Cat food confusion! (sorry to post ANOTHER food thread!)

[thelioncub]

I've been trawling thru all the old posts about 'the best' food, and I'm downright confused now!
Sorry to post another thread about this, but I'm hoping someone will be able to point me in the right direction.

I'm basically after a decent dry food that would (temporarily) suit a 6 month old Siamese kitten (Logi) who seems to be quite sensitive to 'good' food and ok on 'junk' food! AND a 14 year old senior cat (Lance) who has been recommended a 'light' diet to help with arthritis.

This is to go in an auto feeder while we are away, and I'll go back to feeding them their separate kitten/senior specific foods once I'm back. I just need a dry food that will 'come out' 3-4 times a day in-between when the sitter/my mum comes over to give them their wet food.

THEN,

I need a decent wet food to feed the Siamese kitten all the time.

So far he has been ok on Iams and Science Plan pouches (but these are the two I want to 'get him off')
He's eaten Porta 21 (pouch) and Applaws, but then been sick and had bad diarrhea.
He's not too fond of Porta 21 (tin)
He's also had Almo tins but these could also have given him the poops.

I'd really like to get them both onto a decent diet so they aren't eating corn or meat-meal, but so far they all seem to make the kitten sick. Lance has been fine on all his senior equivalents and is happy to finish off whatever Logi doesn't eat. The big question is, is it better to feed him a senior/light-specific food over something like Bozita that isn't 'aimed' at an age of cat?

Can anyone recommend any wet and dry food that might suit us?
I'm running out of time before we go away (3 weeks), and need to know they will be ok on it so that I can 'stock up'. Otherwise I'll probably have to leave them both on Hills or Iams.


I'm currently considering Bozita, Orijen, Nature's Menu, Applaws Dry, Lily's Kitchen, Forthglade menu's (but which one?!) and possibly feeding Logi to Lance (that was a joke! )

If anyone can even recommend good websites to buy from that would also be appreciated. Currently use zooplus for most things.

[Coraline]

Hi there,

If they're both already on a dry food, I'd suggest you keep them on whatever it is until you come back. If they're not on a dry food now, I'd suggest Orijen or Applaws dry.

Then, the wet food for Logi; it sounds like he's either just got a sensitive tummy, or he's sensitive to the particular meat that was in what you fed him. Have you tried different versions of the brands, or were they all chicken for example? Also, when you switch to the new food make sure you do it slowly, by mixing it with his current food in small amounts. Increase gradually and he may find it easier to adjust to.

For Lance; is he getting any supplements for his arthritis? I suspect the vet has told you to keep his weight down and for this the best you can do is feed him a high meat content wet food. Never mind any 'light' foods as they contain more carbohydrates which again will make him put on weight. I'd suggest you get Lance on the same food as Logi, assuming you end up on a high quality wet food such as Porta21 or HiLife pouches. I don't believe in kitten/adult/active/couch potato/senior/outdoor/indoor/any breed/light formulas, I think they're all just clever marketing and that any cat at any age will be fine eating a high meat diet. Of course, you'd need to adjust for any illnesses the cat may have, for example arthritis where I've heard of adding a glucosamine supplement. You'll want to check this with your vet.

Hope that helps!

[spid]

JUst to say I completely agree with Coraline

[thelioncub]

Thanks for a fantastic reply. I think you said exactly what I was hoping re the types of food for types of cat. I keep thinking to myself 'If this animal was in the wild would it really not eat that bird because it wasn't a kitten variety bird!' lol

Lance is on Seraquin (which is glucosamine) and they are both currently eating wet and dry. I've been mixing in the food they are used to when starting something new, and I'm pretty sure Logi has been on chicken only flavour.

Logi is currently on Iams dry, but he only eats it if I mix it in with wet, or sit and prod the bowl every minute! As I want them to both eat from the auto feeder, and Lance is needing a new supply anyway, I thought it best to find something I can start them on now, so that when we go away I can know that they are both eating. It's really just a top-up as they will be fed wet food mostly.

In terms of dry, is Orijen or Applaws the better quality? I think I read somewhere that one of them was quite a small biscuit (which could be good for Logi) but I can't remember which it was?

Should I persevere with wet food such as Porta 21 even tho it's made Logi sick? Or change again. So many options!

