Too Much Variety??

[Merlin77]

Hello to everyone!

I've posted in this forum because it has been brought to my attention that my cats' diet may be too varied, and causing slight bloating.

To eleborate, I am the 'guardian' (I dislike the term 'owner' and 'mom' so I just refer to myself as that), of a lovely cat by the name of Snake. She has been fed many things throughout her life, starting with Friskies as a little kitten and now a rotation of other brands such as Nature's Variety and Blue Buffalo. She is having some strange reactions to food now though, which I will explain after the following backstory:

We are not always there to feed the cats fixed meals so while we are away we leave out two feeders of Nature's Variety, chicken flavoured. Before this we fed one of Acana's formula's. Before that mainly Nutrience, switching through the different flavours. The cats are all 'barn-cats' as one would say, so they also routinely hunt and eat all sorts of animals. No has tapeworms, not even Raini who is half feral, half friendly and has only been treated once for worms. I figure they have built up a good immune system due to being born and raised outdoors.

While we are at the barn, we feed wet food. Here is where I believe we have a problem.

I buy all sorts of flavours from a mix of 8 brands, including Blue Buffalo, Nature's Variety, Nutrience, Weruva, Koha, Wellness, Organix and possibly a few more I've missed.

At the moment, Koha is the most popular in their cupboard, so that is what they are fed the majority of their wet food meals. Still, they have a lot of variety and we even offer servings of chicken liver, thighs and gizzards.

All the cats exept for Snake can eat anything we give them without getting upset stomachs. However, Snake gets bloated after eating about half of the medium 5.0 oz cans or one 3.3 oz cans. Not badly bloated, but her tummy gets swollen. She doesn't vomit or look uncomfortable, and her stools are fine (from what I see, at least. I spy on her while she poops in the forest and might not see all her stool perfectly)

Raw food and prey does not have this effect on her.

Last time this happened she had one 3.3 oz can of Blue Buffalo and a bit of chicken breast she stole off the counter (wasn't that much).

Before that another family member fed her some of the junky food I do not choose the feed but they do anyway (either Friskies or Compliments, I'm not sure), and she bloated too. A lot.

I wish I had a before--and--after picture of the bloat but I don't... I will try to get one.

So, my questions are:

Is she bloating because the diet is too varied?
Or could it be an allergy?

Thank you for taking the time to read this, I know it is long but I have windering for a while.

(I posted a similar question to this in the Health Forum and I got great advice but it was suggested to post here too, so here I am )

 

[Neo_23]

I don't think variety is necessarily bad. In fact, many will tell you the opposite, that it is good to feed lots of variety. I know a lot of our members rotate between lots of different canned foods. Dry food is a bit harder to rotate and tends to cause stomach upset if switched too fast.

I think the only way you can find out what's causing the problem is to try and be a bit more consistent with what you feed so you can identify the source of the bloating through elimination.

You mentioned that your cats hunt prey and sometimes eat raw. Another option might be to just switch this cat over to an all raw or raw/home-cooked diet?...

 

[Cutiepie488]

Hello,
I feel that she might have a too much variety in her diet and that she should just stick to one brand because one of the other brands might cause her to bloat more. You should find out which one causes her to bloat the least but give some time span between each trial of food so that you know which is causing her to bloat. You should also take a look at her stool more closely and keep an eye on her when she is eating and what she does after she eats. Also watch how she behaves when you are about to give her the food and awhile after like 1 hour. If her bloating gets really bad them you should take her to the vet, but I hope that it doesn't get too bad.
Best of luck!

 

[orange&white]

I think variety is a good thing, though I'm not a huge fan of kibble. The healthiest thing your barn cats are eating are live prey and the raw bits of chicken, liver and gizzards...followed by the canned foods of any brand label.

The one thing that caught my attention more than the rest is your statement that your cats have only had one wormer treatment. Eating live prey, they most certainly have worms. I would do a broad-spectrum wormer like Drontal or Panacur on all outdoor cats every 6 months.

A belly full of worms certainly could cause bloating.

 

[Merlin77]

I think variety is a good thing, though I'm not a huge fan of kibble. The healthiest thing your barn cats are eating are live prey and the raw bits of chicken, liver and gizzards...followed by the canned foods of any brand label.

The one thing that caught my attention more than the rest is your statement that your cats have only had one wormer treatment. Eating live prey, they most certainly have worms. I would do a broad-spectrum wormer like Drontal or Panacur on all outdoor cats every 6 months.

A belly full of worms certainly could cause bloating.

I will see if we can track down those dewormers as soon as I can...It will be tricky to administer it to every correctly because the cats vary a lot in weight and age, and they normally eat from one or two big plates all together. (Don't worry, the ones who don't like sharing are fed seperately ). I think what we'll do is bring them inside the house one at a time and let them eat, until everyone is medicated.

Yeah I don't like kibble much either but when we're away it is the only thing we can leave. They do get some better food throughout the week when we are away if the neighbours happen to have meat leftover.

 

[Merlin77]

I don't think variety is necessarily bad. In fact, many will tell you the opposite, that it is good to feed lots of variety. I know a lot of our members rotate between lots of different canned foods. Dry food is a bit harder to rotate and tends to cause stomach upset if switched too fast.

