Cat (Kitten) Food Suggestions? (Wet and Dry) Wellness, CORE, and Orijen not ideal

[pattnic]

I’m looking for some other suggestions on food for our kitteh. We are currently doing half wet and half dry; the dry is primarily to supplement additional calories without breaking the bank (and partly for convenience at times, I will admit).

After some trial and error figuring out what our tiny kitten would eat, we started her out on Wellness Complete Health Kitten dry food + Wellness Kitten wet food. Once she was eating that well (and also eating anything else we put in front of her for wet food), we transitioned over to the Wellness CORE Kitten dry food, which she also ate well. Recently, we also changed to Wellness CORE Chicken/Chicken Liver/Turkey wet food as the primary wet food (more cost-effective as we need to increase her calories).

However, as a friend put it: “I have never seen and smelled something so large and stinky from something so small,” after a trip to the litter box. She has always been very gassy and her poo has been inconsistent - sometimes extremely loose, sometimes more formed, but always on the softer (and very stinky side). The transition to the CORE helped some, but the problem was still there. She has been dewormed and is otherwise healthy.

We then decided to try Orijen, and the gas problem has lessened and the poo is getting more consistent (still not totally firm, but not cow patties, either)… but she really doesn’t seem to like the food. She’ll eat it, but she doesn’t “dig in” the way she was previously. Furthermore, she is also not loving the current CORE variety.

So what are some suggestions of other food to try? I’m not opposed to moving her off Wellness entirely, and would actually like to do so - but need to make sure her needs are still being met without breaking the bank. She’s generally not very picky and has eaten Tiki Cat, Pro Plan, Natural Balance (pouches), and Simply Nourish (a Petsmart product apparently made by Blue Buffalo) without issue. However, Tiki Cat is a bit expensive as a primary food, and the others are not ideal for their own reasons. I would like to avoid anything made by manufacturers who have had recalls.

Merrick?
Dave’s?
Cats in the Kitchen? (Weruva is a bit too expensive)
Soulistic? (I hate paying for water as the first ingredient)
Instinct?
Pride (by Instinct)?
Go! ?
Earthborn Holistics?

I really don’t know where to go with dry food since the Orijen has been met with displeasure.

Sorry for the novel, and thanks in advance!

[Liberty]

This site has a ton of good info regarding cat nutrition and the different foods out there:
http://www.catinfo.org/

If you’d rather just skip to the cat food info:
http://www.catinfo.org/?link=cannedfoods

Another excellent source of info in the form of a nutritional chart of the different dry foods:
http://binkyspage.tripod.com/dryfood.html

And canned food:
http://binkyspage.tripod.com/CanFoodNew.html

[redkat]

What about using some Fortiflora with the kitten’s food and keeping them on the Wellness CORE, which they eat well?

Fortiflora

It works wonders for cats and kittens with a case of the stinkies.

I also have one foster who needed to be dewormed again, plus a dose of antibiotics to kill whatever was causing his foul bowel. That kitten’s poo was something else, but he did recover fully.

Edited to add: I had another one who needed a really simple food. All of this “premium” stuff was too much for his stray, parking lot self, and I couldn’t get his tummy settled until we tried California Natural, which has very limited ingredients. Although, it’s made by Natura, which has had recent recalls (this was 10 years ago.) Still, I bet you could find something similar.

[bort84]

Ditto Liberty’s post about catinfo.org. It’s got a lot of great info and was put together by a small animal vet (who also rides) and has advanced nutrition education.

I, personally, will never go back to dry food with my cats after doing the research (and seeing the results with my tricky male), so try to find a good wet food she does well on and stick with it.

My cats have always done great on the regular Wellness canned. Perhaps your kitten will outgrow the stinky poos = )

I also like the Fortiflora idea, and most usually dig the taste of that stuff, which might help during a food transition.

[Simkie]

Have you run a fecal on her? When my kittens have had … er…produce like that, it’s because they have a parasite load. Fix that, and the stink bombs stop. Worth a look!

[pattnic]

[QUOTE=Simkie;7567364]
Have you run a fecal on her? When my kittens have had … er…produce like that, it’s because they have a parasite load. Fix that, and the stink bombs stop. Worth a look![/QUOTE]

Yes, we did a fecal on her shortly after she was dewormed, and it was negative. She was dewormed again after that to catch anything that might have emerged after the initial deworming and the fecal… but perhaps it’s worth checking again. I’m pretty sure she did have worms when we got her, as her nickname was “Little Stinky Butt” - no matter what, her rear end just stank. Post-deworming, the nickname was no longer valid.

Are there OTC dewormers that work as well as what the vet has?

