Transitioning cat food

[katemary]

Hi all,
I've just begun to change the wet food my 4 1/2 month old kittens eat from Royal Canin Kitten to Paw and Spoon Kitten. I'm changing as Paw and Spoon is a bit cheaper and it actually lists what meat is in the food and doesn't include any cereals, so I'm hoping it's better overall. My long term plan is to have these guys on a rotational diet with a variety of wet/dry/etc. They currently eat some Royal Canin Kitten Dry Food too.
I've been slowly transitioning from RC to PS for 5 days and I'm pretty much at 80% new food, 20% old food. I've been watching their poops closely and there has been some soft poo, with a poop today from Noodle that was fairly wet (soft serve type consistency). I'm just wondering how long it usually takes for any gastro upsets due to food change to clear up? I've been using a powdered probiotic throughout the transition. I'm hoping the soft poop is just due to the transition and not a problem with the new food.
I'm probably worrying about nothing but I fostered these two plus their 4 siblings from 2 days old and the whole litter got giardia so I'm a bit traumatised (they are all fine now!!!).

 

[Alldara]

It's dependant on the cat. Keep it at the ratio you have for a bit longer. If it doesn't clear up in a few days, you could take a sample into the vet.

 

[Furballsmom]

How are things going?

 

[katemary]

Much better, poops have pretty much firmed up. Now it's a regular/good log with a bit of a soft bit as well. I'll keep them on the 80/20 for two more days then transition and remember in the future that Noodle has a sensitive tum! I want to eventually have them on a diet that includes a few different things so hopefully I can still do that without Noodle getting to upset in his tummy.

 

[Furballsmom]

I'm so glad to hear this!

 

[Alldara]

Much better, poops have pretty much firmed up. Now it's a regular/good log with a bit of a soft bit as well. I'll keep them on the 80/20 for two more days then transition and remember in the future that Noodle has a sensitive tum! I want to eventually have them on a diet that includes a few different things so hopefully I can still do that without Noodle getting to upset in his tummy.

If you're choosing things that are mostly similar, he may be able to eat a couple brands in the future.

 

[katemary]

So unfortunately we are back to soft poops! Noodle had a few days of nice poops on 100% of the new food but then his poops got increasingly softer until oh Friday he did a very wet one (the kind that totally integrates into the litter, really wet). So they've now had two days of boiled chicken with a bit of rice. His first two poos on this diet were good and he was pooing less which I also took as a good sign but now on Sunday morning he's just done another very wet poop, so I'm not sure what to make of this. I'll do one more day of boiled chicken and then slowly start integrating the original food (Royal Canin which I'm not super happy about given its mystery ingredient list) back into the diet. He does have a vet appointment for vaccinations on Wednesday so I'll be mentioning it there too to see if a fecal test is needed (but surely this is all food related given the onset coincided with me changing their food).

 

[Val622]

I just had this happen. I’ve been transitioning my kittten from wellness to Weruva. She was doing great then bad diarrhea. Vet said it could take a while for the new food to cause problems. The vet gave me a probiotic. Have you tried that. Now I’m back to wellness but heard bad things so want to switch but I’m nervous. Also vet told me to switch to Purina pro plan. But not sure if I want to

 

[katemary]

I just had this happen. I’ve been transitioning my kittten from wellness to Weruva. She was doing great then bad diarrhea. Vet said it could take a while for the new food to cause problems. The vet gave me a probiotic. Have you tried that. Now I’m back to wellness but heard bad things so want to switch but I’m nervous. Also vet told me to switch to Purina pro plan. But not sure if I want to

Sorry to hear your cat is unwell too! I was using a probiotic from the start hoping it would help prevent any digestive upset but clearly it didn't, or it wasn't a very good one! Although my other kitty has a lovely shiny coat since changing diet/using the probiotic. I've just ordered another online that has s. Boulardii in it which I've heard is great at resolving diarreah.

 

[katemary]

I'm back again with the same problem.

So back in January Noodle's soft poops were resolved with prokolin probiotic paste from the vet and a bland diet for about a week. The vet didn't order a fecal test. She thought the soft poop was related to the food change and the giardia these guys had back in late Nov. She thought the parasite and medicine mucked up his guts and made him sensitive to the food change.

So his poops were good and I put him back on the original food and eventually a teaspoon per meal of the food I thought had annoyed him. I also began to add s. Boulardii to his food. Poops were great for a few weeks.

Then maybe two weeks ago I began to add a tiny bit of new dry food. I planned to transition really, super slowly, like over a month. It's been two weeks and I've only just got to 50/50 old dry vs. new dry. The new dry is purina live clear. Wet food has remained Royal Canin but I have gone between the jelly and the gravy version to see if they preferred one or the other. They just don't love the RC which is partly why I wanted to change it back in January!

So over the last few days, Noodle's poops have gotten gradually wetter and more frequent. I'll try to feed just one wet food (RC jelly), keep the dry at 50/50 for as long as possible and increase the s boulardii (difficult as the dosage of the product I have is unclear), and I've ordered some more prokolin. Do you think a bland chicken diet is also necessary or should I wait and see? And any long-term ideas about how to help Noodle have a less sensitive tum?