At the very end of June I adopted a Ragdoll kitten. He is currently 5 months old and I am feeding him the same dry food his breeder was giving him: Purina Pro Plan.

His breeder had him on Friskies wet food and I am not a fan of the ingredients so I switched him over to Purina Pro Plan wet after I adopted him.

He has had runny stool ever since I brought him home and it cleared up as soon as I stopped feeding him wet food last week. I don't know why the wet food was causing diarrhea and there could be a variety of explanations, but as of now it is gone. In case anyone is wondering, I did try probiotics for 30 days and they made no difference.

He loves wetfood though and I am happy to give it to him, but I am having a hard time finding one with high quality ingredients that he likes. I went to the Petstore last night and bought a bunch with the intention of just seeing if he likes one brand.

I tried tiki cat and orijen (both have great ingredients) and he turned his nose up at both. I gave him a tiny bit of friskies and he gobbled it up.

What do you do if your cat refuses to eat high quality cat food with good ingredients? I am tempted to try switching his dry food too, but thought I would start with finding a wet food first.

You good try mixing the old wet food with the new ones to trick him into eating the healthier one

Suddenly switching foods often causes gastric upset (which might explain the runny poop), so it would probably do yu good to blend foods/leave both out until he decides to eat the new one. Very often cats think things are poison until they've had enough exposure and decide it's edible, so just having something out once or twice isn't really enough to say whether or not they'll eat it. Just try leaving a little out at a time and keep reintroducing fresh of whatever food you're trying to feed.

And though I don't recommend Friskies, if it's something he likes and is willing to eat, you could just give him part of a can as a treat on weekends or something.

Also, please talk to your vet about this. They went to school for this and attend yearly continuous learning about nutrition where people who have dedicated their entire careers to formulating pet food give talks that are more informative than any amount of research you could do online.

I know with my cat, she used to just not want to eat food, being suddenly picky about particular brands and all that.
But do be careful with switching foods suddenly (as Snitches mentioned before me). When you do want to convert your kitty to new food, you gotta do it gradually (for example, first week you start with 80% old food and 20% new food, then next week it is 70% old and rest is new, etc. etc.).

Mixing the food is honestly a great way to do it (although for my cat that caused diarrhea). Another option is to add some cat food paste onto their food, to encourage them to start eating their food (or even for me I added a tiny bit of natural yoghurt, meat, or anything else that cats find delicious. Pastes/liquids work best).

Love, in the kindest way possible, I don't think this can be resolved in the HEE community. It has been asked time and time again, I think a vet at this point needs to look his system over for something more serious.

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You're going to burn yourself out micro-managing him. He's a kitten. Six months old still needs kitten food until he is a year. And as others pointed out, wean onto new food. NEVER just switch.

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Choose a brand and stick to it. You've got so many good suggestions to go through. We can NOT diagnose gastric upset in a cat as a horse community.

I personally like Hills Science Diet. Its ingredients are a lot healthier (especially for males), nutrient dense, and my boys love it! It is a little more expensive, but for me it has been 100% worth it! It should be easier on them if you do a mix and ease them into it, but it just depends on the cat.

Upset stools could be a result of various factors, so I don't think it would hurt to see a professional :)

PS I won't feed my cats wet food even if it is the good kind, they turn into monsters 🫠

I forgot to update this awhile back, but I found a food that is no longer causing him to have loose stool. He is on purina pro plan kitten dry and gets half a can of Nulo wet food.

He likes Friskies because it's loaded with carbs --- stuff that cats really don't need and makes them fat. I think it would be hard to go from Friskies to Tiki, Tiki is a really great food with real ingredients. It's my go-to food. My cats like the quail egg one the best. Other than that... my cats really enjoy Nulo, BFF, Weruva.

If you are looking for something more cost effective. I regularly foster cats for our local animal shelter and they cheapest they will feed is Sheba and Tastefuls (because they don't want diarrhea from food). I really like Sheba for the price and darn near every cat loves it.

If you are having issues with loose stool, a good probiotic is my recomendation, it has to have the right bacteria and has to be quality/not dead. Flora Choice, Fortiflora, and Proviable are the kinds the shelter uses. - I don't love the Purina one - Fortiflora. If the loose stool continues after a week or two it could be a food senstivity or worms/bacteria. I guess if it's only from wet food I would guess from it being new to the cat's system or a food senstivity.