Needs help to pick a dry food for 5 months old kitties.

I need some help before trying every brand and upset my kitties' stomach.

So the kitties are 4.5 months old.
I got them about 2 months ago and the shelter said they were having Royal Canin Kitten Formula. I wanted a high quality dry food for them so I started switching them to Orijen a month ago, very slowly. They are doing well, Cheetah does not care which brand he eats, and Panther seems to like Orijen more.

The question is, Panther vomited a few days ago. I saw the Orijen came out in its full size, which means he does not crack them before swallowing. I suspect he vomited again last night (I did not see it, and I think they ate it). I am wondering if the Orijen size is too big for kitties. I tried to crack them by hand (my blender did not do a good job on cracking), but there are times that I do not have enough time to crack it all.

2nd question is, should they be on kitten formula? Orijen does not have one. But there are also saying that there are no kitten formula in the nature, so kittens are fine with adult formula. What are your thoughts?

Our other concerns are: Cheetah used to have sensitve stomach at the begining, he just does not take Wellness kitten formula canned food since birth. The vet recommend him on less greasy canned food like adult canned food.
Panther does not do too well on beef in canned food. He has soft stool when I let them try beef baby food and beef canned food.

I do give them 3 meals of canned food per day (adult formula) and dry food is just for them to snack and to substitute one of the meals on 2 days of a week when I will be away for a long time.

So considering if a kitten formula should be used, and the size and sensitivity of Cheetah etc, is there any suggestions for my babies?
Or should I mix dry food to give them some different sizes?

Thank you!

I can't get Orijen here so haven't researched it, but I believe that it is an all-stages food, which means it works for both kittens and cats. I wouldn't worry about the size of the pieces. Many cats don't chew dry food at all, no matter what size it is. When it comes back up whole it probably means kitty ate it too much too fast. I have one cat who does that frequently. If her favorite dish gets empty (doesn't matter if all the other dishes are still full), as soon as I put food in it she gobbles it down and immediately And yes, if you don't get to it right away, somebody will come along and eat it again.

I would say that the combination of wet and dry that you're giving is fine. If you know that a certain type of food causes problems, simply leave it out of the rotation. You may make one or the other of the kitties unhappy, but you just work around what's best for both. I have two cats who love beef and one who gets the runs. If I feed beef, I have to put Merlin in a cage until the girls are finished eating so he won't get into their food.

So far it sound like everything is normal, even if it does worry you at the beginning. Well, even the worrying is normal. We all do it.

Originally Posted by GoldyCat

I can't get Orijen here so haven't researched it, but I believe that it is an all-stages food, which means it works for both kittens and cats. I wouldn't worry about the size of the pieces. Many cats don't chew dry food at all, no matter what size it is. When it comes back up whole it probably means kitty ate it too much too fast. I have one cat who does that frequently. If her favorite dish gets empty (doesn't matter if all the other dishes are still full), as soon as I put food in it she gobbles it down and immediately

And yes, if you don't get to it right away, somebody will come along and eat it again.

I would say that the combination of wet and dry that you're giving is fine. If you know that a certain type of food causes problems, simply leave it out of the rotation. You may make one or the other of the kitties unhappy, but you just work around what's best for both. I have two cats who love beef and one who gets the runs. If I feed beef, I have to put Merlin in a cage until the girls are finished eating so he won't get into their food.

So far it sound like everything is normal, even if it does worry you at the beginning. Well, even the worrying is normal. We all do it.

Click to expand...

Oh and Panther has been having soft stool too. I had them try beef about 10 days ago. Panther is usually the strong stomach one and he had soft stool. So I stopped it after a few days. Now he still has soft stool after 4 days of no-beef meals. I am start to wondering if Orijen is too rich for him.

I would suggest looking at one meat/ one grain or starch food