He doesn't like the s/d :-(

Sorry I haven't been posting much except about the Vino ordeal. Besides
spending maximum possible time with Vino, I've got Dennis at home and
have been trying to maximize time with him as well. Also, it's been bad
timing because I've had to work 4 day weeks for the past 2 weeks.
Anyway, we've been feeding Vino the prescribed s/d for 2 days now and he
doesn't like it much. He only nibbles at it but 2 days later we have
not even finished 1 can and have thrown much away at that. I wonder why
he's being so picky, he's not usually a picky eater. I wonder if he's
got bad associations with it because that's what they were trying to
feed him at the vet's.
We will keep trying of course, but I worry because he really needs to
put some weight back on.

polonca12000...

Soncek is quite a picky eater, so I can relate to that.
Lots and lots of purrs and best wishes for Vino to start eating the s/d,
Polonca and Soncek

For the first week that he was home, we just fed him regular Iams, to
get him eating again. He did gain some weight on that, but should
probably gain some more. I hope he resigns himself to the new food and
eats it! If not, we can probably take the unused cans back and trade it
for c/d (which we don't know if he will eat either), but the kibble is
ours now, $50 worth. And the vet says that it's pointless to feed c/d
canned with s/d kibble.
He usually prefers canned but with this stuff, he seems to be preferring
kibble (but not by much). I guess it's better than nothing, but ideally
the kibble was supposed to just be daytime "filler". Aaargh!

pistor...

Britta,

Even if it's prescription, I would avoid feeding a lot of kibble to a
cat with crystals in the urine. You want Vino to eat canned food, as
much as possible. If he only likes Iams, feed him that. Look at all the
brands avaiable to you (is there a web source in Australia that might
have super-premium brands available?) and buy the one that has more
good ingredients (whole meats) at the top of the ingredients list.
Avoid those that have fillers (grains) and by-products if possible.
Purrs for Vino to eat his food.

Yowie...

Here is Australia, all our canned pet foods are good quality (have to use
human food grade products) and don't have fillers.

I'm sittng here looking at two cans of supermarket food - brand food - but
supermarket food. BTW, In Autralia, indredients must be listed in order of
quantity, so the ingredient used most are listed first, the ingredient used
least are listed last:

Snappy Tom "Whole Fish" lists the ingredients as:

Quality whole sardines (I can attest to the fact they are indeed whole
sardines)
Gelling agents
Permitted food colour
vitamins and minerals

The breakdown is listed as:

Crude protein (min.) 10.0%
Crude fat (min.) 2.0%
Crude Fibre (max.) 1.0%
Salt (Naturally Occuring) (Max.) 1.0%

Whiskas Meat with Beef lists the ingredients as:

Meat including chiken, beef, lamb and pork
beef by-product
colouring agents, flavours
salt
vitamins & minerals
No preservatives

The breakdown is:

Crude protein (min.) 7.5%
Crude fat (min.) 5.5%
Crude Fibre (max.) 1.0%
Salt (max.) 0.35%

Oh, Here's the analysis for supermarket Kibble:

Whiska's Adult Sardine Prawn Tuna and Whitebait flavour with Vitabites:

Wholegrain cereals
meat and meat byproducts (poulty beef and or sheep)
vegetable protein
fish
animal tallow and/or vegetable oil
salt
all essential vitamins and minerals
food colouring
flavours
amino acids (including taurine)
antioxidents
preservatives

Crude protein 29%
Crude Fat 10.5%
Crude fibre 5%
Salt (sodium chloride) 2%

All these products meet the nutritional guidelines established by the
Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) for Cat Food Nutrient
Profile for maintanence in adult cats.

For the record, my own vet said that any canned food was better than any
supermarket kibble I could buy. He tried to get me to buy Hills science diet
kibble (can't remeber which one) but it seemed madness to feed Shmogg a
special and super expensive diet of kibble when the Vet himself said that
regular canned food - which is much cheaper - is perfectly fine, and Shmogg
much preferred standard gooshy food over Hills Science Diet kibble.

