Cat can't eat poultry... what food to feed her and other two cats

    We are trying to figure out what to feed our three cats. Right now we feed them two meals a day and a bedtime snack. The meals are 2- 2.5 oz friskies seafood varieties and the snack is less than 1/3 cup meow mix. One cat is about a year and a half and the other two, which are 6 1/2 months, are her babies. We also leave out a dish of dry for the kittens to free feed ( in a place where the mom can't get to it). 

   When we first got them the mom, Bub, had seriously loose stools- we figured out that she has trouble with poultry. So we looked through the friskies varieties and decided on the seafood pate varieties ( 13 oz cans). They still have some poultry in them, but it is much farther down the list. The meow mix has a lot of poultry in it, but it doesn't seem to bother her much. 

  Last week we fed them the salmon variety all week and all three of them developed really loose and stinky stools. We switched them back to the mariner's catch variety and they have gotten better, still stinky, but firm. Yesterday we feed them the whitefish variety and the little girl ( who has always been more picky) threw up and refused to eat anything all night. This morning she was ravenous. 

    I am wondering what varieties/ brands of canned food are best for a cat who can't eat poultry but aren't too expensive. Also, are there any dry foods without poultry? I did some looking but it seemed that all of them had poultry.  

It is very difficult to find dry foods without chicken. The ones without chicken are mostly fish or non-animal based proteins, neither of which is good to feed.

As for wet foods, your best bets for foods without chicken are going to be the 95%+ meat foods. The cheapest of those is probably Hound & Gatos, especially in the 13oz can, which I have found locally for $1.99 a can. Friskies is the least expensive of the okay foods (as long as you stick to the non-fish pate versions), so anything better is going to cost more.

Is there any way that you can feed the kitties different foods, meaning give Bub a different food than her babies who don't need the non-chicken foods?

    We do feed them wet food separately! We are proud that we trained them to eat only out of their own dishes.At first the kittens physically couldn't eat the pate and needed the shreds, which all had way to much poultry in them for Bub.

    Unfortunately I am thinking at least one of the kittens ( maybe both) can't handle the poultry either. It weird because they are okay for the first day or two before it gets to them.

   I have to ask you said 'as long as you stick to non-fish pate versions' - what is wrong with the fish versions? That's what we feed them

Here's a link to an article written by a vet on why too much fish can be dangerous for cats. http://www.littlebigcat.com/nutrition/why-fish-is-dangerous-for-cats/

you could try the Friskies TURKEY pates.  It's a whole different bird!  OR, it could be the meow mix that's causing the problem, rather than the chicken .  Meow mix is really a terrible dry food, as far as the ingredients, although cats love it .  But it's full of things that a lot of cats have problems digesting. 

Fancy Feast CLASSICS has some BEEF flavors, although they won't be as inexpensive as Friskies but they do offer coupons often, and go on sale often.  Hounds and Gatos is an extremely good food, IF you can find it.  They don't sell it in my area

Thank you vball91! I'll have to try to get some other foods for them to get them off all fish varieties. 

Mrs.Greenjeens- We were on a different dry  food originally, some kitten mix and we still had the problems. Thank you for the suggestion though. We decided we are actually going to try some new dry food this week and just donate the remainder of the meow mix bag to the local shelter (if they'll take an open bag) once we find one the kitties like.  We didn't realize how bad meow mix was until after we bought it Also we had tried the turkey... notice how I refer to it as a 'poultry' issue... we think the kitties are just jealous that they can't fly like the birds that we were making them eat  We will definately take a look at the FF.

My cousin just told me about a specialty pet food shop in the area, I may just go there and spend a few hours reading labels and comparing prices 

I think you need to read labels if your cat really can't eat chicken. I say this as one who is dealing with a suspected chicken sensitivity and has spent the last three weeks visiting pet stores and reading labels. Some things I've learned.

1. Most canned cat foods contain at least some chicken, even if the label says turkey or something else. Check the ingredients; that is where you'll find the chicken.

2. I don't feed dry food, but want to have some on hand for snacks. It's pretty darn hard to find dry food without some form of chicken.

3. If you are also trying to avoid fish, as I am, options are even more limited.

I agree with the recommendation for Hounds and Gatos. I ordered some online and am waiting for delivery to try. You might also look at a brand called Wild Calling. They are all singe-source protein without a lot of other junk. Other brands I am feeding, because I'm avoiding both chicken and fish right now, include Nature's Variety Instinct Limited Ingredient Diet, Party Animal, and Pure Vita. None of these are inexpensive, but I have a cat with some serious issues.

Orijen makes a dry food without chicken - it's the Regional Red variety. I've heard a lot of cats really like it. I am planning to purchase a small bag to have on hand as treats.

