Alternative to SD z/d?

I was hoping for some cat nutrition advice, I'll try not to make my story too long

I have 3 cats now: I started with Lilly who is now approx. 9 years old, I adopted her when she was 4 years old. She was eating science diet when I first adopted her and from memory I trialed some cheaper foods too such as Purina One. I lived in a small apartment with her back then and she did become a little over weight (we've moved to a much bigger place now). She developed a UTI which is when I woke up and put her on a diet and introduced more active play sessions. She was then switched to the prescription SD for bladder crystals, I can't remember the name.

A few months after this, I found Phoebe. A tiny starving stray with a terrible case of cat flu and big patches of missing fur. I took her straight to the vet and the vet prescribed some anti biotics and said it would be fine for her to meet Lilly. It wasn't until a few months later that we saw another vet and found out Phoebe has FIV. The girls adore each other though.

Things were going well except that Phoebe had an obsession with cleaning herself to the point where she'd end up soaking wet. She especially focused on over-grooming her paws. Lilly also started to pull her fur out near the base of her tail, not to the point of baldness, but there was definitely thinner fur there.

The vet initially thought they had flea allergies which seemed unlikely as we live in an apartment and they don't go outdoors. We treated them anyway, but as suspected it didn't help. After this the vet asked us to try z/d science diet.

Things greatly improved after this, it was a miracle! The over grooming stopped and the girls have beautiful silky coats

Because of this, I've never taken them off science diet z/d dry ever since.

I'm too scared to feed raw foods now because of the FIV and also Phoebes teeth were in such bad condition when we found her that she had to have all but 4 removed.

Now we have Moses (4.5 months) and I've recently transitioned him from SD kitten (wet) to Wellness Core kitten (mostly wet with occasionally some of the dry)

I know that Science Diet doesn't have the best ingredients. Is it worth trialing the girls on a better food? I have to feed them separately at the moment to avoid them stealing Moses food and vice versa. Which ingredients usually cause allergic reactions? The grains?

I have multiple cats with food allergies. My experience with the prescription diets (Purina, Hills and Royal Canin) was not good in the fact that, after 6-8 weeks on the food, all cats developed diarrhea. So, I was abruptly forced to do food trials.

If you are wanting to take them off the SC, I suggest trying them on a limited ingredient diet first. I also suggest starting with canned food if the girls will eat it. This is because you can eliminate a lot of carbs, etc that can be found in the dry foods and, thus, limiting the ingredients in the food.

My first go-to for food trials is Nature's Variety Limited Ingredient diets. There is Turkey, Duck, Pork, and Rabbit available in the LID formulas. The Beef formula also only contains beef as the protein.

Another option is Natural Balance. There are a few limited ingredient formulas; but, this food was not liked by the cats I have tried it with. It is heavy on the carb side (the dry food smells strongly of green peas) and the kibble is one of the hardests O have come across.

Blue Buffalo also makes 2 or 3 grain-free, limited ingredient diets.

Hi Catpack!

Thanks so much for the detailed response! One thing I forgot to mention is that I'm in Australia and our range of food is pretty limited

The best selection I can find is at Petbarn: http://www.petbarn.com.au/cats/cat-food-wet/by/cat+food+nutrition+type/super+premium/

Is a food classified as limited ingredient if it has only 1 or 2 main proteins? I'm looking at Holistic Select grain free chicken, but I can't seem to copy/paste the ingredients on my phone, sorry.

Is wet food likely to make their litter box smellier? I want what is best for them but I'm still curious

Ok.
When selecting a food for a food trial you want one single protein (turkey, duck, rabbit...) and one single carb source (potato, pea, ect...)

Chicken, beef, fish, corn, wheat and soy are the top food allergens in cats. I would steer clear of these to begin with. I also suggest starting with a protein your cats have had no exposure, or at least minimum exposure to.

Here is a list of what my cats are allergic/intolerant to:
Lucky: Pork, Grains/Gluten, Carrageenan
Max: Beef, Rabbit
Simba: Chicken, Chicken products (eggs, chicken fat...), Venison

I personally have yet to have a cat that is allergic or intolerant of turkey; so, that's usually a starting place for me.

In your case, I would suggest staying away from chicken and grains as I believe this was in both the foods you fed when issues started to present.

Thank you very much! This is just the detail I need to get started with a trial... I appreciate your support because it is very overwhelming for a newcomer. Moses went to the vet yesterday for his final kitten booster vaccine and she asked what I was feeding him. I told her about the Wellness Core kitten wet food with occasionally a little dry but he prefers the wet. I thought she'd be happy. She actually gave me a little lecture on how he should be eating dry food! She said wet food is full of gravy and will make him fat. She also said that wet food will cause UTIs because the benefit of dry food is that it makes cats thirsty so they drink more water. I don't believe that she is correct but it's hard to hear sometimes when you really want to be doing the right thing.

The final thing I wanted to ask about is how Z/D is so darn affective with such bad ingredients. The first ingredient is brewers rice and the second is hydrolyzed chicken liver followed by hydrolyzed chicken. Does this suggest that my cats don't have a chicken allergy? Or is there something else in the food to suppress their symptoms?

The process of hydrolyzing is that the protein is broken so far down that the body doesn't recognize it. So, no, that doesn't rule out a chicken allergy. My kitty that is allergic to chicken tolerated the Hills hypoallergenic treats that are available. And he is HIGHLY allergic to chicken...projectile vomiting, anaphylactic reaction (he can't have the FVRCP vaccine because it is made using chicken eggs..much like our Flu vaccines are.)

And, I know what you mean about the ingredients!

Thanks again for all the wonderful info! Today I went and got a bag of Wellness Core Turkey Turkey Meal and Duck. I figured I'll experiment with dry food first to figure out what their allergens are and then begin introducing wet, so there isn't too much change all at once. The food was the closest I could find to your instructions, but still more "complex" than I would have liked...

It's tricky, I keep hearing people here talk about how good certain foods are, but then either we don't have them or they are a different recipe here

Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge! Fingers crossed!