Taurine supplement for baby food?

I have a very old, completely wild feral who has lived on my property for years. She is fixed, but has remained untrappable, or I guess I should say retrappable, under any circumstances. I did go and get the fish net as was recommended before, but have not tried to use it yet due to her hypervigilance.  I cannot touch her at all.  Long story short......

I suspect kidney issues, not necessarily diabetes, who knows what else. She probably does not have a lot of time and when the window of opportunity presents itself I will definitely take her to the vet to be humanely released. In the meantime, she stopped eating, so I began to feed Gerber's Stage 2 jarred meats, along with some organic jarred chicken baby food.  I have tried to intersperse real wet cat food in the meantime, but I do suspect that she is holding out for the baby food to a degree, and I don't begrudge her that after all these years.  In other threads, I did note the names of some wet foods that other members have used to try to wean cats off the baby food.  

I read yesterday on a cat kidney disease website that the jarred human baby food does not contain all the necessary supplements, particularly taurine, and that this lack can lead to blindness and other problems.  The writer recommended supplementing by hand....has anyone done this?  Is there a decent cat all in one supplement that anyone recommends?  My personal indoor pet cats will not touch anything which is supplemented, not that they need to, but I mean any med put into food, etc.  Do the problems created by the lack of taurine possibly take longer to cause complications than this cat has left on earth?

In her condition I suspect it won't be a problem . But a decent cat vitamin, maybe one flavored with meat so it doesn't put her off from eating it (or an unflavored liquid if you can find it?), wouldn't be a bad thing to try.

My oldest cat is in a similar situation (though not feral); she is very old and has kidney issues, and is increasingly picky about her food. I rotate the cat foods she is still willing to eat with baby food + calcium & vitamins.

I like Kitty Bloom vitamins. They include taurine and all the vitamins and minerals needed to balance out the baby food, except calcium. I add that separately. The Kitty Bloom is supposedly cheese flavored. I haven't tasted it myself, but my cat doesn't object to the taste when I mix it into her food.

You can also buy taurine as a human supplement and just add a little sprinkle of powder to the baby food. They don't need much.

To supplement just taurine, this is the one I use to make my cat's raw/home-cooked food:  http://www.iherb.com/Nature-s-Life-Taurine-Powder-Unflavored-335-g/36784

Another thought if you wanted to balance the other necessary stuff is Alnutrin:  http://www.knowwhatyoufeed.com/alnutrin_with_calcium.html  You could try adding some liver a couple of times a week for the vitamin A.

Momto3cats, does your bottle of Kitty Bloom list the ingredients? I have been looking for a way to balance Gerber for a VERY particular 2 yr old in my house who is highly allergic to all chicken/chicken products (even had an allergic reaction to his PureVax Rabies vaccine...likely due to the fact they use chicken eggs to produce the vac.)

I haven't been able to find a complete product without any chicken products (egg shells included.)

I should note, he does eat dry food (Instinct LID) so, perhaps taurine is all I would need to add to the 1/2 to full jar he would *like* to eat daily??

He has retinal degeneration as a result of not getting proper nutrition prior to when I got him as a 12-ish wk old feral, so I want to make sure he has all the supplements he needs.

Kitty Bloom VM 900+3 ingredients:

Cheddar Cheese, Soy Protein Concentrate, Taurine, Vitamin A, Acetate, Cholecalciferol (Vit. D3), Vitamin E Supplement, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (source of Vit. K Activity), Choline Chloride, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Niacin Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Thiamine Mononitrate, B12 Supplement, Biotin, Folic Acid, Ascorbic Acid (Vit. C), Inositol, Para-Aminobenzoic Acid, Ferrous Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, Zinc Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Calcium Iodate, Cobalt Sulfate, Potassium Chloride, Monammonium Phosphate, Zinc Methionine Complex, Manganese Methionine Complex, Copper Lysinc Complex, Cobalt Glucoheptonate, Ferric Methionine Complex, Brewers Dried Yeast, Natural Mixed Tocopherols, Rosemary Extract, Citric Acid

I don't see any chicken based ingredients in the list. It does have soy, which I would normally avoid in cat food, but in such a tiny amount I don't worry about it.

Thank you all so much!  I am going to start with the taurine and move from there into the supplements, time allowing.  Given that this cat is not trappable, I hate to think of damage occuring to her eyes and where it may lead her to try to hide.

fionasmom said:

 
Thank you all so much!  I am going to start with the taurine and move from there into the supplements, time allowing.  Given that this cat is not trappable, I hate to think of damage occuring to her eyes and where it may lead her to try to hide.

