Rotating Food / IBD kitty

So my 2 year old was diagnosed with mild IBD via oral endoscopy earlier this month.  Or, "signs concurrent with IBD" anyways!!

After initially having problems with her, the vets put her on Medi-Cal Hypo Canned (which has a duck protein), but she got bored or started experiencing taste aversion or something and I switched her to Royal Canin GI High Energy Canned over a month ago.

She'd been doing fine, not spectacular by any means, but it was very frustrating how she just wouldn't eat on her own volition.  So I finally, after weeks of mental anxiety and zero assistance from my vets, made the decision to start switching to Nature's Variety Chicken (as chicken was the protein in the GI food she was on).

I took my time to be safe, just under two weeks to fully transition, and she's been doing phenomenally pretty much since the start.  I don't know if the food itself is actually making the difference, or just the fact that she actually seems to like it as opposed to what the vets offer, but all I know is she's sitting taller (+), she's up and about (++), she's SO obnoxious when feeding time rolls around (++++++) and I couldn't be happier!!

My worry though is that if I rely on the NV chicken for months on end, she'll start getting bored again.  So I want to implement other flavours, but I don't know how.  So I have a few questions:

*Note--I want to avoid Venison, Rabbit, and Lamb incase I need novel proteins down the road*

1.  Is Pork a novel protein?  I don't think I've ever fed them a can of food directly indicated as "Pork flavoured", but I'm pretty sure she's had food containing pork liver as a secondary ingredient.

2.  Should I even risk introducing her to Beef and Salmon again, as I don't know whether or not she's allergic to them?  What will happen if I try?  And if it makes her sick again, will she be totally averse to my savior, Nature's Variety?

3.  When I switch between flavours of the same brand, is it optimal to just switch on a dime or do it slowly as though I were introducing a whole new food completely?

Thanks for any advice!!

Oh, also I have a concern:

--Poop quantity and quality has gone down in both my girls since making the switch.  The poop is smaller, comes out in segments (or at least dries into segmented parts), seems less moist, and one or both cats misses a day of pooping every now and again.  Can I just attribute this to the fact that their food intake is smaller now, as NV has higher caloric density than their previous foods?  Therefore smaller poop output?  Or should I be worried?

I would introduce one new food at a time and feed that food alone for awhile.  By doing that if she does begin to have issues you will know which food caused it.  I would stick with foods like Nature's Variety that are as close to just meat, liver and supplements as possible.  Foods like Hounds and Gatos and Wild Calling, there are others.

What foods work with IBD kitties are very individual to the kitty.  Most kitties tolerate pork well but beef not so much.  Many kitties, my IBD kitty included does not tolerate beef well.  Once you have a few foods that you know she does well on then you can begin rotating them.  Feeding the same protein exclusively for a long period of time can lead to a food allergy so it is good to feed a rotation of different proteins.

JellyBeans said:

 
Oh, also I have a concern:

--Poop quantity and quality has gone down in both my girls since making the switch.  The poop is smaller, comes out in segments (or at least dries into segmented parts), seems less moist, and one or both cats misses a day of pooping every now and again.  Can I just attribute this to the fact that their food intake is smaller now, as NV has higher caloric density than their previous foods?  Therefore smaller poop output?  Or should I be worried?

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I can share with you my experience when I switched my cats from Wellness grain-free canned to Nature's Variety Instinct canned. We started with Limited Ingredient diet in turkey and duck and are now also feeding rabbit. They've been on this brand since February.

Both cats' poop quantity and size decreased drastically and my female's poop is noticeably drier on this food. I was very concerned at first because my male cat may be prone to constipation and we were just beginning to wean him off cisapride at the time. Both cats have been examined by the vet and are not backed up. I've since come to the conclusion that they are eating a higher-quality food and less waste is being passed in their stools. I can really tell a difference when I let my female overeat dry kibble (stools get bigger and stinkier). Your guess about eating less food is also probably correct: less in, less out.

So you should keep an eye on their stools, but smaller poops are not necessarily a bad thing. Watch your cats, too, to see if they exhibit signs of constipation such as straining in the box, visits to the box that don't produce anything, crying in the box, small hard balls of poop inside or outside the box. My girl, on occasion, has unproductive visits or will drop a single hard ball. When that happens, I take corrective action for one or two feedings, and she's back on track.

