More Help Please!!! ( Don't Shoot Me!)

[sunflower7]

About 8 weeks ago I left PURINA ;-) and switched the 3 cats to different foods. they tried maybe 7 brands and I was like WOW, they eat and like them all!
Now they don't like anything!
and I realize at 1.99 a can or so, I don't think I can do it. also small cans are 1.29 or so and they'd need 2 putting me at 2.60 per meal. much higher than friskies. the beyond was that price though and they had 1 can a day beyond and 2 5.5's of friskies.

so I have to try to stick with cans 5.5 ounce that max out at 1.89!!! no instinct or rawz which are pushing $3

anyway now all 3 have a bit of diarrehea or constipated! No one pooping now in 2 days except 1 tiny diarrehea and I don't know who. I tried the shaved crayon trick but couldn't tell and still no poop.
the one cat had liquid stinky horrible diarrhea for one morning and I don't think anything since (almost 3 days, still no poop but acting and eating fine)

questions:
1) what can I give them? psyillim? coconut oil?

2) back to foods. they now hate fromm. I tried wellness and they do like it. not sure if I should stick with it. mixed reviews. and as we all know some cats live to 18 on friskies so I am just SOOOOOOO confused.

3) Nulo. they like but has tuna in the cans I have so I don't want to give that every meal.
They've been eating it 8 weeks so I doubt it caused the liquid stool?

4) Weruva...I am thinking this may have caused the diarrahea since he got it twice the week I was giving 1 can a day. however it really doesn't have many ingreds( I used the chickens only but did give the mack and jack once, 2 days before the diarrehea, and they don't eat fish often)

5) health extension. they all HATE the mini can with pumpkin but are OK with the turkey large can. I have mixed feelings about this brand? input?

6) yet to try and considering : anyone else have input besides those I chatted with?

Redbarn ( never tried- good ingreds but I really feel this company caters 95% to dogs)
Halo never tried...why do I WANT to like this but not sure?
Bravo doesn't seem popular but seems good ingredients?
Earthborn high carbs and lots of bad reviews on their Fb page recently but cats "liked"
Newman's Organic- thoughts?


I get so annoyed and keep wanting to go back to Friskies just out of frustration but even my kids say that our older cat has so much more energy than before!



any other thoughts? and thanks!

 

[Furballsmom]

You could try the friskies til everyone's tummies get back on track, it might not even take more than just a little bit intermittently.
You might give your vet a call and see what they'd think about any of the following, from
8 Ways to Help Your Constipated Cat | petMD

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

You could try psyllium, but if you do, make sure your cat(s) get plenty of water with it. Or you could try giving them a good probiotic in case their gut flora is out of balance. You could also try Slippery Elm Bark. It would be really good if you could figure out which cat it is though. I know you are trying to figure that out...may one day when you are home all day you can try to catch each one in the litterbox and check that way.

As to the foods, I like Redbarn, think the ingredients are pretty good. I do NOT like Halo, they put WAY too many potatoes, peas, etc. in it (at least in the "stew" variety), but one of my cats likes it pretty well. Maybe you think you should like it because Ellen (THE Ellen ) advertises for them . I also like Earthborn, and it's hit or miss with my guys. I think Newman's Organic is all hype, so have never tried it. I think I calculated carbs once on it and seem to recall it was really high. I've never found Bravo canned near me, so don't know anything about it. Never heard of Health Extension - why do you have mixed feelings?

If you have a budget of less than $1.99 per 5.5 oz can, then all I can is to go to your local pet stores and shop by price. Used to be, Natures Variety DOG was the exact same as their cat food, because they added Taurine to it, and then you could buy it in the 13 oz cans. I heard rumors they were changing this, but it's worth checking into. You could compare ingredients on dog and cat foods, and if the only difference is lack of Taurine, then buy that in powdered form and add it yourself. It IS a critical ingredient for cats, so must to in there one way or another. I think Wellness comes in 13oz cans (cat) as well.

