Food recommendation for new kitten not eating well

[Luckysox]

Hello, I am new and we adopted a kitten around a year old from the Humane Society last week. A couple days after we brought him home we noticed tapeworms and he has been treated. He seems hungry but hasn't been eating much and has actually lost weight (he's already skinny and tiny and only weighs 5 pounds). The food I am feeding my adult cat is Purina Proplan and he is not interested in it or their kitten dry food. So, I may have gone a little crazy buying different dry and wet foods trying to find something he actually seemed to like. Last night was the first night he ate well and he ate Friskies canned food, which is what my adult cat also eats. But today at the vet he had runny, smelly poop which they are testing because they said it didn't smell right and honestly hasn't smelled right since we brought him home.

Anyways, I think I've messed up and given him too much variety of foods and the vet says I need to pick one and stay with it and that he's old enough to eat adult food to make it easier on both cats. I currently feed my adult cat Proplan dry and Friskies wet but not opposed to switching to Proplan wet. Would be great to get new kitty to eat the current food but I am worried he won't eat the dry since he doesn't seem to like it and the Friskies is giving him diarrhea. Also, because he is so little at 5 pounds, regular cat food looks kind of big for him to eat. Need suggestions please! Thank you!

 

[Alldara]

It's always best if you can feed your cat at least some wet food regularly. It would be more than fine to use the pro plan kitten wet and dry at the same time. I do like pro plan myself. My cat was on it until they started putting beef fat in all of it, which he is allergic to.

I would not feed Friskies as it has a very high salt content. Myself and a few friends have had cats get ill on it as it exasperated their underlying conditions.

Kittens can be very energetic. You can try turning kibble time into play by tossing the kibbles. It's great for your kitten and will get some extra calories in. He may need a quiet space with little distractions to eat while he "settles" in to your home. In can take many months.

Some cats are just small and they adult weight is a healthy 6 lbs. Magnus for example, just eats less.

Are you feeding at specific times a day? That can encourage a bigger eating and less grazing.


Other brands Magnus loved to eat were Blue Buffalo, Instinct and Wureva. He's our picky eater so I like to recommend what he eats. He still gets Wureva twice a week. We did have to wait until his IBD went away to feed multiple types of food like that. It went away when we figured out his allergy.

Keep kitten on a main food for a few months at least, and then you may be able to give the occasional "treat" can of food and use up those various foods you bought.

 

[Alldara]

To add: They eat Purina Pro Plan Chicken and Rice. Nobel eats the same but urinary.
Calcifer was eating Iams Perfect Portions after a tummy upset (I was trying to use up the Wellness cans I had leftover and fed them to him and Nobel, Cal got sick) but now has decided Chicken and Rice is great.

I switched Magnus to adult food when he turned 2 as he was underweight and slow growing from being abandoned outside or feral, who knows. Calcifer put on weight quickly so we switched to adult food at 8 months.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

L Luckysox , do you know what the Humane Society was feeding him and if he was eating well there? If so, you might continue feeding whatever it was for awhile until he is more comfortable and then slowly try switching him to avoid any more runny poop. It's possible he is just a picky eater and he won't like most foods, but more likely, as mentioned above, he just needs time to settle in.

 

[Luckysox]

To add: They eat Purina Pro Plan Chicken and Rice. Nobel eats the same but urinary.
Calcifer was eating Iams Perfect Portions after a tummy upset (I was trying to use up the Wellness cans I had leftover and fed them to him and Nobel, Cal got sick) but now has decided Chicken and Rice is great.

I switched Magnus to adult food when he turned 2 as he was underweight and slow growing from being abandoned outside or feral, who knows. Calcifer put on weight quickly so we switched to adult food at 8 months.

Thank you for your reply! I ended up trying to meet in the middle? He liked the Purina One kitten enough that he would eat it but didn't like the Purina Proplan so I went and bought Purina One regular cat food and decided to try and stick to Purina one or proplan wet food and see how he does. I am hoping that since they are made by the same company and I've read have similar ingredients that should be ok. Honestly, they look exactly alike.

When I got home I gave him a little bowl and he ate one and didn't seem interested although I knew he was hungry because he was crying for food. I added water to it and he left the wet food he was eating and started eating the dry with water in it. This is the first time I've ever tried this with any cat and would never think it would make a difference but it did.

 

[Luckysox]

L Luckysox , do you know what the Humane Society was feeding him and if he was eating well there? If so, you might continue feeding whatever it was for awhile until he is more comfortable and then slowly try switching him to avoid any more runny poop. It's possible he is just a picky eater and he won't like most foods, but more likely, as mentioned above, he just needs time to settle in.

He was listed as a stray and was there for 11 days before we adopted him. He weighed 5 and 1/2 lbs when brought in but weighed 5 lbs 2 oz when we adopted him. He lost weight while there so doubt he was eating good. The food they recommended in their pamphlet was Purina kitten chow and he didn't seem too crazy about it.

 

[Furballsmom]

What if you used kitten milk replacer instead of water to add to the food? Either way you won't want to leave the moistened kibble out very long, it grows bacteria faster than canned food.

 

[Alldara]

Thank you for your reply! I ended up trying to meet in the middle? He liked the Purina One kitten enough that he would eat it but didn't like the Purina Proplan so I went and bought Purina One regular cat food and decided to try and stick to Purina one or proplan wet food and see how he does. I am hoping that since they are made by the same company and I've read have similar ingredients that should be ok. Honestly, they look exactly alike.

When I got home I gave him a little bowl and he ate one and didn't seem interested although I knew he was hungry because he was crying for food. I added water to it and he left the wet food he was eating and started eating the dry with water in it. This is the first time I've ever tried this with any cat and would never think it would make a difference but it did.

That's a great start! Sometimes young cats and kittens that were former strays need to be shown the same food a few times before eating it. You can also try putting a little smear of it on his foot to get him to try and then feeding it to him the next day. (so he's realized it won't make him sick).

It's also very normal for a stray to be more confident eating dry food at first. This is because wet can go badly quickly outside. You can try using some hot water next time if you haven't already. Hand feeding to encourage trying it also works well. Keep at it. It will improve

 

[Luckysox]

That's a great start! Sometimes young cats and kittens that were former strays need to be shown the same food a few times before eating it. You can also try putting a little smear of it on his foot to get him to try and then feeding it to him the next day. (so he's realized it won't make him sick).

It's also very normal for a stray to be more confident eating dry food at first. This is because wet can go badly quickly outside. You can try using some hot water next time if you haven't already. Hand feeding to encourage trying it also works well. Keep at it. It will improve

Thank you so much! I did end up adding water like you suggested and it worked! If I add water, he will run over and start eating. Still has runny stool though. Not sure where to go from here. Keep feeding and hope he will adjust soon, only feed dry, only feed wet? Ugh!

 

[Alldara]

L Luckysox You can try giving a bit of pumpkin for a few days. Keep everything consistent with that you're doing right now and don't change it around. Let his body catch up to the changes.

I would never recommend 100% dry. I'm usually trying to recommend that people give at least 1 can of wet food per day. Wet food is preventative care for your cat. Many of us do feed some percentage of dry for whatever reason, but a 100% wet diet is considered ideal. Your cat isn't ready for further change to that percentage and might never be, but that's okay.