I disagree with my vet

My little 5 week old stray had her first visit vet visit today and although my vet is wonderful with my 5 dogs I really don't trust her judgement or rather what she says on food. She reccomended either Iams or and Science diet I have read somwhere that Iams is bad and Science diet is worse. I know for dog food I wouldn't feed either. Am I right in this? what is a better quailty, available in most store brand, Nutro is out. I stopped feeding it to my dogs also. She also said I shouldn't feed soft food, Why? In my hurry when I first found Kabuki, I just grabbed fancy feast because as a first time cat owner and having to get home asap to feed her, I didn't know any better, I was told it was " Cat Crack" so I went to a petstore and got her sophisticat, which now I hear is worse and also gives her Diarreha. so what brand is good

Sorry for all the question, I just want to take good care of Kabuki and as a first time cat dad and a long time dog lover I am completely clueless

What brand are you feeding your dog? Most of the good dog food brands have a cat food available.

Hi and welcome to TCS! I completely agree with your concern of proper diet for your new kitten, and hope we can give you some advice that may help point you in the right direction.
This is an extremely young age for a kitten to be separated from it's mother. They are typically weaned at 8-10 weeks from nursing although will begin to eat solid food at 5-6 weeks. The introduction from milk to solids should be wet food. Although they may be more expensive, an all natural diet is best. The most important thing is to try and find a diet that agrees with your kittens digestive system, the last thing you want is a prolonged symptom of diarrhea....

If you don't want to feed her the yucky store brought stuff & if you're worried about the medically recommended type variety ("scientific"), I'd personally recommend Royal Canin.

Royal Canin saved one of my cats life. I've got a few cats with severe dietary problems, and although I feed them primarily Optimum at the moment as it's easier to find, when I had them on Royal Canin - I've never seen them healthier lol.

Their fur gains a shine, they become more active, more alert, their stools become firm and as good looking as can be lol, and they seem much happier. Also, if you have sniffy cats, this seems to up their overall health as well.

Royal Canin has such tiny kibble bits & such a high quality nutrition, that if you add say a tablespoon of hot water to it, let it sit for a minute, then mush it together, it'll last a while, it'll act as a cross between Dry & Wet food and your cat will adore the taste & aroma, it's got an impressive aroma compared to the from the stores lol.

Other than that, I've noticed Hills cat food works good too, it seems to promote weight gain in cats, and I've been told by a vet it has all the nutrition your cat could need in it, and should only cost about $10 a week to feed your puss.

Thanks, I am currently feeding my dogs natural balance, I used to use Nutro,
Kabuki is on Royal Canin for kittens and seems to be eating it, I will look for the wet and try it

Welcome to the club on disagreeing with your vet. I have not one, but two vets who are trying to get me to put Tiny on Hill's r/d food. I don't think you can be surprised that most vets are not experts on nutrition because apparently, it's only a very small part of what they learn in vet school and the classes are typically given by one of the big pet food companies (Hill's). When she said not to feed 'soft' food, are you sure she didn't mean the moist stuff that comes in a pouch? I think most people do agree that's not good for the cats.

If she really did mean canned food, I think she's crazy. I think you'll find most of our experts here suggest feeding a high quality canned food as often as possible. Among other things, the extra moisture helps keep kitty hydrated to minimize crystals in the urine and the fat/protein/carbohydrate levels are much closer to kitty's natural (mice,birds,etc.) diet than the dry.

I don't think Iams and Science Diet are really that bad. The big problem with them is that they market themselves as high-end cat foods, but the ingredients aren't much better than something like Nine Lives or Friskies which cost half the price.

As for the Fancy Feast, they call it kitty crack because they apparently add some sort of flavor enhancer that most cats really love to the food. It's good if you have a cat who won't eat wet food or who won't eat at all, but it's not great food.

I can't really recommend kitten foods specifically since I haven't had a kitten in quite a while, but if you're shopping at PetSmart, you might look at the Authority brand. It's a pretty decent mid-grade food and since it's their house brand, it's pretty economical.

