Food problems...

The last time I was here, I was looking for help finding a food to satisfy my allergic cat, Abby. Since then, we've added another member of our family, named Squitty.

Here's the problem- Abby is allergic to fish (scratches off quarter sized patches of skin and fur around her face) and Squitty is intolerant of chicken (gives her runny and frequent stools, with the most awful odor you've ever encountered). Finding a food without fish or fish oil was already hard enough (we're currently on Wellness Super 5), and now that we've determined that the food, and not an underlying medical problem, is causing Squitty's issues, trying to find a food without fish or chicken is driving me crazy.

I have found a few freeze dried or raw prepared diets that might work, but with the costs of shipping (I live in South Lake Tahoe, so just about everything has to be ordered) and feeding two 9 pound cats, we're looking at close to 200 a month for food. Ouch. If that's what has to be done, well then, they are our little daughters, and we'll do it. But I'd like to think there's another way.

Also, picky little divas that they are, neither one of them will really eat canned food. They love it as a treat, but both of them are grazers and won't
eat an entire meal in one sitting. I've tried giving them the bowls for just a few minutes at a time, hoping to force them to eat quickly, but, after a few days, we still had cats that would eat just a few bites at a time, and would meow for food for the rest of the day. I'm worried about leaving canned food out all day for them, so, it seems like I am stuck with dry.

My questions for you guys:

Does anybody know of a dry cat food that doesn't have either fish or chicken in it? Is such a thing even possible?

Failing that, is leaving canned cat food out all day safe for them?

Lastly, in a last ditch effort, can someone direct me to any good resources for homemade diets?

Thanks for all of your help. Ugh, picky cats. With my luck, my next cat will be allergic to whatever ingredient is finally used in the food I do find.

www.naturesvariety.com

they have a lamb formula I like

natural balence makes a venison and pea


raw for two one 11ish and one 13lbs is about 40 a month with supplement s

I think you can safely leave wet food out. If it's all that's available to them, they will start eating it. Then you could be giving beef or lamb foods. Nutro Max Cat has several flavors that would work. They also have duck, venison and veal foods.

Or the Natural Balance Venison and Peas dry food would be good. It's designed to circumvent existing allergies.

My only problem is that the foods listed so far have fish oil in them- will that bother Abby's fish allergies? Or is it such a small concentration that it won't matter?

The Natural Balance venison and peas doesn't contain fish oil; it has canola oil, instead. The ingredient list is here:

http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/cat...as/VenCat.html

I think I saw some Wellness dry 'single protein' , or something similar, at the store yesterday. I'm not familar with it, though. Edited to add: NEVERMIND, sorry... I was wrong. I was thinking of something else.

When mine are less than enthusiastic about their wet food, maybe 20% of it will be left and sit for a couple of hours. It might get a little nasty all day...but I've never had a problem with 2-3 hours, with a reasonable temperature in the house. Raw, on the other hand - I hover over them to pick it up after 20 minutes.

Forgive me if I missed a detail...but when they pick at the wet - do they have dry out all the time? I've noticed that even if I just let the dry go empty at some point overnight, I have more team players in the morning. They act like if they had to go 2 hours without a nibble they're ready for a feast. Your mileage may vary.

With my Kandie and Gigi if it is far enough down it doesnt cause issues..

Wow, the venison and green pea sounds like a great choice- I'll order some today and tell you guys how it turns out. Somehow I thought I had read that it had salmon oil in it. Hmm. Maybe that's what reading every single ingredient label for more than 50 brands of food will do to you.

When I tried switching to wet, I eliminated the dry food altogether and so the only thing they got was their bowl of wet in the morning and at night. Still no dice. They'd ravenously scarf two or three bites, and then they were done. Though they came back lookign for it every half an hour or so. I'm telling you, my cats make diva celebrities look low maintenance. Speaking of which.. I should probably get around to posting some pictures of them .