Anything in these ingredients that might trigger an allergy

The highest allergen ingredients are: rice, corn gluten meal and soy protein.
But honestly allergies can be to anything. She could be allergic to chicken for all we know. It may be best to put her on a diet of either chicken and rice or a specifically hypoallergenic diet.

Egg is a known allergen as well. And actually, even though its a very common ingredient, many cats are allergic to chicken.

From what I understand, cats are usually put on severely limited ingredient recipes, and then ingredients are added back in one by one and stopped when an offending one is found. *shrugs*

I don't know if you feed canned food or not, but there are some that you may want to try. Before Grain makes single protein canned foods - the "96% beef" or "96% turkey" are, IMO, good options for a cat who has allergies. I think that EVO & Nature's Variety also make some 95% meat foods...however Before Grain is the lowest carb of the three.

Fromm makes a few dry foods that don't have chicken or corn in them. ZiwiPeak has a venison flavor, which may also work.

Mikey is allergic to corn, as well as a few other things. If you are interested, his story is on http://www.ibdkitties.net/rawthriving.html as is Panther's, another of my cats with allergy issues. http://ibdkitties.net/ParentsSpeak.html also has topics focusing on allergies.

I can see several ingredients in this list that could cause potential issues, Misty. And that powdered cellulose truly made me wince (powdered cellulose is literally sawdust ).

Beyond allergies themselves are food intolerances, which could be provoked by any number of additives (which this food has a lot of). You can read Switching Foods on the LittleBigCat.com site for more info on allergies and intolerances.

I would do as FurryFriends suggest and switch to a grain-free canned with a limited number of ingredients. Once Cindy's system is recovered, you can start feeding a variety of canned products, which will keep your two furkids from becoming fixated on any one product (a problem if they change or stop producing it) and will protect them from potential quality control issues by diluting them.

Good luck!

AC

Well, powdered cellulose is not "literally" saw dust. It is a common ingredient in food manufacturer for humans as an anti-caking agent or thickener like starch (put in bread, shredded cheese, mustards, powdered milk, etc), and cellulose is the natural material in plant cell walls and as such is the most common organic component on the planet. I don't see how it would be an allergen, as it should pass undigested as insoluble fiber (makes for tootsie roll poops heh).

Its not sawdust!

Here, I'll go to my fridge. Kraft Natural Italian Five-Cheese shredded... omg, what's that, cellulose powder. Sargento Reduced-Fat Colby Jack slices... cellulose powder. Its probably in my salad dressings and cereals too, but I'm too lazy to go through them all, but you'll find the same in your fridge.

Some people intentionally take cellulose powder to help with their bowels as an insoluble fiber supplement, but either way since there is no way a carnivore could hope to digest it, it can't act as an allergen. Sorry, I just get annoyed when false rumors start to circulate.

They do this with humans sometimes, when there's an allergy they can't track down--

Start with a single-ingredient diet. For humans, usually it's rice or corn. See if the symptoms go away. If they do, then whatever you're eating is not the allergen. Gradually add more ingredients. Whatever you just added when the symptoms come back is your allergen.

It's called an "elimination diet". I'm not sure if it can be done with cat food, but it might be worth a try.

I would look for foods that don't contain grains, veggies or fruits (or have very little) and have a short ingredient list. Searching PetFoodDirect.com for "grain-free canned" is a great way to start, and if you use your browser's 'tab' function, you can actually compare the food ingredients and % analysis side by side. The Feline-Nutrition.org site has a great "Reading a Pet Food Ingredient Label" article under their "Nutrition" section that will help you figure out from the ingredients and analysis which foods may be healthier.

In addition, there are several tricks you can use to entice your cat to eat something new. CatInfo.org has a helpful article (Transitioning) that goes into a lot of detail. I'm sure you'll find some solid tips in there, and in the meantime, here's a list of things you can try:

Drip a bit of tuna juice over the new wet food, or sprinkle catnip, Parmesan Cheese, Forti Flora flakes, fish food flakes (weird, but it works), or some crumbled up freeze-dried meat treats (

Whole Life's chicken works wonderfully on my kitties) over the food. Hope some of this info helps you, Misty!