Good luck!

Natural balance has some alternative formulas

Nature's variety Instinct has a venison formula.

I've been looking around this weekend and I think I am actually going to try raw/homemade! It is just too hard/expensive to find chicken free food. My husband and I don't think we will mind the extra effort it will take to make their food once we know what we are doing.  Thank you all for your help!

Sheba has a beef entree. It's a good cheaper brand (I feed it, Friskies, and sometimes Fancy Feast CLASSICS.) I use to feed meow mix wet but it's to fishy. (All of their flavors are loaded with fish.)

At Walmart they sell a 24 pack of 3 ounce cans for right under $12. But that has different flavors. I can't remember how much they are a can at walmart but I bought some today at the dollar general for 60 cents a can.

pisces7386 said:

 
I've been looking around this weekend and I think I am actually going to try raw/homemade! It is just too hard/expensive to find chicken free food. My husband and I don't think we will mind the extra effort it will take to make their food once we know what we are doing.  Thank you all for your help!

Click to expand...

Interestingly enough, cats who can't handle chicken (or turkey ) in canned food sometimes have no problems with it in RAW form.  Can't tell you why, but that's been the case with a few cats here on TCS.  But, whatever, going raw certainly allows you to control the ingredients.  Until you "know what you are doing", you can buy commercially prepared 100% nutritionally complete raw food for your furbabies.  That's what I did, because I was petrified that I wouldn't be able to figure it all out .   Most natural pet stores sell frozen Stella and Chewy's, Nature's Variety and Primal.  Some sell Bravo too, although you need to be careful with the Bravo because not all of it is 100% nutritionally complete...you just have to look at which one you are buying. 

Have you seen our Raw/Homemade Resources Thread:  Here it is:  http://www.thecatsite.com/t/263955/helpful-resources-raw-home-cooked-cat-food-forum

Thank you Mrsgreenjeens- After I posted this thread my research led me to the whole raw option and I posted a thread over there. I am going to try chicken after we've made a successful transition to raw without the chicken. that way if we have problems we can tell if it is the raw or the chicken. I am going to start with the raw made easy mixes from feline's pride and transition into recipes with locally sourced ingredients after I get the hang of it ( hopefully  )

pisces7386 said:

 
Thank you Mrsgreenjeens- After I posted this thread my research led me to the whole raw option and I posted a thread over there. I am going to try chicken after we've made a successful transition to raw without the chicken. that way if we have problems we can tell if it is the raw or the chicken. I am going to start with the raw made easy mixes from feline's pride and transition into recipes with locally sourced ingredients after I get the hang of it ( hopefully 

)

Click to expand...

Sounds like a good plan

I live in the Seattle area. Several independent pet stores and even Whole Foods, carry a brand from Portland, OR called RAD. It is a frozen raw food that comes in chicken, turkey and lamb. I started feeding it to our Murray two years ago when he was two. He took to it right away. It really is a superior food that works for him. He has a lustrous coat with little shedding. One of the things you'll notice is their stools are less stinky. He sometimes eats it too fast and then barfs it up (our vet calls this scarf and barf). I leave fresh water out for him because I rarely see him drink from it. He seems to get adequate moisture from the RAD food. He has had no UTIs.
Yes, the food is expensive. I think it's a good investment if it keeps him healthy. We have a 14 year old female, Maggie, who showed no interest in the raw food. She has always been finicky about wet food. I've gone through many premium foods for her. I finally found Max cat at Petsmart. She will eat most of it.
It pains me to read so many people are feeding their cats the cheapest dry and wet foods.
I see cats that have been surrendered to our no-kill shelter where I volunteer as an adoption counselor. The cats usually have dull coats with dandruff.
A good book to read about cat nutrition is Natural Nutrition for Cats by Kymythy Schultze.
Both of our cats pass their vet exams with flying colors. Our vet does sell the Royal Canin and Science Diet prescription foods. They've never said anything negative about feeding raw food.
Hope this encourages you to try it.

Murr7Maggiom said:

I live in the Seattle area. Several independent pet stores and even Whole Foods, carry a brand from Portland, OR called RAD.

Click to expand...

RAD is a wonderful commercially prepared raw food .  I used to feed it.  Problem is, it  isn't not readily available in most places .  I live in the west, and had to have it specially ordered, and as you stated, it's already quite expensive.  With a special order, I had to order it by the case.  which wasn't optimal considering all the freezer space it took up.  Then my cats got tired of it halfway thru the last case , so I ended up giving a lot of it away.    Anyway, that's why I never mention Rad as something you can normally find locally.  They don't even sell in the Chicago area, or at least they didn't when I first stated feeding raw.