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You know, you could try giving her a chicken wing flat (raw).  That's a fairly high calcium to meat ratio.  Canned sardines packed in water have bones and are safe to eat.  Kidney cats we generally try to give something like eggshell calcium instead of bone if you're interested in trying that.  Also, maybe try a piece of liver?  Those things in addition to the taurine would go a long way to helping balance the food.  We have a raw/home-cooked forum with lots of articles in the stickies that might help you too.

Will she eat eggs?

I know how to balance baby food - and I was VERY surprised to learn it is not as straightforward as I thought. I knew the jar had water in it - so the question was, how much cooked chicken is in there? :dk:

Well, there is profile for each brand of baby food on the USDA database - and they're pretty much exactly the same. I do recommend Beech Nut over Gerber's because Gerber's uses corn starch as a preservative. And they manufacture them differently. If you check the ingredients, Gerber says "ground chicken, water, corn starch." Beech Nut says "Chicken and chicken broth."

I contacted both companies. Well I understand why people cannot replicate these foods at home buy cooking and pureeing chicken. They have more minerals in them than plain stewed chicken meat!

Gerber is made with mechanically recovered chicken, and strained for bone, but some bone gets ground up with it.

Beech Nut is cooked in water, bones strained. Beech Nut is effectively pureed chicken combined with bone broth. It is NOT just chicken and water. (Bone broth is very healing, if anyone wants links just ask).

SO.... long story short, ALL of the baby food manufacturers have thinned out the amount of chicken in those jars since the most recent USDA database update. So there is ONE OUNCE of cooked chicken in each 2.5 ounce jar. BUT because it is either made with ground up bone or bone broth, it has additional minerals above and beyond that - so to balance it for calcium you need HALF the amount needed to balance one ounce of cooked chicken.

If you want to balance it for just taurine and calcium, add 250mg of taurine daily (once a day is fine), and add PER JAR OF BABY FOOD FED 1/64 teaspoon of finely ground eggshell powder.

This will still be deficient in vitamin A (from liver) and a number of other things. The addition - as peaches08 points out - of a little bit of liver (even freeze-dried liver treats are fine!), a sardine once a week, perhaps some form of fish oil (up to 500mg a day) - all good and make the diet more complete.

Each 2.5 ounce jar of baby food is ONE ounce of food and 1.5 ounces of bone broth (or equivalent). So if you feed 5 jars of baby food, kitty is not getting 12.5 ounces of calories - they're getting 5 ounces of calories. Just bear that in mind.



And if you want to use Alnutrin to completely balance the baby food, you need to add liver - and buy Alnutrin for meat/bone (NO source of calcium in it) AND the eggshell - add them separately. It takes 5/64 teaspoon of the Alnutrin (with NO calcium source, no eggshell) supplement AND 1/64 teaspoon of eggshell powder. They have to be used separately, because if the Alnutrin with calcium (or eggshell) is used - either you balance the calcium and wind up with not enough (half) of the other nutrients - or you provide 2x as much calcium as needed. And liver, to provide the right amount of vitamin A, is given as 5% of the cooked meat in the food - which is one ounce of cooked meat per 2.5 ounce jar. So if you feed 5 jars a day, you need to provide 5% of 5 ounces = one-quarter ounce of liver. This is just a little bit - but a little bit that matters. It's safe to give more, up to half an ounce. Freeze dried liver treats can also be used - this would be a few small pieces.

Alnutrin and powdered eggshell: http://www.knowwhatyoufeed.com/shop_online.html

Bed, Bath & Beyond sells mini measuring spoon sets. I have these:
The smallest spoon, labeled the "Drop" is 1/64 teaspoon.

Thanks for all the info LDG! If using calcium tablets, not eggshell, how many mg would need to be added, specifically for the Gerber...Beechnut is a no go for the my finicky boy. =\

I need a link to the specific calcium tablets you're using. There are three different forms, and they all have varying amounts of elemental calcium in them, and that's the information I need to calculate the correct amount. Oh - and what milligram tablets you're using.

I don't have a specific tablet right now; the use of eggshells just isn't an option. Will likely be making a trip to Whole Foods soon and will see what is available.

OK. To know how much to tell you to use, I'll need information off of the label. Specifically, I need to know the mg of the supplement, and I need to know how much elemental calcium is in it. If that isn't listed on the label, I'll need to know what type of calcium is in them, though try to find something with calcium carbonate.

Avoid supplements made of dolomite, oyster shell and bone meal which may contain metals and lead. Calcium phosphate, calcium lactate and calcium gluconate are not recommended because they have very small amounts of (elemental) calcium in them.

I use this kind to make my cat drink more. What brand name and what kind of premix I should add in there

Also I don't have grinder if I buy ground meat from the store should I ask them to ground the bones in the same time and should I ground liver and feed them everyday with liver? Why the premix with calcium has the problem you mentioned. Don't they measured by the manufacturer?