Icky sticky stool -- switching foods

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seanh

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We've been feeding our kitten a combination of Innova EVO Turkey & Chicken dry food along with Merrick canned food. He loves his food, and seems to be doing really well on it. Except for one problem. Every few days, he has a gooey, sticky stool. Today it was bad enough that he stepped in it and got it all over his paw, making a mess all around the litter box. Poor guy! So, we need to make a change.

I'm assuming the EVO is the primary problem. This is the first time we've fed a cat grain free food. Almost all of the cats in our extended family eat Merrick canned food without any problems. I know Natura was acquired by P&G, which had me thinking about switching away from EVO anyway. But I'm not sure what the best alternative is. I've read good things about Orijen and Blue Buffalo, but would he be likely to have the same stool problems on those? Are there others we should consider? I'm not concerned about cost -- just quality (and solving the current doodoo problem). Keep in mind, we need something appropriate for a kitten.

Thanks!
 
sharky

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I like orijen and blue... at my house no luck with either ... can you get taste of the wild? orijens sister acana?
 
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seanh

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Originally Posted by sharky

I like orijen and blue... at my house no luck with either ... can you get taste of the wild? orijens sister acana?
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I'm pretty sure I've seen Taste of the Wild. Acana doesn't sound familiar, but I can look around. What are the issues you've had with Orijen and Blue Buffalo? Same thing we're having now?
 
nutrolori

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Originally Posted by SeanH

We've been feeding our kitten a combination of Innova EVO Turkey & Chicken dry food along with Merrick canned food. He loves his food, and seems to be doing really well on it. Except for one problem. Every few days, he has a gooey, sticky stool. Today it was bad enough that he stepped in it and got it all over his paw, making a mess all around the litter box. Poor guy! So, we need to make a change.

I'm assuming the EVO is the primary problem. This is the first time we've fed a cat grain free food. Almost all of the cats in our extended family eat Merrick canned food without any problems. I know Natura was acquired by P&G, which had me thinking about switching away from EVO anyway. But I'm not sure what the best alternative is. I've read good things about Orijen and Blue Buffalo, but would he be likely to have the same stool problems on those? Are there others we should consider? I'm not concerned about cost -- just quality (and solving the current doodoo problem). Keep in mind, we need something appropriate for a kitten.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
I use Nutro Natural Choice with my Chester Cheetah. He has been using Nutro foods since he was 9 months old and he is now 11 1/2 years old. He has always done well on it. If you are looking for a good balance of Carbs, Protein & Fat the Natural Choice works well for my guy. I use the wet food too. He does eat the weight management because he is a lazy boy but other than that he still acts like a kitten when I play with him. His stool is firm and consistent. They do make a kitten formula.

I hope you find what works for your kitten. Good luck!
 
sharky

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Originally Posted by SeanH

I'm pretty sure I've seen Taste of the Wild. Acana doesn't sound familiar, but I can look around. What are the issues you've had with Orijen and Blue Buffalo? Same thing we're having now?
Click to expand...
Orijen caused some poo issues and Blue no one would touch
 
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blueandfrodo

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I haven't had any issues with Orijen. I really love that food but now my kitties are both on only canned food and unfortunately Orijen doesn't make canned food. I used to feed Orijen before I switched to canned only.

I found that my cats had good stools but stinky stinky STINKY stools on EVO.

Right now I am feeding Go! Chicken Turkey and Duck canned food but they make the same formula in kibble. I feed it to my ferrets
I really like this kibble as well. I am not sure if it is available in your area since it is a Canadian made food and I don't think it is in every state yet. I feed the kibble to my kitties when we have to go out of town over night and canned is not convenient. There are no stool issues at all.

I would give another grain free food a try. I like Orijen and Go! but I don't have any experience at all with Taste of the Wild or Blue. I hope that you find a solution soon!
 
silva_unt

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I feed Neko Nature's Variety Prairie. She also has a sensitive stomach and we tried many foods until Prairie.
http://www.naturesvariety.com/Prairie/cat/kibble/all
It's not grain free though and wasn't sure if that is what your seeking. Comes in 3 diff flavors which you can alternate.
She doesn't like the prairie cans however since they are chunk in sauce and Neko will only eat pate or finely shredded seafood


We did try Taste of the Wild kibble which gave her firmer stools but they were stinky! I also realized soon after that she was allergic to peas which is in TOTW
 
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seanh

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I picked up some Orijen to try. Hopefully that will go better. He definitely seems to like it, at least. The owner of the store said they're going to stop carrying EVO (because of the P&G buyout), so we would have had to switch soon anyway. If the Orijen doesn't work out, we may have to try something with a little bit of grain in it. Hopefully not.

I've also been wondering if maybe it's one of the canned foods causing the problem. He's only having the stool problem every few days. He is eating the same dry food every day, but we're rotating through flavors in the canned food. So the only thing I can think of that's different from day to day is the canned food. We've started taking more detailed notes on what we feed him and when he has the problem, to hopefully narrow it down a bit.
 
darlili

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I think the food diary is an excellent idea - when I was switching my boy to prescription food, he had very wet poo, out of the box yet, but not on a daily basis. We did go to the vet, but I also kept a diary - and the vet and I decided it might have been the wet fish variety that was causing the issue. She gave me some talin powder, I exchanged the fish for chicken, and, knock wood, all has been fine.

My girl, of course, was fine with everything!
 
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seanh

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Just wanted to follow up on this. We've been feeding him Orijen for about two weeks. We didn't change anything else. The poop situation is MUCH better. We've had no messy/gooey stools, and it also happens to be less smelly. Yay!
 
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