What kind of food to feed my kitty?

[Larissa]

Addiabelle, my beautiful kitty, has started to stink and pass gas more lately. I think that it might be her diet. The vet said that what I'm feeding her is fine (I put it in a another container so I'm not entirely sure what it is at this moment). Any suggestions on what to feed her? I have just enough food left to make the switch properly.

[laurenc]

what are you feeding her currently?

[KaliLily]

I've fed my cats Iams from day one. We got Lily at 8 weeks old, so she started with Iams kitten food . We adopted Kali when she was a year old and got her right on Iams adult food. Lily is now 4 1/2 and Kali is 5; they are both on Iams Weight Control. I've never had a problem feeding them Iams, and the vets have always told us how good they look and what great health they are in.

[camberne]

My vet endorses Purina ProPlan... so that's what I feed my two. Olivia gets the kitten formula and Peaunt gets the indoor cat formula. They both like it and I haven't noticed any odors. ;)

[MLA]

If your kitty is stinky, she may have a sensitive stomach.

One of my cats has a very sensitive stomach, and my other is overweight, so it took some doing to find something they could both eat. I feed them Nutro Natural Choice Weight Management Cat Food. It works for both of them.
http://www.nutroproducts.com/img/nccat/ncccwm.jpg

When I was first going through the sensitive stomach issues with my kitty, I tried Nutro Natural Choice Complete Care Adult Lamb Flavor, which worked really well for him -- unfortunately my other cat started gaining weight, so we had to switch.
http://www.nutroproducts.com/img/nccat/nccclf.jpg

[Cookie777]

Both my dog & cat are on Eukanuba & they've always done really well with it. :)

[eli1126]

I have been dealing with the same problem! My kitten Belle will get a punky odor coming from her behind and has had gas/vommiting issues as well! We were on the Iams Kitten when we noticed the gas and punky odor, so we switched to the Purina Kitten Chow and she vommited a few times, now we are doing Science Diet and her butt punk isn't constant like it was with the Iams, but she has it occassionaly. I have also noticed she has dry heaves pretty consistantly on any food we have her on :confused: Beau, Belle's brother, OTOH never met a meal he didn't like or disagreed with him :p

Beth

[suzfuzsunflower]

Our cat is on Science Diet, and has done really well with it. It's what the vet recommended to us.

[tlew12778]

We feed ours either Royal Canin or Purina Pro Plan. We started out with IAMS but they had gas with that so we switched to Roya Canin which is actually a better grade food and costs the same in bulk. They also sell both here in Europe which is what you will be looking for when you move (you're bringing her right?). We have also tried Science Diet and Nutro but they don't like those brands.

[mlfallis]

We were also told to give Purina ProPlan and we have never had a problem. Our two cats get the kitten and are beginning to transition to indorr formula. Our dogs also get ProPlan and love it. ONe is on Large breed and the other is on Weight Management.

Just don't use Purina Kitty Chow, much higher content of fillers. Also ProPlan is a pet food store, not grocery. They have different standards depending on where you buy it.

[greenbunny]

Here's my long pet food speech based on the past year of research I did:

If your pets are having bowel problems you might want to consider moving to a human grade diet. By FDA definition, pet food cannot legally be called human grade, because once it's in the factory and being manufactured as animal food, it does not qualify. But basically the idea is that pet food can legally contain a certain amount of "waste", such as scraps from organ trimmings, gristle, hoove shards, even hair. Pet food that is manufactured as human grade contains only what you yourself would eat -- quality cuts of meat put into the food, little or no dyes and preservatives, etc. In fact, many pets react to dyes in their kibble.

One thing that many people don't realize is that while veterinarians do receive a great deal of diet training, a lot of the research done on pet foods was financed by pet food companies. You have to take this with a grain of salt because they have a vested interest in the results. Just be cautious and make sure to ask your vet questions about the food they recommend. You want to make sure it's medically right for your pet and not just what gets the vet a kickback.

