We all know that when we want to introduce a brand new food to a kitten, it is best to do it gradually as opposed to completely stopping the old food one day and giving nothing but the new food the next day.

What about this though - let's say that you usually feed your kitten with 'product a' and on Monday you mix a litttle bit of 'product b' in. Then, as the week goes on, you increase 'product b' and decrease 'product a'.

So, everything is fine and kitten is now eating 'product b'. Now what if you want to go back to 'product a' at some time - perhaps you might have run out of 'product b'. Is it OK to do this? Is 'product a' not classed as a new food any longer cos the kitten has eaten it in the past?

I think once a cat has been fed a certain food and is used to it you can go back to it at any time. How else would rotation work if you are not doing gradual changes each time you rotate a food?

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Just to be absolutely clear then - if 'product a' is their usual food and 'product b' is the new food - when they have been gradually introduced to 'product b' and are finally eating nothing but 'product b' for say 2 weeks, well can you just suddenly give them 'product a' one day out of the blue?

I'm interested in the replies on this one. About to start a new food at the end if this week but want him to be able to eat 2 or 3 brands

As far as I'm aware. I think once their stomach is used to it it will always be used to it. Think it was Gloworm*Mushroom that mentioned it in a post not long ago.

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Most people on here do rotation using 2 or 3 brands so it must be easy to do. I don't think any of them use gradual introduction or it wouldn't really be worth doing rotation - you'd spend two weeks introducing a new food to then start introducing another.

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Good question but I don't think there is one correct answer. I think it will very much depend on your cat.

However, you could just avoid the whole problem by not block-feeding just one food but once you have established food b, you feed food a and b in rotation. Unless, of course, you are introducing food b to better food a. In which case, forget about food a completely but find food c and d that are of equal quality as food b. You might not need to have the same sort of lengthy introduction to other equal quality foods once the quality you want to feed has been established.

Gosh, reading this back I myself am not sure whether what I am saying makes any sense lol

I think it depends on the cats. Some cats are so sensitive that they will get an upset tummy going back onto product a after eating product b for a while.

My girl has a sensitive tum, but i've found with her that once i've introduced a food gradually she's fine for me to chop and change as long as she hasn't been on one food exclusively for a while. So i try not to feed the same brand 2 days in a row and she copes fine with that - some cats may not though

My original question now sounds like a question from a maths exam paper!!!

Let's try it this way. These are just examples of food, not what I am planning on giving the kittens. So, let's say the kittens always eat NM and I want to give them a change and give them sardines. So, throughout the week, I mix sardines in with NM to slowly get their tummies used to the sardines.

After week 1 they r completely used to sardines.

One day the shop doesn't have any sardines, so we have to go back to having NM.

The question now is - cos the kittens have had NM in the past can they just be fed it out of the blue, even if it is 3 months after previoulsy having it? Is the NM not classed as a 'new' food any longer cos they have eaten it in the past?

Sorry, I've made it so complicated. We will get there in the end.

No, hun, I understood that this was your problem and my post still stands.

Like Doolaly I believe that there is not one answer as it depends on your cat. Not a very helpful answer I know. Technically I think after say not feeding a food for three months and if it is of lesser quality than what you have been feeding then you might have a problem. But only might.

But I do think you can circumvent the problem but no just feeding one type of food but feeding food in rotation. So back to your example, instead of just feeding sardines (though never do just that lol) for weeks on end once you have introduced them from the NM, feed NM one day and sardines the other. Then you could also introduce say Bozita pate, so that one day you feed NM, the other sardines, the third Bozita.

When I am not feeding raw my cats get up to 5 different wet foods in rotation. I currently feed raw for 50% of their meals, the rest of the time they get a different food from my cupboard. However, I also love trying new foods out for them. And because they are so used to variety, I can just plonk a new food in front of them without having to introduce it over a period of time. But all of the foods I try are of the same quality.

Does that help at all or has it become even more confusing?