Natural Choice & soft stool?

Both the boys are exhibiting a very soft stool. They were screened for internal parasites on their last vet visit (about a month ago) and were cleared for that at the time. I was in the process of switching their food over from what the breeder had them on (Iams Hairball) at the time to Nutro Complete Care Kitten. Even then Mithril was exhibiting a soft stool (which I mentioned to my vet at the time) but we both attributed it to the food change although I was going veeeeerrrrrryyyyy slowly (like 10% every couple of days.)

Has anyone else had this sort of problem using this food? I'd used the adult Nutro Natural with Melichus and was very pleased with it. If I remember correctly, however, Melichus was raised on Science Diet way back when.

We're going to try switching to something else (I believe we saw some Wellness brand at Pet Supplies Plus) to see if that resolves the issue, and also they're due to go back to the vet for the follow-up FeLV shot (which I didn't want, but that's another story ) and I'll discuss it with my vet more then, although I'm practically positive that he'll try to push the Eukanuba stuff as that's what his office carries.

Cindy

Never mind, I think I found my answer in this thread.

I guess I wasn't holding my mouth right when I was doing my searches , and I even did a site specific search through Google (which I find usually works much better than the board search engine.)

However, if anyone still wants to add to the thread, feel free .

Cindy

Sure...my cats have had no problems or changes in stool when I switched them to Nutro Natural Choice line, so it is very much a YMMV kind of thing.

I think someone mentioned chicken as the possible culprit, and thought you might find this article on common food allergens for cats and dogs interesting:
click here.

Re feeding wellness, I do not recommend feeding any product containing garlic - no matter if it's cooked garlic, aged, some "special" extract, I think it's playing russian roulette since garlic is related to onions, and onions cause Heniz Body Anemia. If you want, I can provide article links on the topic.

were they okay on the Iams?? If so then they might need a hair more fiber ( try the natural choice indoor(kitten should be coming soonn))... If not then try no chn

Yah, I really have no idea why they've got that in there (hadn't read the ingredients list before, so didn't realize it was there previously.) I e-mailed Wellness to tell them WHY I wasn't going with their dry cat food.

I really liked the way the ingredients list on "Chicken Soup..." read, but the one bag of kitten food they had (Pet Supplies Plus) was 2 months out of date ! I don't want to go with something the store does not reliably keep in stock. We've decided to try the Royal Canin. It seems an acceptable ingredients list and is available at all of the larger pet supply stores. We'll see how it goes.

Cindy

Thank you for this link...not to highjack this thread but there is a very interesting article about anal scent gland disease at this site. Dexter has this problem, is on a high fiber diet but his rt. gland still has a serious problem. I am going to have our vet do a culture to see if he has a chronic bacterial infection in his gland like the doctor talks about at the end of the article.
Good luck with you kitties diet Cindy.

Originally Posted by Pat & Alix

I think someone mentioned chicken as the possible culprit, and thought you might find this article on common food allergens for cats and dogs interesting:
click here.

Click to expand...

Originally Posted by xocats

Thank you for this link...not to highjack this thread but there is a very interesting article about anal scent gland disease at this site. Dexter has this problem, is on a high fiber diet but his rt. gland still has a serious problem. I am going to have our vet do a culture to see if he has a chronic bacterial infection in his gland like the doctor talks about at the end of the article.
Good luck with you kitties diet Cindy.

Click to expand...

Cool...if the site this article is on, ends up helping, that is neat!

Originally Posted by RoseHawke

Yah, I really have no idea why they've got that in there (hadn't read the ingredients list before, so didn't realize it was there previously.) I e-mailed Wellness to tell them WHY I wasn't going with their dry cat food.

I really liked the way the ingredients list on "Chicken Soup..." read, but the one bag of kitten food they had (Pet Supplies Plus) was 2 months out of date

! I don't want to go with something the store does not reliably keep in stock. We've decided to try the Royal Canin. It seems an acceptable ingredients list and is available at all of the larger pet supply stores. We'll see how it goes.

Cindy

Click to expand...

I bought a bag of wellness and both my cats didn't like it! I switched to the Chicken Soup food line and they LOVE it! I also switched my dogs to that line and they love it too! I highly recommend it if you can find another distributor!