They Don't Like The New Food

Hi Y'All

When my babies were kittens, I used to give them baby food (beef or chicken), and sometimes other types of canned foods in addition to dry food (at that time I was feeding them Science Diet for kittens) tuna juice, and an occasional eye yolk, all of which they loved!

But, my old vet told me to stop giving them different varieties. He said they would become finicky and wouldn't want to eat certain foods. So dummy I did what he said. Now they won't eat baby food, canned food etc.

I managed to switch them from the Science Diet to the IAMS, which I did because Rascal was getting overweight. (I have been feeding them that for about a year) During that time, I have tried to give them different brands of dry and wet food which they have consistently rejected. Now Rascal's weight is under control so I wanted to take them off the IAMS because it has a high ash content 7.9% and I have heard that is not good for them, that it can cause them to get UTI's.

I was able to successfully switch them over to Royal Canin for Main Coons which they really love! They are just gobbling that up. To switch them over I simply mixed the two brands together. I knew they loved the Royal Canin when they ate that and left the IAMS in the bowl.

My dilemma is that on my last trip to PetCo a sales lady talked me into trying this : Spa Select Indoor Cat Food

* Naturally healthy holistic formula is highly digestible
* Brown rice, barley and oats provide carbohydrates needed for energy
* Whole carrots, sweet potatoes, parsley and cranberries contains phytonutrients that help keep your cat healthy
* Omega 3 & 6 fatty acids promote a healthy shiny coat

Deboned Chicken, Chicken Meal, Whole Ground Brown Rice, Fish Meal, Whole Ground Barley, Potato Flour, Oatmeal, Natural Flavor, Dried Cellulose, Chicken Fat (preserved with Natural Mixed Tocopherols), Fructooligosacharides, Cranberries, Whole Ground Sweet

(No corn, wheat etc.)


I mixed it with the Royal Canin, which is outrageously expensive at almost $18.00 a 3lb bag. Anyhoo, my kitties do not seem to like it at all!

My question is should I keep trying at it, or just forget about it and keep on feeding them the Royal Canin alone.

Now I have also been hearing on this site about the Wellness brand. It seems comparable to this Spa Select brand. Should I try mixing in some Wellness with the Royal Canin instead of the Spa Select?

Also I would love for them to start eating wet food again. Any suggestions for getting them to love it once again?

Thanks!

If they like RC and you can afford it ... go with it... the RULE is get the cat the best youll provide and can afford and they WILL EAT

I dont like the UNnamed fish, or the cellulose ( this can be wheat, corn , soy , rice) ... it is overall a Grainy food ( the spa)

Originally Posted by sharky

the RULE is get the cat the best youll provide and can afford and they WILL EAT

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Chynna needs a renal diet, but she absolutely refuses to eat the renal diet food from the vets. I tried every type they had, and it was just money down the drain because Chynna refused to eat any of it, even if a tiny amount was mixed in with something else.

And since she had her teeth extracted in April she has become extremely finicky about the texture of the food she eats. Sometimes she likes soft chunks, other times she will only lick the gravy. Sometimes she wants soft out of the can, other times she will only eat it if it's almost liquified...and if I feed her with a tablespoon. So getting her to get enough food in a day is a real challenge, so I'm just giving her whatever types of food she will eat. The vet said it's not ideal but if it's the only way to get Chynna eating, then that's what I need to keep doing.

Here's a link from Dr. Jean when she was on the forum answering questions. It might be helpful in your situation.

http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=163739

I use the Blue Spa. I switched from the Indoor to the other Blue Spa though. Coco gets Royal Canin Urinary and Hills C/D. My Cats love the Blue Spa. I am not sure why your Cats do not like it.

Originally Posted by mews2much

I use the Blue Spa. I switched from the Indoor to the other Blue Spa though. Coco gets Royal Canin Urinary and Hills C/D. My Cats love the Blue Spa. I am not sure why your Cats do not like it.

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Hi Mews, The brand I picked is not the Blue Spa but Spa Select. I think I'm going to hand that in to PetCo because it contains a lot of vegetable ingredients, which is not good for cats.

Thank you all for your input . I have started to read some of the information posted in the link you provided Skimble. There is quite a bit of information there and it will take me a few days to cover it all.

The one thing that is stunning me is that, according to what I am reading in the articles is that dry food is bad for them

Unfortunately I've been guilty of leaving food out for them all the time. I guess that is going to have to change.

