Young Again Zero Mature

I puchased the Young Again Zero Mature dry kibble. ( I called it Forever Young in another post--the name young again will not stick in my brain lol) I am not using it as sole food source but as a suppliment. Does anyone have any bad news about this cat food? My non diabetic cat nibbles on it fairly frequently and the diabetic cat occasionally. I don't worry so much about Bella the non diabetic since I purchased a bag because she would turn up her nose so often to the pate diet. I am just wondering if anything really negative has been said about the food.

 

What we hear most is that it causes really stinky poop in a lot of kitties and some have really bad diarrhea but there's good reasons not to feed any dry food too.

Dr. Lisa explains it here "Dry Foods---Please consider more than just carbohydrate content"

 

I re read Dr Lisa's article after I posted the question about the food. It is basically a suppliment so I don't worry about my non diabetic cat loosing too much weight which she had been doing. I haven't noticed the poop issue at all. I will keep it on hand as a suppliment when needed only, Thanks.

 

Definitely watch for poop issues... well, you don't really have to watch for them, you will smell and clearly see them when they start. I bought it when I was transitioning my girls, and I got through a couple of bags without issue them BOOM, I got a bag that caused the poop issues I had heard about. At that point, I was only giving Mia a few kibbles as food topper, but it was enough to cause horrible poop issues. This also made me question their quality control since a couple of bags were fine then such a difference.

 

I feed mine Dr. Elsey's dry and Young Again Zero Mature dry. I switched him over from a high-carb dry, he won't touch non-kibble, though I keep trying. He has access to both and mostly eats the Dr. Elsey's. But I haven't had any issues with stinky poop or diarrhea. It sounds like they had some bad batches in the past. I purchased mine this month and it seems to be OK.

 

I may try Elsey's too. I am horrified by some of the things I have read about what is in our pets food by vets Dr Becker and Pierson. But I can's stomach to making raw food. Maybe some day that will change but I am so drained from trying everything at every price point only to be shot down by kitties finicky palate, that I am not willing to make a batch of raw food only to have to throw it out. I bought raw rabbit (frozen pellets) because Bella has brought rabbits in to the house--thinking she would like that. NOPE. Oh well...

 

I tried making the raw food. Bought fresh organic chicken thighs, ground them myself, mixed in the premix. The cat sniffed it, gave it one lick and walked away. And it's not like you can leave it out all day and hope they get desperate. The only non-kibble I have had the tiniest bit of success is the frozen turkey pellets by Primal. If I let them defrost to just the right temperature, and then I take them one at a time out of the bowl and place them in front of him, he will eat them. But this is like a 2 hour operation to get him to eat 8 pellets, not really sustainable I've unsuccessfully tried at least 20 different brands/flavored cans from Dr. Pierson's list with and without Fortiflora, and as soon as he gets in sniffing distance, he walks away. I think I need to join Kibble Addicts Anonymous.

 

The conversion from dry to wet can be hard and can take a long time. I am looking at the joined dates for both of you, @sybil and @Hogan, and thinking that if you just started the conversion as of then, you may have a long way to go if your cats are die-hard kibble addicts. I went through MANY different wet foods during the process, throwing away ridiculous amounts. I also jumped through all kinds of hoops. I think the food conversion was the hardest part of all of this. I started making chicken bone broth and adding that, along with some water, to their food. I also started cooking chicken breast and shredding some of that as a food topper/treat. I always heat the food up just a little in the microwave, too. I think texture was a big hurdle to get over. I found that adding just a little dry food, crushed or whole, to the top of the food helped get them started eating. After the very earliest phase of transition, the only dry food I let them have was sprinkled on top of their wet food or a few kibbles for Mia's testing treat. I was able to stop topping Willow's food with it long before I could stop it on Mia's. I think I had to sprinkle it on Mia's food for 9 or 10 months before I could stop. Then, she just got three or four kibbles as her testing treat which I have continued until now though she often chooses not to even eat them now. I use Dr Elsey's Clean Protein Chicken dry food. It has never caused the nasty poop issues Young Again did, and I feel more comfortable with the ingredients.

You really have to be persistent. I think sometimes people give up not because their cat cannot be transitioned but because they just get tired of the effort it takes. It is a great feeling when you accomplish it though! I feel so much better knowing I am feeding them what is healthy for them.

