Trying to eliminate certain ingredients-I'm confused

When I switched my cat from plain old Iams dry  (they also get canned) to a higher quality dry food, they all did fine except for my Miss.

I started with EVO dry Ancestral grain-free diet-we got about 4 bags eaten and Miss stopped eating. I switched to Now! grain-free, same thing, three bags, then stopped eating, and began puking clear. I went to Natural Balance Grain-Free limited-same thing-3 bags, then problems. 

I did an ingredient comparison and the only thing they ALL contain together is peas. They are all Grain-free. Some of them were gluten/corn/soy free.

Am I looking for the common ingredient? Are they all too high in protein for her or is it possibly the peas?

It sucks. You think you are doing better for your cats and then they start having issues. I am tricking her into eating more wet food, but the simple fact is she will never be an all "wet food" eating cat, and I have tried multiple canned stuff. And won't eat any of it but i/d canned, fancy feast chicken and canned rabbit. And even those she doesn't eat a lot of.

 I know the whole grain debate, but all of her previous foods besides the iams were grain-free, and she didn't do well. So maybe she isn't grain sensitive. Just wonder if it's possible she's pea sensitive!

I'm hoping the i/d will be a solution for her right now, as it doesn't contain any of the previous "offending" ingredients. She had looser stool and occassional blood with the iams, but she never got sick or stopped eating like she did with the others. 

Anyone have a pea sensitive cat?

HI - I have heard of other's on the site saying that their cat's have had bad allergic reaction to "pea's" in hypoallergenic diet's. So it is possible.... hopefully other's will come along and offer their suggestions to your question.. Here is a thread I pullied up for you on the subject of "Pea allergy" - hope you can get to the bottom of this issue with your kitty. It is possible that after a couple of bag's of a particular diet - the allergy symptoms really kick in. You will find many people here with varying opinion's on diet, both grain-free, grain and raw diet's. A diet that work's for one cat might not work for another. Much luck in finding the right brand for you kitty

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/224770/allergic-to-peas

Just to add to the confusion... Hill's Pet prescription food z/d is "hypoallergenic." There are two basic differences between the wet and dry food. The dry contains Brewer's Rice, the wet does not, and the wet contains corn starch, and the dry does not. My cat with allergies turned out to be allergic to brewer's rice, so for a while there why he wasn't doing well on the "hypoallergenic" prescription food was a mystery. :lol3: Another member had their cat do well on the z/d dry, but not the wet - turns out her kitty must be sensitive to corn starch!

Unfortunately it can take six weeks - two months for the sensitivities to appear/resolve, so when working on an elimination diet, you really have to go slowly when switching foods (unless there's a clear and immediate reaction!). :nod:

And some more food for thought.... some cats develop sensitivities, not actual allergies. With allergies, you need to eliminate the source of the problem. But sometimes with sensitivities, you need to rotate, so their systems don't develop those sensitivities - it may be a food works for a few weeks, then you transition over a week to a new one, and you just keep rotating protein sources those every 2/3 weeks or month (depending upon kitty) so the sensitivities don't develop. Given Miss did well initially on those different foods, then had a problem, I have to wonder if they had a different protein source? Is it possible the problem wasn't peas, but that she developed a sensitivity to the protein? :dk:

I completely understand your confusion  because I'v been there, well....  I'm still there ....Like Laurie says , my Lucas does well on the dry z/d but he is allergic to the canned, the corn starch must be the ingredient he is reacting to.  he was doing so well on it for a while, but months later, the rash appeared on his belly.

It is all vert confusing, I want to do another food trial but I will have to wait some time to do it.  Lucas is doing so well that I don';t want to mess things up.  I hope you can find a solution to your kitty's problem.

Hugs!

Tammy

You guys aren't alone. I have the same troubles with Queen Eva. Very very frustrating. I keep her on a daily probiotic, but she is so incredibly finicky, it's been a night mare trying to find foods she will eat, can eat, and that I want her to eat.

It's those three criteria, you know?

I feel your pain! 

Sadie (one of my dachshunds) has a food intolerance (sensitivity) to beef and grains, if she has any sort of beef she gets weepy eyes anywhere between 30 mins to an hour or two after eating it. With grains, she will get itchy within a few days. Since it's an intolerance, we just avoid it, but sometimes she gets treats with beef or grains in them before I realize, it's not a big deal because it's just an intolerance. 

Fynn (another of my dachshunds) on the other hand is allergic to duck. If he gets even the slightest bit of it he develops sebborhea, losing chunks of fur and getting bloody, oozing wounds. To clear it up, we have to give him a bath in a special shampoo everyday for three days, then once a week for three weeks, as well as clipping the hair around the wounds and applying listerine (antiseptic) and gold bond powder on them to dry them out. I wasn't thinking the other day and accidentally bought a bag of duck formula cat food, I decided to still feed it but I feed it in the room where I store my samples for work because the dogs don't have access to that room (because I have my samples in there and there are about 4 boxes of duck based food).

Food trials are helpful, but if it's an actual allergy and not just an intolerance (sensitivity) you will know within a few days because the reaction will be extreme and quick, whereas with intolerance it may take the 6-8 weeks for it to show up. An allergy should ease up once the offending source has been eliminated and if medical treatment has been received (if needed). 

An interesting side note - sometimes the intolerance (or allergy) is not actually to the specific protein source but to the enhancements made to the meat before it's processed. Grocery stores and such will often inject the meat with brine or broth to make it look more plump and appetizing for instance, the animal has a reaction to the enhanced meat so the owner assumes that their pet is allergic to that  but finds if they feed organic or meat that hasn't been enhanced, their pet is fine - an example from a raw elimination diet. 

Originally Posted by nerdrock  

....

An interesting side note - sometimes the intolerance (or allergy) is not actually to the specific protein source but to the enhancements made to the meat before it's processed. Grocery stores and such will often inject the meat with brine or broth to make it look more plump and appetizing for instance, the animal has a reaction to the enhanced meat so the owner assumes that their pet is allergic to that  but finds if they feed organic or meat that hasn't been enhanced, their pet is fine - an example from a raw elimination diet. 

Click to expand...

Expanding on this thought a bit, even a cat who reacts with intolerance or allergy symptoms to plain, non-enhanced raw beef may not actually be reacting to the beef, but to the unnatural change in diet that most cows in our food chain are forced through... instead of eating the grasses they should be, they're eating a primarily grainy diet, very high in corn.

Corn, of course, is high on the feline allergy list.

And the plot thickens. 

AC

Auntie Crazy said:

Expanding on this thought a bit, even a cat who reacts with intolerance or allergy symptoms to plain, non-enhanced raw beef may not actually be reacting to the beef, but to the unnatural change in diet that most cows in our food chain are forced through... instead of eating the grasses they should be, they're eating a primarily grainy diet, very high in corn.

Corn, of course, is high on the feline allergy list.

And the plot thickens. 

AC

Click to expand...

I forgot about that part! 

Also, genetically modified grains (such as corn) that are fed to those animals, overuse of antibiotics and hormones... 

How thick can the plot get? lol