'Wet' food affecting cat's behaviour?

Melisandre_of_Asshai

I have a 2 year old neutered male cat who has always been a tad on the 'feral' side - despite being neutered as a kitten. He has always had a tendency towards 'play aggression' - he has never really been an affectionate, lie and sleep in your lap type of cat, and seems to view any attempt at affection as an invitation to treat your hand as a chew toy.

Anyway, a couple of months ago he had a blockage in his bladder which resulted in him having an op to clear it. This all went fine, and the vet advised me to stop feeding him dry food as he said that feeding dry food carries a greater risk of these bladder problems. I personally think it was more stress related as we had moved house, and it happened pretty much at the same time, but hey i'm not a vet, so I started feeding him 'wet' food on the advice of the vet.

Since I have started him on the wet food though, his behaviour has gotten worse. He is more aggressive than he was previously and totally 'hyper'. I'm wondering if this could be caused by his diet being changed? I'm considering putting him back on dry food to see if there is any change in his behaviour, but I obviously don't want to run the risk of causing him to be at greater risk of bladder problems.

I just wondered if anyone with cats had noticed behavioural changes on changing their diet?

antw23uk

Your vet was partly right about the dry food being a cause for the bladder issue but the stress would also have played a factor in it as well ... so your both right

I cant see what moving him to wet food has had on his behaviour so i think this is somthing you are doing (dont take offence please) all domestic animals need to learn rules, boundaries and limitations as they grow and i think he is possibly not being corrected for the behaviour you dont want him to do and praised for the behaviour you do want him to do.

Please dont put him back on a dry food only. Commercial cat food is rubbish at the best of times let alone feeding just dry. The dehydration could affect his UTD again and having a cat that suffers with UTD (Urinary Track Disease) I know how horrible that can be.

Have you thought about introducing some RAW food to his diet? I feed my boys part commercial (because i hate the rubbish stuff but it is conveneint) and RAW food. They have bueatiful glossy coats, bright eyes and are actually calmer and more content when they have been on a more RAW diet for a few weeks.

I also think you need to get some advise on how your responding to his behaviour. How you praise him for the behaviour you want and what your doing when he is doing unacceptable behaviour. Its never too late to correct a behaviour with a few simple rules which the whole household must follow and be consistent with.

Ant

spike7451

Some wet foods,particulary the cheap stuff & even Whiskas,Kit E Kat..,have an effect on a cat almost like a sugar rush in humans making them hyper after eating & they sort of zone out after the rush has worn off.I've noticed this in both Orbit & Daisy.

VeggieCatLady

A friend of mine recently gave her cat morrisons wet food and found that after eating it, her cat went very hyper and ran around like she was spooked. It happened literally every time she was fed that food, so most likely it was due to an additive of some kind. Perhaps try your cat on a different brand?

Melisandre_of_Asshai

Thank you all for your replies.

My cat refuses to eat anything else but Whiskas, so I did wonder if it was perhaps an additive in that particular brand. His behaviour has definately got very noticeably worse since his being on the wet food, it may just be coincidence, or perhaps the stress of moving has affected him more than we had thought.

@Ant I must admit I am not very good at correcting his behaviour because he just looks at me with his big amber eyes and I melt. so I realise his play aggression is probably my fault as I never corrected it properly when he was a kitten - probably partly due to the fact that lil kitten teeth don't really hurt.

I was quite reluctant to put him on an exclusively (manufactured) wet food diet as I hear more negative things about wet food than dry - I think the way to move forward is to take your advice about trying him with a part raw diet and see how we go.

KittyCats_2

My cats are on a dry cat food diet (with plenty of water available so they're not dehydrated, and we monitor them closely to make sure of this) so it's not the end of the world if you do revert back to dry food, however as your cat has previous experience of bladder problems, I'd go with the majority and say it's not the best.

How many different brands of cat food have you tried? You might have to do a series of trial and errors (keep a notebook and log any note able changes), try each brand for a month or so at a time. Your cat might not like it at first, but if he realises he has no choice, he'll soon learn. Perhaps try some organic wet food as it's unlikely to have additives in and so shouldn't make him too hyper!

Best of luck, keep us updated!

Fridaycat

Generally, supermarket brands are not great foods, they are full of sugar and have low quality meat. They are also bulked out with grain such as rice which are not a natural part of the cat's diet.

I would suggest trying different types which you can get on line. A company such as Zooplus sells food manufactured in places such as Germany and Sweden who have much higher standards of pet food nutrition than we do.

I feed mine Grau which admittedly is not to all cats' tastes but which I think is one of the best quality foods we can easily source in the UK.

But I would suggest you try something like Bozita which is closer in consistency to Felix/Whiskas but has much higher meat content, no sugars and no grains.

I would suggest that you gradually change over the food so puss adapts to the new - don't just plonk a bowl full of new food in front of him! But feed, say 90% Whiskas and 10% Bozita, and then over time reduce the amount of Whiskas and increase the better quality food.

Asda sell Top Life cat food in cartons which is made by the same people as Bozita. The downside is, they only do it in chicken (whereas Bozita comes in a multitude of flavours, including Reindeer!). But the upside is you could buy just one or two cartons to see how puss gets on without committing yourself to a large online order and/or delivery charges if you wanted to.

VeggieCatLady

!Bozita has been recommended to me as well for my cat who is fussy! Just for Pets stores stock it. I would also suggest hi life tuna. It doesn't contain nasty additives

rita-rabbit

I agree with the others (apart from the one that says still feed dried!).

Supermarkets - most wet they sell is rubbish full of additives & can lead to manic behaviour in cats. Try Butchers Classic or Feline Fayre.

The internet has better stuff: such as Smilla, Animona Carni & Bozita - which I sourced at zooplus.

Wickedkitten

I would suggest getting some Feliway and see if that calms him down. You say that you just moved house, so it might be either that the previous owners had a cat and he is smelling that and it is freaking him out, or just the stress from moving house combined perhaps with other cats being about that has done it.