Should I go back to Whiskas?

[CrazyKittenSmiles]

I have two 3-month old kittens. When I got them at 8 weeks they were already on Whiskas wet and dry food so this is what I continued with for the first couple of weeks. Never had any issues with their tummies on the food but I’ve read that feeding Whiskas would be akin to feeding a child McDonalds every day so set about to change to something better. I changed dry food to Scrumbles with no issues. Tried to introduce Blink wet food but neither cat really liked it. Have now tried Untamed which the kittens love, they’re only on 1-2 tins a day between them alongside Whiskas wet food as I bought the Whiskas in bulk but they are now starting to go off the Whiskas and will always eat the Untamed over it if available. However since introducing it my male kitten is having loose stools, this has been for a bit over a week now. I’d hoped it would settle down but it doesn’t seem to have done so, he will have the odd ‘normal’ poo but still at least one loose poo a day, often more. As well as being worried that his body will be losing water and nutrients it’s also leaving him with a dirty bottom which I have to clean and it’s not very pleasant for either of us! He is also having very smelly farts, before switching to Untamed I’d never noticed either kitten fart before. Other than the stomach issues he seems completely fine in himself, playful and lively etc. He doesn’t seem in any pain or discomfort when he poos, it’s just the poo is loose.

Seeing as the cats had no stomach issues on Whiskas should I just go back to feeding this? Is it really that bad for them? Or should I give more time for his stomach to settle? Or should I go back to Whiskas for a week, see if his stomach settles and then try to introduce Untamed again? They had their second lot of vaccines last week so I also don’t know if this might have contributed to his stomach issues? His sister has been completely fine. Any advice would be appreciated, thanks.

Never change a cats food unless you have to!

Try going back to whiskers but they might not like it now? Have you thought about? Classic cat?

Thanks for the response. I changed the food because I saw so many adverts saying how bad normal cat food is, that it’s full of grains and salt and sugar which cats would never eat in the wild and I felt guilty to not try and give the cats the best. The Whiskas is a lot cheaper and easier to buy so would be better for me from that point of view but I want the cats to be as healthy as they can be and thought a better brand of cat food would be better, I also hate the smell and look of Whiskas so part of me was happy to switch to something that looks more like food!

I haven’t heard of classic cat, is it likely to be gentler on tummies than untamed? I will try going back to Whiskas and then maybe try something else, I feel guilty to feed them Whiskas but also feel guilty if the alternatives will upset his stomach. Maybe I should wait until they are a bit bigger to try and change the food?

Vaccines can certainly cause stomach problems for a short while, but not that long. I‘d say the problem with smelly farts might be an intolerance to one ingredient - most commonly this is a problem with grain fillers in cheaper food. You really need to put them on high-meat grain-free wet food and then give their bodies a chance to get used to it. Chicken flavours tend to be tolerated well to start with.
whiskas isn‘t the worst food on the market, but it’s far from the best. You always need to look carefully at lists of ingredients to check for high named meat content. German and Swiss brands tend to be good, and the Zooplus website has all the details of ingredients. I can recommend Katz Finefoods, for example. Or Macs, or Grau. Smilla is a cheaper Scandi brand but perfectly ok. Lots of British cat slaves buy Butchers, although our cat won‘t touch the stuff.
Whatever you go for, buy enough for no more than 2 weeks to start with, just in case your kittens turn their cute little noses up at it. Oh, and the whole wet vs. dry food thing gets tempers flaring in the cat world - some people think it‘s akin to cat abuse.

I have tried every expensive cat food there is - the little blighters turn their noses up at all them. So, they have Felix until they get fed up of it, then we switch them to Whiskas. They only eat food in gravy, which makes shopping for them doubly difficult as most wet food seems to be in jelly these days!

They are coming up to 9 now. The short hair has never been ill, and the medium hair suffers from anxiety more than anything, due to being taken away from their mother too young due to unfortunate circumstances. Last time, they went to the vets, he commented on the high glossy coat on the short hair - which I believe is a sign of good health? The medium hair's fur never goes high gloss - it looks more like matte somehow.

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't force it to drink! Same with cats ime.

I would go to whiskas wet twice a day with a really decent quality dry down all the time

Can you recommend a good quality dry food? Currently they have scrumbles kitten (mixed in with a bit of Whiskas kitten as I bought a big bag of it and so am just using it up) which they are happy eating and is available at all time but I don’t know if this is a good enough quality?I will admit I get a bit overwhelmed with all of the options available and probably do get sucked in by clever marketing.

Honestly one of the ‘best’ decent ones is jollyes lifestage. It’s a v decent price and has good meat ratio and is gentle on tummies. My lot get it or purina pro. I have quite a few with various health issues and both of those work well.
I rotate through various wet foods to stop them being fussy and to keep their fluid intake up. I also recommend getting a water fountain - particularly important for boy to keep fluids up

Whiskas is absolutely fine for most cats. The only time you should change their food is if they're having allergies, or stomach issues, or they just don't like it! One of mine has whiskas and go-cat, the other has sensitivity control as he has allergies. But the latter is much more expensive. So no need to get anything fancy just bc you think whiskas isn't nutritious enough. You can always feed them lightly cooked fish occasionally as a treat.

You can always feed them lightly cooked fish occasionally as a treat

Be careful with tuna fish though - it’s high in mercury and iirc, there can be too much protein in it for a cat, leading to possible kidney failure.

I gave mine about a dessert spoonful of tuna steak last week. One had diarrhoea all the next day! 💩

Afaik, cooked white fish or chicken is fine as an occasional treat. I always put a tablespoon of water on chicken to up their fluid intake, although a water fountain did wonders for their drinking.

Thanks for the advice everyone, some conflicting views on here which is I think why I have become a bit overwhelmed in what to feed them. For example some people saying to avoid foods that contain any grains or fillers and go for a high protein food, but then also being told foods such as Purina which have a lower meat count and have rice listed as second main ingredient are high quality and fine. I can’t actually find much non-biased scientific research into high protein grain free foods vs those with grains or into wet vs dry vs mixed diets etc, mostly just claims by the various cat food brands that their food is the best and strong opinions by various owners online whenever I do try and google for support. It also seems for every person who leaves a good review on any one food there is someone else whose cat hated it! Maybe there is no easy answer and i just have to see what works for my two and go with it.

I think I will go back to feeding Whiskas pouches alongside the Scrumbles and Whiskas dry food mix for now and see if that helps sort out his tummy. I still have a cupboard full of Untamed as forgot to cancel the subscription after claiming the initial offer so will try and introduce a tin of this alongside the usual food again in a few weeks and see how they go. I’m vegetarian myself so probably won’t be cooking fish or chicken for them as wouldn’t have a clue how to do so but could buy some ready cooked chicken breast from the supermarket if that is suitable as a treat and easy on tummies.

Thanks for the advice about the water fountains, at the moment I’m confident both cats are drinking enough as I have a number of metal water bowls around the house and I regularly see/ hear them drinking from them and the water level visibly goes down if I forget to top up for more than a day but will consider a fountain if that changes.