AC

It's hard, I know, Misty. We love and adore them and don't want them unhappy for even two seconds. (I respond faster to a cat's cry than I do my phone ringing. ) But we have to be stronger, for their benefit.

I'm currently reading "Not Fit For A Dog!" by Michael W. Fox, B.Vet. Med., Ph.D., D.Sc., M.R.C.V.S. (what a mouthful!) and the things done to kibble to deliberately addict our pets and promote overeating makes for some of the most disgusting (and blood-pressure-raising) reading I've encountered in a while. You're doing the right thing by standing firm! In fact, go throw the bag away so you're not tempted to give in.

And come back here any time you need some positive reinforcement.

AC

(the website wont let me post without text down here)

Just another quick one here: brewer's yeast can be an allergy trigger too.

Does this schedule include free-fed dry?

This book isn't the easiest read, both because of the content and because the author seems to have trouble connecting his thoughts in a logical, consistent manner. The information is relevant and sometimes riveting, but not always presented in a linear format.

I'm now reading Susan Thixton's "Buyer Beware: The Crimes, Lies and Truth About Pet Food". So far, it's living up to it's reviews as being the most comprehensive and easy to read of the books devoted to exposing the pet food industry's ingredient sourcing and manufacturing process practices.

I've also read Ann Martin's latest version of her, "Food Pets Die For: Shocking Facts About Pet Food" book. I found it rather shallow and learned almost nothing I didn't already know. The only information I gleaned from that book was a better understanding of the complexity and tightness of big agriculture, the pet food industry and the agencies that are supposed to be watching over the two... and none of that is truly helpful. Once you know they're all keeping each other in business (which I was aware of before getting the book), the rest is superfluous. Additionally, while I'm certain Ann has a great deal of knowledge around the PFI, she hasn't conducted the same due diligence on feline nutrition; the book contains several "recipes" for cats that are inappropriate, unbalanced and potentially dangerous in the long term. They include not just fruits and veggies, but grains! , nearly everything is cooked, and there's not a supplement in sight, not even taurine which everyone knows - or should know by now - is destroyed by cooking and is one of the many vital amino acids cats must obtain through their diet.

If you'd like to give your hubby something that talks specifically about kibble and the concerns around feeding it, I'd recommend printing off the 18 page printer-friendly version of CatInfo.org, as well as Dr. Pierson's separate Urinary Tract Health, Feline Diabetes and Feline Obesity articles.

Alternatively, you could purchase Dr. Hodgkins', "Your Cat: Simple New Secrets to a Longer, Stronger Life" although, of course, that book covers far more than just the detrimental aspects of feeding kibble.

- - - - - -

Well goodness, this post turned into a book review. Hope you don't mind, Misty! (I'm aware I sometimes cover topics more thoroughly than folks are actually looking for; I'm working on that. )

AC

Am I reading this correctly... your cats are each eating three ounces of food per day?

That's about half what I would expect them to be eating. Is this because of the pickiness you're trying to deal with, or is this how much you're offering them?

AC

This is not true. Cats cannot go very long without any food before their organs begin to shut down. In three days the liver will begin to fail, and the kidneys will begin to suffer from dehydration, but the debilitating process starts much sooner than three days.

It is very dangerous to try to force a cat to eat something by making him/her starve until s/he gets hungry enough.

The cat will not "eat when s/he gets hungry enough". Instead, s/he will become so sick and dehydrated from lack of food, s/he will just give up.

I would not advise anyone ever to force a cat to go hungry in order to force the cat to eat something you want him/her to eat.

I think what Minka meant is that some loving owners are afraid of their cats skipping even a single meal, and normal kitties will lower standards when hungry... certainty I don't think anyone would endorse allowing a cat to go multiple days without food if for some odd reason a cat would starve itself rather than eat the food provided.