I've got to ask because I confuse easily. You said you need to feed 2 cans (and I got the idea possibly 2 -3 oz cans daiy for 3 cats) for three cats. Have you added dry food to the mix? If so, this could be causing their intestinal grief, if they didn't have it before. And be aware that calories in cat food can vary from can to can. Friskies has a pretty good amount of calories, and Weruva, for instance, is much lower in cals. If you are splitting even 2 - 5.50z cans of a lower calorie food between three cats that might not be enough food.

 

[sunflower7]

Thank you Furballsmom. You are always quick on the reply and I might be getting a little addicted to these boards for now so pls bear with me!

 

[sunflower7]

You could try psyllium, but if you do, make sure your cat(s) get plenty of water with it. Or you could try giving them a good probiotic in case their gut flora is out of balance. You could also try Slippery Elm Bark. It would be really good if you could figure out which cat it is though. I know you are trying to figure that out...may one day when you are home all day you can try to catch each one in the litterbox and check that way.

As to the foods, I like Redbarn, think the ingredients are pretty good. I do NOT like Halo, they put WAY too many potatoes, peas, etc. in it (at least in the "stew" variety), but one of my cats likes it pretty well. Maybe you think you should like it because Ellen (THE Ellen ) advertises for them . I also like Earthborn, and it's hit or miss with my guys. I think Newman's Organic is all hype, so have never tried it. I think I calculated carbs once on it and seem to recall it was really high. I've never found Bravo canned near me, so don't know anything about it. Never heard of Health Extension - why do you have mixed feelings?

If you have a budget of less than $1.99 per 5.5 oz can, then all I can is to go to your local pet stores and shop by price. Used to be, Natures Variety DOG was the exact same as their cat food, because they added Taurine to it, and then you could buy it in the 13 oz cans. I heard rumors they were changing this, but it's worth checking into. You could compare ingredients on dog and cat foods, and if the only difference is lack of Taurine, then buy that in powdered form and add it yourself. It IS a critical ingredient for cats, so must to in there one way or another. I think Wellness comes in 13oz cans (cat) as well.

I've got to ask because I confuse easily. You said you need to feed 2 cans (and I got the idea possibly 2 -3 oz cans daiy for 3 cats) for three cats. Have you added dry food to the mix? If so, this could be causing their intestinal grief, if they didn't have it before. And be aware that calories in cat food can vary from can to can. Friskies has a pretty good amount of calories, and Weruva, for instance, is much lower in cals. If you are splitting even 2 - 5.50z cans of a lower calorie food between three cats that might not be enough food.

Thank you
yes, they've had dry their whole lives, used to be 50%, then maybe 33% of diet and now shooting for 20%...way less

Health extension seems to have good ingredients but hardly any reviews, which is what throughs me off. Both my local stores have it, since it's based near me.

I didn't know about ellen and Halo. which doesn't make it bad though. the one I looked at had low veggies...others had a lot more. i think they just changed

 

[Furballsmom]

so pls bear with me

You are a very caring and concerned cat person trying to navigate the chaos of the pet food industry

 

[sunflower7]

You are a very caring and concerned cat person trying to navigate the chaos of the pet food industry

oh gosh, thanks. I should make that my screen saver to help my sanity at this point!

 

[EmersonandEvie]

Merrick makes a rabbit pate that mine adore! I think Chewy sells it by the case for $1.60/can.

 

[Minxxy]

About 8 weeks ago I left PURINA ;-) and switched the 3 cats to different foods. they tried maybe 7 brands and I was like WOW, they eat and like them all!
Now they don't like anything!
and I realize at 1.99 a can or so, I don't think I can do it. also small cans are 1.29 or so and they'd need 2 putting me at 2.60 per meal. much higher than friskies. the beyond was that price though and they had 1 can a day beyond and 2 5.5's of friskies.

so I have to try to stick with cans 5.5 ounce that max out at 1.89!!! no instinct or rawz which are pushing $3

anyway now all 3 have a bit of diarrehea or constipated! No one pooping now in 2 days except 1 tiny diarrehea and I don't know who. I tried the shaved crayon trick but couldn't tell and still no poop.
the one cat had liquid stinky horrible diarrhea for one morning and I don't think anything since (almost 3 days, still no poop but acting and eating fine)

questions:
1) what can I give them? psyillim? coconut oil?

