Itching--food allergy?

Harley is our new cat. We adopted him from Petsmart about 3 weeks ago. Our local shelter places their cats at this Petsmart. I do not know how long Harley was at Petsmart but I do know he was brought into the shelter in February. I know at Petsmart he was eating Authority, but I have no idea about the shelter.

Harley is very shy right now so it's just been in the last week that I have truly spent quality time with him (he hid under the bed 90% of the first 2 weeks)

I realize he is itching--In front of both ears. I looked in his ears today and besides alittle ear wax (hubby and I do plan to use the ear wash tomorrow) they seem fine. On the right side you can definitely see that the hair is thinning in front of the ear, between the ear and his eye--and on closer inspection you can see it on the left side.

If this was a food allergy would it only present itself in one place? If so, where do I begin on figuring out what the allergy is to. If not, what could it be?

He is now eating a mix of authority and nutro max cat dry. As well as nutro Max cat wet in the evenings (about 1.75 oz)

**Other cat is having no itching issues.

Thanks
Leslie

has the vet checked this kitten out for mites??

He was vet checked at the shelter and no mites.

I'm no vet but Jack had mites something awful when we found him, which led to a nasty yeast infection so I can pretty much spot the dirt of mites.

His ears are very clear besides a little wax.

Like I said though we will use the wash tomorrow and get a better look, I could be ultra paranoid that its something bigger than it is--perhaps the wax is bugging him.

Leslie

Did you change his food??

I switched Harley from an all authority diet to, authority nutro max cat mix (dry) and nutro max cat wet.

Jack has lots of the fur in that area, Harley looks like your black and white cat.

Leslie

my patchy has food allergies and it presents as severe shedding (she does hate to be brushed tho lol) and black waxy build up in her ears that we thought was mites at first. when we first brought her home from the shelter, we fed her everything under the sun b/c she only weighed 4lb (she was 7yrs old) and it exacerbated the allergies causing her her ears to get REALLY nasty and she started scratching big bloody patches (not the origin of her name, fyi lol) and we were afraid parts of her ears would have to be removed. (they didnt, thankfully!! )

your kitty could have food allergies or regular allergies. id take him to the vet just to be sure before his ears get too bad.