Cat food help

[ElizabethShaw]

We've had our 3 month old kitten for a few weeks now and she is generally happy and healthy, however she keeps having loose to liquid poo. We initially had her on wet pouches but the meat content is crap (4% or something!). She seems to drink pretty well so switched to dry (Gocat kitten) but she still has these awful poos.

Vet is happy she's healthy and she's been treated for parasites. Vet suggested feeding just cooked chicken for a few days and giving a probiotic which does seem to have helped.

Now what should we feed her going forward? I was thinking of switching to a slightly better dry food (local supermarket has Iams) and maybe giving her so cooked chicken or turkey mince for variety? She loved the chicken. She also loves a bit of scrambled egg. Does this sound like a reasonable diet?

I would try going gluten free. Butchers Classic tins are gluten free. And the more expensive dry, such as Applaws. I think Iams has cereal though.

Our dry food choices are between Go Cat, Purina one and Iams - the Go Cat seems to be mostly cereal with 10% meat, the Purina was twice the cost and about 17% meat (still lots of wheat) and the Iams the same cost as Purina but 40% meat.

Ditch the Go Cat. It's dreadful stuff. It really is worth going cereal free for this sort of problem. And all of those you mentioned I think contain cereal. If money is an issue then Butcher Classic tins are very cheap indeed. Maybe make those, plus a bit of boiled chicken/fish, the basis of her diet, with an extra bit of something like Applaws if you really want to add dry.

Yes the Iams still has maize and wheat. I don't want to spend a fortune on food to be honest, and also I want to be able to buy from the local supermarket.

Butchers Classic it is then.

Is the butchers classic OK for kittens?

I would give Iams out of those choices. Have you tried pets at home as they have a lot more choice of kitten foods? I give mine the AVA kitten dry food as it is grain free and has 66% meat

Yes. I've got some 11 week olds eating it at the moment.

I tried it with mine but it had a lot of jelly and they didn't like it.

as others have said butchers classic is wheat free and look at harringtons chicken and rice dry its small bite so will be ok for kitten to eat and has no wheat

Great, thanks for all the advice. I think we will try the Iams and Butchers Classic and see how it goes.

Is it OK to give a bit of scrambled egg occasionally? This was her first solid food apparently so she loves it.

I wouldn't give the Iams. If she has a cereal intolerance, as a lot of cats seem to, then that will still cause her problems. I think a bit of 'non cat food' occasionally isn't usually a problem, as long as it isn't huge amounts.

Incidentally, slightly off topic, but as you might be able to tell from my username I'm a bit obsessed - at what age has your vet recommended that she should be neutered?

4 months I think.

I wouldn't feed any food with grains in as many cats are intolerant, i use food from zooplus as they have a huge grain fee selection and is more cost effective than many rubbish supermarket brands.

And catneuter I'm having this argument with my vet right now who says to wait till 6 months!! I've seen cats pregnant at that age, way too late! Mine don't out so no harm in waiting but it's such bad advice.

Excellent. You have an up to date vet then. So many vets still seem to give the very outdated advice of six months.

If you don't want to treck to pets at home then zooplus and bitiba have loads of foods to try that you can get delivered as tbh supermarkets don't really offer a great range of kitten foods

Catchingbabes - six months is far, far too late. Best practice is now to recommend four months. Go to a different vet.

I went to a different vet to get my boys done as my own vet said 6 months but the one further away would do it from 4 months.

And CatchingBabies - even if your cats don't generally go out a cat in heat will do ANYTHING to get out. Even jumping off ten floor balconies and such. So I wouldn't bank on that and get it done somewhere else.

Bag of frozen fish fillets (value) are worth having in the freezer. Simmer in water and chop. My cats love then

Yes I agree about the frozen fish. I boil them in the microwave. They are great for cats with loose poo.

My cat food shopping list is now Butcher's Classic, a bag of frozen basa and some turkey mince

Arden Grange is cereal free and you can get it at Pets at Home. Wet is good for the water content though, so see how you get on with the Butcher's Classic

My garden is cat proofed so they have absolutely no chance of escape!

We are quite rural so there's only 2 vets practices within reach and one of them is currently being investigated by the RCVS after the refused to see my very poorly cat out of hours as they said she would die anyway so no point. Never gone back there since!

Plus I want the spay done keyhole and the vets I'm with is one of the few that do that.