dry food question again... sorry!

emlou2009

sorry, i know the board is full of questions about dry cat food at the moment!

raw isnt an option for us as i have no freezer space to be able to buy it in bulk and cheap enough, i'm also just too plain squeamish to be able to feed the different bits they need, and good quality wet food pouches are way out of my price range, which leaves me only able to give mr kitty a decent diet through dry food!

his owner had him on asda tiger and whiskas, i phased out the whiskas almost straight away and have since tried i*ms, applaws, and most recently PAH purely (both 40% and 65%) he has never had a solid poo since he got him and nothing seems to help, but this week when he didnt eat from sunday through to monday night when he was neutered and was only fed scrambled egg monday evening, then the next tuesday i gave him a worming tablet in some tuna. he hadnt eaten it all by wednesday so i left it down and didnt feed him anything else until the tuna had gone on wednesday evening, when i put him back on the mix of applaws and PAH purely i'd been trying to get him to adjust to.
thursday, he did TWO SOLID POOS! i was so pleased! but now the dry food has worked its way through his system again, he's back to mr whippies again.

i was planning to take him to the vet until he did the solid poos on thursday, but now i've ruled out a problem with his digestive system (because of the solid poos after eating eggs and tuna) but an intolerance to the food, and knowing that the vet is likely to just recommend hills i'd like some recommendations on dry food suitable for food sensitive moggies!
i thought that probably he might have an intolerance to the grains in the food, but am i right in thinking applaws is grain free?
i had thought of probably trying JWB next as i believe its meant to be good for sensitive cats?

Fire_Fox

Did the cat do Mr. Whippys at his previous home/ previous diet? How slowly did you switch onto the new food? Have you tried not mixing the two new foods together so you know which is the problem?

Applaws and Orijen are both grain free, not sure about the PAH Purely More Meat, is that what you have in stock? Do you mind me asking what is your daily/ monthly budget and is he a large or small cat? Have you looked at the PAH Purely in small tins (£2.75 per kilo), or Feline Fayre in large tins (£1.50 per kilo)?

Buttonmoons

Are they totally squishy Emlou? Just cause my kitten's poo aren't as hard/solid/smell free like my older cats and remembering back when she was a kitten her poo's were always a bit softer - IE skidmarks down the side of the tray (thanks for that!)

Thing is it isn't the food I give him that gives him slightly soft poo's, it's the food he nicks from everywhere around the house, I caught him and DD sharing a cookie the other day! He's a total bin raker, like what normal cat wants to eat parsnip?

His poo's proper stink though, and I noticed his breath is a bit foul but that may of been cause he just ate, I'll be keeping an eye on his halitosis breath and if it isn't cause of the food then I bet its gammy tooth or something, great!

BitterAndTwisted

Constantly swapping pusscats food can result in loose motions so in the first instance I'd not chop-and-change what's on offer and see whether things settle down or not

emlou2009

well he has had 3-4 weeks on each food and has had a 7-10 days having each one slowly mixed in, and none of them have actually made any difference, except taking him off the whiskas when they were the texture of a mcdonalds milkshake and the stench made me gag! i have no idea of his poopy history before we got him, he was a surprise from my OH.

mmm skids down the side of the tray, tell me about it! he does steal everything too, when seth is munching in his high chair he's on standby underneath waiting for crumbs, its like a baby bird waiting lol. the poops do have a slightly better structure to them since mixing the applaws and PAH, like long and squidgy, but they keep their shape which is more than what we got with the whiskas. they do still smell horrific but again not as bad as the whiskas.

Fire_Fox

Have you tried a LactoB supplement? If the cat has frequent diarrhoea his 'friendly bacteria' population in the gut is going to be affected. You must stop him getting crumbs or access to anything other than his own cat food; if he is allergic to wheat you won't ever find out if the food change works so shut him out of the kitchen/ dining room. Also stop mixing the two new foods, stick with one or the other.

What is the carb source in the PAH Purely - wheat, maize, rice? When you say Whiskas do you mean Whiskas dry kitten? Looking at the Ocado website, I don't think that contains wheat, but can't be sure as some companies like to hide their ingredients list ...

emlou2009

it was whiskas pouches, hadnt heard of this lactoB supplement, can i get that from PAH do you know? if so i'll get some tomorrow. i havent got the box for the PAH any more. the only reason i was mixing the foods was to switch gradually from one to the other as advised!

Fire_Fox

LactoB: http://www.vetuk.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1657
Some people just give human freeze-dried Acidophilus (Holland and Barrett) which might be cheaper, emptying part of a capsule onto food BUT I'd check with the vet or nurse before you do that.
http://www.purrsinourhearts.co.uk/index.php/topic,7110.0.html

I see what you mean about mixing the dry, have you tried either or both individually yet or had you not got that far in the process?

Spearmint

I would try the applaws on it's on as i would say the purely is more likely to be upsetting him

We've not had runny poo here but we've had really foul smelling poo that stinks the whole house out!

We think we have now solved this problem though!
Currently feeding Bozita wet in tetrapacks twice a day and Applaws dry kitten twice a day and can't smell any poo at all now :cool:

What caused smelly problems for us was; purely wet and dry, hi-life pouches, hills science plan dry

I don't know if this helps you at all but i am guessing our bad smell problem was caused by sensitivity to things in food

Fire_Fox

Good to hear Bozita is having the desired effect, Minty, I have some liver flavour I bought to get free delivery on a Zooplus order but not actually tried it yet!

Spearmint

I am about to post a quick review for you and anyone else interested :A