Help changing my cats dry food and find the best for him.

ioana

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Ill start with a bit of history about Mitu, my cat. He is 3 years old, he is a very picky eater. He is 20 pounds, he is a very big cat. I went to the vet a month ago, everything is great with him and the vet said he should be around 18-19 pounds Right now he eats 1 can of wet food a day and a bit of dry food in the middle of it. He is currently on Instinct Healthy Weight Chicken dry formula and he likes it.
Recently he had some diarrhea problems, the company changed the dry food formula and they didn't specify it so that might have caused him some stomach problems. Also, it might have been some tuna I gave him. Anyway...I am thinking of changing his dry food to something better but I don't know exactly to what.
Today I went to a natural store and came home with samples from the company FROMM...chicken formula, duck formula and also LOTUS chicken formula. I put all three on the table and he didn't like any of them.
So I have to go back for something else.
I looked into ORIJEN but they have fish in it ( I want to avoid fish). Also, Instinct came out with a formula that is 95% protein ( its called INSTINCT PROTEIN) is that to much? Should I try that, is it good for a cat food to have that much protein? What other good dry food are out there?
I also want to mention, before someone would suggest to me, that I do not have money to feed him only can food.any suggestions of food I should look into?
Thank you for your help.
 

2cats4me

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Ill start with a bit of history about Mitu, my cat. He is 3 years old, he is a very picky eater. He is 20 pounds, he is a very big cat. I went to the vet a month ago, everything is great with him and the vet said he should be around 18-19 pounds Right now he eats 1 can of wet food a day and a bit of dry food in the middle of it. He is currently on Instinct Healthy Weight Chicken dry formula and he likes it.
Recently he had some diarrhea problems, the company changed the dry food formula and they didn't specify it so that might have caused him some stomach problems. Also, it might have been some tuna I gave him. Anyway...I am thinking of changing his dry food to something better but I don't know exactly to what.
Today I went to a natural store and came home with samples from the company FROMM...chicken formula, duck formula and also LOTUS chicken formula. I put all three on the table and he didn't like any of them.
So I have to go back for something else.
I looked into ORIJEN but they have fish in it ( I want to avoid fish). Also, Instinct came out with a formula that is 95% protein ( its called INSTINCT PROTEIN) is that to much? Should I try that, is it good for a cat food to have that much protein? What other good dry food are out there?
I also want to mention, before someone would suggest to me, that I do not have money to feed him only can food.any suggestions of food I should look into?
Thank you for your help.
Wow  ,  Mitu is very beautiful . I love his color ..  The Fromm and Instinct are excellent foods but very high in carbs around 30% . That is an issue for cats exspecially if they need to lose weight ..  I have a big boy too . Philippe is 19 pounds and needs to lose weight . Both my cats eat 90 % canned but they do love a little kibble in between so I bought them Wysong Epigen . It is high protein , low fat , very low carbs at less than 5% .  My cats are super picky as well but they really like this .. I buy it at www.chewy.com     Here is the link if you want to check it out .

http://www.chewy.com/dog/wysong-epigen-starch-free-chicken/dp/103306
 
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ioana

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Wow  ,  Mitu is very beautiful . I love his color ..  The Fromm and Instinct are excellent foods but very high in carbs around 30% . That is an issue for cats exspecially if they need to lose weight ..  I have a big boy too . Philippe is 19 pounds and needs to lose weight . Both my cats eat 90 % canned but they do love a little kibble in between so I bought them Wysong Epigen . It is high protein , low fat , very low carbs at less than 5% .  My cats are super picky as well but they really like this .. I buy it at www.chewy.com    Here is the link if you want to check it out .
http://www.chewy.com/dog/wysong-epigen-starch-free-chicken/dp/103306
Thank you for your answer, I was actually looking at that company, I heard it's pretty good. I have to go back to the store and maybe get a sample. Right now he started having diarrhea again and I can't figure out what exactly causes it.
So when Im looking for food, what exactly should I look for? You said low carbs, but I didn't see that specified on the label...is it fat? Please help me.
 