Many people do well with Iams but it really isn't quality food. In my experience, and talking to many pet owners, it causes tartar build-up and also can lead to ash build-up in the stomach.

Also, if you consider yourself an activist, Iams was shown several years ago to be doing animal testing that was not in compliance with humane laws. Eukaneuba is part of the same company. Since learning this, I will not buy either brand.

Here are some brands that are considered (again, unofficially) human grade:

Felidae (or Canidae for dogs)
Wellness
Solid Gold
Natural Balance
Innova

Also, Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's soul has a high percentage of meat and no artificial additives. I recommend that as well.

My cat is on Science Diet t/d, prescription food for tartar. I am not a big fan of Science Diet products, but she really needs the tartar benefits due to the effects of years of wet food. I would like to instead put her on raw for her teeth, but DH and I are not currently up to the scheduling demands that a raw diet requires.

[Kiley]

The pet store that I used to get my catfood (Felidae) no longer carries it. :( I'm looking for a new place but in the event that I don't find anyone who does carry it, can anyone recommend a high grade cat food similar?

[Hello Kitty]

My cat is doing pretty well on Wellness. He's getting a little soft around the edges :rolleyes: but he's also 3 now, and I think he's starting to get that middle age pouch thing.

If our store sold Innova Evo, I would totally switch to that.

[Kiley]

Oh yeah, I should have added that one cat is fat and the other is getting chubby! :P So a weight control food would be good. Of course, now that DS is running, he chases them so maybe he'll knock a pound or so off of them. :)

[greenbunny]

Kiley, other high-grade foods include Wellness, as Seb's Kitty mentioned, Innova, Solid Golid, Natural Balance, and Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's soul. Our cats eat Innova Evo and Chicken Soup and do well on them.

Seb's Kitty, I believe a few places sell Evo online, even though the manufacturer seems to discourage that. Here's one:

Only Natural (http://www.onlynaturalpet.com/products/Innova-EVO-Dry-Cat-Food/204106.aspx)

[imagirliegirl]

I fed Princess Nutro Natural Choice for years. Then when we got Griffin the vet recommended he eat ProPlan. We tried the Nutro kitten food but he really stunk when he ate it so we switched. After he passed the kitten stage I started feeding them both the ProPlan Indoor Formula w/Weight Management.

Since the switch I've noticed that Griffin smells a lot less. His poops aren't as smelly and he doesn't have that funk coming from his back area. When he was on the Nutro he did. Yuck. Princess seems to be doing okay but I think she might be getting fatter. I'll have to see when she goes to the vet in February and see what needs to happen then. :rolleyes:

[ajb524]

When do you stop feeding them kitten food? I have a kitten that DH found at work so I don't know exactly how old he is, but I'm guessing he was born in May or June making him 5 or 6 months old. We found him in July and he was still very small.

He's almost as big now as my 2 1/2 year old cat. She is very petite though ;) :D

[imagirliegirl]

When do you stop feeding them kitten food?

I think Griffin was around 6 months old when we stopped buying kitten food. He got to the age where he could jump on the counter and reach Princess' food so the vet said there was no problem in just letting them both eat adult. We mixed what we had left of the kitten food and that was it.

[Hello Kitty]

Thanks for that, GB. I'm also trying to work up the courage to do raw for the 'kids' again, but I know how much time and commitment it takes.

AJB - I think we stopped at 6 or 8 months?

[jnettie]

When Jade ate Iams, her farts could clear a room! We switched to Nutro (not because of the farts, actually, but because of the reasons greenbunny listed) and the farts stopped. Now, they eat Natural Balance, because Sissy has food alergies, and there don't seem to be any farts with that.

And we switched to Adult food for Jade at around 9 months, because that's when we got Sissy, who was already 6 years old.

[eli1126]

We have been feeding Beau and Belle Nutro Natural Choice Ocean Fish flavor. They both like it, but I do notice butt punk occassionally. I was thinking of looking into another premium brand to see if it helps. Maybe I'll do that today while they have enough of the Nutro left for me to be able to gradually change it.