Hello everyone.
I'm a brand new cat owner. I just adopted a 3 month old kitten on the 25th. (Although, he may be close to 4 months now). I've never had a cat in my life, so I've been reading up online and trying to do the best I can. However, I really need help on this. A few days ago, when I was looking up good kitten food, I noticed that everything was saying canned or raw. I looked into it, and after being reasonably upset, I decided to switch. My budget can't afford raw(and I'm terrified I'll make it wrong and hurt my kitten) so I have to do canned.
The shelter gave me a bag of Science Diet's Healthy Development. After going through the store, I picked up Taste of the Wild- Rocky Mountain. When I looked up how to change it, I kept finding all these controversial sites and nothing about actually switching. So, I did it myself, and honestly I think I did it wrong. I feed Archie twice a day. Once in the morning and once at night. He already had the dry that morning, so out of the 5.5 oz can I bought I gave him about 1/3 of it, along with about 1/4 of the dry. I mixed them together, thinking that would help his stomach adjust better. He was confused at first and ate it tentatively, maybe about 1/3 of it. I heard from one site that canned food spoils quickly when it's left out so I put the bowl and what was left in the can into the fridge.(Tinfoiled). He started chirping at me again so I gave him his bowl again later on(an hour or two). He gulped it down and seemed to really enjoy it. I'd say all this happened from 5:30-7:30 pm on Saturday.
The next morning I didn't want to overwhelm him so I gave him just dry food. (About 1/2 a cup. maybe a little less than that). Later that night at 5:30 I did what I did the day before with the mix of dry and wet. I used the same can from the night before I left in the fridge. A few hours later, he threw it up. Large quantity of it too, looked a lot more than I gave him. The problem was last night I was feverish and could barely get off the couch without collapsing. So, I called him over, checked him out what I could, and I planned to rest a moment or two to get the strength to get up, but I must of fallen asleep. Woke up about an hour later, went to get it up quick, and most of it was gone. He ate it up again. That made me really worried. I cleaned up the rest of it and checked Archie, but he seems fine.
From what happened last night I was really scared that the wet food was reacting badly so I gave him just the dry again. He won't even eat it. He keeps going to where the canned food is. But I really don't want to give it to him since he threw it up last night. He is still fine right now, by the way.
So, heres a few questions. Please, say anything else you see that I missed that could help me. Any websites you could link would be beneficial as well. First of all, him throwing up...was I giving him too much? Was it the mixing? Or was it me keeping the canned food in the fridge for a day? Can you not do that?
Is it safe to give him more of the canned? What can I do about him not wanting the dry? I don't want to give him all canned yet. Its only been two days. I don't want to make him sick. Is it maybe Taste of the Wild? Should I have gone for a different brand? When he ate what he threw up, will that hurt him in any way? I haven't seen him do anything out of the ordinary. He hasn't thrown up again either.
Also, I have to take him to the vet in a day or two by my contract when I adopted him. Should I say any of this to the vet? Is there anything specific I should ask them?
I'm a brand new cat owner. I just adopted a 3 month old kitten on the 25th. (Although, he may be close to 4 months now). I've never had a cat in my life, so I've been reading up online and trying to do the best I can. However, I really need help on this. A few days ago, when I was looking up good kitten food, I noticed that everything was saying canned or raw. I looked into it, and after being reasonably upset, I decided to switch. My budget can't afford raw(and I'm terrified I'll make it wrong and hurt my kitten) so I have to do canned.
The shelter gave me a bag of Science Diet's Healthy Development. After going through the store, I picked up Taste of the Wild- Rocky Mountain. When I looked up how to change it, I kept finding all these controversial sites and nothing about actually switching. So, I did it myself, and honestly I think I did it wrong. I feed Archie twice a day. Once in the morning and once at night. He already had the dry that morning, so out of the 5.5 oz can I bought I gave him about 1/3 of it, along with about 1/4 of the dry. I mixed them together, thinking that would help his stomach adjust better. He was confused at first and ate it tentatively, maybe about 1/3 of it. I heard from one site that canned food spoils quickly when it's left out so I put the bowl and what was left in the can into the fridge.(Tinfoiled). He started chirping at me again so I gave him his bowl again later on(an hour or two). He gulped it down and seemed to really enjoy it. I'd say all this happened from 5:30-7:30 pm on Saturday.
The next morning I didn't want to overwhelm him so I gave him just dry food. (About 1/2 a cup. maybe a little less than that). Later that night at 5:30 I did what I did the day before with the mix of dry and wet. I used the same can from the night before I left in the fridge. A few hours later, he threw it up. Large quantity of it too, looked a lot more than I gave him. The problem was last night I was feverish and could barely get off the couch without collapsing. So, I called him over, checked him out what I could, and I planned to rest a moment or two to get the strength to get up, but I must of fallen asleep. Woke up about an hour later, went to get it up quick, and most of it was gone. He ate it up again. That made me really worried. I cleaned up the rest of it and checked Archie, but he seems fine.
From what happened last night I was really scared that the wet food was reacting badly so I gave him just the dry again. He won't even eat it. He keeps going to where the canned food is. But I really don't want to give it to him since he threw it up last night. He is still fine right now, by the way.
So, heres a few questions. Please, say anything else you see that I missed that could help me. Any websites you could link would be beneficial as well. First of all, him throwing up...was I giving him too much? Was it the mixing? Or was it me keeping the canned food in the fridge for a day? Can you not do that?
Is it safe to give him more of the canned? What can I do about him not wanting the dry? I don't want to give him all canned yet. Its only been two days. I don't want to make him sick. Is it maybe Taste of the Wild? Should I have gone for a different brand? When he ate what he threw up, will that hurt him in any way? I haven't seen him do anything out of the ordinary. He hasn't thrown up again either.
Also, I have to take him to the vet in a day or two by my contract when I adopted him. Should I say any of this to the vet? Is there anything specific I should ask them?
Last edited: