Can dry cat food be odorless?

[botolo]

My cat George is under a prescription diet for early-stage CKD. He has been eating Purina NF Early Care regularly. Three weeks ago he stopped eating it, and I was wondering what was going on. I tried to open a new bag of the same food, and he jumped right over it and resumed eating it every day. At that time, I realized that the old bag (for many reasons) was opened a couple of months before and I assumed that the food got stale and that was why he was not eating it.

Now two/three weeks go by and George stops eating the same food again. I thought "here we go, the food just got old". I got a new bag, opened it, waiting for George to come over, but zero...still not interested. He comes to the bowl, sniffs the food and goes away.

I thought he might have nausea, but he is still eating regularly his wet food. Today just to check I smelled the new bag of dry food and to my surprise it was almost odorless. The same food used to smell like fish in the past. it's a brand new bag and I did not notice any issue with it. The expiration date is September 2023.

Do you think it might be possible that this bag for some reason contained old food or food that was already spoiled?

I have ordered a new bag but it will take a couple of days to arrive.

 

[FeebysOwner]

It is possible, and you will soon find out with the new bag. But, from all that I have read on this site and the CKD forum site, most cats - if they will even eat these renal foods - tend to tire of them eventually, if not more quickly.

If you have both bags, you can compare the ingredients to see if they have changed in any way that might have affected the smell. You can also contact Purina and ask if any changes have been made.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

I don't know the answer to your question, but having had kidney cats in the past, just wanted to say that if your cats is willing to eat wet food, can you feed him THAT all the time instead of trying to have him eat some dry? Kidney cats need much more hydration than "healthy" cats, so feeding an all wet diet is much better, and if you can even add some extra water to it, all the better.

 

[botolo]

This is a good point but difficult to execute. Right now the FF he eats is too high on phosphorous. I can’t feed him only that food. Also, he is a grazer and eats a little bit very often. With wet food it would mean switching old wet food with new wet food many times a day.
This means that I would need to transition to a renal wet food and change his feeding habits. The nutritionist suggested not to do this now as it might give him stress and stress (even more in Senior cats with a disease going on) can trigger other things.

 

[botolo]

In any case I think I might have found the culprit. Speaking with a representative of the food company, they told me that his dry food has a 18 months shelf life. The bag I received has an expiration date of September 2023. This means that the food was manufactured more than a year ago and sat on the shelves for so long. It might still be good to eat but definitely not fresh anymore.

 

[Furballsmom]

Have you tried Weruva WX canned to see if he'd eat it? It's extremely low in phosphorus (no prescription required and it's nutritionally complete except for the phos), and their other varieties are low in phos as well.

 

[botolo]

Just an update. The odorless bag had an expiration date of 9/2023. A new bag I just received has an expiration date of 12/2023. The new bag has a strong odor that is common with this food and George started eating it again.

I guess the previous bag was just too old.

 

[Furballsmom]

Thanks for the update