Food allergies

The vet and I think that my cat Jynx is allergic to either something in the environment or food. She gets sore spots that come and go on her legs and belly. We've ruled our fleas and mites and seasonal allergies so environment and food are next on our list. I think we should try an elimination diet and get her on to raw. She's currently on good quality wet but I've half heartedly been trying to get her on raw for a few months.

I'm thinking of starting with rabbit as it's one of the only proteins apart from pork that she hasn't had. I was planning on buying minced rabbit, my only concern is taurine levels. Should I buy a taurine supplement? Am I going about this in the right way?

Here's a thread about UK options for raw cat food: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/328390/where-to-start TCS member @Columbine is the best person to ask about sourcing raw meats and supplements in the UK.

Hi, and welcome to TCS

You can't just feed straight minced meat of any sort - you either need to feed a complete raw food, use a raw feeding premix supplement or follow a balanced recipie. Check out the [thread="272287"]​[/thread] for recipie ideas

The two premixes I know of that are available in the UK are Fellini Complete and Fortan Catfortan. Both are available from Zooplus.

Zooplus now offers pure raw minced meats in the Dog Food section (designed to be supplemented before feeding), so it looks like they'd be suitable for cats too, with one of the above premixes or for use in a balanced homemade recipe.

These are the UK-based raw suppliers that I know of:-

Nature’s Menu - www.naturesmenu.co.uk
Most widely available. Complete raw meals, pre ground meats (bone in), raw meaty bones,
freeze dried complete food sold as ‘Country Hunter Freeze Dried treats” (I have spoken to the
company, and they confirmed that these are a complete diet once rehydrated). Great starter
food as the meals come in small nuggets for easy defrosting.
Also available from Pets at Home stores and from Amazon UK. They don't do single protein complete meals, but some of their plain minces might be suitable.

Natural Instinct - www.naturalinstinct.com
Complete meals, plain ground meats, raw meaty bones

Kiezebrink - www.kiezebrink.co.uk
Huge range of pre ground meats and supplies for PMR feeding. Also have their own range of
complete meals.

Purrform - www.purrform.co.uk
Complete meals (100% meat) and PMR supplies. Another good starter brand, as the
meal are available in 70g pouches as well as 450g tubs. They offer a plain rabbit complete food, so I'd probably start here.

Nutriment - www.nutriment.co.uk
Complete meals and plain ground meats (listed under dog food)

Raw to go - www.rawtogo.co.uk
Huge range of plain minces, chunks and PMR supplies.

Barf-Rawfood - www.barf-rawfood.co.uk
Plain minces, complete meals and raw meaty bones.


Don't feel you have to go raw straight away though. If it were me, I'd test reactions to various meats with a single protein canned food first, simple becajse starting on raw is pretty expensive and you could find yourself with a freezerfull of food that you can't use Check out Catz Finefood Purrr from Zooplus - its a range of single protein, pure meat foods designed specifically for cats with allergies. I don't think there's a rabbit one, but they do make kangaroo, pork, lamb and mutton varieties. Feringa and Terra Faelis both do a single protein rabbit food. Both have a small amount of veggies in them, but are still very high meat. GranataPet do a pure veal food, which might also be a possibility if your guy's ok with beef (which is often used as a novel protein option). Again, all of these are from Zooplus.

Don't get me wrong, a raw diet can be a great option for sensitive/allergic cats. I'm just letting you know that there are wet foods out there that might work for you

These links offer more information about raw feeding:- [article="22434"][/article][article="31796"][/article][article="31673"][/article][article="32321"][/article][article="31714"][/article][article="32194"][/article][article="31997"][/article][article="31138"][/article]

I want to remind of goats milk.  should be a nice complement food, when speaking of food allergies.

Thank you Columbine. My other cat is already on raw so I'm familiar with it and was planning on using a complete rabbit mince (meat, offal and bone in 80/10/10). My biggest concern with using the rabbit is the taurine and fat levels as I know it is quite low in both.

How long would I need to feed a single protein for to see whether or not there is any reaction?

To be honest, I wouldn't be happy feeding any kind of minced meat diet without supplementation, especially a single protein one. As I understand it, people who feed PMR manage without supplementation by feeding a variety of meat types

Your vet is the best person to advise you on how long you'll need to stick with a diet before seeing results/reactions. In fact, I wouldn't try any kind of elimination diet without veterinary supervision. The only experience I have personally with food sensitivity is when I was diagnosed as coeliac - for me, it took 3-4 months for my symptoms to disappear.

What are you currently feeding, and are you certain it's the meat source she's reacting to? Even good quality foods can have small amounts of veggies in them, or thickeners such as guar gum, xanthan gum etc. It could be one of those Jynx is reacting to, rather than the meat itself.

As for environment, a very common (and easily fixable) trigger for skin issues is biological detergent. If you use that, try swapping to non-bio and see if that makes a difference

Sorry if you've looked at these possibilities already - I'm just trying think what could be causing this

I certainly wouldn't permanently keep her on one protein. She's currently on animonda carny from zooplus so no veggies or any nasties that I can see on the ingredients. We got her in October 2015 and she only started getting the skin problems in may 2016. We haven't changed washing powder and already use non bio as I and my husband have sensitive skin

Hmm...I'm out of ideas in that case :scratch:

The only thing I'd say with the Animonda Carny is that the only ingredient common to all flavours is beef. Unless you know that Jynx is sensitive to any specific meats, why not try just eliminating the beef instead of going straight to single protein? Just a thought

I hope you're able to pinpoint the trigger for Jynx's skin problems soon