As well as tempting inappetent cats and helping your cat to recover from an operation or illness, your vet may also prescribe one of a number of different special diets that are designed specifically to help manage certain diseases (such as the Royal Canin® range of veterinary therapeutic diets).

Follow your vet's advice on how to introduce such a diet, but in general:

• It is better to change over from an old diet to a new diet gradually over 3-7 days
  
  
• Start by mixing a small amount of the new diet in with the old diet
  
  
• If your cat accepts the new diet well, increase the amount of the new diet and decrease the amount of the old diet over a few days until only the new diet is being fed
  
  
• If your cat is more reluctant to take the new diet, make the change more gradual over a longer period of time, increasing the amount of new diet only very slowly
  
  
• If done gradually, most cats will accept a change in diet