Wet Kitten Food Confusion

[lvmygrdn]

When I adopted my youngest two I switched them to better quality and no matter what I tried they had issues so I went back to what they were fed before I adopted them and very, very slowly changed them over and had no trouble. I rotated different brands, Nutro Natural Choice soft loaf, Tiki cat, FF kitten, etc. I stayed away from fish and would give it once in a blue moon. The best cat food won't do you or you kitty any good if your cat won't eat it. Good luck. Enjoy your little furball.

 

[lisahe]

When I adopted my youngest two I switched them to better quality and no matter what I tried they had issues so I went back to what they were fed before I adopted them and very, very slowly changed them over and had no trouble. I rotated different brands, Nutro Natural Choice soft loaf, Tiki cat, FF kitten, etc. I stayed away from fish and would give it once in a blue moon. The best cat food won't do you or you kitty any good if your cat won't eat it. Good luck. Enjoy your little furball.

This is great advice: some cats need very slow introductions of new foods and sometimes stabilizing things with the last successful food is a good strategy. (And I totally agree about fish, too. We feed it only as an occasional treat.)

 

[jasper95]

This is so helpful!

I went to grab some Nutro Natural Choice today, but it said it is for adult maintenance--would that be a problem for a kitten? He likes the Nutro kitten chicken soft loaf a lot so I got some more of that and will revisit the Natural Choice depending on what y'all think.

I think I got too caught up in the vet's insistence on kitten-specific formulas which really limited my options since many of the well-regarded brands don't make a kitten formula, but as some of you have also said, I personally don't see why an all life stages food wouldn't work as long as I am following the feeding guidelines (and honestly I just give Jasper as much as he'll eat since he's young and is underweight due to some pervasive illnesses).

I went by my local pet food place today and there seemed to be a lot more textured foods there that I grabbed to see if he likes. I got some more of the Tiki Cat because he goes nutso for it and it's all life stages and the Tiki Cat Gourmet Carnivore since they have more fish-free flavors. I also got some Lotus Chicken Stew, Hound & Gatos, and Nature's Variety Instinct, all of which I've read are good foods. 

I leave a bowl out of the Wellness kitten kibble all the time, but he only ever eats it in the middle of the night when his time between meals is longer. I rarely see him eat it during the day. 

lvmygrdn, could you give me some more insight into the timing of your food transition? The vet said a couple of days of 50/50 from old to new would do the trick, but I think your recommendation to take it slow makes a lot of sense given Jasper's history of soft poop and sensitivity to some foods. The timing is also confusing since I'm interested in rotating foods. Should I transition to a new one and stick to it for x amount of time and then switch to another? Maybe every week? I browsed through some of forums here and I've seen a lot of people rotating foods within the same day, but that doesn't seem appropriate for Jasper's particular circumstances. Regardless, I'll make sure I'm taking the transitions very slow. 

Thanks again, y'all have been so helpful.

 

[lvmygrdn]

Our vet said that the kittens were in a new surrounding and to take things slow since stress can cause issues too. They also had a wicked upper respitory infection. They came from a kill shelter and we're underweight as well. I went really slow. I started small like a teaspoon of the new food at each meal along with the normal amount of their old food. I stay with one new food at a time to see if it agreed with them. Once I determined the new food was a go, I started increasing the new food and reducing the old food until completely changing over before trying another brand. I'm not saying this is the way to go, it's what worked for us. I hope this makes sense. Sorry for the long post.

 

[jasper95]

Thanks lvmygrdn! Jasper has a persistent URI as well and parasites (vet thinks giardia) so your explanation is very relevant and helpful. Much appreciated!

Well, Jasper is the definition of a picky cat. I offered him teeny tastes of a bunch of different things to see what he was interested in (before going through a whole transition attempt). He LOVES Tiki Cat, is lukewarm now about Nutro Kitten, licked the gravy off of Merrick Purrfect Bistro Beef Wellington, and seemed truly repulsed by everything else. All of Merrick Purrfect Bistro varieties, Earthborn Holistic, Whole Earth Farms, Hound & Gatos, Nature's Variety, Merrick LID, etc. My food store gave me two sample cans each of all of these (I know the owner), so I'll give it another shot sometime but this is so confusing! He definitely doesn't like pate in any way shape or form.