2cats4me

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Thank you for your answer, I was actually looking at that company, I heard it's pretty good. I have to go back to the store and maybe get a sample. Right now he started having diarrhea again and I can't figure out what exactly causes it.
So when Im looking for food, what exactly should I look for? You said low carbs, but I didn't see that specified on the label...is it fat? Please help me.
Carbs are carbohydrates ..  Unfortunately companies do not list that on the label .  Normally they  list Protein , Fat , Moisture ..  If you contact Wysong they may send you a sample ..  Another low carb kibble is Young Again Pet Food .

Since he likes the Natures Variety Instinct  you could stay with that . Natures Variety Instinct Grain Free Chicken Meal only has 13% Carbohydrates .  It is less than the NV  Healthy Weight formula ..
 
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ioana

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Carbs are carbohydrates ..  Unfortunately companies do not list that on the label .  Normally they  list Protein , Fat , Moisture ..  If you contact Wysong they may send you a sample ..  Another low carb kibble is Young Again Pet Food .
Since he likes the Natures Variety Instinct  you could stay with that . Natures Variety Instinct Grain Free Chicken Meal only has 13% Carbohydrates .  It is less than the NV  Healthy Weight formula ..
Ohh I see. Every time I searched for this no one would help me so I really don't know much about this stuff. But how do you look up how many carbs does a food have, is there a way to tell? NV also just made a new formula that is called Protein something...its more then 90% protein...is that a good thing or a bad thing? Again, thank you for this info, it is a lot of help.
 

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Ohh I see. Every time I searched for this no one would help me so I really don't know much about this stuff. But how do you look up how many carbs does a food have, is there a way to tell? NV also just made a new formula that is called Protein something...its more then 90% protein...is that a good thing or a bad thing? Again, thank you for this info, it is a lot of help.
I am happy to help if I can ..  To get the dry matter carb % I use this  carb calculator http://scheyderweb.com/cats/catfood.html     

You get the numbers from the Guaranteed Analysis from the pkg of food ..  Sometimes you have to call the company to get the Ash % which is generally not on the pkg.

The NV Ultimate Protein is really good  .  I think the 90%  means that 90 %  OF the protein comes from meat .  I think the overall Protein % is somewhere around 40% which is good .. 
 
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ioana

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I am happy to help if I can ..  To get the dry matter carb % I use this  carb calculator http://scheyderweb.com/cats/catfood.html    
You get the numbers from the Guaranteed Analysis from the pkg of food ..  Sometimes you have to call the company to get the Ash % which is generally not on the pkg.
The NV Ultimate Protein is really good  .  I think the 90%  means that 90 %  OF the protein comes from meat .  I think the overall Protein % is somewhere around 40% which is good .. 
I called wysong and requested a sample, they said they will send it. I will also call Nv and ask them if they had a formula change in their normal food. They did in their healty weight and my cat seems to not tolerate it.
I will also take a look at the calculator you sent me, although it looks really complicated:))
Any ideas for how to stop him from having diarrhea? He was ok for about 1 week and now its back. I don't know of its tuna that I gave him or the dry food itself.
 

2cats4me

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I called wysong and requested a sample, they said they will send it. I will also call Nv and ask them if they had a formula change in their normal food. They did in their healty weight and my cat seems to not tolerate it.
I will also take a look at the calculator you sent me, although it looks really complicated:))
Any ideas for how to stop him from having diarrhea? He was ok for about 1 week and now its back. I don't know of its tuna that I gave him or the dry food itself.
I would suggest no more Tuna or fish of any kind . My cats get very sick from fishy food especially Tuna .. The calculator does look intimidating but it is pretty simple . Just enter each number from the Guaranteed Analysis into the little boxes and click on calculate ..

As for the diarrhea  stop it sort of depends on what is causing it .  If it is the food maybe a change would help ..  Will he eat Fancy Feast Classic ? The pate formulas are pretty simple .  Maybe try that till you get a new dry food .
 