I am not a vet, but whilst the supermarket kibble may be a bit dodgy for
Vino, I reckon brand name canned food ought to be pretty good.

badwilson...

I have never fed Vino a lot of kibble. I don't know if I'm not getting
the message accross here, but what we do is feed Vino canned twice a
day, as much as he can eat of it. Then he has a bowl of kibble out to

Victor Martinez...

That's what we do too. I didn't mean to sound critical, it's just that
some TEDs just push Rx food without really knowing a whole lot about
feline nutrition.

Victor Martinez...

Not true. The first ingredient in the kibble is rice.

Victor Martinez...

That's not what the Hills website say.

nibble on. He's a bit of a snacker, but he would go through the
smallest bag in 2 months or more. We have to have the kibble out
because there can't be someone around 24/7 to keep doling out canned all
the time.
The vet said the kibble is the same as the canned except dehydrated.
The s/d kibble is apparently a low carb diet?!? And I'm not to mix it

badwilson...

You're right, I looked on the bag and the cans and the ingredients are
totally different.

badwilson...

Duh! I meant to say that the vet said the s/d is a low protein diet.

with regular food or even c/d because they are incompatible and it won't
have the required urine acidifying effect or something. After a month

badwilson...

I meant to say low protein. The vet said that s/d is definitely not a
long term diet, it's meant to be just for the first month after
crystals, then it's onto the c/d which is the maintenance diet. But she
said that he can probably even go off that after a couple more months.
So after that we will buy the Eukanuba kibble and do Iams canned. I
think this is the best we can do in Australia because the super premium
foods are not available here. I tried feeding him kangaroo meat for
cats but he wouldn't have it for long. What he really wants is raw
hamburger! LOL! Not happening!

(or whenever he's finished the s/d) he's to go on c/d for a few months.
That one's less severe. After that we can see about feeding him Iams
again, but she said Whiskas is ok on paper but there's a lot of
variation between cans and even top to bottom of the same can.
Besides Iams, Eukanuba and Science Diet, there are no other choices of
cat food in this part of Australia except supermarket stuff.

Victor Martinez...

Like Yowie says, perhaps the Australian versions of those foods are

Adrian A...

I'm surprised to see salt listed in the ingredients, I don't believe it's
nescessary for a cat and too much can be harmful.

Monique Y. Mudama...

Perhaps it's a matter of taste. I read a nutrition article somewhere
saying, "Yes, eating strawberries on their own is best, but if the
only way you'll eat them is to dip them in sugar, then go ahead."

Winnie...

I bought some strawberries again today. Made smoothie with some of it.
I am now going
to eat the rest with some brown sugar sprinkled on them. Yum!

Monique Y. Mudama...

Nice! We went to a Thai restaurant that has home made ice cream; I
brought home a pint of coconut ice cream. As you eat it you find the
shavings mixed in. Really good. I am eating it using our smallest
bowls, really more like condiment bowls, to make it last longer.

Winnie...

I have stopped drinking milk and eating ice cream. About the only diary
product I still eat
is yogurt. I am lactose intolerant and it is too much hazzle to use the

Monique Y. Mudama...

Oops. Sorry about talking about ice cream, then. Good strawberries
are still just about my favorite food in the universe.

Winnie...

That's all right. It doesn't bother me when someone talks about ice
cream. I bought some
strawberries at one store after my TaiChi class. Another day I found
some organic strawberries at another store on sale and bought those
too. Strawberries are also grown in this area. I am planning to go to
the local farmers market on Sunday. May end up buying more strawberries
then. I love all the summer fresh fruit.

lactase enzyme.