I called the vet to see if she had non-Hills, RC, Purina, etc. recommendations and she was ADAMANT that Royal Canin Kitten Instinctive Thin Slices in Gravy would be best for him--every cat on it she's seen has been healthy, good for intestinal issues, what she fed her cats as kittens, etc. I'm so skeptical from all the things I've heard, but I'm afraid of trying it and having him love it. The rescue keeps recommending Friskies pate (which he won't eat) or Fancy Feast Gravy Lover's which he was fed in his foster home, but the ingredients give me pause.

Would it be bad to stick with just Tiki Cat and Gourmet Carnivore (non-fish varieties) for a 12-week-old kitten? So far it's the only thing he actually goes crazy for. I keep reading that they are too low-calorie, but the can does say it's for all life stages. If not, I'm not sure what else to do--it feels impossible to find something that meets the extensive do's and don'ts list of cat food that Jasper will actually eat.

 

[jano437]

I feed my cat Royal Canin adult instinctive and other varieties and he is doing well on it. He is 5 years old and loves the food. I have tried every food out there and he turns his nose up at everything else.  I know it is not the best food out there, but what good is the best food out there if he don't eat it. I had a talk with his vet, (who is a internal medicine specialty vet) and she told me to feed him what ever he will eat. She never once pushed or mentioned Royal Canin, but I thought I would give it a try and he loved it. I don't want to get into a food debate here, but honestly this is the only food he likes and is thriving on it also.

 

[lisahe]

Would it be bad to stick with just Tiki Cat and Gourmet Carnivore (non-fish varieties) for a 12-week-old kitten? So far it's the only thing he actually goes crazy for. I keep reading that they are too low-calorie, but the can does say it's for all life stages. If not, I'm not sure what else to do--it feels impossible to find something that meets the extensive do's and don'ts list of cat food that Jasper will actually eat.

I'll make an easy statement first: Tiki's "luau" chicken and Gourmet Carnivore foods are emphatically not low-calorie foods. I'm not sure why they have this reputation but you can see from their nutritional information (go to the "weight management" table on this page) that their non-fish foods are very calorie-dense. It irks me that people (and I don't mean you, jasper95!) keep perpetrating this idea that all Tiki foods are low-calorie: even a lot of their fish foods are around 200 calories per six-ounce can! There's a lot of misinformation about factual cat food data, things like calories and ingredients (both of which can also change, even dramatically, with reformulations), floating around so it's very important to check a food's nutritional information on the company's site.

As for how to feed Jasper, do you have a definite answer about what's causing his diarrhea? Is it definitely from parasite(s)? Did he have the diarrhea at the time you adopted him or did it develop after the adoption? How long has he been with you? Is it possible that the diarrhea is coming from a medication he's taking for the URI?

Assuming the chances are minimal that the diarrhea is caused by a new food (in which case I would most definitely suggest following @lvmygrdn's idea of a very gradual change) and you can feed him whatever he'll eat, my personal, purist (because our cats have stomach issues), view is that a) I would adamantly not want to feed the Royal Canin (wheat gluten?! rice flour?! modified corn starch?! how can a vet recommend that stuff?!) b) I would adamantly not want to feed Fancy Feast Gravy Lovers (wheat gluten, corn starch) and c) Tiki Cat is probably the best canned cat food you could buy so I think you're lucky that Jasper likes that instead of some of the other foods you've tried him on.

