What soft cat food is best for IBD, besides prescription brands?

Many times cats will respond to a prescription diet using hydrolyzed protein. Both Hill's and Royal Canin carry these types, which you can discuss with your vet. If you are looking for a cat food that isn't a prescription food, you will have to do a food trial to attempt to find a diet that Junior's colon will respond to:

"Another approach is the use of the novel protein diets. The idea here is that the patient cannot have an immunological reaction to a protein source it has never experienced. (It takes long-term exposure to a protein before the immune system will respond against it, so a new protein should be safe.) This means using an unusual protein such as rabbit, venison, fish (for dogs) or duck, so long as the patient has not been fed these foods before. Again, it takes about a month to see a good response."

There are many great brands of cat food that you can find with these types of ingredients at the pet store. A homecooked diet is also an option, but it needs to be formulated by a veterinary nutritionist to make sure it is completely balanced with everything that Junior needs.

Also, don't forget to talk to your vet about supplementing B12, if needed in Junior's case.

Here is info on IBD: http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&S=0&C=0&A=598

And here is information on a food trial (it says dogs but the same concept applies for cats!):
http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&S=0&C=0&A=2499