Switching from Purina One to Royal Canin

[purrrplej]

Hi - I've posted this in several cat forums, and gotten lots of different answers. So, why not try one more? :)

I have been feeding Murray Purina One for Urinary Tract Health ever since he had a nasty UTI a couple years ago. He seems to tolerate it rather than savor it, though he eats well. He is happy and healthy. However, when I asked about the quality of Purina One on some other cat forums, I was advised that it's not very good, and I should look into something better. So I asked my vet, and he also had a low opinion of Purina One and recommended Royal Canin Urinary SO. I ordered a bag of it and will see if I can switch Murray to it, if he likes it. (Hopefully he will - I paid enough for it!!) I figured since he doesn't exactly love his current food, I might as well try the switch.

So, does anyone out there have experience with Royal Canin? Is it much better than Purina One?

I've also been advised by posters on cat forums that I should try to get Murray to eat some wet food. He had turned his nose up at the wet foods I had tried in the past. But I decided to give it another try. The store had a sale on Fancy Feast, and Simba (my first cat, who currently lives with my folks) is happy and healthy on Fancy Feast, which he loves, so I decided to try some Fancy Feast. And Murray actually likes it! He eats only a little at a time, so it's taken a couple days to go through 2/3 to 3/4 of the small can. Slowly but surely... I think it is a good thing to add some wet food to his diet, to balance it out, and for hydration purposes and for the variety. I realize that Fancy Feast might not be the most "premium" wet food out there, but it's a start, and I figure I could always try to switch Murray to a "better" canned food later, after he gets in the wet-food habit...

[Macawpower58]

Royal Canin makes better food than Purina, hands down. I'm not sure about the the food for UI's, but in general, you're much better feeding Royal Canin.

[Ltlpistol]

I put my dogs on Royal Canin when I saw they had a formula specifically for Shih Tzus. And didn't find any difference to what I had been feeding them, i.e. no lessening of the itchies. But I don't have any knowledge of their UTI formula.

[lindsayanng]

I strongly feel that adding a can of wet food with a tablespoon or so of water (or non flavored pedialyte) is a GREAT way to make sure your cat stays adequately hydrated. Cats do not have the thirst drive that humans have, so many cats are chronically dehydrated which leads to LOTS of issues in the urinary tract, including severe kidney problems.

An other option, if you cant get him to like wet food, is to put a pet fountain in a place that he travels by often. The moving water attracts them to the fountain and the smell and motion makes them realize their thirst and they will drink. my vet highly reccomends getting one. We do not have one because we have fish tanks and out cats drink out of the fish tanks ALL THE TIME. Same with my mom's cat. If we didnt have fish tanks, our cats would probably NEVER drink. We also feed moist food at night only.

As for fancy feast, my vet described it to me as McDonalds for cats. VERY tasty and yummy, but VERY bad for you. He said it really should be given as a treat. Actually, not that long ago, right on their website there was a disclaimer that said the food should not be feed daily and is not a complete cat diet. That has since changed, but i SWEAR it was there before they re-did the website.

My cats are picky about wet food and they LOVE the MERRICK brand and SOLID GOLD. SOLID GOLD sells a tuna flavor that literally is just tuna in some kind of gravy. It smells and looks (well it IS) like be pieces of fresh canned tuna. If you cat likes tuna, i would put money on the fact that he will like that wet food. I also add water to that as well.

Its good that you are switching away from purina too. I am not a fan, as they use a lot of fillers. I do not feed royal canin, and do not know much about it. But from what i do know, it is a pretty good quality food. I feed my cats INNOVA for cats which is made with all human grade meats and has NO fillers like wheat gluten (the stuff that was toxic and killed those animals in the pet food recall)

[purrrplej]

As for fancy feast, my vet described it to me as McDonalds for cats. VERY tasty and yummy, but VERY bad for you. He said it really should be given as a treat. Actually, not that long ago, right on their website there was a disclaimer that said the food should not be feed daily and is not a complete cat diet. That has since changed, but i SWEAR it was there before they re-did the website.

It looks like the Fancy Feast will be more of a treat for Murray than a major staple of his diet, anyway. He only eats a little bit at a time. He STILL hasn't finished the little can I opened on Friday evening (he should finish it off tonight). I bought some more flavors for him to try out (the first flavor I gave him, which he likes, is the chicken feast). I figure the Fancy Feast is better for him than no wet food, because it can help with hydration, etc.