Healthy Dry Food Brand?

Hi Violet -

What a shame your kitty is sensitive to one of a cat's favorite foods - poultry!
Are you 100% sure it is the poultry she is sensitive to? I ask, because so many foods have so many fillers, both chemical and "natural". that it could be something else triggering the response.

On the dry, there are several good foods, but you'll need to really read the labels. We recently changed our cats over to Blue Buffalo dry cat food. We always buy the chicken flavor, but they have a salmon and rice flavor as well.
http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Buffalo-S...9048199&sr=8-8


I do know that Eukanuba makes a very good dry cat food with lamb and rice, which is tolerated by almost every cat.
http://www.amazon.com/Eukanuba-Adult...9048257&sr=1-2
We had a cat with a super sensitive tummy, and she tolerated this food very well, and loved it. (We no longer have that kitty.) Right now, while we use Blue as their daily food, we still use Eukanuba for their treat ball (plastic ball you fill with dry treats or food that they have to roll around to get the food out - it is fun for them as well as rewarding).

I'd read the labels carefully, and stay away from fillers such as grains or by products whenever you can. One of our cats is doing so much better now on his itchy skin, now that we stopped feeding him Purina Naturals (natural is good right? Not always! Like our old pastor used to say, snakes are natural too, and we don't want them either!). It has an amazing amount of grain in it, with a high gluten content. It was making him scratch like crazy. The Blue Buffalo foods do not have high grain contents, and he has all but stopped biting himself! Cats in the natural do not go and eat corn or wheat or other grains - they eat grass (green kind), small mammals and such. The pet food mfgs seem to just use it for filler to make the actual meat go a lot farther, much like the fillers in human foods.

Good luck to you!

Hi Violet! Can you tell me if the allergy is strictly a protein allergy or not? If my company does not have a kibble that will work for your meezer, maybe I can help you find one that will. I'll check around an send you a PM. I had a woman today that wanted a lamb and rice wet food for her senior cat. I found her one but it was a competitors brand but her senior meezer will be better off for it

I don't know if you are looking for differant treats at all, but the freeze dried treats do come in a variety of differant meats. http://www.petfooddirect.com/Categor...s/Freeze-Dried lists several differant brands that make such treats. I actually get the same brands, but get the dog treat bag instead - they are actually much cheaper per ounce!

There are some good (grain free) brands of dry food that do make poultry free foods, and aren't fish (something I avoid for cats, especially males).

Ziwipeak is one: http://www.petfooddirect.com/Product...t-Dry-Cat-Food

Venison - Meat, Hoki Fish, Venison - Liver, Tripe, Heart & Kidney, Chickory Syrup, Green-lipped and Blue Mussel, Hoki Fish Oil, Lecithin, Kelp, Vitamins & Minerals, Naturally preserved with Mixed Tocopherals, Additives: Vit. D3, Vit. E, Copper.


Ziwipeak Lamb: http://www.petfooddirect.com/Product...t-Dry-Cat-Food

Lamb - Meat, Liver, Tripe, Heart & Kidney, Chickory Syrup, Green-lipped and Blue Mussel, Hoki Fish Oil, Lecithin, Kelp, Vitamins & Minerals, Naturally preserved with Mixed Tocopherals, Additives: Vit. D3, Vit. E, Copper.


Nature's Variety Prairie Lamb (note, this is quite high carb, so I don't know if that is something you are trying to avoid or not. http://www.petfooddirect.com/Product...y-Dry-Cat-Food

Lamb Meal, Canola Oil, Oatmeal, Brown Rice, Ground Flaxseeds, Montmorillonite Clay, Natural Lamb Flavor, Sun-Cured Alfalfa Meal, Menhaden Fish Meal, Potassium Chloride, Sea Salt, DL-Methionine, Vitamins (Choline Chloride, Vitamin E Supplement, Ascorbic Acid, Biotin, Niacin Supplement, Vitamin A Acetate, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Carotene, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid), Minerals (Zinc Proteinate, Iron Proteinate, Manganese Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, Sodium Selenite, Ethylenediamine Dihydriodide), Taurine, Direct-Fed Microorganisms (Saccharomyces Cerevisiae Yeast Culture, Dried Enterococcus Faecium Fermentation Product, Dried Lactobacillus Acidophilus Fermentation Product, Dried Aspergillus Niger Fermentation Extract, Dried Trichoderma Longibrachiatum Fermentation Extract, Dried Bacillus Subtilis Fermentation Extract), Inulin, Flaxseed Oil, Apples, Cranberries, Mixed Tocopherols with Citric Acid (a natural preservative), Rosemary Extract, Freeze Dried Lamb, Freeze Dried Lamb Heart, Freeze Dried Lamb Liver, Pumpkinseeds, Carrots, Ground Lamb Bone, Butternut Squash, Chicken Eggs, Broccoli, Lettuce, Spinach, Dried Kelp, Salmon Oil, Apple Cider Vinegar, Parsley, Honey, Blueberries, Alfalfa Sprouts, Persimmons, Olive Oil, Duck Eggs, Pheasant Eggs, Quail Eggs, Rosemary, Sage, Clove

Sounds like you've got it under control. The reason I asked if it was strictly protein or not is because I've found that like dogs, some cats will develop a specific protein allergy but not be allergic to derivatives of the protein. Go figure! I don't know why but I'm always surprised when someone tells me their animal can't have a particular protein but derivatives of the same protein are okay.

I'll throw something in the mix here that is from my own experience with pet allergies. For YEARS we thought my dog had a certain food allergy that it turns out he does not! We do know he is allergic to corn - and it's so hard to find food with out it all as there are so many sneaky ways they put it in. And 8 years ago when all of the "grain free" wasn't around it was a NIGHTMARE! In any case we also started thinking he was developing a chicken allergy about 3 years ago so we switched him to lamb mostly but sometimes duck etc.. Then I ran across a wonderful lady who taught me a TON about pet food. She let me know that a lot of companies plump up their chicken meat by injecting it with "solution" - just think about that packaged chicken you buy at the store and it says may be enhanced with (whatever). Well,most of the time that mystery "solution" is high fructose corn syrup!!! SOOO I switched food to a brand that she knew didn't do that and BINGO - my dog has been eating CHICKEN for 2yrs with NO TROUBLE!!!! This is why I hate pet food companies - they use cheap product and it's poison And out babies suffer.

After many years of my dog being on Innova and various other foods with grain in it I switched to grain free. The difference is amazing! He had always had allergies even on Ca Natural. He had mostly dandruff, and on his black coat it was quite noticable. I switched to Merricks after getting away from the Innova products and it got worst. His coat was even more flaky, dry and tons of shedding. Even after a bath he had no shine to his coat.
I finally decided to go grain free even though he is 11 yo and I wish I did this years ago. He is on Acana Pacifica which is by the makers of Orijen just has a slightly lower protein level. He has been on it for 2 months now and his coat is super shiny. The dandruff is all gone, no itchy skin and less shedding. I love the Acana and Orijen brands and my cats and dog are all on it for the dry food. I do give the cats a little grain in food just to prevent UTI's as I do have a male cat, but has never had an issue so far.

Personally I feed the Orijen. I am constantly looking up the food companies and doing research on them. There are a few out there that are okay...I guess you can find something about all of them really.

http://www.nutrisourcedogfood.com/purevita/grain_free

http://www.doctorsfinest.com/default.asp

http://precisepet.com/

http://www.petcurean.com/index.php?page_id=124