Cat food. Think I blew it big time..

Hi:

I was feeding my cat the good stuff. I started with Nutro and then tried Paul Newman's Organic food. She was never thrilled with the good stuff for some reason. Very picky, but would eat it when hungry enough. I wanted her eating experince to be more pleasant so I went over to the dark side and started feeding her Purina Friskies "Chef's blend". I feel I have made a major error in judement.

She LOVES the Chef's blend. She hounds me constantly. She wants to eat nonstop. Obvioulsy something in this blend has her fancy. But I hate what I am seeing. Her bowel movements are twice as large as when she ate the good stuff. She is also haveing several BMs per day as opposed to one per day on Nutro. She is also urinating way more than she use to.

I do not like what I am seeing. I read the label on chef's blend and the 1st two ingredients are fillers of corn meal. I guess this is not readily digested which would explain the frequency and size of her BMs. Must be passing right through her.

I am VERY concerned for her health right now. I want to get her off this junk and back to Nutro...

What should I do? Should I start mixing Nutro in with this junk a little at a time? Should I just live with the fact that she is not thrilled with the good food? I wanted to give her a good food and good taste but seems with her it's one or the other.... I am also wondering if her now insatiable appetite may be due to the fact that she is not getting enough nutrients from the cheaper stuff..

I have to choose I will go with the better food as her health is top priority.
I'm sure most of you view your pets as I do, family members!

Thanks. Any help appreciated. Suggestions welcome

You could slowly mix the good food in to get her back on the stuff you want. You could also try out different good foods to see if any of them strike her fancy. You should slowly mix either the original or stuff in with the food you are feeding now to not upset her digestive tract.

If she did good on the Nutro I would try to switch her back to that.
Perhaps try the Nutro pouches some cats will take to that well. Mix it together with the current food, at each meal increase the amount of the new food by half a teaspoon, do this until he's only on the new food.

You can also try some other high quality brands, your cat just might not have liked the Newman's.

Originally Posted by blue Ash

If she did good on the Nutro I would try to switch her back to that.
Perhaps try the Nutro pouches some cats will take to that well. Mix it together with the current food, at each meal increase the amount of the new food by half a teaspoon, do this until he's only on the new food.

You can also try some other high quality brands, your cat just might not have liked the Newman's.

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Ditto that ...

My girls for some reason didnt like Newmans at all but they like about 12 different brands in canned and many are successful with more than one dry

I don't think I have heard a single cat who liked Newman's. It is nasty.

Mixing is a good idea. You might also want to switch her to a higher end line of Purina just in case they have added some kind of natural flavors that prove to be irrestible with her.

Yeah, I second switching to a higher end purina product, maybe purina one or pro plan, mine seem to do well on these foods or nutro.

I agree with what the others have said. You have done no significant harm in giving her some Chef's Blend. It's just like with us - a bit of junk food certainly doesn't help one's health but it's also not the end of the world. It's over the long term that it is harmful.

I would recommend switching her back to a highly palatable premium food. I haven't heard of too many cats who like Newman's so that food might not be your best bet. Most cats like Nutro, though, so it's perfectly fine to give her that. Then if you want, you can switch her to a food that is more comparable in quality to Newman's. Some foods that are equally good quality and more palatable to most cats include Chicken Soup, Wellness, Pet Guard, California Natural, and Innova.

I had to try about eight different kinds of food before I found one that worked for both of my cats. I now use Purina-One for Urinary Tract. It's good because it keeps them from having UTI, which they used to get every so often and it's kept their weight down.

I've tried the lowest end and the highest end and just eventually found the one that my vet, myself, my cats and my budget all like.

I did what everyone else did and slowly mixed the new stuff with the old, adding more new stuff and less old stuff at each feeding until the transistion was complete. This way my cats never got stressed out about the change.

Another thing I discovered with cats is sometimes it's not just the brands they are picky about but actually the flavors. My cat Max won't eat any food that has a seafood flavor, but it took us awhile to discover that.

Good luck!

cats evolved over many years and what is good for cats is yes you guessed it meat and fish! try to feed your cats as much natural food as you can, you can make your own cat food and freeze it, it is much cheaper than conventional cat food and a hell of a lot better for them! i dont eat junk food and neither do i expect my cats to do!

You went over to the dark side and turned your cat into a sith?

You can try different brands to see what else she might like. I wonder if any of you know that Iams is changing their line of wet foods and have improved their pate style foods? The new entree formulas have new labelings and new ingredients, no by-products, just meat and liver, and use ground barley instead of brewers rice. Also the texture is softer and moister and more palatable to a lot of cats. Iams had to change in response to consumer demands, so check out the new formulas. You might have to go to your pet supply store for these because in the grocery stores I have only seen the old cans which have a shelf life of 2 years but they will be discontinuing them when they're sold out. Also, try Nutro gourmet varieties, Nutro pate, Natural Balance, Pet Gold. It's worth it to experiment.

My cats also like canned Wellness and canned Foster and Smith. I know there is a little garlic in these but I don't feed them exclusively and It hasn't done any harm to cats, not that I know of.

Mine aren't that picky with their dry food but they seem to like purina one, nutro and nutro max the best. (don't get me wrong.. if i started feeding them friskies, meow mix or whiskas they would probably have a ball!) Iams is my second choice for a grocery store product (after purina one).. it's probably the lowest quality food I would feed now that I am more well informed. It doesn't seem to have any unnatural colors, although I know that isn't the number one reason to buy something it makes me feel a bit better.

I would suggest Iams also. Iams is great!! My cat has to eat the Science Hill Prescription food. I had to mix the "junk" in with it till he ate it better.

The increased amount of feces is mainly due to the increased amount of undigestable ingredients. I would mix the premium food about 50-50 for a few days and see how it goes. If everything is alright then slowly phase out the old food over a week or two.

We feed our cats Natural Balance Lamb and Rice blend.

you may wanna try raw diet.
both of my cats r picky eater, Nana, the older one, no matter how hungry she is, she just won't eat stuff that she doens't like. and i used to have to hand feed her...becuz she jsut dones't like to eat in general

after i switch them to raw..they both LOVE eating and i found them produce less feces..less smelly ...their coat is shinnier and they r both more active now..

Originally Posted by bamababe1234

I would suggest Iams also. Iams is great!! My cat has to eat the Science Hill Prescription food. I had to mix the "junk" in with it till he ate it better.

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My cats are on IAMs too. They just love it. But some of my friends told me that Iam make our cat's tummy big and get fat easily. I tried change their diet to RC, B2B, Avoderm, eagle pack... but they dun like it..

If Iams is good and contain good ingredient.. i dun need to bother about it again ...