I understand the vet and food issues. My first cat ever was two orphaned kittens that were maybe a week old when I rescued them. I got the crash course in kittie care.

One of mine had digestive issues and I went through much with him. My vet was of little help with food.

Royal Canin Baby Cat, as others mentioned, is a tiny kibble and worked well for mine. Canned food was their primary diet and RC Baby Cat was left out for nibbling. I varied the brand and meat source of the canned food. I did use any kitten canned food or one that was for "all life stages" (kittens and adults). I used brands that had no by-products, no corn and little to no grains.

My personal opinion is that the canned food is important in all cats diet, especially kittens, because cats are not big water drinkers. They get more water in their diet with canned food.

I always had dogs before my kittens, too.

You can get great help on this forum. They helped me so much.

I agree with the RC babycat for the first few months...

Where are you shopping ?? this can help me with what kitten wet s you can get .. I also recommend some stage 2 KMR mixed in with wet for the next few weeks

I shop at petco, petsmart, and Target plus the grocery store. Kabuki likes the little royal canin but doesn't eat enough to sustain her so a combo is what I would like to feed until she gets older

thanks

Blue spa
Authority
Meow mix ( all stage )
Natural balance ( all stage)
Wellness
Ultramix

should give you a good amount to look at

thanks Sharkey

so you won't listen to your vet but you'll take the advice of strangers on an internet message board who've never even seen your animal?

Originally Posted by cd1515

so you won't listen to your vet but you'll take the advice of strangers on an internet message board who've never even seen your animal?

Click to expand...

There are people on this site that do far more research on cat nutrition than most vets. Tell me how many vets sell things other than Science Diet, Purina, and possibly a handful of other foods. What we have found through conversation here is that most vets don't keep up with current nutritional studies, and when we hear a vet state that dry food is the best for your cat, many of us cringe. Vets who keep up with research know better.

Any advice you read on the internet should always be taken with a grain of salt and your own research. But advice from a vet that doesn't stay current on nutrition should always be challenged.

In this case yes, I have used science diet on my dogs after the vet reccomended it and did not have good results. Unfortuneately, vets sometimes reccomend things which aren't always the best, compare ingredientes and also listen to what others have said. Most vets sell exclusively science diet in their clinics, I am sure that they are making some profit and if I can find a better product, I will use it. Thank you for your concern though.

you might be interested in a vet that has studied more about nutrition. It is nice when I go into my vet and see frozen raw patties and high quality kibble and canned brands being sold and talked about
www.holisticvetlist.com

Hopefully, more vets will be more interested in nutrition. My dog is supposed to be eating Hill's c/dsdue to crystals (I feed raw) and the mounds of poop that came out of this little dog was disgusting. And the farts! She's back to her old raw diet....just because they are vets doesn't mean they're always right. I feed my cat Now! Turkey and Duck kibble and usually either Nature's Variety Homestyle or Eagle Pack Holistic Selects canned food and he looks amazing..considering he was this skinny matted mess last year when I took him in. I am sure his previous owner fed him the crap food because he'd gravitate towards the cheap treats I had at the time.

I don't know, to me, it just makes sense that a food with meat would be better than a food with corn gluten, by-products and ethyoxyquin (sp?). A vet recommends Hill's and Medi-cal because they're paid to push it. I don't think they get kick backs but I'm sure they get deals.

Anyway, my 2 cents FWIW. Some other good brands are Nature's Variety Instinct or Prairie or Homestyle (canned), Wellness, Innova, EVO, Eagle Pack Holistic Selects, Go!, Now!, Orijen. My personal fave is Nature's Variety - their Instinct line is grain-free and comes in a variety of proteins like lamb, venison, rabbit, duck, chicken and beef. Their Homestyle canned food is not grain-free but are stews and my kitten loves it.

Both my cats and my dog eat Natural Balance (Petco), and I've had little trouble with it. I would expect a little bit of tummy issues in a kitty so young, though.