My very fussy cat has been having a lot of trouble adjusting to the Swiss cat food here, it seems to be upsetting his stomach and bowels. Thankfully I still have about 1/4 of the 3.5 Kg bag of the dried Canadian produced Royal Canin Fibre brand left. I used to also mix the fibre with a dried Royal Canin Sensitive brand but that is now all gone.
I've bought a few different Royal Canin products here and they clearly are not the same as what I bought in Canada. They smell different and I'm sure to him they taste different too. What's even worse for him is despite the fact that I have slowly mixed in these different foods with his usual fare he has been throwing up and having bouts of diarrhea. When I remove the new food source he recovers.
BTW He won't eat any commercial wet food either, it's simply a waste of money as he takes one look and walks away from it.
It's the same thing with the Temptations Whiskas treats. As much as I don't like to give him that kind of junk he goes nuts for it. He is well known to open the drawers where I keep his treats and tear apart the packages to get these little delicacies when I'm away but he won't touch the Swiss Temptations even when I put them right under his nose. My avatar is a picture of him begging for his treats.
Does any one have any suggestions or can you recommend another good quality brand (s) for picky, finicky, sensitive cats? Please help.
Why not e-mail the Manufacturer in Canada for help - or the 'mother' house wherever it is. Are you near enough the French or German border to try theirs?
My cat used to live off tuna. You can buy cheap tuna cans (made for humans) if you search for it. Just remember, once on it they will become more fussy than ever. It also needs to be balanced with a good dry supplement and occasional other brands.
The other is to buy cheap cuts of chicken etc from butcher and cook it up for the cat, this often works well too. Get to know the local butcher they may be able to assist.
I would be searching for different brands from different stores and trying anything to see how it goes.
I've tried every type of real food one can imagine livers, fish, chicken, he won't eat any of it, just turns his nose up to it all . Much to my husbands dismay he will only eat shrimp (which he gets every day) so your point is well taken and of course when we are eating lobster he insists on sitting at the head dinner table LOL.
I have a couple of dried brands waiting in the wings to be tried, Natures Best and Purina One Natural Balance????
Sorry to hear about your problems with your lovely cat.
Have you tried the Integra range of cat foods,they are specialist sensitive diets and might work on your lovely cat.
What about Animonda? mine our quite fussy but they like this food alot! I order my food from http://www.zooplus.de have a look and see if there is anything you can try him on.
There must be something that works. It might be just a case of the cat getting used to the food over time, once you find something the cat eats regularly.
I used to buy Royal Canin dog food in France. Then I read somewhere that it was not at all good for dogs! After reading this thread I have to assume they are different companies, or at least differenr recipes.
As I wrote, it's best to ask a Swiss vet for the best products.
Thank you very much for the tips, I'll look for the Integra brand, is it available here in Switzerland or just on the site you posted?
Poor little (big) guy, yesterday I had to cut away all his fur from his hind legs (stinky poo every where) He is completely back to normal today after removing the new Royal Canin from his diet. I'm going to wait a couple of days to let his system get back to normal before I try another new one.
I'm looking for a new vet for him, can you recommend any one who specailizes in cats and speaks English in the Zug to Lucerne region? (Ich spreche nacht nicht gut Deutsch)
I didn't think I was mixing in too much new food at a time but obviously I need to go slower.
The problem is that I'm running out of his regular stuff that he is used to so I'm getting worried about finding a new product. My neighbour is quite happy as her cat eats everything so she is well stocked now. Has anyone here ever tried to make their own dried cat/pet food?
I would see the vet soonest, because it could be that it is not the food at all that is bothering him, but something else. Maybe the move, or some illness.
I brought him here this past summer and he flew through the adjustment period with no problems, a couple of days after the flight and he was back to normal.
His symptoms have only happened when I introduced the new food recently. He doesn't go outside except for the balcony so I don't think he has gotten into any mischief in that regard.
One other consideration is it could have been a bad bunch of shrimp (coop bio cocktail shrimp). I won't fed him that batch again and somewhat afraid to try it out on myself.
I will take him to a vet as soon as I find someone here. As you can probably tell I don't spare expenses on him, I just need to find the right products/ and or vet for him.
Sorry I should have said that Integra is available in Qualipets in Switzerland. Have you tried him with white fish for settling his tummy down? We had quite a few iffy months while the cats settled down with food. We even gave them bottled water so they could slowly get used to the drinking water being different. It was a very stressy time but it got better!
Oddly Hills Science Plan doesn't have such a good reputation in Canada. Had I realized there was such a big difference in cat foods I would have loaded the container full with his regular stuff. I didn't think it would be such a problem.
Thanks for the link to the cheap shrimp, I think I've tried every brand on the shelves here too. Found the Migros budget brand of baby shrimps on Saturday so I'll try them out tomorrow now that he is getting back to normal and begging for food again.
Maybe cycle through all the different types of fish again, and weed out what he doesn't live versus what doesn't like him. He may be fussy with some things, where with others his digestive system reacts badly. I know in Migros (the one in Seefeld definitely) you can get cans of Tuna for cats (mainly skin and bones etc). My cat is also pretty fussy with all dry food and cheaper wet food but goes crazy for that tuna (even more so than human tuna) so it's pretty important to experiment. Also try full fat quark and if he likes that (it's the only milk product recommended for cats' digestive systems) mix in some Royal Canin kitten milk powder for proper nutrition.