How soon till improvement?

odiakkoh

TCS Member
Thread starter
Adult Cat
Joined
Nov 10, 2010
Messages
145
Purraise
11
So we switched my cat's food and I can't seem to remember what the average time it took till you will start seeing improvements. Was it 1 month? 2 months? 1 bag? If so, how big a bag? Tried using Google and searching this site but the results were on how to make the transition not the result of said transition.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #3

odiakkoh

TCS Member
Thread starter
Adult Cat
Joined
Nov 10, 2010
Messages
145
Purraise
11
Sorry, kinda forgot I made this thread.

I switched from Nature's Domain to Blue Wilderness.

He was on Nature's Domain and during that time the condition of his fur, skin and nails deteriorated. He never stopped shedding in clumps, he was covered in dandruff and his nails became brittle and split into pieces. He was also vomiting his food at least once every other day. At first we chalked it up to having the heater on in the house and hairball issues but even when we turned off the heat and gave him cat grass he didn't improve. He checked out fine at the vet so we decided to switch his food to see if that was the issue. If it was the food I'd like to know how long till we can be sure.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #5

odiakkoh

TCS Member
Thread starter
Adult Cat
Joined
Nov 10, 2010
Messages
145
Purraise
11
They're both dry food.
 

Willowy

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Mar 1, 2009
Messages
31,895
Purraise
28,303
Location
South Dakota
IF the problems were caused by diet, I would think you'd start seeing small improvements right away (like less vomiting). But Nature's Domain isn't a bad food--fairly comparable to TOTW. So, although it may not agree with him personally, it's not like it's a low-quality food. If you aren't seeing small improvements yet, maybe Wilderness has the same ingredient that gives him trouble. In which case you'd have to try something with as few ingredients in common as possible.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #7

odiakkoh

TCS Member
Thread starter
Adult Cat
Joined
Nov 10, 2010
Messages
145
Purraise
11
IF the problems were caused by diet, I would think you'd start seeing small improvements right away (like less vomiting). But Nature's Domain isn't a bad food--fairly comparable to TOTW. So, although it may not agree with him personally, it's not like it's a low-quality food. If you aren't seeing small improvements yet, maybe Wilderness has the same ingredient that gives him trouble. In which case you'd have to try something with as few ingredients in common as possible.
Considering they're both made by Diamond and TOTW's recall earlier this year, it doesn't really make me feel better haha. He's only been on Wilderness for 3 days now but so far no vomiting so it's looking good. I don't want to jinx it though so *knock on wood*.

ETA: Before Nature's Domain he was doing great on Wellness Core so I don't think it's a similar ingredients thing. We just couldn't afford Core anymore.
 
Last edited:
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #8

odiakkoh

TCS Member
Thread starter
Adult Cat
Joined
Nov 10, 2010
Messages
145
Purraise
11
In case anyone who ever searches for this wants an update, it's been 10 days and he hasn't vomited once and his dandruff is almost gone. His fur feels so much cleaner, softer and smells nicer.
 

redvelvetone

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
Nov 26, 2011
Messages
597
Purraise
28
Location
Pennsylvania, USA
IMO, you will see much better improvement with his digestion as well as his fur condition if you switch to a high quality wet food diet.

Dry  food is not good for them. I had a cat that only ate dry (before I knew any better) and he always had problems with his fur and skin (even when I switched to a higher quality dry food. He also had constipation issues and had very large dry stools.

When I switched him 50 / 50 wet and dry his condition improved greatly.

And then after he passed and I did more research, my new cat only gets wet food. His fur is soooo much better than my old cat's was (granted that could be just biology) and way shinier and I attribute that to better nutrition and being more hydrated - dry food causes dehydration in cats. His bathroom habits are also better than my old cat's - when they are fed high protein wet foods they make less solid waste because their bodies use more of the food. 

Something to think about if you can - even if it's just adding some wet food to the cat's diet, it's better than nothing, though I think it's best to do an all wet diet if you can as dry food has too many carbs and fillers and causes dehydration.
 
Last edited:

ilovemia

TCS Member
Adult Cat
Joined
Sep 3, 2011
Messages
270
Purraise
10
My cats have always been on dry and I never had a problem. Then they got giardia and had bad diareah. when they were through with the med their stools went from formed again to loose. I sarted thinking maybe I should llok into changing dry foods. I started on a synsitive systems dry food and it worked wonders. They now have good stools, very soft fur and Mac who is black has no more dandruff (you can tell dandruff easily on him).

Glad to hear your cats are doing better!
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #11

odiakkoh

TCS Member
Thread starter
Adult Cat
Joined
Nov 10, 2010
Messages
145
Purraise
11
He's already on half wet half dry lol. We just weren't having any issues with his wet so I didn't mention it. We were having issues with his dry but so far so good.
 
Top