I don't know if it's just the novelty or what, but I absolutely love
the flavors you can get in Asian restaurants -- green tea, red bean,
and mango ice cream. Our current favorite Chinese restaurant is
experimenting with foods from other Asian cultures -- lately they've
had Mochi (those Japanese dough ball things) filled with green tea ice
cream, and with chocolate sauce drizzled on top. I thought I'd died
and gone to heaven. I was really confused though when the proprietor
asked if I wanted to try it -- I thought he was offering "hamachi"
(raw fish) for dessert. Ew!

Winnie...

Now you remind me of the red beans I still have. Better use it to make
some desserts.
Do you eat raw fish? I eat fish, but not raw. I still like to go eat in
Japanese restaurants though. In fact I am planning a girls night out
dinner in a Japanese restaurant. Every summer I get to pick a
restaurant for our summer dinner. I pick a different country each time.
Last year was at a French restaurant (in Chinatown!). I heard a former
colleague (he was also layoff) now runs a Japanese restaurant and so I
decided we are going to try it out.

Monique Y. Mudama...

I have nothing against raw fish in theory, but in practice the texture
of raw fish doesn't work for me. I only started eating sushi a couple
of years ago. If there are bits of raw fish wrapped inside other
stuff, I'm pretty good. If it's just a big slab of raw fish on a
block of rice, I don't enjoy that. Sushi I really enjoy includes
unagi (eel), spider roll, anything with shrimp tempura in it ...

Winnie...

The only Sushi I eat are the ones without raw fish in it. I like my
fish cooked well done.
In fact, I like all my meat well done.

Monique Y. Mudama...

I used to like well-done steak. In fact, any amount of red or pink
grossed me out. After a few years in Colorado, though, I'm eating
steak that my former self would have gagged trying to eat. And I like
steak much better now than I did when I had to have it well done.

I guess tastes change.

We have a favorite Japanese restaurant. The sushi chefs all know DH,
and they usually give us something on the house, like teriyaki salmon
cheek or an unusual type of sushi. Because of this, though, I really
have to be careful -- one time I tried to eat a piece of raw salmon,
but I couldn't take it. It was so slimy! My body wanted to gag, but
I couldn't because I didn't want to offend anyone. So I kept chewing,
and chewing ... eventually I got it down.

Winnie...

I can understand. A former colleague went to work for the company in
its Japan office. She joked that she had to have a bag ready in her
lap to toss the raw fish in when nobody is looking, especially in

Monique Y. Mudama...

Doh! I think if I ate it enough, I would get used to it. It's just
that sushi is expensive enough that I don't see the point in ordering
it just to see if I'll like it this time. DH likes all sorts of
sushi, including uni, which most people who haven't grown up with it
don't like. I haven't tried a piece yet, but I did try a little bit
of it, just a tiny bit, and it didn't seem too bad.

business meals.

Winnie

better than the american ones?
If you want to feed kibble, this Eukanuba brand has a much better
ingredients list than the Hills prescription:
or

I hope Vino has a full recovery soon and is back to being his somewhat
plum self. :)

badwilson...

Thanks! We were out most of the day but when we came home he ate a
little bit, went outside and promptly stepped into a puddle, so had to
come in and have some more food. I really think the s/d is too greasy
for him, it seems very oily and lard filled. He smacks his lips when
eating it and seems to have to work to get it down. So he switches over
to the kibble and has a few bites of that before trying a couple more
bites of canned. Sigh.

Mischief...

You should be able to return it. Hill's Science Diet accepts all
returns, even if the bag is open. It's there policy and the vet should
take it back.

I know what you're going through, and maybe he'll like the c/d.

You could try giving the s/d and c/d in separate bowls.

Winnie...

Have you tried mixing the IAM with the S/D? The S/D is used to
'dissolve' any crystals left.
But since Vino has been taking acidifier pills, his urine is acidid
enough to dissolve any remaining crystals. You should not have problem
trading unopened caned food or getting refund from your vet. I have
done that many times with Rusty's merry go round of presciption food.
Talk to your vet about tricks to get Vino on S/D.

Rusty is purring for Vino and tells him to eat the S/D like a good boy.

Karen...

I was going to suggest mixing too.