Opinions on Royal Canin Maine Coon 31?

**Walter Coonkat** · 8th January 2011, 10:42 PM

At present, Walter (23 weeks old tomorrow) is eating Royal Canin Kitten 36 for his dry food. I see that Royal Canin makes a Maine Coon 31 dry food. Any opinions on it? Is it that much better for a MC than other good adult cat food? (I like the idea of a large kibble that he has to chew instead of inhaling!

)

The size of the kitten kibble was fine several weeks ago, but now seems small compared to Walter's size. Should he be switched to a larger kibble before he is one year old?

(I guess it is because I lost my previous MC at such an early age that I'm trying to go out of my way with giving him the best food and spoiling Walter even more.)

**Tomiam** · 9th January 2011, 07:20 AM

We've used the '31' for about 6 months now and both our MC's like it. We leave it down all day so they have something to graze on.
From time to time zooplus do an offer on their largest bags and we tend to wait until then before stocking up for a few months. Think their last offer effectively meant you got 3 bags for price of 2.

We cut a smallish opening in the top of the bag and pour a few weeks worth into a plastic container to try and keep it as fresh as possible.

Both our MC's are 1 year 3 months old and have been having the '31' for the past 6 months. Its definately something they crunch on.

We suppliment the '31' with Feline Fayre which has a pretty decent ingredient percentage. ie: High % of meat as opposed to water / ash etc.
http://www.felinefayre.co.uk/ and also give Purina as 'treats'.
This doesnt include the cooked chicken, ham, bacon etc that they get when we're cooking :D

debbie560 · 9th January 2011, 08:01 AM

We use the Mainecoon, but we mix and this is only because we have other breeds, but all my cats love it including the Abyssinians and the kittens if they can get hold of it, they really have a crunch at it and it seems to keep their teeth nice and white

**Howlinbob** · 9th January 2011, 10:39 AM

Mine were on the RC kitten until they were 6 or 7 months, then I switched to the RC Maine Coon adult kibble, which they took to with no problem. My breeder suggested I switch, because in her experience their jaws were big enough at that age to handle the larger size kibble. You can really hear the crunching going on when they're tucking in. However, I am now changing them over to raw food, which they love, but I've just got to persuade them to eat bones. Then I can phase out the kibble altogether.

**Heather2mc** · 9th January 2011, 11:38 AM

Hi

Both of my MC's have the RC Maine Coon and love it. I do mix a small amount of science diet oral with it which is the same size biscuit but I assume has a different taste. I do have supercoat cat biscuits down as well for Timmy but both Sarah and Zack tend to leave that alone and eat their own bickies.

**FreyjaRoMaine** · 9th January 2011, 11:38 AM

I also started with Kitten 36 and recently tried them on the RC Maine Coon to see how they got on with it. They both loved it, but it wasn't a reciprocal thing; both cats got Runny Bottom Syndrome and it was definitely the kibble. And that was with me introducing a tiny amount within their usual kibble. I then introduced a small amount Hills Natures Best (instead of the RC MC) and they both like it, and it likes both of them (i.e. no RBS).

**claudel** · 9th January 2011, 01:16 PM

MC Elvis and Coco both love it, but she's turning into a little butterball from too much carbs.

It's tough to have one that's too skinny and eats slowly ( odd for a MC ) and one a third of the size that's too fat...

No way to keep her out of the food that I've found so far.

Haven't gone to the food in separate rooms-radio catdoor/collars production that my vet suggested, yet.

**mcguy** · 9th January 2011, 03:01 PM

Most people who have posted seem to have MCs that like the RC. While we haven't tried it for quite a while, when we did we ended up throwing out many $'s worth of it as none of our MCs would eat much of it. Since it is not as "high quality" as the dry foods they get now, I see no point in trying it again (the dry foods we feed are higher protein and have real chicken as primary ingredients). In my opinion, the RC foods are overpriced for their ingredients; you can get better quality foods for same price range.

The only thing MC-specific about it is the size of the kibble, since most cats would not be able to eat it. Our two boys do love the Science Diet TD, which is supposed to help clean teeth and is very large kibble, but the girls largely won't eat it. Would the RC help keep their teeth cleaner because they have to really crunch it? Hard to say; I have heard mixed info on whether food can help (may scrape some gunk off but also causes particles to get caught between teeth). I would expect the SD TD to do more (it is not intended as the sole food). Interestingly, the Blue Wilderness that is the favorite of our younger boy recently reduced their kibble size, so it is now quite tiny. I thought this would be a problem for a MC male, but he still gobbles it up. Don't think he crunches quite as much, but he eats TD as well every day.