My kittens won't eat Wellness Core Kitten Formula

Hello everyone! I adopted 2 tortoiseshell kittens from a rescue about 2 months ago. They are now about 4.5 months old. When I adopted them, they had only been with their foster for a week. The foster had been feeding them Meox Mix kibble, and some sort of wet food (not sure what brand), but I don't know what they were eating before that week. When I brought them home I continued feeding the meox mix dry that the foster had given me, in combination with wellness grain free wet food. My one kitten, Bella, was constantly throwing up, both after eating the meow mix and after eating the wellness wet. Both kittens also had terrible diarrhea and were having accidents all over the house. I brought them both to the vet, and the vet had me switch them both to Hills Prescription I/D (gastrointestinal health), and did a week of metronidazole to help the diarrhea. The diarrhea and vomiting has stopped and did not come back after the metronidazole ended while still eating Hills I/D dry and wet foods.

The I/D food is mostly crappy by-products and grains, though, so now I am trying to switch them on to Wellness Core Kitten Formula. I am still feeding both wet and dry, at a current ratio of about 25% wellness and 75% hills I/D. They both seem to be okay with this combination with the wet food, although Bella's stools have been somewhat loose lately. They absolutely will not eat the Wellness Core dry food though. They just sniff at the bowl and try to paw at the floor to bury it. If they are hungry enough to actually eat from the dry bowl, they will eat out all of the Hills I/D kibble and leave the Wellness behind. An employee at petsmart thought they were maybe just too accustomed to the I/D now so they were being picky, and to try withholding the wet food until they start to eat their dry as well. I'm a little bit opposed to that idea though, because they already don't eat enough and I'm worried they will starve themselves rather than eat the Wellness.

Can anyone offer some advice? Will they eventually give in and realize the Wellness is food and start eating it? Or should I try another grain free food like Blue Buffalo freedom? The wellness wet and dry have the same basic ingredients, so I don't get why they will eat the wellness wet but not the dry.

Thank you for your help!!

I don't know about the dry food, but Wellness wet is higher in fat and also has a wide variety of ingredients. Maybe it is richer than what your kitties are used to.

You could try mixing the Wellness and Hills in the same bowl and see what happens. If you want to try a different brand, many pet stores, especially higher end  independent ones, will have free samples.

Wet food is in general easier to transition between brands--you don't have to do a gradual transition, you can just switch most of the time. So maybe you should feed more wet. It is in general better nutritionally for them anyway--higher protein content and keeps them hydrated.

A probiotic may also help. If the problems continue, do take them to the vet. Diarrhea in kittens can become life-threatening due to their small size and higher risk of dehydration.

If it were me, I'd only offer Wellness wet/canned food (or another grain-free canned kitten food), and not provide any dry. (This is because I view most dry foods as nearly equal to eating Frosted-Flakes-for-Cats and therefore not healthy long-term, and I use the healthier dry foods only as training treats.)

Metronidazole is great at combating feline diarrhea; sometimes it helps to keep them on it for another week even after they have stopped having diarrhea/loose stools - it will then have time enough and a better chance of beating down those organisms that can cause diarrhea in cats (versus just using it for just one week). Note: my experience with metronidazole use is with an adult cat, not kittens, so I may just be unaware of its usage & length of time pertinent to kittens.

Raintyger said:

 
I don't know about the dry food, but Wellness wet is higher in fat and also has a wide variety of ingredients. Maybe it is richer than what your kitties are used to.

You could try mixing the Wellness and Hills in the same bowl and see what happens. If you want to try a different brand, many pet stores, especially higher end  independent ones, will have free samples.

Wet food is in general easier to transition between brands--you don't have to do a gradual transition, you can just switch most of the time. So maybe you should feed more wet. It is in general better nutritionally for them anyway--higher protein content and keeps them hydrated.

A probiotic may also help. If the problems continue, do take them to the vet. Diarrhea in kittens can become life-threatening due to their small size and higher risk of dehydration.

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Raintyger - 

Thanks for your response They have actually been to the vet several times now. Fawkes no longer has diarrhea, and Bella only has slightly loose stool (half runny/ half solid) for about a day or two after i increase the Wellness in their wet food. 

I am already mixing the Wellness and Hills in the same bowl, both for dry and wet food. About 25% Wellness, 75% Hills currently. They are fine with eating the wet mixture, but only eat the Hills out of the dry bowl and leave the Wellness sit.

I can't just switch their wet, either - they get really sick with diarrhea from the sudden change so I'm switching both gradually. I would love to feed only wet food, but unfortunately I travel pretty often for work and they need to be able to eat dry food while I am away. If I only feed them wet I'm worried they would get sick or not eat when I only left out dry food when I was traveling.

I currently feed them wet food 2x a day (morning and evening), and leave out some dry food for a few hours in the afternoon and overnight so they can eat while I am sleeping.

