Pull him off the Wal-Mart brands. They are poor quality and harder to digest. Also, often you have to feed more to get the same nutritional value of a higher quality food. One of the things I have done is to put a lot of time into studying animal nutrition. Just because a cat or dog loves a food, does not mean it should be fed. A gradual switch will greatly lower the risk of diarrhea. The first week, replace a small amount of the old food with the new food. Over the next couple weeks, increase gradually the new food until the cats are no longer eating the old. Higher quality foods have other benefits: *Less waste and often less odorous waste. *Better skin and coat health. *Overall health can be affected by nutrition. Think of some of these foods as allowing your child to live on fast food. Yes, he can get grain (rolls), meat (the burger or chicken), vegetables (the pickles, lettuce and tomatoes) and dairy (cheese and those shakes). But is the diet healthy and the food quality? No. This is what feeding your cat lower quality brands is like. If you absolutely MUST feed a brand sold at WalMart, other department stores or grocery stores, find Iams or Purina ONE. They are the better of these foods. But they are still not the quality of any of the ones I listed for the original poster.

It depends on the countyr of origin of the food and what by products are used. There is misconception as to what the words on labels really mean. I just submitted a short bit to this site on how to interpret food labels for the novice. The info is based on US interpretations and other countries may have looser or stricter requirements. By products may not be all that bad depending on the source of the meat. An excerpt: "Meat/Meat Based ? This is the clean flesh from an animal. It may also include organ meats, tendons, blood vessels, etc. (Regardless of the meat used). Meat Meal ? Rendered meat, it may NOT contain hair, hooves, or stomach contents. Rendering is to extract all usable bits from the animal by heating ? such as taking oils from rendering fat. Meal gives a better true weight as is it dried when used. Meat By-Products ? These are elements (cleaned) such as organs, bone, blood and fatty tissue. No hooves or hair should be in by-products. Poultry By-Products ? Clean parts of chicken like organs, feet, and heads but no fecal matter. Poultry By-Product meal ? Rendered by-products and no feathers added. Meat and Bone Meal ? From meat and bone but does not contain hooves, hair, blood, manure, hide pieces, stomach, etc. Tallow ?This is hard white fat that is hard to digest. Animal Digest ? This is NOT the stomach content, as the name would imply. This is chemically broken down animal tissue. It does not contain horn, beaks, hair, hooves, feathers, etc. Fish Meal ? Clean and dried fish. Great source of Omega 3 fatty acids and Salmon meal is great for both Omega 3 and 6!" Higher quality foods use higher quality protein sources. I have to feed a fish based food because I have a cat with serious poultry allergies. try to find a dry food without poultry. Very tough. I also do nothing that says meat by-products just in case there is poultry there. But if the by products are not poutry based, by products also can be organ meats which are rich in many nutrients. Meal is not bad either – it is basically dried meat and gvies a truer weight. Whole meat added to food looses a lot of water when cooked – you can end up with less meat content by weight after the water cooks out than if meal is used. But again, every country is different with what their regulations and descriptions are. You need to know what your country’s rules are for feed manufacturing. Lastly, AAFCO – yes something to look for does does not indicate quality. All this means is it meets the minimum requirements for nutrition. Many garbage brands of food meet the AAFCO requirements.

Becareful of off brand cat food, they can cause allergies, which could lead to hairloss.