Now I've got to transition them from dry to wet food slowly.

What about you? Do you feed them dry wet or raw? (and what brands please)

I guess we learn something new each day!

mine get taste of the wild dry... wet Slyvie will eat almost anything .. Zoey eats only a few flavors of nutro and wellness... they get homemade food also

Originally Posted by sharky

mine get taste of the wild dry... wet Slyvie will eat almost anything .. Zoey eats only a few flavors of nutro and wellness... they get homemade food also

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When you say homemade, do you mean raw?

sometimes it is raw othertimes it is lightly cooked...

I have a dog with a chronic issue that does best when all types are rotated in and out

I feed Mary, Seldon, Cleo and Lucia raw food. I use a brand called Rad Cat and I make my own. Everyone except Lucia gets Tiki tuna once a week for a treat.
Saffron and Sachi my 3 month olds get Wellness kitten but have tasted raw and loved it so I will transition them soon.
I love raw food and I love the benefits I have seen from it.

Thanks everyone for your input! I especially want to thank Skimble for turning me on to that link! I am looking at cat food in a whole new light now!

Anyhow until I can transition my kitties to wet food, I am currently trying to switch them from the Royal Canin Main Coon (yes sadly it contains corn gluten meal, corn and even wheat gluten ) I am currently trying Wellness Core.

In my quest for a better quality dry cat food, in addition the the Wellness Core I also found these brands :

Natural Balance
Organix
Solid Gold
Castor & Pallux Natural Ultramix
Blue Spa Select (which I also currently have. Cats did not seem to like it much, but I did not give it a good go, we shall see)

Eeep! Just wanted to add that in my effort to transition them over to wet food, I thought I would start with baby food (the meats of course) since they used to love that as kittens. I was hoping that if I could get them to like it again, then I could slowly start adding in the canned food.

This morning I put a small amount in Rascal's mouth twice (I'm trying the technique used by "Coaster"). Anyhow on the third try he actually licked a little bit of it right off my finger. Then I gave him the dry food.

But, the baby meats does contain cornstarch. So my dilemma is, do I keep trying to give them the baby food, or should I just try to give them the canned food straight away? (Small small amounts of course)

Thanks again you guys!

HI
Indoor food outdoor food kitten food adult food premium food gourmet food and now holistic food----grrrr
The only difference when it comes down to it is the name. Unfortunately the name turns out to be meaningless as when you look at the ingreediants and the as fed values you can't tell which is which. My opinion it is all a marketing gimmick. There are no rules that companies have to adhere to to call a brand gourmet or premium or whatever.
What it comes down to is understanding your cat, what it needs an unerstanding what the labels mean. Your cat is an obligate carnivore a meat eater. Cats should NOT be eating rice an corn and these things can cause problems own the line. Cats have no use for fiber. Vegetables don't hurt but I haven't read anything where they help. Here are your ingrediants

* Brown rice, barley and oats provide carbohydrates needed for energy

My cat got diabetes from the carbs in certain foods

*Deboned Chicken, Chicken Meal, Whole Ground Brown Rice, Fish Meal, Whole Ground Barley, Potato Flour, Oatmeal

I do like that the first ingrediant is chicken which is a muscle meat
Meal--- do you know what that is?
Here you go
http://www.catinfo.org/#Learn_How_To...gredient_Label

Cats which are not normally big water drinkers are suppose to get their ,moisture needs from their food/prey. 95% of the moisture is zapped out of dry foods during the processing. Take that fact and ad to the carbohydrate level in most dry foods and I will not have dry food in my house again. If you are goijg to feed dry or your cats keep refusing to eat canned then innova evo or wellness core are your best bets.
Here is a site with some tips on transitioning dry food addicts to canned
http://www.catinfo.org/#Transitionin...o_Canned_Food_
I see you want to switch an have the right idea. Don't starve them as they can be stubborn but maybe with some patience and work you can make the transition completely. Best of luck

Meal is actually cooked If memory serves about 10 minutes at 350 ... most foods are then done 10-15 minutes at 275-350( these are extruded not BAKED ) ...

