New kitten food recommendations.

docray

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Hey, I'm new here.
I am going to pick up my newly adopted kitten (about 4-5 months old) tonight after work and I'm wondering if there are any good commercially available cat foods (Petsmart or PetCo)? I've had cats all my life and we always fed them Science Diet, but after reading some things I've read lots of bad stuff about it?

The place he's currently at feeds Royal Canin, should I keep him on this, switch him to Science Diet, or what?

Thanks!
 

goldenkitty45

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I don't like S. Diet. We feed Royal Canin. I'd stick with that for the time being. Also you might consider a dry and canned diet for best results.
 
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docray

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Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

I don't like S. Diet. We feed Royal Canin. I'd stick with that for the time being. Also you might consider a dry and canned diet for best results.
I do plan on feeding both. Is EVO good stuff? I think I'm going to pick some up tomorrow and feed Royal Canin until I can decide what's best.
 

sharky

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EVO is good ... only drawback is about 50% of cats cant handle the richness

I prefer RC to SD ....

evo is the highest "premium" in the three IMHO
 

darlili

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The only thing I'd suggest is make sure you get some of whatever your kitten is currently eating, and slowly change her over to any new foods, as you are planning. Better to give her something she's used to while she's getting used to her new home. And a lot of people like Royal Canin.

Mine came from Petsmart and ate Authority - I slowly changed them over to Nutro, and so far so good. I do wet and dry.
 
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docray

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Originally Posted by darlili

The only thing I'd suggest is make sure you get some of whatever your kitten is currently eating, and slowly change her over to any new foods, as you are planning. Better to give her something she's used to while she's getting used to her new home. And a lot of people like Royal Canin.

Mine came from Petsmart and ate Authority - I slowly changed them over to Nutro, and so far so good. I do wet and dry.
He's currently eating Royal Canin. I think I'm going to look into EVO more and then start turning him over to a mix of moist and dry of EVO and Royal Canin before phasing out the Royal Canin totally.

Going to pick him up tonight, hopefully he adjusts well and isn't scared for days on end... he should be ok because it's just me in the apartment and it's a very quite place.
 

optionken

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I am of the opinion that dry food isn't good in general and cats are better off on a canned diet with the canne foo having a muscle meat listed 1st and no grains if you can afford it
Best of Luck
 

sharky

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Originally Posted by optionken

I am of the opinion that dry food isn't good in general and cats are better off on a canned diet with the canne foo having a muscle meat listed 1st and no grains if you can afford it
Best of Luck
wet food would be a good addition ... have you thought about it >>??
 
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docray

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Originally Posted by sharky

wet food would be a good addition ... have you thought about it >>??
That's the plan, yes, I hope to be able to find the Evo locally... it's listed at several places so I hope I can get it.

It's RC until I find a place that retails the Evo...


Also, got him home last night, what a little rocket! I thought he'd take a couple days to get brave and explore the whole place. He was all over everything right away.
 
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docray

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What do you mean half the cats can't handle the richness? As in they'll have digestive problems or just won't eat it?

I found a local hardware store that stocks Evo so I'll go get some tonight and see what he thinks of it.
 

sharky

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Originally Posted by DocRay

What do you mean half the cats can't handle the richness? As in they'll have digestive problems or just won't eat it?

I found a local hardware store that stocks Evo so I'll go get some tonight and see what he thinks of it.
Many times the number #1 complaint on EVO is loose stools ... I have only heard of a handful not liking the taste ... WOW the hardware store must be a good one
 
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docray

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Originally Posted by sharky

Many times the number #1 complaint on EVO is loose stools ... I have only heard of a handful not liking the taste ... WOW the hardware store must be a good one
I'll see what happens. He likes it for sure, every interested when I got home with it... put a few pieces in with his RC. He #2ed as soon as I got home from work, he slept under the bed all day!
 

hwc

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I just had this discussion with my vet concerning my two new kitties.

The big concern with dry diets is that they increase the risk of urinary blockage problems in male cats. Therefore, my vet recommends a wet food diet two meals a day (more often for kitties) supplemented by dry grazing.

Until they reach one year of age, any decent kitty dry food is OK. Once they are large enough (about a year), the dry grazing should be switched to a large kernal tartar or dental feed -- the big chunks force them to bite into the pieces and clean their teeth. This is only available at vets or pet stores.

For wet, he said that any decent name brand canned food is fine including the name brand lines at the supermarket -- Friskies, 9-Lives, etc.
 

sharky

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Originally Posted by hwc

I just had this discussion with my vet concerning my two new kitties.

The big concern with dry diets is that they increase the risk of urinary blockage problems in male cats. Therefore, my vet recommends a wet food diet two meals a day (more often for kitties) supplemented by dry grazing.

Until they reach one year of age, any decent kitty dry food is OK. Once they are large enough (about a year), the dry grazing should be switched to a large kernal tartar or dental feed -- the big chunks force them to bite into the pieces and clean their teeth. This is only available at vets or pet stores.

For wet, he said that any decent name brand canned food is fine including the name brand lines at the supermarket -- Friskies, 9-Lives, etc.
JUST a noteThere are VERY FEW dental diets that are proven and of the proven ones very few have good ingredients IMHO... Vets often say anything with a name brand is okay to feed ... I would suggest researching and then talking with your vet as most vets took only one seminar or semester of feline nutrition and that was put on by a PF company.
 

hwc

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Actually, the advice my vet gave was based primarily on recent research showing a connection between dry diets and urinary blockage.

The dental dry food my vet was recommending was not so much for nutrition as a grazing snack that:

a) is good for teeth cleaning
b) doesn't do much harm

He said that none of the grocery store brands fill that bill.
 
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