I think the only way you can find out what's causing the problem is to try and be a bit more consistent with what you feed so you can identify the source of the bloating through elimination.

You mentioned that your cats hunt prey and sometimes eat raw. Another option might be to just switch this cat over to an all raw or raw/home-cooked diet?...

I'd love to have them all on a raw/homemade diet but the supplementation is just too confusing. Also with how much we are away it doesn't work (they live at our cabin which we visit on weekends and sometimes on days off).

I will go with the elimination process with the foods. Time to go get some paper!

Yes I heard that rotation and variety was good... Perhaps I'm just doing it too much? I don't think so, since the other cats are fine and Snake is used to food changes and variety. I will try to keep dry food from the same brand then, if I can decide which one, but still switch around with the flavours.

 

[Merlin77]

Hello,
I feel that she might have a too much variety in her diet and that she should just stick to one brand because one of the other brands might cause her to bloat more. You should find out which one causes her to bloat the least but give some time span between each trial of food so that you know which is causing her to bloat. You should also take a look at her stool more closely and keep an eye on her when she is eating and what she does after she eats. Also watch how she behaves when you are about to give her the food and awhile after like 1 hour. If her bloating gets really bad them you should take her to the vet, but I hope that it doesn't get too bad.
Best of luck!

Hehe, I am going to have fun digging through grass to find poop! But that's actually a really good idea. Maybe she is having loose stools but I just don't notice.

I'm thinking of taking a piece of paper and writing out a meal plan to follow so I can see how each food sits with her. One week, one brand, the next week, another brand.

Now that you mention the behavior of when she is eating and before and after, I feel like part of the bloat might be caused by eating too fast. She is always racing up to us when she sees us coming back to the barn, very hungry and excited, then scarfs down her food like she hasn't eaten in a week (we moniter the cats with a camera device that takes pictures every so often to make sure everyone gets to the dry food while we are away, and that is definitely not the case).

Thank you to everyone's advice, and I'm sorry I couldn't get back to you guys sooner! I had a music lesson to attend . I will let you know how the situation goes.

 

[Neo_23]

I'd love to have them all on a raw/homemade diet but the supplementation is just too confusing. Also with how much we are away it doesn't work (they live at our cabin which we visit on weekends and sometimes on days off).

I will go with the elimination process with the foods. Time to go get some paper!

Yes I heard that rotation and variety was good... Perhaps I'm just doing it too much? I don't think so, since the other cats are fine and Snake is used to food changes and variety. I will try to keep dry food from the same brand then, if I can decide which one, but still switch around with the flavours.

Did you know that many brands also sell raw food as complete meals? You can get raw food frozen or in freeze dried form (just add water to the freeze dried). I guess you're away too much to make it their full diet though.

I also think that orange&white 's suggestion of having them dewormed is a good idea. If you have the money, you could just take them to the vet and ask them to do it if you're worried about doing it yourself.

 

[Merlin77]

Did you know that many brands also sell raw food as complete meals? You can get raw food frozen or in freeze dried form (just add water to the freeze dried). I guess you're away too much to make it their full diet though.

I also think that orange&white 's suggestion of having them dewormed is a good idea. If you have the money, you could just take them to the vet and ask them to do it if you're worried about doing it yourself.

I have seen the raw and freeze-dried in pet stores, they seem a little expensive but I will give them a try. I guess we could mix the store bought in with our own servings!

Can you order dewormers online for a reasonable price? Such as the Panacur or Drontal mentioned earlier? I know that Advantage costs a fortune from our vet, but of course the dewormer actually needs to work so the higher price makes sense. I will go check Amazon to see what they have.

We should be able to deworm them at home/at the cabin, but it will be quite the adventure!

 

[orange&white]

Drontal requires a prescription but should be less than $10 per pill. I think you're supposed to give 2 doses a few weeks apart. A member here recently purchased it from an Australian website with no prescription.

Panacur (also brand names SafeGuard-4 and Pro-Sense) is OTC and inexpensive. The FDA hasn't approved it for cats (but it is approved in other countries and vets here will prescribe it for cats) so you buy the dog-labelled version. It mixes into their food for 3 days in a row.

 

[Merlin77]

I saw this on Amazon:

(just ignore the bottom, there's really no info there)

It looks like a good offer. Snake is 6 pounds so she wouldn't even need one whole pill per dose, but Raini is much larger in terms of length and muscle so one per dose sounds right.

I'm not sure about the Panacur if I have to use the dog-labelled version... Do the vets prescribe the dog version or cat version? I'm always cautious with medicine because dewormers are basically pesticide, and if the dog version is too strong for a cat's system that would be bad. I will see if I can find reviews on it though.

Thanks for describing the dewormers!!

 

[orange&white]

That's a really good deal. Looks like you don't need a prescription for Drontal in Canada. I think $40 Canadian is around $32 USD.

Panacur, and other brands of fenbendazole (the active ingredient) are sold at 222 mcg/gram of powder. I believe it's been shown to be safe for cats. Here are a couple of articles:
Fenbendazole for Cats
Fenbendazole - Pet, Dog and Cat Medication and Prescription List | petMD

 

[Merlin77]

Wow thank you for those links! I will check them out.