Difficulty transitioning to a higher quality food...

My kittens are 3 months and 7 months. I've been feeding them purina cat chow or kitten chow. (Whichever was available and it never upset their stomachs in anyway.)  But now that I work at a pet store, i get discounts on high quality foods such as wellness, canidae, royal canin, solid gold ect. so i figured since it'd be the same price i might as well start switching them to a better food. So i bought a small bag of canidae to start the transition since i knew that the nutrients were much different than purina products and therefore I shouldn't make a drastic change. Well for 2 weeks all was good, the youngest one, Faye, spit up a little bit of cat grass on the second day but it was nothing major and she was back to normal afterwards. i'd slowly give them more of the canidae every 3 days and so now they're mostly on canidae with a little bit of the purina cat chow mixed in. Just a little while ago however, Rayne, my oldest baby, vomited. It was really sudden and she hadn't acted abnormal before or after vomiting. It looked a lot like if i had put some water in her dry food and just let it set for a while. So it was not a liquid but more like a weird paste of sorts. I'm just wondering if i'm still taking the transition too quick, or if she's eating too much. (she doesn't particularly like the new food though and doesn't seem to eat it without the purina mixed in. In fact a lot of times she'll try to eat around the canidae.. ) Should i try another food instead or would that be too big of a change? I'm just not sure what to do. This is my first year owning cats and Rayne's grown up really well with the purina so should i really change it? I just wanna do what's best for my furry babies.

Thank you in advance for reading.

Some cats, especially kittens, can have trouble with the higher protein content of grain free food.

That being said, I haven't had much luck transitioning mine to better food. Although young they instinctively seem to dislike the taste of the higher quality foods so I've had to settle on not too horrible supermarket foods.

If it's making them vomit *and* they don't like it, it might be worth going back to what they like for a week or two until their tummies settle and trying a different one. Most of the brands, so long as the packet is at least half full, will offer a money back guarantee and you can return what's left to the store.

I have a 6 month old kitten who did fine with the transition from Hills Kitten to Hills Ideal balance but got diarrhea from grain free Applaws (she can handle it if I use half that and half something else with grain in it during the day but once it gets to be more than 50% of her dry intake it doesn't go so well) and Black Hawk which isn't grain free but is holistic so it's another compromise I've made.

Are you transitioning them to a different KITTEN food, or an adult food?  Honestly, your youngest one is still too young to be transitioned to anything but a kitten food still (IMHO)  and Rayne is just turning to that age.  I was told about 8 months would be ok to transition to adult food. 

Also, it may depend on what flavor you are feeding them.  Many cats are picky about what they eat, same as humans.  NONE of my cats like turkey, TWO of them love beef, only one likes fish, etc.  You get the picture.  So, if Rayne doesn't really like whichever Canidae you are feeding, it might be the flavor, AND it might be that he's actually allergic to one of the ingredients, like fish, or chicken, etc.  I will also say that NONE of my cats will come near Canidae, although I only feed canned food, so I'm speaking of the canned Canidae.  But when I fed kibble, NONE of them would eat Wellness Core either, so there is definitely something to be said for the higher quality brands and whether or not cats really like them.  I think the lesser quality brands use special "tricks" to make their foods very appealing to cats.  I think you could go ahead and switch kibble now and just mix it in with the mixture you've got going now (either just the Purina OR the mixture of Purina and Canidae IF Rayne has only vomited the once), doing it the same way you are doing it now...slowly.  Sounds like you're doing it right. 

Since you work at a Pet Store, why not take advantage of that and see how they like some canned food too? 

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/how-to-choose-the-right-food-for-your-cat

nono i'm changing them to a better kitten formula.  i've always been feeding them all life stages or kitten chow depending on what's available but canidae always has kitten chow available.

Oh and also i have been taking advantage of my discounts and feeding them sheba pate perfect portions. they love that so much. >w<

Wow I'm going thru the same sort of issue. My kittens were on kmr2 and then I introduced fancy feast kitten pate and they loved it. I bough fancy feast hard food also. My kittens have been getting some diarrhea tho now that I switched to a grain free food with no by products. I'm so confused. I think maybe I will go back to the fancy feast. I split one can btwn 3 kitty's 3 times a day and dry food is out all day along w water. I recently also gave them tiny bits of cheese and turkey THEY LOVED IT. except my one baby nutter she loved it but when offered again wouldn't touch it. I've introduced way too many things that now I don't know what to do. [emoji]128533[/emoji] Very confused. I know I didn't help at all writing this. But I understand what ur feeling. Good luck with your situation. [emoji]128522[/emoji]

Well,kimskats as a partner at a pet store i can say that yes your pets will get a bit of diarrhea when transitioning to higher quality food. ESPECIALLY grain free. Biiiiig difference in nutrients so their tummies have to adjust. Just take the transition slow. Your cats health is worth it in the long run.