FWIW, I'll also mention a few things our vet, a cat specialist, has said about cat diets: these are her general recommendations but she was even more adamant about them for us when we adopted our cats because they're Siamese mixes, and Siamese tend to have food sensitivities and queasy little stomachs. (Our two have proven her right!) She advocates wet food only, grain-free, high-protein from meat (not from pea protein or wheat gluten and the like), low-carb, with no fillers. When I asked her about kitten foods versus "all life stages," she said she didn't really think it mattered much: the main thing is getting enough calories and meat protein into a kitten so it can grow. When I told her that we cut potato from the cats' diet because it was making one cat vomit, she said, "Potato doesn't belong in cat food anyway!" (The potato was, BTW, in Weruva foods: they were pretty low-carb but Edwina's stomach just can't handle any potato. We've also nixed anything with peas.) Since our cats have moderately selective palates and fairly sensitive stomachs, it works best for us to feed them mostly raw foods (freeze-dried and frozen), homemade cooked food (made with EZcomplete supplement and combinations of pork, chicken, and turkey), and some canned food. Canned food is, in general, a challenge because so many foods have carby fillers like peas and potatoes, plus there are thickeners like carrageenan and various gums that can also cause digestive issues in some cats; we haven't fed carrageenan in a couple years but I'm also scaling back the gums because I just don't see any upside to them. The cats tend to prefer their raw and homecooked foods anyway, and the switch has made their litter box output even smaller and even fresher smelling

so it obviously agrees with their digestive tracts, too.

I didn't start this post intending to write so much! There are many, many ways to feed a cat "properly"--as many ways as there are cats--and it can take a fair bit of time to find the right combination for a new cat, particularly given the pet food industry's habit of using fillers and enhancers that might make a food more appealing in the short-term but aren't really conducive to maintaining a cat's long-term health.

P.S. Just as I was going to hit "submit" @Jano437's post popped up: that's such a cat story of a cat picking his own food! Compromise (with ingredients and cats!) is a huge part of finding a good feeding plan for a cat.

As ever, good luck, jasper95!

 

[jasper95]

Thank you so much!

I wouldn't say I have a definite answer about his diarrhea--but the vet did a fecal exam and found "a ton of cysts" that she believes to be giardia (she mentioned coccidia but his medication is geared toward giardia). He is on metronizadole every 12 hours and 5 days of Panacur. He was on azithromycin for his URI, but is off that now. He had liquid diarrhea originally when I first adopted him and now it is to a "soft serve" consistency (still with a definite log shape), so that leads me to believe that the treatment is working and that the parasites really are the cause? I hesitate to say that I'm 100% sure about anything, but that seems to be the case to me. However, he was found as a stray, without his mom at around 7 weeks and was in rough shape, so the vet did vaguely say that sometimes kitties just take awhile to adjust--I've only had him about 3/4 weeks, so theoretically something else could be at play.

Your point about the Tiki Cat is spot on--I had counted the calories and it seemed comparable to other foods, but I guess I'm just not sure how much a kitten typically needs. A lot of google searches about that haven't yielded a whole lot of concrete results, they all just say to feed as much as they'll eat which is what I've been doing. 

I wish he would take a stab at some other brands since I'm a fan of the concept behind rotational diets (if Tiki Cat were to discontinue or recall, or if he developed an allergy), but like you also supported, I'm trying to keep in mind Jano437's point that sometimes you just have to go with what works for your cat.

Should I be worried about him eating too much chicken? He's not a big fan of the beef-based Gourmet Carnivore foods, though he'll lap at them, but he goes crazy for the chicken based. Some have teeny-tiny amounts of duck or turkey, but almost all of the Tiki Cat non-fish options are primarily chicken. I know too much of one protein can lead to food allergies, but if he won't eat much else I'm not sure I have a choice at the moment.

Your support has been very helpful--it's much appreciated!

 

[lisahe]

 
Thank you so much! You are very welcome! As I said before, figuring out a good feeding plan can be very difficult!

I wouldn't say I have a definite answer about his diarrhea--but the vet did a fecal exam and found "a ton of cysts" that she believes to be giardia (she mentioned coccidia but his medication is geared toward giardia). He is on metronizadole every 12 hours and 5 days of Panacur. He was on azithromycin for his URI, but is off that now. He had liquid diarrhea originally when I first adopted him and now it is to a "soft serve" consistency (still with a definite log shape), so that leads me to believe that the treatment is working and that the parasites really are the cause? I hesitate to say that I'm 100% sure about anything, but that seems to be the case to me. However, he was found as a stray, without his mom at around 7 weeks and was in rough shape, so the vet did vaguely say that sometimes kitties just take awhile to adjust--I've only had him about 3/4 weeks, so theoretically something else could be at play.