2) back to foods. they now hate fromm. I tried wellness and they do like it. not sure if I should stick with it. mixed reviews. and as we all know some cats live to 18 on friskies so I am just SOOOOOOO confused.

3) Nulo. they like but has tuna in the cans I have so I don't want to give that every meal.
They've been eating it 8 weeks so I doubt it caused the liquid stool?

4) Weruva...I am thinking this may have caused the diarrahea since he got it twice the week I was giving 1 can a day. however it really doesn't have many ingreds( I used the chickens only but did give the mack and jack once, 2 days before the diarrehea, and they don't eat fish often)

5) health extension. they all HATE the mini can with pumpkin but are OK with the turkey large can. I have mixed feelings about this brand? input?

6) yet to try and considering : anyone else have input besides those I chatted with?

Redbarn ( never tried- good ingreds but I really feel this company caters 95% to dogs)
Halo never tried...why do I WANT to like this but not sure?
Bravo doesn't seem popular but seems good ingredients?
Earthborn high carbs and lots of bad reviews on their Fb page recently but cats "liked"
Newman's Organic- thoughts?


I get so annoyed and keep wanting to go back to Friskies just out of frustration but even my kids say that our older cat has so much more energy than before!



any other thoughts? and thanks!

If you don't mind me asking , why did you stop Friskies? Unless it was making them sick maybe go back to that for awhile. Not sure if I mentioned it but if you have a Tractor supply in your area they have a brand called 4Health that is pretty good and it's the same price as Friskies.

 

[duckpond]

It could be too many new foods in too short a time have their systems a little mixed up?

Personally i would not give them extra fiber, without knowing it is needed, sometimes cats get too much fiber and it causes problems. They dont normally need the fiber unless they have a health issue.

As for Coconut oil, i wouldn't. Some foods and things contain it, but im against it. I have read too much about it can do damage to a cats liver.

I think i would put them back on what they were eating, Friskies. Let their systems settle down and get normal, then try bringing in one food at a time, see how they do with it? Then once you are sure they are good with that one bring in another if you want. Some cats do great with lots of other foods all at once, some do not. Maybe step back, rethink which food you want to bring in, and do it slower?

 

[maggiedemi]

Have you tried cutting out the dry food for 2 or 3 days and feeding all canned food just to see if it could be the dry food causing the diarrhea? It wouldn't hurt to try just for a couple days.

 

[sunflower7]

If you don't mind me asking , why did you stop Friskies? Unless it was making them sick maybe go back to that for awhile. Not sure if I mentioned it but if you have a Tractor supply in your area they have a brand called 4Health that is pretty good and it's the same price as Friskies.

I stopped Friskies because I know it's just a plain old CRAP food. I was also giving Purina beyond and here and there bought a better brand from petco.
I no longer want to give food with dyes, artificial flavors and by products of unknown origin.Since I switched, they poop less, have not thrown up and have a ton more energy, all of them. plus my daughter thinks their fur is shiner and softer than ever. :-)
we don't have tractor supply stores where I am New York, but we have many great independent small pet food stores

 

[maggiedemi]

Ha, well it's not that crappy. I feed Friskies and my cats do well on it.

 

[lalagimp]

I stick with Nature's Variety as their primary wet because I've compared lots of other brands, even the cheaper foods, and the calorie content is higher with them by up to 40 calories. So, I end up feeding less. You can get the 5.5 oz cans at $22-23 a case putting it around $1.88 a can. I also do most of my online shopping through MyPoints and every 2-3 months I have enough points generated for an Amazon redemption of $10-20. I also do surveys through Baker St Solutions that pay in $5 amazon certs in about 5 weeks. Every 2-3 months my costs on a case go WAY down using my redemptions. I also found out that my American Express card doesn't have enough points to cash out on their system from back when I got Tommy's surgery last year, but linking it to my Amazon account, I can redeem them at a lower value - I found out today I have almost $10 I can use. I also do market research in my area for focus groups, taste testings, product trials. Anything you can get offsets your costs.

one brand you can look at that's been doing well is American Journey on Chewy.com. Your first case/bag/ or salmon oil is 50% off. I got a flat of a minced chicken in gravy for $11.