I prefer both fresh and meal in the first two ingrediants but since 1lb of meal is 5 of fresh I will take the meal as the digestable protein is more in a named meal ...

chicken as a first ingrediant is a dry is a ILL labelling as this is raw ingrediants and the chicken ( fresh or deboned) is 66% WATER which disappears while being cooked ... In reality the chicken is by wt after cooking the 5th to 6th ingrediant ... this is why those feeding dry with much reading often choose meal to meat

Fish meal IMHO is too generic that could be catfish from a dirty river , salmon and trout mixed ... plus 99% of FISH meal is treated with ethoxiquin since it comes from NON USA waters( note this is US not EU)

Barley actually has the same protein as wheat thus is a HIGH allergen .. but unlike wheat it is NOT very digestable .... wheat is 60- 75%( some say 80%) digestable to a cat whearas barley is 50-65%

IMHO oatmeal is the best grain and then rice ... yes some argue about brown to white .. I will take white again for carnivore digestabilty ( yes for glycemic control brown is a touch better )

THERE REALLY is a difference in names ( DRY foods)

'
ie Indoor = often a wt control food with stuff added for additional litter control... I dont like indoors for most cats ( example % wise ... adult food 34% protein and 19% fat , indoor 34% protein 12% fat , wt control 32% protein and 12% fat )

Senior = lower protein and fat , often have some jt support ... many are lower in phosphorus

Note with wet foods ... even the high carbs multi grain ones are 10-20 % carb vs the ave grain premium dry with 25-40% carbs

Also note there is a RICHNESS factor to no grain drys and about 50% cant handle EVO ... If you want no grain dry you may have to try 3-6 of them before finding the right fit

I am not sure of the temperature meal is cooked at but Meal is also byproducts, ie feet intestines, feathers, eggshells ect

I agree with you about the allergens but rice is also an allergen and is strictly in there for profit margin as is corn aka mutten. There is no benefit at all to the cats from these ingrediants. I als would rather have white then brown rice if forced
Indoor foods may have less calories per cup then say regular or kitten foods but their carbohydrate content is usually much higher. I do not know how that would affect overall weight gain especially in a creature that is use to about 2-3% of their cals from carbs
In theory I would agree with you and in some cases it is true that there is a difference between indoor, kitten and adult for example but when looking at the values of many foods you will not find the differences you would expect. Taking the first set off of this list for example http://www.geocities.com/jmpeerson/dryfood.html
Protein Fat Carbscaloiries
Eukanuba:
Adult Chicken & Rice 30 45 25 573

Adult Hairball Relief 30 45 25 473

Adult Salmon & Rice 30 45 25 534
Kitten Chicken & Rice Formula 31 47 22 570
Lamb & Rice Formula for Cats 29 46 25 570
Mature Care 33 39 28 484
If you knew the numbers and not the names a layman would be hgard pressed to figure out which is for a kitten and which is for a senior.

When I look at phosperous levels though, you certainly have proven your point as the levels are usually lower in adult foods as they should be and I will try to be more careful about such generalizations.

' 'Note with wet foods ... even the high carbs multi grain ones are 10-20 % carb vs the ave grain premium dry with 25-40% carbs''

Yes!!!! so very important!

Your point about evo is also well taken. <Lots of calories- high fat- high phos.
Thank you for the info

Wow! Thanks Sharky for all that information. Very helpful!

Oh! I just want to mention that Rascal is now licking more of the baby meat off my finger in the morning So it's a great start!

Not Samson, though. I will just give him more time.

Sharky, in your opinion is it ok that I am giving them baby meat (it does contain cornstarch) I just thought that maybe it would be more palatable for them as a start and as they get more used to it, then I would start incorporating the canned food.

Thanks again for all that information!

If kitty aint allergic ... I dont see a problem...

I am not sure of the temperature meal is cooked at but Meal is also byproducts, ie feet intestines, feathers, eggshells ect VERY wrong ... NAMED meat meal Meal by DEFINITION by AFFCO .. is clean meat and bone minus offal ( organs) , heads , ft ... ie chicken meal = chicken dehydrated
chicken by product meal = dehydrated heads , feet , intestines

DO you have access to a AFFCO book?? if so I suggest reading it .. many vets have NEVER seen one

realize that 30 calories is 7.5% of total of those which FYI are high cause of the fat

There's a AFCCO book???? Ohhh, I would spend days picking over that, can you PM me where you found it? I just tried googling it... and non of that looking like the AFCCO we are talking about.

BTW, when I googled it this very TCS page was the fist link, lol.