Best Dry Food Available In The Uk/zooplus

Livmm

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Hello, I'm a new member and have been reading the forums with great interest today. Nice to meet you all! Apologies for the long post below, I'm trying to give as much info as possible!
The heart of our family is our two burmese cats, Molly and Maeve. They are almost 18 months old and currently eat wellness core dried food and Felix doubly delicious as good as it looks wet food. We free feed the dry and they split a pouch of wet at night. They are indoor only cats who enjoy walks outside on a harness (and therefore are wormed and flead regularly). They also have two tubs of cat grass inside.
They do have a few dreamies most days, which they have to perform tricks for but no "human food", milk etc.
We have a cat fountain (best purchase ever) along with multiple bowls of clean and fresh water throughout the house. Although they are mostly on dried food they drink a lot, far more than any (of the many, many rescue) cats we've ever had before.
We feed the pouch of wet food at night with each of them in separate rooms to encourage them to eat it but they never seem that excited by it and rarely finish it. Our breeder recommended this food to us on advice from her vet. The vet also recommended science plan but after some research on the benefits of grain free food we switched to wellness, which they enjoy.
They've recently been to the vet for check ups and are spot on for weight. They appear lovely and healthy and shiny. They are incredibly loving, social, confident and playful cats.
While they are never sick or seem to be in pain, they quite often have very smelly poos and farts. Sometimes poo ends up still stuck to their bottoms outside the litter tray leading to a poo scooch trail around the room. We have no reason to believe anything is majorly wrong and the cats never seem bothered, but I am wondering if we should switch to a dry food for sensitive stomachs and if so, if anyone has any recommendations for wet or dry food? We are in the UK so am looking for food available here or on Zooplus.
Thank you in advance and sorry again for the mega post!
 

IndyJones

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Have you had their anal glands checked recently? Blocked glands can cause some of the things you are describing. It is possible to drain them yourself but I would not recommend it if you don't know what you're doing. Your vet can probably show you how to do it at home.

I do know wellness is one of the higher end foods, never heard of Felix before but I do know some of the cheap canned foods can cause GI upset. Fancy Feast caused my guys to have bad stomach upset and vomiting.

The fact you mention scooching tells me it probably is the anal glands though. These are two small sacs at the sides of the anus that have a very foul smelling liquid in them. Normally they empty when the cat defecates but they can become blocked up and cause the cat to have a bad smell and scootch because of the pressure.
 

Neo_23

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Wellness is considered a 'decent' quality food when you consider high quality grain-free products. Higher quality dry would be brands like Orijen/Acana, ZiwiPeak, Instinct. High quality wet food brands include Weruva, ZiwiPeak, Tiki Cat.

It's hard to say what it is about the food that's causing the soft and smelly poo. It could be many things (Wellness has a lot of ingredients). It might even be the pouches. Something you might try is incorporating a probiotic into your cats' diet. I'm trying this now because I have the same issue with my kitten - he has stinky and soft poos but otherwise very happy and healthy.
 

Neo_23

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Have you had their anal glands checked recently? Blocked glands can cause some of the things you are describing. It is possible to drain them yourself but I would not recommend it if you don't know what you're doing. Your vet can probably show you how to do it at home.

I do know wellness is one of the higher end foods, never heard of Felix before but I do know some of the cheap canned foods can cause GI upset. Fancy Feast caused my guys to have bad stomach upset and vomiting.

The fact you mention scooching tells me it probably is the anal glands though. These are two small sacs at the sides of the anus that have a very foul smelling liquid in them. Normally they empty when the cat defecates but they can become blocked up and cause the cat to have a bad smell and scootch because of the pressure.
I may be wrong, but I don't think plugged anal sacs are a cause of soft poop but rather a result? Having chronic soft poo can cause anal glands to become impacted and need to be released (usually the anal sacs are expressed when poo passes through the anus putting pressure on them), but I don't think it's the other way around.
 
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Livmm

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Have you had their anal glands checked recently? Blocked glands can cause some of the things you are describing. It is possible to drain them yourself but I would not recommend it if you don't know what you're doing. Your vet can probably show you how to do it at home.

I do know wellness is one of the higher end foods, never heard of Felix before but I do know some of the cheap canned foods can cause GI upset. Fancy Feast caused my guys to have bad stomach upset and vomiting.

The fact you mention scooching tells me it probably is the anal glands though. These are two small sacs at the sides of the anus that have a very foul smelling liquid in them. Normally they empty when the cat defecates but they can become blocked up and cause the cat to have a bad smell and scootch because of the pressure.
Thank you for your reply :) I don't think it is the anal glands from what you've described as having seen the scooching happen, it definitely is a chunk of poo that's hanging out there haha. Will definitely talk to the vet about it though!
 
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Livmm

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Wellness is considered a 'decent' quality food when you consider high quality grain-free products. Higher quality dry would be brands like Orijen/Acana, ZiwiPeak, Instinct. High quality wet food brands include Weruva, ZiwiPeak, Tiki Cat.

It's hard to say what it is about the food that's causing the soft and smelly poo. It could be many things (Wellness has a lot of ingredients). It might even be the pouches. Something you might try is incorporating a probiotic into your cats' diet. I'm trying this now because I have the same issue with my kitten - he has stinky and soft poos but otherwise very happy and healthy.
Thank you for your reply :)
I will look at those options you've listed and the idea of introducing a probiotic is something I hadn't considered, so will look into that too!
 

Neo_23

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Also, depending on what the cause is, (if it's an issue of not enough fiber in the diet) adding a small amount of canned pumpkin to their meal may also help.

I'm basically giving you all of the advice that I'm trying right now with my kitten :)
 
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Livmm

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Thank you everyone for all your fantastic suggestions :) to update you, we stopped the Felix pouches and the problem is pretty much solved! We're going to try a couple of the brands mentioned above and while we are waiting on a delivery from zooplus will carry on feeding the wellness and give some cooked chicken or other cooked meat or fish in the evening as a bit of something different
 

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I'm in the UK too :wave3:

Great to hear that the tummy problems have resolved :) Here's a list of some of my go-to foods, if it's any help :wink:

For dry, I like Applaws, Purizon, Aatu and Eden. I'm sure I've forgotten a couple, but that's somewhere to start ;)

For wet, I like Thrive Complete (the chicken breast or chicken and turkey are great for sensitive tummies), GranataPet, Feringa, Catz Finefood, Purrr by Catz Finefood (pricey, but all are single protein and great for sensitive tummies), Nature's Menu, Aatu, Animonda Carny, and Bozita tetra packs (the last two are all meat blends, so not the best if beef is a problem). Again, I'm sure I've missed a few, but that's what instantly springs to mind. All are available from Pets at Home or Zooplus (or Amazon, in some cases).
 
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