My part time job is a SAH w four cats, three little parrots, and two guinea pigs. The kids are killing my budget pressing into their next growth spurts. I try to plan for everything.

 

[applemommy]

First of all good on you for cutting Friskies. I really dislike Purina as a company itself and the food is bad quality IMO.

I don't like Newmans Organics.. it has carrageenan really close to the beginning of the list. I don't usually buy foods with carrageenan in it (seldom I will buy Natural Balance duck pate because my older cat loves it and it has carrageenan all the way at the end of the list of ingredients). I would stray away from it personally but I might just be a skeptic. Who knows. I just don't see the point in adding it to cat food.

I don't like the Wellness dry foods. The protein is low for the premium price you're paying there are richer foods for a cheaper price (Solid Gold for example).

I would say Earthborn cans are decent but again I would stray from the dry food. All the negative reviews I'm seeing on Earthborn's FB page are for the dry dog foods.

Halo is actually one of my favorites if you can get your hands on it. It is really not too shabby. Kind of reminds me of the Natures Variety Instinct food.

 

[xcourtney3]

My cats eat Friskies canned. I tried feeding the more expensive/'better' brands but my girl went on strike about half the time I put the bowls down. I'm not going to try to force her to eat something she doesn't like. You've got to pick your battles with cats! For the record, they have super soft and very shiny fur. They only poop once every other day and it doesn't smell bad. They are little balls of energy, especially considering their age, 8 years old.

 

[Minxxy]

My cats eat Friskies canned. I tried feeding the more expensive/'better' brands but my girl went on strike about half the time I put the bowls down. I'm not going to try to force her to eat something she doesn't like. You've got to pick your battles with cats! For the record, they have super soft and very shiny fur. They only poop once every other day and it doesn't smell bad. They are little balls of energy, especially considering their age, 8 years old.

So true .. A $3.00 can of fancy cat food is no good if the cat just looks at it and walks away . Friskies may be crap to one person but to another it can be the food that saves their cats life .

 

[maggiedemi]

I know, it scares me when people use such strong words like crap, junk, trash, yuck, etc. to describe supermarket canned food. I'm afraid that people that can't afford $2 and up for a can of fancy food will just turn to dry food when they read that. Cats need the moisture from canned food. Friskies saved my boy cat's life when he couldn't pee. So it can't be the devil in a can.

 

[duckpond]

There are all kinds of foods out there, some work for some cats, other for other cats. and i do agree we should be more sensitive about labeling any food as bad.

There are some ingredients i don't like, and i wont buy those foods. But i do try not to come down to strong on those brands, they may work well for someone else. they just don't work for me. I think in my journey to find the best food for MY cats i have tried most foods on the market.. lol. I have tried the cheapest, and the most expensive. some they like and some they don't, on both ends of the price range. I have bought $5.75 cans of food they hate, which really hurt lol. The best food for our cats is what we can comfortably afford, and what they will eat.

Same with wet and dry. we all know wet is good for cats, and i think we should always bring that up. But sometimes all wet does not work for people, or the cats. My little white girl would starve to death if she only got wet, the vet and i agree on this. I think encouraging people to try wet, in what ever price range they can afford is a good thing. But making people feel bad about feeding dry only discourages people from coming to the site, learning, and maybe someday deciding to feed some wet foods? just my thoughts for the day.

 

[Furballsmom]

I absolutely LOVE that you-all found those two website stores where a person can buy small amounts - what a lifesaver - Only Natural Pet, and The Big Bad Woof
So, back to the OP - how are tummies today?
Regarding Health Extension - if you like the ingredients, when their stomachs appear to be calmer I'd try this if I were you. Lack of reviews doesn't necessarily mean good or bad.