is a lot and we don't
want to see it that drastic so you're watching to see how much your cat is consuming and making sure
that it's enough for them if you're at all hesitant add another meal just you know make it a
smaller meal it's okay to have a snack meal along with regular-sized meals it's okay to have four
or even five meals a day if you have the time to do it and you can make it into a ritualized thing
then that's all good one more note i want to give you about something to watch out for health-wise
with your cat it is okay for your cat to skip a meal it is okay for your cat to eat a little bit
at two meals it's not okay for your cat to go more than let's say 12 hours max without eating
anything and that rule changes if your cat is obese or if your cat is a senior and we really
need to keep every meal on them but the thing that we're looking out for is something called
fatty liver disease or hepatic lipidosis and that is something that at the very least is going to
be very costly when you get to the vet but it can be fatal as well so it's something that you
want to keep in close contact with if your cat hasn't eaten for 10 12 14 18 hours that's not cool
now we got to back up and try something different and it's okay to step back and start again because
you're you're worried about long-term fasting which is just not okay for cats all right so
there you have it i don't want to make this too complicated i think the most complicating thing
is your cat saying no and you giving up that's the most complicated thing persistence and patience on
your part i think is really the key that cracks the safety your cat's belly you owe it to your
cast to try to get them into a better meal plan you know all right i told you i was going to say
this at the beginning of the video the end of the video and in the description please talk to your
vet have a healthy dialogue about the healthy life of your cats nutrition is a very big part
of that and i think that over time it's just been sort of lacking in that dialogue with vets maybe
foods get recommended uh maybe general rules are said to you and you say okay and you go home it's
okay for you to advocate for your cat if not you who's gonna do it and your vet should expect that
and they should welcome that conversation but i want you to have it i don't want you to just watch
this video and watch the other videos i made about dry wet and raw and just go it's important to take
inventory and to get a baseline of where your cat is right now where you'd like them to get to
and it's just as important for your vet to be involved in that but if your vet says something
that you don't like or vice versa that's what the google is for that's what the internet is for you
go to trusted resources like some of the ones i'm going to give you in the description and that's
all i'm saying is that i i would love for it to be a dialogue between uh the two of you who should
together be your cat's best advocate well that's it guys i hope this didn't seem overly complicated
like i said this is about getting all the facts getting some tips and tricks making sure that you
guys are sticking to your guns when it comes to that change being okay spending a little bit of
extra money at first throwing away some food that they just totally rejected maybe you know if you
bought too much of it you donate it to a rescue or shelter who would be more than happy to have your
donation of anything your cats won't eat because somebody will eat it and it's somebody who really
needs to and and that's just the willingness will go a long way having that willingness and knowing
that at the end of this yellow brick road is uh is an emerald city where your cat will be living
their best life and i can't say it enough times over nutrition is the key to that better longer
life that is just about where i should leave this for the day questions about nutrition questions
about what you should do next that's what the comments are for you know i read them and you know
if you guys have been watching videos i'm in there on the days of these videos come out for the most
part and i try to guide you through it but i would definitely be welcome to more videos about about
this topic or any other for that matter uh don't forget to hit that subscription and ring that bell
you guys new subscribers especially ring that bell so that you know when the next video is coming out
and don't forget to spread the news man when it comes to stuff like this nutritional health
spread it to everybody that you know who has a cat let them say something like you're crazy i'm
not going to spend my money well that's fine but now you're armed with all the facts aren't you
all right you guys until next time all night and all love and all mojo to you [Music]
meow