Changing Cat Food

lisajane8482

Hi all,

I'm usually a regular on the weddings board but need a little advice regarding my fussy feline.

Salem is generally a fussy eater who would only eat Royal Canin dry food and James Wellbeloved wet food.

He gets half a pouch of wet food on a morning and the other half on a night and has a bowl of dry food available all day.

He's not eating as much of the dry food as he used to but is also not eating any more wet food which makes me think that he may be getting sick of eating the same dry food all the time.

I was considering trying him on a supermarket bought food such as Go Cat since they do a variety of flavours but I am unsure as to whether this is a good idea or not.

The place where I usually buy his food told me the best thing to feed him is Royal Canin which is what he has always had since he was a kitten (he's now 18 months old) and that it's not advisable to feed them supermarket bought dry food.

Does anyone have any advice regarding changing his dry food and if supermarket bought food is really as bad as it has been made out to be?

Thanks in Advance

Lisa

Fire_Fox

Most supermarket dry food is absolute rubbish, basically meat flavoured corn flakes if you read the ingredients. Consider that felines are obligate carnivores, that means they must eat meat/ animal products, yet these foods are often as low as 4% meat! :eek: Cats don't need to eat dry food at all, they naturally would eat a wet diet (raw) if you think about it. Personally I also think low meat content branded dry food is not MSE, it's made from waste products of the human food industry with a massive mark up, and much of it comes straight back out the other end.

Have you had your cat checked over by the vets? Changes in appetite can indicate boredom, but he might have the beginnings of a health condition such as dental decay.

lisajane8482

He went for his check up and booster not long ago. The vet said he's healthy and he's a handsome kitty. I have tried feeding him chicken and other meats but he's not interested and he won't eat any more wet food. I might try changing his royal canin food from indoor to sterilised as was suggested when I asked about his weight. He's not over weight but the vet suggested switching to sterilised if I was worried about him gaining weight.

I have looked at the ingredients but to be honest it's all jibberish to me so I thought I'd ask, last thing I want is a poorly/unhealthy kitty.

Thank you for the advice, he may just be slowing down on the amount he eats.

moggymutt

Depending on how long ago he had a check up, a check up is a good place to start. Despite his young age, he could have a grumbling illness, or have teeth problems. Very quick easy overall view of his overall health can be got by running in-house blood tests.

Personally I have never ever known a cat go off Royal Canin- I had many devastated cats when our local wholesalers closed down. I also find your turning down chicken worrying, that's very rare in a cat (though not unknown). Will he eat anything fishy?

I'd be inclined to check that he's not feeding with a neighbour- some cats love to be fed by neighbours, even when well fed at home.

Oops- just seen he's on indoor food, so neighbours possibly feeding him wont come into it.

Whichever cats we've had in, out of all the Royal Canin, Sensible was always the favourite.

~Chameleon~

Please don't switch from a good quality food to rubbish like Go-Cat. It might just be that as he's getting older he needs a slightly higher calorie food. I've recently switched my girls to RC Veterinary Senior Consult Stage 2 and they're thriving on it. They previously had the 12+ Ageing and various other RC varieties before that and they're now approaching their mid-20s and still in very good health


ETA: Please feel free to ignore the particular diet I suggested above, I thought your cat was 18 years not months

I would still stick with RC though but perhaps try a different variety? They have plenty to choose from!

lisajane8482

Moggymutt, his check up was September 18th, he had a comprehensive health check plus a few other tests as I pay for the Care4Pets plan from vets4pets.

Salem loves fresh Salmon and Trout, I've never given him tuna as the only stuff we have is tinned and I'm sure I read somewhere it is bad for them (correct me if I'm wrong though). He will sometimes eat fresh chicken but only if he manages to pinch it... stick it in his bowl and he won't eat it. Is there any other fresh meats I could try him on?

I'll buy a bag of sensible or sterilised and see what he thinks.

Thank you all for your comments, I Think I will give the supermarket food a miss.

rising_from_the_ashes

I'd echo the rest - try another type of RC and see how it goes.

I've tried (over the years) nearly every brand of dry (and wet) and, so far, RC is the only one that they'll both eat!

My wee cat won't eat anything that comes in a tin, pouch etc but will eat chicken, fish - and big cat is the opposite and will eat pouches but won't touch anything "real" - they're all odd!!!