Thread: Dry Food Problems & Diarrhea

What on earth is in dried food to create diarrhea?
Every time we try and introduce Royal Cannin Maine Coon dried food to our 13month old Maine Coon kittens their toilet is a mess. Diarrhea all the time and going up to five times a day, each of them!

Our vet took them off it and onto Hills z/d but again its just terrible. Each time I have stopped and get them onto 80% raw and 20 wet can food the diarrhea stops and takes approx 48 hours before they start to go again.
It looks like any dried food runs straight through them and the raw food digests very slow inside them.

Have others found this and what on earth is in the dried food to make it run out of them?
New to this forum and hope to take part.

Our kittens are brother and sister Roxy & Oliver and we live in New Zealand.
Any other Kiwis here?

I had problems with a couple of mine on the RC mainecoon also with RC sensible,same as you ok for a couple of days then diarrhoea everywhere,the rest of the cats no problem.I took it that it was just too rich a biscuit for the stomachs of some.Although I don't feed mine too much biscuit at all now their biggest percentage of diet is wet food I find that Hills Natures Best seems to suit them all , they have the Hills Oral to get the bigger kibble & the only RC they get fed is the hair & skin 33 with no problems.
I do wonder sometimes though that as you tend to leave dry food down for them that perhaps the old saying eyes larger than the stomach comes into play....! Then they suffer& so do you.
Keep feeding them with whatever you know suits....
Nothing worse than dirty drawers on a MC.

I agree that dried food is not a good diet for cats, however for some people it is the most convenient. So, you need to look at what is in your dried food and get the best quality one that you can.

I am not too sure what is available where you are but Orijen, Acana and Almo Nature are all very, very good dried foods without all the usual additives and fillers in them.

However, the very best option for you would be to put them on a completely wet food diet, as this is much better for them.

Do probiotics work for cats, has anyone had any good results with them and poorly tums? I am thinking about getting a tube to keep in just in case.

I can't get the rc maine coon... I'm still trying.
But atm I'm feeding gryfn and charlie brown a mix of biscuits which are available all the time, and the get half a sachet of wet food in the morning and raw at night.
they seem to do really well with this mix.

Hi Helen,I always have a probiotic in the animals first aid box,can be very handy for upset tums & does seem to calm things down even if it is due to the food rather than a bug,most essential though if it is an actual tummy bug,24 hours starvation & that will either sort things or you know you are on the way to the vets...I am still old fashioned though,I like to use Kaogel VP & dose with a syringe,I find it a lot easier than the tubes.The other thing I always have as well is a sachet of rehydration fluid,find that handy if they happen to be shooting at you from both ends because it doesn't take long for them to dehydrate especially if we are lucky enough to get a hot summer !
This sure is a smelly thread.....

Originally Posted by WoodsideMaineCoons

I agree that dried food is not a good diet for cats, however for some people it is the most convenient. So, you need to look at what is in your dried food and get the best quality one that you can.

I am not too sure what is available where you are but Orijen, Acana and Almo Nature are all very, very good dried foods without all the usual additives and fillers in them.

However, the very best option for you would be to put them on a completely wet food diet, as this is much better for them.

None of these dried foods are available in NZ, it seems difficult to find dried food with very high levels of protein, why do they all seem to hover round 50% or less?

Originally Posted by OliverRoxy

None of these dried foods are available in NZ, it seems difficult to find dried food with very high levels of protein, why do they all seem to hover round 50% or less?

Actually 50% protein is high protein content (assuming meats as primary ingredients, so it is complete protein). Look at the table of protein in meats on this page: [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meat"]Meat - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia@@AMEPARAM@@/wiki/File:FoodMeat.jpg" class="image"><img alt="" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ae/FoodMeat.jpg/220px-FoodMeat.jpg"@@AMEPARAM@@commons/thumb/a/ae/FoodMeat.jpg/220px-FoodMeat.jpg[/ame]. Steak is only like 25% protein (25/110g). You get higher percentages in the dry due to lack of moisture, but the absolutest highest protein dry I have found is 55%. Cheaper drys are often only 30-35% protein, and that protein may be from corn and so actually effectively even lower.