Thanks for this! The key things here for me are that he already had the diarrhea when you adopted him (meaning the Friskies shreds are not the ticket to bring his stomach back and whatever you fed him in the beginning did not set off his symptoms) and his gut does seem to have improved substantially since you brought him home. I would feel comfortable feeding him whatever he wants.

Your point about the Tiki Cat is spot on--I had counted the calories and it seemed comparable to other foods, but I guess I'm just not sure how much a kitten typically needs. A lot of google searches about that haven't yielded a whole lot of concrete results, they all just say to feed as much as they'll eat which is what I've been doing. 

General advice on feeding kittens, especially little ones like yours, who are growing and very active, is necessarily vague: as much as they'll eat! (When I asked our vet how much to feed our two in the beginning, when they were ten months old and severely underfed, her answer was something like, I'd have to do the math to figure out calories, so let's just say unlimited food!) Keep in mind, too, that some/many rescue cats have food anxieties for some time (even years) after coming into a home with stable food so you may need to watch that he doesn't eat too much, too fast, and vomit. But the general suggestion would be to feed him as much as he wants until he's out of kitten phase. Some cats (like ours) keep growing after turning one: ours ate voraciously and were extraordinarily active until they were more than two! They're now about 3.5 and still eat quite a bit for their size but they've toned things down quite a bit both on food and activity; one still has minor food anxiety.

I wish he would take a stab at some other brands since I'm a fan of the concept behind rotational diets (if Tiki Cat were to discontinue or recall, or if he developed an allergy), but like you also supported, I'm trying to keep in mind Jano437's point that sometimes you just have to go with what works for your cat.

I wouldn't worry too much about that for the moment. If he's happy eating Tiki, I'd feel grateful that he likes some good food -- I really think it's about the best canned food you can get, so you're very lucky. I'd also continue researching foods that I'd feel comfortable trying out on him later and perhaps try (re)introducing some good ones later on. We've had our cats for about 2.5 years now and I've adjusted their rotation quite a few times, for various reasons. It's fine to do that when a cat's tastes and appetites change or when food recipes change.

Should I be worried about him eating too much chicken? He's not a big fan of the beef-based Gourmet Carnivore foods, though he'll lap at them, but he goes crazy for the chicken based. Some have teeny-tiny amounts of duck or turkey, but almost all of the Tiki Cat non-fish options are primarily chicken. I know too much of one protein can lead to food allergies, but if he won't eat much else I'm not sure I have a choice at the moment.

The chicken question is always in the back of my mind, too, because our cats have a huge preference for chicken and they've already shown themselves to have stomach issues, too. It's ridiculously hard to find non-chicken canned foods that they like and that don't have the ingredients I don't want to feed them. I recognize that my list of no-nos is very long and that carraageenan, gums, potato, and peas (among other ingredients I don't trust) are pretty standard these days, but I find it sad that there aren't more "purer" canned options, particularly for cats with sensitive stomachs. The lack of canned foods is a big reason I feed so much raw and homecooked food: the cats eat raw foods with freeze-dried pork, freeze-dried chicken/lamb, and frozen turkey, as well as homecooked foods with blends of chicken, pork, and turkey. In homecooked, though, they definitely like chicken breast the best, though I'd really been hoping they'd love turkey thighs, which they will eat but not very eagerly. *sigh!* At this point, I think chicken is about half their diet. Our vet prefers to see cats eat fowl rather than large animals and fish because birds are more natural prey; I just figure I'll keep doing what I'm doing, try working in more turkey or maybe even duck, and eye on them. I know the symptoms of digestive issues (our last cat had them) and, for better or worse, I've never tried them on rabbit because I'm keeping it in reserve as a novel protein!