Winston is lucky to have found such a loving home, and with patience, his appetite and health should stabilize. Since he prefers kibble, you can gradually mix in high-quality wet food like IALAY Oh My Cod to transition him to a balanced diet without upsetting his stomach. Managing ringworm treatment while bonding is tough, but gentle handling, positive reinforcement, and extra love will help him feel secure and build trust over time.

The breeder told us that he was currently on Nulo Kitten wet foods and Firstmate Cat & Kitten Chicken and Salmon kibble and not finicky about flavor and texture. However, out of the gate he would not touch either salmon or chicken based Nulo flavors we tried. Generally speaking, we have avoided tuna in our cats’ foods (cumulative mercury concerns) and most beef. He picked at and would reluctantly partially eat but only IF we baited it with kibble. He did like an extra can of Tiny Tiger Kitten Whitefish that was included in his supply kit but still gravitates toward kibble only so far.

In desperation, I bought a variety of grain-free I and Love and You, and Heritage Ranch flavors at my local grocer. So far he has eaten the IALAY Oh My Cod without issue in balance with the Firstmate kibble. I don’t want to upset his stomach or digestion grabbing at straws, testing too many but we want him on quality food.

We could opt to return him to the cattery but we quickly became attached and our vet questions their integrity, saying he may be better off with us. Wondering what to do.

Hi Laura,

Smalls is a good pick for kittens since it is a calorie dense food, Wellness CORE is a specific formula for kittens that’s really palatable. Both food could work it also depends on your cat’s preferences. Some cats that are used to Pate texture find it difficult with other wet textures and wise versa.

Hi Trevor! RAWZ dry cat food and paté-style foods are formulated for all life stages, while Open Farm’s wet cat food is made for adult cats only. Therefore, I would recommend RAWZ over Open Farm. Hope this helps!

Hey Bonnie, you’re in an interesting position! The dry food may very well be to blame for the messier poop, though you’d need to switch her back to the old food instead to confirm that it’s what made the difference. As an alternative to the raw food that you’re feeding now, you might use a freeze-dried raw food as a compromise—you don’t need to worry about thawing and mixing in supplements, and the food just needs to be rehydrated with some warm water. I suspect that may be easier on her stomach and on you/your daughter as well.

Thank you, Mallory. That makes me feel much better. It made me feel good to know that Royal Canin was being compassionate about its footprint and was offering free recycling of their packaging to keep plastic out of the oceans, but it never occurred to me (for which I now feel a little ashamed) to do more thinking and wonder if the food inside of the packaging was damaging my cat. 😳

Hello Mike, we haven’t recommended Royal Canin’s Maine Coon diet here, but I’ve not heard of any bad experiences with it—it’s just that the nutritional philosophy at Cats.com leans more towards meatier, high-moisture diets, and the RC Maine Coon diet doesn’t align with that. However, if your cat is doing well with it, I would not necessarily encourage you to switch to anything else. Royal Canin is a reputable brand and has a good record of making high-quality, well-researched foods.