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ioana

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I would suggest no more Tuna or fish of any kind . My cats get very sick from fishy food especially Tuna .. The calculator does look intimidating but it is pretty simple . Just enter each number from the Guaranteed Analysis into the little boxes and click on calculate ..

As for the diarrhea  stop it sort of depends on what is causing it .  If it is the food maybe a change would help ..  Will he eat Fancy Feast Classic ? The pate formulas are pretty simple .  Maybe try that till you get a new dry food .
I will try to do it with the new dry food Ill decide on:) I talked with the vet and they said maybe change from chicken to something else, like duck so I will look into that also. Right now he is eating mostly chicken wet food, he has very limited things he actually likes:)
Thank you so much for the help, it means a lot for someone to help me.
 

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I will try to do it with the new dry food Ill decide on:) I talked with the vet and they said maybe change from chicken to something else, like duck so I will look into that also. Right now he is eating mostly chicken wet food, he has very limited things he actually likes:)
Thank you so much for the help, it means a lot for someone to help me.
You are very welcome , I am happy to help ..  Very good advice from your Vet .  Natural Balance makes a limited ingredient diet in canned and dry . They have a green pea and duck that may help ..  Natures Variety Instinct also makes a limited ingredient Turkey in the dry ..
 

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Orijen Cat & Kitten does contain some fish but it's not at the top of the ingredients so it's not a huge concern IMO unless you know your cat has an allergy to that fish. Orijen is really good dry food, nearly the "best" in terms of dry. I feed both Orijen Cat & Kitten and Ziwipeak air dried. I feed the Venison & Fish but they also have lamb, venison, and beef. It's very expensive for a small amount but it's worth looking into if you can afford it. 
 
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ioana

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You are very welcome , I am happy to help ..  Very good advice from your Vet .  Natural Balance makes a limited ingredient diet in canned and dry . They have a green pea and duck that may help ..  Natures Variety Instinct also makes a limited ingredient Turkey in the dry ..
I will actually look into them:) thank you
 
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ioana

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Orijen Cat & Kitten does contain some fish but it's not at the top of the ingredients so it's not a huge concern IMO unless you know your cat has an allergy to that fish. Orijen is really good dry food, nearly the "best" in terms of dry. I feed both Orijen Cat & Kitten and Ziwipeak air dried. I feed the Venison & Fish but they also have lamb, venison, and beef. It's very expensive for a small amount but it's worth looking into if you can afford it. 
I did some research about orijen and I found its pretty good so I will see if I can get some samples and make him taste it:)
But anything that's only fish I would like to avoid.
 

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I did some research about orijen and I found its pretty good so I will see if I can get some samples and make him taste it:)
But anything that's only fish I would like to avoid.
Orijen is very good  , also it has about 20% carbs .. 
 
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Orijen is very good  , also it has about 20% carbs .. 
Yesterday I went to a natural pet store and asked the lady about orijen and she told me she would go with acana if I really want that company...so I might just try acana insted?
 

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Yesterday I went to a natural pet store and asked the lady about orijen and she told me she would go with acana if I really want that company...so I might just try acana insted?
Yeah , go ahead and try it .  Acana is just as good and a little bit cheaper ..
 
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ioana

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Yeah , go ahead and try it .  Acana is just as good and a little bit cheaper ..
Yeah , go ahead and try it .  Acana is just as good and a little bit cheaper ..
Really thank you for your help, I decided to do exactly like yesterday and try some foods out and see if he would eat them
Ill try
Instinct Ultimate Protein duck
Acana chicken
Wysong chicken
And see what exactly he would prefer
Again, I can't thank you enough for helping me and Mitu also is thankful.
 

2cats4me

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Really thank you for your help, I decided to do exactly like yesterday and try some foods out and see if he would eat them
Ill try
Instinct Ultimate Protein duck
Acana chicken
Wysong chicken
And see what exactly he would prefer
Again, I can't thank you enough for helping me and Mitu also is thankful.
You are welcome , I am glad I can be helpful . I hope you find something he likes . He is a beautiful boy for sure ..
 
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