When my cat Mr Grey started having allergy symptoms, my vet said to try switching to a food with no chicken, fish, or grains. He was on grain free already though. There are not very many dry foods without chicken/fish/grains however if you use dry. There are plenty of canned ones though. Most of my cats refuse to eat canned unfortunately.

I never suggested going days without food... I specifically said to feed a small amount of the food they will eat every 12 hours.
A cat will Not just randomly starve itself if it is healthy. If a cat gets out or runs away, it doesn't just lay around until it dies, it Tries to survive. It will search for food in whatever way it can.

^Exactly.



Dr Pierson:
"The single biggest mistake I see people make time and again is to say that their cat "won't touch" the new food and then panic and fill up the bowl with dry food."

"For 'resistant-to-change' cats, you will need to use the normal sensation of hunger to help with the transition. For this reason, it is very important to stop free-feeding dry food. This is the first, and very critical, step. You need to establish set mealtimes. They are not going to try anything new if their bowl of junk food is in front of them 24/7.

Cats do not need food available at all times. It really is okay for them to experience a hunger pain! That said, it was very hard for me to listen to my cats begging for food even though I was strong in my conviction that I was heading them in the best direction for optimal health. It truly was a stressful time for me and them. Actually, I think it was harder on me! This is where many people fail and just give in and fill up the dry food bowl. There were a few times when I had to call my 'sponsor' and was instructed to "just leave the house if you can't take looking into those eyes!" I left the house. Those pitiful little cries of "I have not had food for two WHOLE hours!" were hard to take. But, lo and behold, they were just fine when I returned. Not one cat had died from hunger.

On the other hand, do not attempt to withhold food for long periods of time (greater than 24 hours) with the hope that your cat will choose the new food. You need to ‘convince’ them that a high quality canned food really is good for them, rather than to try starving them into it - which does not work anyway. Allowing a cat to go without food - especially an overweight cat - for a long period of time (greater than 48 hours) can be quite dangerous and may result in hepatic lipidosis (fatty liver disease)."

"If your cat has been eating dry food on a free-choice basis, take up the food and establish a schedule of two - three times per day feedings. I really do prefer just twice-daily feedings when trying to transition them. A normal, healthy hunger response after 12 hours goes a long way to convince them to try something new."

(Bold is mine)

Dr Pierson even recommends using periods of MORE than 12 hours without food to convince a cat to eat what you want.

That's the thing, putting down a different food is kinda like begging; if you give in to begging, even only Sometimes, it still reinforces begging because the cat knows there is the Chance that she might get a different food. I totally understand wanting to give variety and give what the cat wants that day, which is why I feed 3 different flavors of food. Can I guess exactly what he wants that day? No. But he'll be perfectly alright if a couple times a week he has to eat what he doesn't want that day. (It helps that he needs to lose weight anyways. )

If you have dry food out all day (even a measured amount, meaning you dont refill till the next day), there's just no way you are going to convince her to eat more/all wet. You have to implement meal times otherwise she always has food so she has no motivation to eat the wet.
If you put down wet, and she Knows there is no other food available, that is a Huge motivator for persuasion. (See my previous posts from Dr. Pierson or visit her website yourself catinfo.org)

Also, if one cat is stealing another cats food, you may have to separate them during meal time.

Depends on the cat ...

In my house wet just means I deduct 1/8-1/4 cup of dry per feeding( remember I have 4 eating ) ...

for picky wet eaters ... try different flavors and textures after years of fighting with Zoey I found a few she loves ... the others were easy

When I had five or more kitties ... meals were in multiple rooms to avoid "piggys"

That is pretty much the way it goes with cats and dogs if the allergies are as severe as the OP indicated. Elimination is the key to it. I do believe there are extensive and very expensive tests one can put the animals through to *try* and determine what the allergen is.

The OP did not indicate if a veterinarian was involved but I would imagine the vet would put the puss on a prescription diet and go from there. But them I'm not even positive about that.