this is tough- need food my girl can eat

hi
i have an 18yr old girl with possible IBD or intestinal lymphoma and CRF who also has food allergies, or sensitivies, i think the vet called them.

i know she cannot have wheat, corn, eggs, soy,salmon, and tuna.
NO artificial colors or preservatives.

turkey is still a question mark.
her vet said to stay away from fish because it has a lot of allergens, and to limit liver (which she loves)

so i was feeding her wellness chicken and FF gourmet chicken feast (the only one without wheat)

she was ok with that, until she suddenly stopped eating and i was given the go-ahead to give her whatever she would eat.

so i got a bunch of different foods, and well, now she is holding out for the things she liked the best (some of the fish stuff, and her beloved liver)

now that she has gotten her appetite back, i have a bunch of food she either can't eat, or shouldn't


and do not know if i can ever get her to go back to eating the Wellness chicken.
(she will still eat the FF chicken, but it has too much sodium to be her sole diet)


does anyone know of a good (meat as the first ingredient, NOT by products)
canned food, that is chicken flavored

that does not have all those things listed above?

yes this is a tough one!!
i have gone thru the pet store reading labels and just when i think a food is going to work out, i see that it has one thing she cannot have.

i *might* consider a food with eggs in it, as that was another thing we were not completely sure she was allergic to, but her vet thought it was a good idea to eliminate it if i could.

thanks for any suggestions!!

althea and the girls

ok here is a website that has a comparison wizzard for cat food (dry and wet) - hope this will help you find what you need.

http://www.naturapet.com/display.php...wiz&animal=Cat

thanks Helen
well after more research i think i am gonna go to our only tiny little pet food store that carries the premium brand, and see if i can find: Felidae chicken and rice, Lick your chops chicken and rice, Natural Life chicken and veggies, and Sensible choice (apparently they only have one flavor)

i am more leery of turkey than eggs, because her diet was almost all turkey for a long long time when she lived with my sister and its supposedly something you have been exposed to for a long time that can cause the most allergic reaction

i did not even realize that wellness chicken has turkey in it, maybe that is why she wont eat it any more?

thanks again. boy this is tough!!

Hi, I realize this is not chicken, but this is an excellent food, and is one lower in phosphorus content, which you want for a crf kitty (and btw, I would most def. not feed a food with garlic to a crf kitty since they are more likely to develop anemia as it is, and garlic can cause Heinz Body anemia) - Petguard Rabbit and Rice. Here is the ingredients list (it does contain egg) and guaranteed analysis:

Ingredients:Water Sufficient for Processing, Rabbit, Brown Rice, Rice Flour, Dried Egg, Potassium Chloride, Sunflower Oil, Calcium Ascorbate (Ester-C), Taurine, DL-Methionine, Vitamin A Supplement, Calciferol (Source of Vitamin D2), Alpha Tocopherols (Source of Vitamin E), Riboflavin Supplement (Vitamin B2), Vitamin B12 Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Inositol, Thiamine Mononitrate (Vitamin B1), Biotin, Niacin, Folic Acid, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (Source of Vitamin K), Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Iron Amino Acid Chelate, Zinc Amino Acid Chelate, Manganese Amino Acid Chelate, Calcium Amino Acid Chelate, Copper Amino Acid Chelate, Cobalt Amino Acid Chelate, Sodium Selenite.

Guaranteed Analysis:
Crude Protein ...(Min)6.0%
Crude Fat ...(Min)2.50%
Crude Fiber...(Max)1.0%
Moisture...(Max)76.00%
Ash...(Max)1.90%
Magnesium...(Max)0.025%
Taurine...(Min)0.10%
*Vitamin C...(Min)500 Mg/Kg
Vitamin E...(Min)80 IU/Kg
*Omega 3 Fatty Acids...(Min)0.80%
Omega 6 Fatty Acids...(Min)1.0%
*Not recognized as an essential nutrient in the AAFCO Nutrient Profile.

Felidae and Natural Life are quite palatable so hopefully you will have good luck.

If you can't find the food at the store, talk to the manager and see if they can order it. Most pet food stores order almost all their products through just a few distributors and place orders with these distributors every week or two. It is absolutely no trouble at all to special order something if you are placing an order with that distributor anyway.