My IBD kitty doesn't tolerate beef, either!

Denice said:

 
I would introduce one new food at a time and feed that food alone for awhile.  By doing that if she does begin to have issues you will know which food caused it.  I would stick with foods like Nature's Variety that are as close to just meat, liver and supplements as possible.  Foods like Hounds and Gatos and Wild Calling, there are others.

What foods work with IBD kitties are very individual to the kitty.  Most kitties tolerate pork well but beef not so much.  Many kitties, my IBD kitty included does not tolerate beef well.  Once you have a few foods that you know she does well on then you can begin rotating them.  Feeding the same protein exclusively for a long period of time can lead to a food allergy so it is good to feed a rotation of different proteins.

Click to expand...

Well I definitely plan on staying within the NV brand for as long as they'll take it, I just worry about switching between flavours.

My initial instinct is to stick with chicken for 6 weeks, take 2 weeks to transition to duck, continue with duck for 6 weeks, take 2 weeks to transition to beef, etc to salmon to pork and back to chicken.  Is this good?  Or no?  Should I do chicken for 6-8 weeks and then one day just switch 100% to duck?  Or does mixing proteins even matter haha.

And based off of your advice, should I just not even bother offering beef then?  Is there no way to do it safely just to see?  Like I said, ideally I'd like to reserve novel proteins like rabbit, lamb, and venison for future problems, or should I just give the novel stuff now and avoid beef and salmon?  Otherwise my only options are chicken and duck!

AbbyNTim said:

 
I can share with you my experience when I switched my cats from Wellness grain-free canned to Nature's Variety Instinct canned. We started with Limited Ingredient diet in turkey and duck and are now also feeding rabbit. They've been on this brand since February.

Both cats' poop quantity and size decreased drastically and my female's poop is noticeably drier on this food. I was very concerned at first because my male cat may be prone to constipation and we were just beginning to wean him off cisapride at the time. Both cats have been examined by the vet and are not backed up. I've since come to the conclusion that they are eating a higher-quality food and less waste is being passed in their stools. I can really tell a difference when I let my female overeat dry kibble (stools get bigger and stinkier). Your guess about eating less food is also probably correct: less in, less out.

So you should keep an eye on their stools, but smaller poops are not necessarily a bad thing. Watch your cats, too, to see if they exhibit signs of constipation such as straining in the box, visits to the box that don't produce anything, crying in the box, small hard balls of poop inside or outside the box. My girl, on occasion, has unproductive visits or will drop a single hard ball. When that happens, I take corrective action for one or two feedings, and she's back on track.

Click to expand...

It's actually really hard for me to keep track of their litter habits.  I don't believe I've ever heard yowling.  Not sure about straining or unproductive visits.  My non-IBD kitty must poop in the dead of night because I am hardly ever graced with witnessing it.  I assume she'd be a pretty sick cat if she never ever pooped though.  My IBD kitty is OCD and scratches at the side of the box forever after finishing, so I know when she's in!  Her routine when she poops is usually:  1. Pee  2. Scratch clean  3. Dig, dig, dig  4. Poop  5. Bury & Scratch clean!

Neither of them seem to drink any water on their own these days, compared to how much they drank as kittens.  I add about a teaspoon per 1/8 of a can to their food, hoping that will be enough, and I only feed them wet food, so I hope they're not dehydrated.  Or over-hydrated  :/

I have an IBD cat and I rotate flavors every day or so. Keeps their system off balance and I didn't want to risk him getting bored of one food because I hate spending $$ trying to find a new flavor. I also have 2 other cats for a total of 3.

Previous schedule; NV raw lamb or duck/daily. NV canned Rabbit,Venison, and lamb (fed during periods when he was eating Duck raw) rotated daily.

Current schedule: NV canned Rabbit, Venison / day mixed with NV Instinct dry (rabbit).

I also add priobiotic which seems to enable the IBD cat to tolerate what little dry is mixed in his canned.

Wellness is another source. IIRC the private equity company that owns a portion of Wellness also owns a portion of Natures Variety.