I'm not so worried about the diarrhea anymore as it is pretty much under control, but I'm worried about them not getting enough food since they are refusing to eat the Wellness dry (and sometimes the entire mix) during their dry feedings. I really want to feed them a high-quality food, but they just don't seem to like this brand of dry. I'm curious if anyone else has had this same problem with the Wellness Core but maybe had success switching to Blue Buffalo freedom? I know Wellness Core's first ingredient is turkey, whereas BB is chicken, so maybe they just don't like the turkey?

PushPurrCatPaws said:

If it were me, I'd only offer Wellness wet/canned food (or another grain-free canned kitten food), and not provide any dry. (This is because I view most dry foods as nearly equal to eating Frosted-Flakes-for-Cats and therefore not healthy long-term, and I use the healthier dry foods only as training treats.)

Metronidazole is great at combating feline diarrhea; sometimes it helps to keep them on it for another week even after they have stopped having diarrhea/loose stools - it will then have time enough and a better chance of beating down those organisms that can cause diarrhea in cats (versus just using it for just one week). Note: my experience with metronidazole use is with an adult cat, not kittens, so I may just be unaware of its usage & length of time pertinent to kittens.

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PushPurrCatPaws - 

The metronidazole did work very well for the diarrhea. Fawkes was on it for 1 week, and Bella was actually only it for 2 weeks since she had been sick before Fawkes started to get ill.  I waited 1.5 weeks after they finished their prescription to make sure no diarrhea came back before I started trying to switch their foods again. Even with switching the foods, Fawkes no longer has any diarrhea and Bella has only a little loose stool (half runny/ half solid) for about a day or two after i increase the Wellness in their wet food. 

Unfortunately I can't just switch their wet to Wellness all at once - they get really sick with diarrhea from the sudden change so I'm switching both gradually. I would love to feed only wet food, but unfortunately I travel pretty often for work and they need to be able to eat dry food while I am away. If I only feed them wet I'm worried they would get sick or not eat when I only left out dry food when I was traveling.

I currently feed them wet food 2x a day (morning and evening), and leave out some dry food for a few hours in the afternoon and overnight so they can eat while I am sleeping.

I'm not so worried about the diarrhea anymore as it is pretty much under control, but I'm worried about them not getting enough food since they are refusing to eat the Wellness dry (and sometimes the entire mix) during their dry feedings. I really want to feed them a high-quality food, but they just don't seem to like this brand of dry, and I feel like they might respond the same way to any other grain-free food I try, and the bags of food are not cheap to keep switching around. I'm curious if anyone else has had this same problem with the Wellness Core but maybe had success switching to Blue Buffalo freedom? I know Wellness Core's first ingredient is turkey, whereas BB is chicken, so maybe they just don't like the turkey?

BellaFawkes said:

...

[...]. I really want to feed them a high-quality food, but they just don't seem to like this brand of dry, and I feel like they might respond the same way to any other grain-free food I try, and the bags of food are not cheap to keep switching around. [...]

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Some pet food stores offer free, small sample packets of various dry foods, so that you can try a food out before spending a ton of money buying many bags (I'm thinking of the store, Mud Bay, in particular).

You can try the Blue Buffalo dry.  I have it in my cat's dry food mix (currently purina cat chow, BlueBuffalo Kitten, Hills Science Diet and Iams).  When I added it both kittens seemed to like it.  I added it for the Lysine.  I haven't tried the Wellness dry.

Handsome Kitty said:

 
You can try the Blue Buffalo dry.  I have it in my cat's dry food mix (currently purina cat chow, BlueBuffalo Kitten, Hills Science Diet and Iams).  When I added it both kittens seemed to like it.  I added it for the Lysine.  I haven't tried the Wellness dry.

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Handsome Kitty-

Thanks for your input! I decided to bite the bullet and buy a bag of the Blue Buffalo Freedom Kitten and cross my fingers that they would eat it. So far they both seem to be okay with the BB dry!   Fawkes seems to really like the BB dry, and while Bella is always kind of fussy about eating dry, she is eating from the bowl (she wouldn't even go near the bowl with the Wellness in it). I also like that the BB dry kibble is about 1/2 the size of the Wellness, Bella especially has trouble with the bigger kibble falling out of her mouth, so small is good.

I also switched their wet to BB Freedom Indoor Kitten because Bella's diarrhea was coming back and she was having accidents on the carpet again. They don't seem to like the BB wet food as much as the Wellness wet, but they are still eating some of it and Bella's stool seems to be going back to normal.

Hopefully they will start to enjoy the BB and get Bella's stomach feeling better! 

Glad to hear you found something they like.  BTW the Hills science diet is also small and shaped like the BB kibble.

I'm embarrasssed to say my cat & kitten currently like the Meow Mix Pate.  I think they are discontinueing it so I am starting to hoard it while I look for something else.