Cat Throwing Up After Eating Weruva "Cats in the Kitchen" line

I've been feeding Casper and Cocoa a rotation diet for years.  Casper has always had an issue with throwing up after eating, mostly in the morning.  I started noticing it happened way more when I fed them Weruva's Cats in the Kitchen line, didn't matter what flavor it was.  Inevitably I could count on him barfing it up.

This morning, again, he brought up this brand within minutes.  Doesn't matter the flavor, it isn't an allergy to any protein but now I'm wondering if this food contains something he may have a sensitivity to.  Looking at the ingredients, I did notice it has 3 types of gums in it; guar, locust and one other which I can't recall at the moment.

I try to avoid gums but it's difficult.  It's even difficult in human food these days (some ice cream brands use it for instance, why I can't figure out since ice cream freezes just fine without it!).  Other brands I rotate sometimes have 1 or the other of these 3 gums but this is the only brand which they eat which seemed to have all 3.

I suspect this may be the problem, so I'm just trying to find out if anyone else has found this to be an issue for their cats.  Obviously, I'm now crossing Weruva off the list of appropriate foods but it is becoming more difficult to find any without this ingredient.  I'm beginning to consider just feeding them Fancy Feast Classics, which he does just fine on with all flavors, instead of rotating brands.  

Please no suggestions to raw feed.  I've already done my research and am honestly not willing to go that route.  Please stick to the subject of this post which is just the reactions to gums in food.

Thanks!

There have been quite a few people mentioning carageenan in particular as bad for cats. It does seem to be in the majority of food though. There was a list someone made a while ago of brands without it, but I suspect there will be other types of gums added though. I would check the other brands you're feeding him and see if there is something else very specific to Weruva. If not and it's just the combination of gums, what about a food with one gum only, and see if he barfs after that?

I do remember the carageenan situation.  I don't purchase anything with it any longer.  In fact, again, it's in a lot of human foods too.  I'm a huge label reader!

I think I'll make a spreadsheet of all the foods I'm feeding them to see if something stands out in the Weruva.  I do know he tends to eat too fast in the morning, even if we give a snack late at night and that contributes to the problem.  However, I've noticed he hardly ever does it when the Fancy Feast Classics are served. And anecdotally, after he had dental surgery we tried to feed him the softest diet possible for a few weeks - which was the FFC.  He didn't throw up at all those weeks.

If anyone can pass me the link to the brand list, I'd be grateful.  I'm at the office, so it's hard for me to spend too much time doing searches here 

I think this might be the thread that @pushylady  was referring to. There is a list of foods that do not have carageenan in them. I don't think the Pride By Instinct line has it either. That one is a big hit with 2 of mine. 

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/240335/canned-food-without-carrageenan-or-guar-gum

Kat0121 said:

 
I think this might be the thread that @pushylady  was referring to. There is a list of foods that do not have carageenan in them. I don't think the Pride By Instinct line has it either. That one is a big hit with 2 of mine. 

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/240335/canned-food-without-carrageenan-or-guar-gum

Click to expand...

Thank you!

Kat0121 said:

I think this might be the thread that @pushylady
 was referring to. There is a list of foods that do not have carageenan in them. I don't think the Pride By Instinct line has it either. That one is a big hit with 2 of mine. 

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/240335/canned-food-without-carrageenan-or-guar-gum

Click to expand...

That's it! Thanks Kat0121

The Cats in the Kitchen that I've fed all have the trio of guar, xanthan and locust bean gums; I think they may all three be in every variety.  It may be he is sensitive to one of those.  I had no trouble but if you are certain it's not related to any of the proteins it is probably one of those.  Also, sunflower seed oil, this is a slightly unusual ingredient I believe not in most cat foods but I believe is in all these varieties.  The other thing that stands out to me is tricalcium phosphate.  I really no nothing about this ingredient but it is very high up on the ingredient list in some (but not all) the flavors, particularly Chicken Frick A Zee.  My most common variety was Fowl Ball and that one doesn't have it listed. 

The only cat food that I can recall that has no gums or carageenan is First Mate... but it has potatoes and I'm not sure if it's available in the US (It's a Canadian brand). But it's only in pate and it's kind of sloshy and mushy and quality control seems questionable at times so I don't feed it unless I run out of other foods. 

Anyway, I'm not much help but thought I'd let you know some gum-less foods exist out there! 

mingking said:

 
The only cat food that I can recall that has no gums or carageenan is First Mate... but it has potatoes and I'm not sure if it's available in the US (It's a Canadian brand). But it's only in pate and it's kind of sloshy and mushy and quality control seems questionable at times so I don't feed it unless I run out of other foods. 

Anyway, I'm not much help but thought I'd let you know some gum-less foods exist out there! 

Click to expand...

There are probably a few others, but they're often very much more expensive.  I feed Tiki Cat chicken that has no gums and no carrageenan in it, but it's another bit more expensive even than something like Cats in the Kitchen.

I haven't personally been avoiding gums in the cat food but I have been avoiding carrageenan.  Because of what I'm feeding right now though, the Tiki Cat chicken and Primal freeze-dried pork are all they are eating at the moment, they are not at the moment eating any gums.  That's just kind of by chance though, didn't do it on purpose.