Purina Cat food

I don't really have a point to this thread, just thinking out loud.

I have a cat who lives in my bedroom. He does not, for whatever reason, get along with my other cats. He's been vet checked, medicated, etc, he just can't get along any more. He does get along fine with the dogs, so he lives in solitude in my bedroom and sleeps with me and the dogs at night. He is MUCH happier with this living situation.
Anyway, I decided, since he is the only cat in the room, and I would be able to keep tabs on litterbox habits, etc, that he would be my guinea pig cat, so to speak. I have always fed high quality, super premium foods, and turned my nose up to "grocery store" brands. Well, I decided to try one of those grocery store brands on Oscar. Got him a bag of Purina One sensitive systems. Well, let me tell you, his poop is smaller, no smell, his coat looks better than it has in the 2 years I've had him, and he loves it. Which totally debunks my food theory. Anyone else have similar a similar food situation? ie, cat did better on lower quality food?

Your cat is a Martian

That food is so awful that the poop smell of my cats was terrible - I couldn't stand being in the same room....
I am sorry you are doing this to your kitty...
As far as loving it... Oh yeah - who doesn't love junk food? It was hard to take my Lucky from Purina One, but I am glad I did!
Sorry to be blunt...

see that was my thinking too...I've never fed food like that, just wanted to experiment. And he lives in my bedroom, so his litter box is in there, and the room is 13 x 13. The smell when he was on TOTW was sickening. When I switched him there is NO smell. I don't get it. I really don't. Maybe its not the fact that its Purina, maybe he just needs a food with some grains in it, instead of grain free? I don't know.

IMO... just wait... wait a little to have the full effects of this food

But to answer your question, some cats DO do better on grains than others - weird, but true...

But from that to Purina........ it's still a stretch

Wow talk about backwards. But then again no two cats are alike. When I mix a low quality food with totw for my cats I do prefer purina indoor variety to mix with because out of all the junk foods its the only one that didn't cause my cats poo to smell horrific. However!!! I do prefer totw alone to being mixed because of digestive issues 2 of my 3 cats have. They get runny poo and stinky farts if left on junk food alone so totw is a must even if I have to do without food for myself. My 3rd cat however is like yours where no matter what junk food I feed him his poop doesn't smell or change at all however what does change is his fur on junk food he looses his shineyness and starts to shed a lot more than on totw alone. But imo I feel that whatever works for your cat is what works no matter how good we would like to feed out cats or what we think is best sometimes junk food is what works best for them. There are worst things that people have done than feed their cats what is deemed a bad food.

Over here Purina One is advertised as "your pet could benefit from more effective digestion", it is one of the better supermarket foods.

Mine don't eat dry, but I know others who feed Purina One without any issues at all. Also know cats in their 20's who've been fed dry Whiskas their whole life Different things work for different cats.

yeah, its hard to find one food when I have 12 cats in my house. And as much as I would love to feed all wet, its just not feasible with 12 cats, and 3 dogs, 2 who are on TOTW and one who is on California Natural. I spend so much on animal food as it is.
My cats growing up ate who knows what, and if I recall correctly some of the kibbles were dyed red. They were all pretty and shiny and healthy and lived into their teens. So who knws what's best. I liked the way the Chicken Soup food agreed with all of them, but the shape of the kibble made for a lot of waste. Its the star shaped, and if they bit it in half and part of it fell on the counter, they just left it. So I was vacuuming up tons of food every day. They seem to do better with the round or oval shaped foods.

Originally Posted by Kit E Cat

Anyone else have similar a similar food situation? ie, cat did better on lower quality food?

Click to expand...

I used to think Purina Cat Chow was bad. But since my oldest cat took a health dive last year, we ended up using mostly or all Cat Chow (in the blue bag) for dry food. It's all he would eat consistently. My cat who has had constipation on all of the higher end foods--that disappeared. My oldest has a much better appetite with Cat Chow. I started mixing Nutro Max back in a couple weeks ago and my old guy lost an ounce. So we're back to Cat Chow. He likes Cat Chow Naturals so I think I might try and mix that one in or the indoor formula, instead of the Nutro. They're coats are good and they are all frisky and happy.