 

Oh, and one more point I wanted to add... Early on, my girls would sometimes eat a little of a food for a day or a few days then act like they hated it and refuse to eat it. Then, I would go back to it later, and they acted like they liked it again. I had to keep a few different things on hand and be prepared for the switch up. The food I feed them now is something they would not touch earlier in the transition, but once I had them accustomed to wet food, I gave it another try, and I have now been feeding it exclusively for many, many months without issue. (I still add bone broth and water and heat it... they are pretty spoiled at this point. )

 

On switching to raw/homemade food... I have recently transitioned both Spot and my dry food addict civvie Zuri over to raw, and the key is do it slowwwwly. Start adding a half a teaspoon to their current food, and then only increase by half a teaspoon a day. If at any point they start resisting, back up to the point where they were last happy with it and go slower. We adopted Zuri a few months ago, and at that point she didn't even recognize wet food as food. She wouldn't even touch the stuff. It took much patience but we had finally gotten her to un-enthusiastically eat Fancy Feast, when I decided to try FoodFurLife raw. Once I started slowly switching them, she gradually got more and more interested in her food, and now that she is fully transitioned, she ravenously waits for every meal. I find it very interesting that she enjoys the FoodFurLife food so much more than the FF. Spot has always been a challenge with all his health issues... he'll love something one day and then not want to go near it the next, but raw has been a winner for a few months now. I couldn't be happier that we made the switch.

Also, if you do try preparing yourself, you don't have to use "raw" food.. you can partially or fully bake it if you prefer. The FoodFurLife mix in particular is made to use either way.

 

Thanks for the tips, I will definitely keep trying. I think I also tried too many changes at once. After I started insulin, Hogan barely ate which, combined with his high numbers, got me very worried about DKA. I think he just needed time to adjust to the insulin. Now he's eating fairly regularly again, so I can start to be a little more adventurous.

@SpotsMom, I just got the FoodFurLife sample in the mail, I had previously tried the Young Again premix. What meats do you use with it? I don't mind raw, but maybe I should start with cooked since I have to leave it for a long time in hopes that he will get hungry enough to try it. I know you can use practically anything, but which meats did your cats seem to like best?

@FurBabiesMama, did you add the chicken bone broth to the dry food to start getting them used to a different consistency? Or did you add it to the new wet food to make it more attractive/hide the smell? He definitely likes cooked chicken and shrimp, I could try that as topper. I actually specifically got a can of the Weruva Chicken Frick A'Zee last week after seeing it in your signature

The only thing that makes the whole process slightly less wasteful is that I can give whatever Hogan won't touch to the very appreciative dog!

 

I use chicken breasts and/or thighs, which ever is cheaper. I do plan to eventually transition to a second meat, just to give them a little variety... but for now chicken is cheap and both cats love it!

 

I add the bone broth to the wet food. I initially did it because I was trying anything and everything to get their interest, and I was looking for ways to boost Willow's appetite/diet (she's older and keeping her eating and not losing weight is always on my mind) . Here's an article about the benefits: https://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2013/12/02/pet-bone-broth.aspx

At first, I added shreds of the home cooked chicken breast on top of their food, but now, that is just given as a treat associated with Willow getting her daily pills (2x a day). Both girls love to get their chicken treat!

Somewhere along the way, I saw PureBites freeze dried treats mentioned here, and I tried those.. chicken (I keep to one protein to the extent possible to reduce the likelihood of running into allergies/sensitivities). The girls like those, too, so I added that to my arsenal. I crumble a little of that on top of Mia's wet food even now. I think she still has texture issues. As long as I put a little of the crunchy freeze dried chicken on top of her wet food, she eats it.

 

Thanks for all the tips. I have seen the Mercola site and Dr Beck making bone broth for her sick dog (and she couldnt keep the cat out of it.) I may make some. I bought some organic bone broth in the grocery but that didnt take off. I added broth to something along the way, I can't remember what right now, but it made the food even more disgusting (sorry but its true).

Hogan's mom, I read your post about making raw food on my phone while I was out and couldn't respond, but it had me giggling it was so true and so funny!

My two are ok with the FF pate now and occasional tuna and its juice. I like what one of the vets said about sticking to poultry as its the least likely to have allergens. So has always had outbreaks around her mouth and chin and neck that she would lick and scratch until she had scabs. I would get her an occasional depo medrol steroid shot and antibiotic that would clear it right up but probably played some role in Zoe developing diabetes. You all are correct that they will eat something for a few days andyou think you have it solved and lo and behold they decide the next day they will have none of it. But I too go back to it and they like it again. Its like they have a built in controller that is deliberately set on 'do all you can to frustrate the human'. Reminds me of that meme