Lesser evil? Potato vs chicken meal

So I used to feed my cat cheap grocery store kibble when I was a dumb kid but he began to develop a bad skin condition so I took him to the vet. He was constantly scratching and biting himself leaving small sores that turned into nasty scabs. The vet said it was an allergy to either fish meal, grains or fleas. His advice was switch to grain free kibble with no added fish meal and use flea treatments every 3 weeks in addition to a cortisone injection given during that visit to reduce itching.

He currently is eating natures variety instinct and he has done well on it, overall health is good, shiny silky coat and his skin has totally improved. Why bother switching food when this one is working? Well I initially choose it because it had few additives and zero grain/potato products so I overlooked the chicken meal since every other brand that lists real meat as the first ingredient and was grain free has fish meal and potato/pea products loading it with carbs. My issue is that I am no longer ok with the first ingredient being chicken meal and want to switch his kibble, making homemade food is not something I can do and he only likes the gravy in canned food and I know that is not enough nutrition for him (he refuses the chunks of meat and dislikes pate).

I know the best way is to slowly introduce the new food but my question is what is the lesser of the two evils, potato/pea products that don't belong in his diet or chicken meal as the first ingredient? I was looking at Halo grain free kibble, which is a tiny bit lower in protein than natures variety but the protein source is a whole meat but does contain sweet potato and peas with 25% CHO.

I would stick with Nature's Variety. It has less carbs than the other brand and the allergies are gone.

According to the nature's variety website they use the term "meal" to describe the fact that it is the whole animal and should not be confused with generic meat meal that is used by other pet food companies.

Chicken meal is the clean combination of the flesh and skin of chicken with the moisture removed. Our high-quality chicken meal is an excellent source of highly digestible, lean meat protein, which never contains added growth hormones. High quality, protein specific meals are simply a dried and more concentrated form of the meat, poultry or fish protein. It is important to make sure the meal is protein specific (Beef Meal, Lamb Meal), and not generic like Meat Meal or By-Product Meal which by definition can contain any species of animal.

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I like the nature's variety line and my guy likes their wet food. He was also a gravy licker and I was actually able to transition him to wet using their pride line (also tiki cat was another). During this transition I used the Nature's Variety LID Turkey kibble as a topper, this is a really good method for getting a stubborn dry food addict to try wet food. Even if he just eats the kibble on top he is getting used to the wet and I find they will eventually start trying the wet. Another trick that has worked for a lot of "gravy lickers" is to blend the wet food into a gravy like consistency. You can just use a cheap hamilton beach blender for this. 

I would advise you to keep trying with the wet, I have been trying to get my guy to not just lick the gravy since he was a kitten and after five years of being stubborn he is now on 100 percent wet. It took me a good 6 months to transition him. I would also say that the nature's variety kibble is good as far as dry foods go and it did not cause any flare ups in my guy who either has IBD or IBS and I still give a bit to my cats as a treat. I would also look into trying their limited ingredient dry as it is really great for cats with allergies and stomach issues. And IMO nature's variety is much better than the Halo specifically for cats with allergies. 

Thanks guys

Franksmom I had purposely avoided the companies own websites on purpose to get an unbiased idea of the food quality and was doing my research elsewhere but it now seems I should have looked there first. Also thanks for the wet food transition ideas.

What is the problem with chicken meal?

Apparently something I didnt knew.

Stefan, the main issue (in my opinion) is that meal (of any kind) is a rendered product. In the U.S., that means that it's made not only from the left-overs of carcasses, but can include out-of-date chicken from restaurants and supermarkets, as an example. Everything is thrown into the vats, including the saran wrap and styrofoam, etc. It is a high protein concentrated food, but can contain unhealthy toxins.

That said... I'd definitely choose chicken meal over peas/potatoes. Whenever a dry food lists "chicken" as the first ingredient, that's wet weight. So any "meal" that comes after it - pea protein, whatever - means that the bulk of the protein comes from that dry source. I'd prefer to feed the species-appropriate food that comes from an animal (given that ANY meal in cat food is typically made from stuff that wasn't good enough to use for human consumption).

LDG said:

Stefan, the main issue (in my opinion) is that meal (of any kind) is a rendered product. In the U.S., that means that it's made not only from the left-overs of carcasses, but can include out-of-date chicken from restaurants and supermarkets, as an example. Everything is thrown into the vats, including the saran wrap and styrofoam, etc. It is a high protein concentrated food, but can contain unhealthy toxins.

That said... I'd definitely choose chicken meal over peas/potatoes. Whenever a dry food lists "chicken" as the first ingredient, that's wet weight. So any "meal" that comes after it - pea protein, whatever - means that the bulk of the protein comes from that dry source. I'd prefer to feed the species-appropriate food that comes from an animal (given that ANY meal in cat food is typically made from stuff that wasn't good enough to use for human consumption).

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LDG according to the NV website they use the term meal because they use the whole animal. According to them they use only high quality meat. From everything I have read they are a fairly good pet food company so I am inclined to believe them. 

The term "meal" as used by the pet food industry is a rendered product that MAY legally contain 4D meats. Reading about what is allowed in pet foods is downright scary. That's not to say that every "meal" is terrible, but there's just no way to know the quality of the ingredients that went into it. I have a hard time trusting any pet food manufacturer, especially the big companies.

...and I wasn't talking about NV's meal sourcing, just addressing Stefan's question about what the issue with meal is or can be.

LDG said:

...and I wasn't talking about NV's meal sourcing, just addressing Stefan's question about what the issue with meal is or can be.

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cool I was just worried about it since I feed NV and was hoping there was no information on them using bad meat.