[Taylorbaby]

Purina senstive / delicate is really good & james well beloved, I dont like Iams or hills myself!

[Cody]

Hi,

My Tonkinese boy, Siegfried has an extremely sensitive tummy. Absolutely everything I tried ended up with diaorrhea (and this was the only poo they did outsideof their litter tray - I think this was because they tried to hide it?).

I then found Royal Canin sensitive pouches (chicken and rice) and I have not looked back since. Both Tonks eat this, and have so far (fingers crossed) not turned their noses up at it, wolfing it down each time... They also eat James Wellbeloved fish and rice biscuit which also goes down well.

RC Sensitive is available online (I personally buy it through an ebay seller!) and orks out at about 54p per pouch - not too bad considering it is more specialised.

Good luck with what you try - although remember to introduce any new foods gradually, so that Logi's tummy can get used to it.

Cody

[thelioncub]

Ooh I'd not heard of the Royal Canin sensitive diets. Just had a look online and the ingredients seem pretty good. Logi just about managed to do his runny poop inside the litter, but he then rubbed his leg in it and traipsed it all over the house. Wow that was one stinky night!

So far I'm thinking I might try some of the RC sensitive pouches, mixed with Applaws dry every other meal, and then Bozita/Forthglade and dry for the other meals with Logi. Lance I think will have anything going (including the leftover pouches that Logi wont eat!). Good old Lance and his sturdy stomach!

I would like to occasionally feed raw, but it sounds like that's a whole new ball game!

[Saikou]

Siamese have notoriously sensitive tums. Once upset it can take a while for them to resolve themselves and get back to normal, so things you think may be upsetting him, might not be, if that makes sense, its just a continuation of the initial problem. They are also very good at barfing things up, especially if eaten too fast - ie greedy kitten

I agree with Coraline, about leaving their diet as is until you get back. Then, especially if you want to control their weights, remove all dry and stick to wet or fresh. There are dry foods with more meat less carbs, but even those still have levels far in excess of a cats needs. Any excess gets converted to fat.

All the wet foods you have listed there are good quality with high meat % So I would stick with those. For Logi you could try mixing in a tsp of slippery elm/tree barks powder in to his food, or into some goats yoghurt (lower lactose and live so helps with digestion) with a bit of honey, if he will take it that way. Slippery elm is very good for helping soothing the gut.

[thelioncub]

We are having great trouble trying to work out which food is making Logi ill, especially when we add into the equation that he jumped up on the kitchen surface and ate some carrot peelings! (and we only knew he did that because he had curly wurly orange carrot sick) I *think* we have narrowed it down to the Porta 21 pouches, which is a great shame cos they look and smell the best out of all the cat food.

Everyone's advice has been great and I really appreciate it. I'm narrowing down the choices more and more.

The reason I'm looking for new dry biscuit now is largely due to the fact that Lance is currently eating food leftover from his mum, Merlin - who was underweight and had CRF (and on specific diets). The vet said it was ok for him to eat the same as her, due to his age, but obviously I don't want to replenish what he's worked so hard at finishing off! It makes sense to buy something new now, and have them both used to it by the time we are away in 3 weeks.

As for Logi, he doesnt seem overly fond on dry food - he'll eat a bit (mostly just to copy Lance I think) so if I can find the perfect wet food we'll all be happy.

I'm about to order 2kg bag of Applaws dry (not the kitten one) for the auto feeder (so they'll both eat it) but still a bit confuzlled over wet food!

[thelioncub]

Annoyingly, since I settled on buying the Applaws dry, I then couldn't find any online stockists who had the 2kg in stock for a decent price!

In the end I have ordered a bag of Orijen dry food and 3 flavours of Bozita cardboard packs for them to try.

I will put the Orijen in the auto feeder for when we are away, and will mix the Bozita with Science Plan pouches for now, until Logi is used to it. Then finally my 2 cats will both be on the same diet of Bozita! (fingers crossed!)

I chose this because it's appears to have good ingredients, has good reviews, and doesn't claim to be specifically for a certain age or type of cat. This fits with my inkling that a decent food would really suit any age cat, just like what they would eat naturally!

Let's just hope this works out ok, otherwise it's back to the drawing board!

(Will take a look into getting some slippery elm too, especially as it sounds fab! lol. Where should I get that from?)