Adaptation to new kibble

MoriartyX

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I hope 'kibble' is the correct term :crazy:

We have two 6 month siblings, and a couple of weeks ago we decided to try a new brand of solid food. We had been using low quality kibble (what we could in that moment) and we switched to Applaws, a brand that has a great price/quality ratio.

We did the whole transition thing: a week or so mixing both kibble brands, every day increasing the quantity of the new one. In the end, it took like 9 or 10 days. Of course, in the latter days, both kittens had less solid poop, sometimes not solid at all. Anyway, a couple of days later, they stabilized, so after waiting 2-3 days more, we gave them some canned food, which they had not eaten in more than a month.

And obviously that wasn't a good idea, because bad poop came back. That was last weeked. Now, without more canned food, the male is doing perfectly fine since Monday, but the girl is still having moments of almost liquid poop. Maybe first poop of the day is liquid, then the next is almost perfect, and the last one is a mix, or not very solid... You get the idea.

My question is: is this normal, do they take that long to adapt to new food, specially when they were used to really bad quality kibble?

I once read supermarket-quality kibble was so bad it could damage their internal bacteria and all and that was why they usually had a bad time when eating canned food, because they wouldn't have a way to digest it properly.

Thanks!
 

mittens23

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I hope 'kibble' is the correct term :crazy:

We have two 6 month siblings, and a couple of weeks ago we decided to try a new brand of solid food. We had been using low quality kibble (what we could in that moment) and we switched to Applaws, a brand that has a great price/quality ratio.

We did the whole transition thing: a week or so mixing both kibble brands, every day increasing the quantity of the new one. In the end, it took like 9 or 10 days. Of course, in the latter days, both kittens had less solid poop, sometimes not solid at all. Anyway, a couple of days later, they stabilized, so after waiting 2-3 days more, we gave them some canned food, which they had not eaten in more than a month.

And obviously that wasn't a good idea, because bad poop came back. That was last weeked. Now, without more canned food, the male is doing perfectly fine since Monday, but the girl is still having moments of almost liquid poop. Maybe first poop of the day is liquid, then the next is almost perfect, and the last one is a mix, or not very solid... You get the idea.

My question is: is this normal, do they take that long to adapt to new food, specially when they were used to really bad quality kibble?

I once read supermarket-quality kibble was so bad it could damage their internal bacteria and all and that was why they usually had a bad time when eating canned food, because they wouldn't have a way to digest it properly.

Thanks!
I have 3 cats all of them eat 9 lives essential plus friskies cat and kitten food pate. No problems. No diarrhea. Doing well on the food I am giving them.just make sure they are well hydrated.
 
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mrsgreenjeens

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For some cats, it does take time when switching food for their tummies to straighten out. Some cats have no issues at all and some take a LOT of time and effort for any food change. If this happened just last weekend, and you are starting to see some firming up of the stool, now that she is back on the Applaws only, she'll probably just take a little longer than her brother. And she may need probiotics added to help her along. I know one of my guys has a tender tummy, and his Vet suggested that whenever he gets diarrhea to give him FortiFlora. It's a probiotic, and even though I already give both my guys a different probiotic daily, the Fortiflora always clears up any diarrhea. You can usually get it from Amazon or big box pet stores like Petco or Petsmart.
 

dkb817

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It likely just requires a longer adjustment period - but you may find that your girl just can't handle that specific type of food. For example, my Simon gets Fancy Feast wet food (and has for months now) - handles two of the varieties really well, but if we switch him to the gravy variety of the same brand? Instant loose stools.

I just figure cats are like people in that sometimes we just can't tolerate certain foods while other people do just fine.
 
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MoriartyX

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Well, they really seem to be getting better. I was just worried it wasn't really normal at all. But seeing how they seem to be happy, active and all, and that the stools seems to be more solid every day, and less worried. They eat, play and sleep correctly, and they are not pooping more than usually, so it's ok.

Now I'm worried what will happen when we try to give them canned food again :lol:
 
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