Least harmful seafood to give cats?

destinyz12

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I know to avoid seafood/fish flavors for the most part for various reasons, but I'd like to work it into my kittens wet food rotation every once in a while as a treat.  Is there a specific type that is known to be less harmful than others?  I was thinking shrimp since it's really low on the food chain but I don't know if I'm actually right. What information can you guys tell me? I know tuna has a lot of mercury so I will be avoiding that and I've heard that salmon can potentially come from pretty filthy conditions.
 

thegreystalker

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Hello From Westchester!!!

You will find here on TCS that some folks avoid fish products for the pet's menu.  In my short time as a cat's manservant (LOL), I have read that it's good to avoid fish called 'Ocean Whitefish.'  You've probably noticed that this particular fish is ubiquitous in cat food, sad to say.  I avoid Ocean Whitefish if I can help it, and I avoid Tuna.  As long as food companies continue to use farm-raised Salmon (less or no mercury?), then I will remain comfortable with Salmon in cat food.  I have read nothing negative about Menhaden fish.  It seems to be a common ingredient.  As regards other saltwater fish, my gal loves the Sardine recipes from Natural Value, a Sacramento organic food company.

The next time I re-up with canned food I intend to try a Catfish and/or a Trout recipe.  Purina Beyond makes a Catfish recipe and Triumph produces a Trout recipe.
 
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destinyz12

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Hey,  where in Westchester? I have family in the New Rochelle area!  For the most part, I do avoid fish but want to add some variety every once in a while since she goes crazy over her fish flavored treats, which is dehydrated haddock (Smittens by The Honest Company)
 

manx

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Avoid big fish such as tuna, mackerel, trout, salmon, and such.

Stick with small fish like anchovies and herring.

If I have to feed fish, I stick to Tiki Cat and Weruva. Weruva is always monitoring for mercury, use human grade wild caught fish, and are low in magnesium even for fish. Tiki Cat is similar quality.
 
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destinyz12

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What about shrimp? I've heard that it's generally safer than fish, and the brand I feed her (Nutro) has a chicken and shrimp formula (no carrageenan, no menadione, no grains, ect) which I was considering letting her try- and I like that it has chicken as the first ingredient mixed with it.  
 

manx

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What about shrimp? I've heard that it's generally safer than fish, and the brand I feed her (Nutro) has a chicken and shrimp formula (no carrageenan, no menadione, no grains, ect) which I was considering letting her try- and I like that it has chicken as the first ingredient mixed with it.  
Shrimp should be fine in moderation. I would inquire with the company if the shrimp is wild caught or farmed. Farmed shrimp are not only environmentally unfriendly but usually pumped full of antibiotics and other undesirable artificial chemicals.
 

missmimz

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I'm more concerned about where the fish was sourced and the quality of the fish over the type. 
 

lisahe

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Shrimp should be fine in moderation. I would inquire with the company if the shrimp is wild caught or farmed. Farmed shrimp are not only environmentally unfriendly but usually pumped full of antibiotics and other undesirable artificial chemicals.
I think "moderation" is the key thing for shrimp both because of the sourcing and because it's fairly high in cholesterol--the strategy of feeding something like the Nutro food, where chicken is the first ingredient rather than shrimp is good. I mention this because our vet told me about how someone fed a cat lobster for its birthday (I live in Maine) and the cat died because it just couldn't handle the high-fat lobster. (Quick Googling seems to indicate that shrimp and lobster have similar fat content but that was just a quick check.) The vet didn't say if the cat had pre-existing health conditions or was elderly but her point was not to feed much of that sort of food to a cat.

FWIW, our vet doesn't approve of much fish in general, though she thinks a little salmon every now and then is fine. I occasionally get a can of something from Weruva's Cats in the Kitchen foods, like "Goldie Lox," which has tuna and salmon, and the cats just love it. I agree with missmimz that sourcing and quality is probably more important than type of fish, though, like TheGreyStalker, I would definitely stay away from "ocean whitefish" since it's unclear what that means.
 

msserena

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I think moderation is the key to feeding any kind of fish items, it can wreck havoc on a cats body & also they could protest until you give them more fish. I give my cats fish like once a week. I used to buy NV Instinct Salmon & I've tried Weruva Lamburgini, other than that I give them the water when I open a can of tuna. I just bought a can of salmon but people were telling me it's probably farm raised & I guess they're higher in mercury than sardines, mackerel or tuna. It's pretty finny to me that people will tell you to not feed salmon & then they use salmon oil in their homemade cat food!

Oh I forgot I did buy a bag of Purebites salmon treats, it's basically freeze dried pieces. I gave the kitties those a couple times & they loved them! I did want to buy a bag of the shrimp ones but I wasn't sure. Oh I just remembered, I have bought Fancy Feast Purely the one with shrimp & some other kind of fish, it's pretty basic so I've given that to them as a treat before. there's like one piece of shrimp in the whole thing!

I am gonna try sardines cause I think those are fine like once or twice a week.
 

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I just wanted to add that farm raised salmon is GMO, and doesn't have the right balance of omega fatty acids. It's worth reading about. I stick to small cold water fish for myself (less mercury, more omega 3) like sardines in water, herring, anchovies, and cod. Anchovies are always packed with salt though, so I don't recommend for cats.
 
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destinyz12

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So I actually emailed Nutro directly to ask if their shrimp from the chicken & shrimp formula that I was considering giving my cat , whether it was farm-raised or wild caught....and this was their response:

"The shrimp we use in the canned cat foods will be wild caught and/or farm raised."

*FACE PALM*  So basically they have no idea.
 
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