For whatever reason, my oldest won't eat Purina One. He just doesn't like it. But the Cat Chow line is super tasty to him.

At least I can exchange the Nutro--I didn't open the bag.

I tried Purina One dry back when I first got Lola. Within six weeks of starting that food, Lola had open, weeping abcesses on her chin, and Maggie had pretty extensive chin acne. That was the only change in their diet, so it was a no brainer knowing what caused it. I eliminated it from their diets and both cats' chins cleared up. Oddly enough, all three of my cats ate Purina NF canned food for years (until they changed their formulation) and Purina NF dry (as treats) and never had any allergy and/or skin issues at all.

Some cats do well others do not ... they are just like us Individual

Interesting. I am a firm believer in whats works for your cat is whats best. Pepper sold me on this.

I had my adult males on raw food, so when I brought Pepper inside, she too went on a raw diet. After about 6 weeks I realized I had an issue, but it took me weeks to figure out how easily to solve it. She had terrible food aggression. She'd take your hand off if you got near her while she was eating. I couldn't explain it, I had been with her since her birth and knew she had never gone without food, both her momma and I made sure of that. It was when I decided to stop feeding her raw, that I realized that was where the aggression stemmed from. So although in my head and heart I know its whats best, it isn't best for her and our safety, so we cannot risk it. She now eats mostly wet and some dry and is doing fine food aggression wise, no issues--her bowl is her bowl when it comes to the other cats but you won't lose blood around her now.

Leslie

Ahh. Pepper raw meat= aggressively protecting her "kill."

I see that when I give the boys something really yummy - like canned Wild Alaskan Salmon or a plain boiled shrimp. Archie and Tex in particular. It was hilarious to see a shrimp dangling from lil Tex's mouth and him grrrrrrrrooowwwwlllling at any cat that approached him. Geesh! Tex is about 8 pounds... all Archie would have to do is SIT on him!

He refused to let me take the shrimp back.. ( silly me I didn't think with that tiny little mouth and jaw that he could handle the whole thing. Trust me when I say he figured it out! )

My mom had a cat who lived to be nineteen and she never fed him anything but the cheapest dry and canned food she could get at the grocery store. 9 Lives, Whiskas, Deli-Cat, even Hy-Vee brand foods. Admittedly, he was not in the best of health during his final year (he developed a hyperthyroidism) but I'd say nineteen is a decent age.

I'm considering putting my new cat on a raw diet. I can't make much sense of the whole 'filler' thing in commercial cat foods, even premium ones.

I had one cat that threw up on just about all the well known premium brands. I even tried RX cat food with no luck. It was when I tried Purina One sensitive systems that the vomiting stopped. She's been eating this food for about 3 years and vomits about once every 2 months. Recently, I added Natures variety dry food and so far so good. I think I'm going to continue mixing the two brands since it seems to work. I guess whatever works!

We got some TOTW samples and surprisingly my fussy one seems to like it. So far we're mixing it in with the Purina and having good luck. No digestive troubles. I think TOTW was the one food they hadn't tried yet.

I love TOTW for my cats. Its the only food that has helped clear up their digestive issues. Due to lack of money for about a month the cats were on a mostly Purina mixed with the last bit of TOTW for food and right away the two started pooing funny again and GiGi started farting again. Thankfully BF got another job lined up and his step brother paid him in advanced and I was able to get another bag of TOTW to mix in their food so that was the majority. Its only been two days and already everyone is happier and not pooing so gross and stinky. It was getting back to the point where I thought I was gonna have to borrow BFs painting respirator to scoop poop..LMAO! I cant wait for taxes because Im going to stock up on TOTW so I dont have to worry about the last bit in the bag wondering how Im gonna get more because its so much more expensive than the other bag of food.

I just wanted to add too I feed my dog Purina foods and he does great on them. I tried feeding him higher quality foods and he ended up getting really bad diarrea from it so he went back on Purina. He does really good on that food he stopped eating his Purina One Lamb and Rice so I switched him to Purina Little Bites and he has started gobbling it down. I guess what works for one doesnt work for the other. Franklin is a perverse little doxie but the "junk" food does good for him unlike the cats who NEED a higher quality food.