[BigHorseLittleHorse]

My one cat loves EVO canned food, specifically the chicken & turkey one. He has a lot of digestive issues, and he does really well on this one. I originally had him on Wellness, but it was causing him a lot of problems.

The other one (who’s on a diet and gets dry food) eats Natural Balance, a mixture of their Fat Cats diet food and the Limited Ingredient Diet Chicken and Green Pea. The Limited Ingredient Diet foods are good for kitties with sensitive stomachs.

[dani0303]

[QUOTE=BigHorseLittleHorse;7568359]

The other one (who’s on a diet and gets dry food) eats Natural Balance, a mixture of their Fat Cats diet food and the Limited Ingredient Diet Chicken and Green Pea. The Limited Ingredient Diet foods are good for kitties with sensitive stomachs.[/QUOTE]

Mine is on Natural Balance as well. He’s on the indoor cat formula and does super well on it. He’s perfect weight, shiny, and his poos are not terribly stinky

[ASBJumper]

I think it’s actually fairly normal for kittens to have stinkier poop. Mine did when she was young - I was told that was pretty normal, especially if she was being a fed a good, high-protein diet. Kittens need even more protein than adults and they absorb more of it, hence why their poo is often dark and smelly.

If the smell was the only thing bothering you when she was on the Wellness, I would stick to that and suck it up - just use Arm & Hammer deodorizer religiously in the litterbox, clean it more often and the problem should get better once she’s full grown.

I’m sorry but smelly poop is not enough of a reason to take a cat off a food that’s good for them and that they like.

You should not be feeding her any dry food, though. The one time I tried a supposedly high protein, high quality dry food (EVO), my two adult cats developed really smelly, runny poop. Went back to strictly raw and wet and the problem resolved itself right away.

[Beaver_Breeze]

I think some just have stinky poops, and that’s just the way it is. You may have to suck it up, and I would, if that’s the only problem. I’ve got a cat like that-- it’s not his health; he’s just a stinker.

However, if you’re determined to try something new, I recently had to switch from EVO (since the Cat & Kitten became impossible to get) to Canidae, and mine LOVE it even more.

[tabula_rashah]

The Nature’s Variety Instinct Limited Ingredient is the only food my DH’s cat can eat. It’s been a life saver literally for her.

[CindyB59]

I feed Fromm dry cat food, have for quite a few years. The cats do well on it, and no stinky poop even when it’s “fresh” :).

[pattnic]

[QUOTE=ASBJumper;7568504]
If the smell was the only thing bothering you when she was on the Wellness, I would stick to that and suck it up - just use Arm & Hammer deodorizer religiously in the litterbox, clean it more often and the problem should get better once she’s full grown.

I’m sorry but smelly poop is not enough of a reason to take a cat off a food that’s good for them and that they like. ;-)[/QUOTE]

You are perfectly right in that smelly poo is not a good reason to change the food. We have a small studio apartment, so we already use excellent odor-controlling litter (Blue Naturally Fresh Multi-Cat) and clean the litter box at least twice a day, usually more like 3 or 4 (with the fancy-schmancy Litter Lifter scoop to make sure we get all the “disposables”). :yes: I guess as I wrote my novel, even in using all those words, I still didn’t clearly convey the problem. Oops!

It is not so much that I mind stinky poo. I am much more concerned about her chronic gas (which could clear a room, no joke), and the inconsistency of her stools. She has never produced firm, normal kitty stools. The range has been from extremely runny diarrhea to softer-consistency (still very mushy) “normal” shaped stools. Considering that she is otherwise healthy and has had a fecal and been dewormed, my concern is that she is having trouble digesting something in the Wellness varieties she has happily eaten. The gas has been very much reduced with the change to Orijen, but she doesn’t love the food.

[onyx98]

Have you tried a probiotic? My girl had some serious gastrointestinal issues when I first got her. Even after deworming and a very slow switch to a new food, her stool ranged from pudding to barely formed. Nothing even remotely resembling normal, and it stunk. Plus she had the habit of stepping in it, and I would get cat poop paw prints all over my apartment…

My vet recommended giving her acidophilus to help get her gut back in order. I bought the human capsule form at walgreens, and gave her ~1/5 of the capsule once a day in the wet food she shares with her brother. It took almost a month before her stools were completely normal, but they started to firm up almost immediately.

She and her brother now only get it when I add a new wet food to their rotation, or when I switch dry foods.

[clint]

You mention that you tried the Simply Nourish Petsmart food. I find kittens like the grain free Simply Nourish kitten dry food a lot. I feed that and Wellness kitten dry to my fosters with good results. For wet, I use Fancy Feast Classic of whatever variety they like. It is also grain free, doesn’t break the bank, and the bunch I have now all have solid poop. Yay! These kittens are wild for the Cheddar Delights chicken classic variety.