Two questions about food . . .

Hi,
I was wondering if it is okay to feed more than one kind of food at a time. I bought two bags of dry cat food, Sensible Choice and Avoderm just for variety. And I have been alternating brands of wet food, like Precise, Newmans, Natural Choice trying to find something both of my cats like. But now one of our kitties has diarrhea. He doesn't seem sick, still has lots of energy, but he has had diarrhea for a few days. Before that, I was only feeding him Precise canned food and Meow Mix for an evening treat. Should I not be adding in all these new foods?

The other question is just curiosity. Does anyone know the difference between treats and dry cat food? Why do they love treats so much? I read the ingredients and the treats didn't seem that different. But something must make them taste extra yummy. Thanks for any info.

It's generally suggested that you don't suddenly change food, but I assume that's mainly for dry food. Some people do mix two or three foods and some have to switch around their cats every few months because they get picky.

I've always fed my cats more than one brand or type of wet. Feeding the same wet day in and day seems to bore cats very quickly. They've never had problems with diarrhea from eating different kinds of wet, aside from a couple cans of Nutro back in January, but that was another issue all together.

If your kitty is getting diarrhea lately, just hold off switching too much around and see if that calms down. If not it might be caused by something else and need a vet visit. For now make sure your kitty is getting plenty of water. If your cat has had this for several days you may consider a vet soon anyways.

I don't know about treats, I don't use them for my cats. I would think though that it's possibly just the extra flavoring in them.

Treats are just that - like ice cream, candy, etc. to kids, and are not necessarily nutritionally well formulated, and may have ingredients that can be 'addicting' (they want them all the time!) because they taste so good. That's why they should only be given one or two at a time, and only once a day, and not expected to be part of their 'food'... only empty calories. I always give my cats two thirds wet and one third dry food for meals, but the bowls are divided in two, and so is the food. I switch between 5-7 different flavors of the same brand of canned food and 2-3 brands, and the dry is a similar kind of mix. Then I take note of which cats do and do not like a particular flavor or type (sliced in gravy vs pate) of which food and keep it in mind for the future. But all the food has been tried out one at a time over a long time, and introduced a little bit at a time into their usual stuff. You're mixing too many things all at once and not introducing things in small amts as you do it. Stick with a few brands, and change the flavors, and make sure the dry food is (also) labelled as 'nutritionally complete' meaning it's meant as staple food and not just 'treats'. You'll have to start from scratch changing out one kind of food at a time to find out which caused the diarrhea. If you change more than one 'thing' at a time, you have no way of knowing, of course.

I remember our vet telling us NOT to give cat treats, same reason as above, not proper nutritional value. We like to pamper out pets and think we are being kind by giving them treats when in actuality they do not need treats.

Thank you. I use treats when I really need a bribe. Like when the one who HATES getting his nails trimmed sits still for it knowing he will get a treat or when I really need them to come fast, I will shake a container of treats. And they come running!

I'm going to slow down on the dry food changes. Slowly transition into another kind without corn, because I'm wondering if that is it. Thanks for the info everyone.

Corn is likely as AVODERM has alot of it ...

what treats did you get ??? some actually are AFFCO apporved for food... see the back label to fing out

single meat treats work best here