The moral of this story is that you should never feel shy about asking the manager of your local privately owned pet supply store to order a product you would like, because 99% of the time they will be able to accommodate your request very easily.

thanks so much Pat!! i have actually tried that food, i got it when Snoopy was still with me (my diabetic/ CRF boy) because he had loved the Wysong rabbit i gave him. well he did not like the rabbit and rice, and neither did Mickie. i ended up donating it to the shelter

but thanks for the suggestion!!

i had heard about garlic and that anemia, but her vet actually suggested putting garlic powder on her food to see if it would get her to eat it. i will ask him about that next time i talk to him. i know very few vets who know spend much time on learning about the various cat foods available; when i asked which of two foods would be better for her with her CRF he had no clue, just said try to go high quality low protein.
not an easy thing to do, esp with a girl with food allergies
cooked egg whites are supposed to be very good for a CRF cat, i think i will try some by itself and see if she can tolerate it, just a tiny bit, before i invest in any canned foods with eggs. its hard to tell when you try a new food if its the egg or something else in the food!

i spend more money on cat food than i do on my food!
but i dont mind, i need to lose wt anyway


thanks Pat

Originally Posted by semiferal

Felidae and Natural Life are quite palatable so hopefully you will have good luck.

If you can't find the food at the store, talk to the manager and see if they can order it. Most pet food stores order almost all their products through just a few distributors and place orders with these distributors every week or two. It is absolutely no trouble at all to special order something if you are placing an order with that distributor anyway.

The moral of this story is that you should never feel shy about asking the manager of your local privately owned pet supply store to order a product you would like, because 99% of the time they will be able to accommodate your request very easily.

Click to expand...

THANKS!!
that is good to know! its a very small store and their inventory always changes, i will see if they can get what i need
thank you

Originally Posted by catnapt

thanks so much Pat!! i have actually tried that food, i got it when Snoopy was still with me (my diabetic/ CRF boy) because he had loved the Wysong rabbit i gave him. well he did not like the rabbit and rice, and neither did Mickie. i ended up donating it to the shelter

but thanks for the suggestion!!

i had heard about garlic and that anemia, but her vet actually suggested putting garlic powder on her food to see if it would get her to eat it. i will ask him about that next time i talk to him. i know very few vets who know spend much time on learning about the various cat foods available; when i asked which of two foods would be better for her with her CRF he had no clue, just said try to go high quality low protein.
not an easy thing to do, esp with a girl with food allergies
cooked egg whites are supposed to be very good for a CRF cat, i think i will try some by itself and see if she can tolerate it, just a tiny bit, before i invest in any canned foods with eggs. its hard to tell when you try a new food if its the egg or something else in the food!

i spend more money on cat food than i do on my food!
but i dont mind, i need to lose wt anyway

thanks Pat

Click to expand...

Drats...sorry to hear she didn't like it, cause it fits the bill in many ways! I suspect if your vet suggested using garlic powder as an appetite stimulant, I can guess what he will say. Many of the folks on the crf support list I am on just will not feed anything with garlic...anyhoo..for grins and giggles (and to take to your vet if you wish to discuss) click here and click on the August 2005 Toxicology Report on Allium Species Poisoning in Dogs and Cats - it is a pdf file, so you need Adobe Acrobat's free reader to read the file.

Some tips that I use with Patrick my kitty with crf (my Tyler is also early crf but doesn't need as much coaxing to eat as Patrick who is a couple of years older and with worse values) is to sprinkle a favorite single protein treat atop his food (in his case it's fish, which won't work for you) you could try one of the freeze-dried chicken treats such as Dr. harvey's chicken whisker smackers, halo for pets chicken or grandma lucy's (though the grandma lucy's are firmer in consistency), or try a bit of catnip atop her food, try adding warm water to her wet food to make it have a "gravy". Some cats do better with the food warmed up just a bit. I think the www.felinecrf.org site also discusses appetite issues (love that site)

hi again
i have never heard of those treats you mentioned, where would i get those? (please tell me you sell em!!) i got freeze dried liver treats before i knew she was not supposed to have too much liver, and she had no interest in those. she likes the treats she cant have, the moist ones like whiskas that are mostly wheat!

i will try anything to get her to eat though. right now she is doing ok eating the FF chicken but i worry so much about the sodium and its not exactly the best food either!

about warming food-
someone recently told me not to heat the food up in the microwave, that it changes the taste.
if you dont use the microwave what do you do?? how did ppl survive before microwaves LOL

i have tried adding warm water but i have to be careful and only add a smidge (translation, about 1/2 teaspoon per 2 oz of food) any more than that, and she will not touch it

she seems to have trouble smelling things, which is probably why the fishy stuff got her back to eating again. it really stinks!

so sorry you have two CRF kitties! it can be a lot of work, eh??
hugs
althea

Originally Posted by catnapt

hi again
i have never heard of those treats you mentioned, where would i get those? (please tell me you sell em!!) i got freeze dried liver treats before i knew she was not supposed to have too much liver, and she had no interest in those. she likes the treats she cant have, the moist ones like whiskas that are mostly wheat!

i will try anything to get her to eat though. right now she is doing ok eating the FF chicken but i worry so much about the sodium and its not exactly the best food either!

about warming food-
someone recently told me not to heat the food up in the microwave, that it changes the taste.
if you dont use the microwave what do you do?? how did ppl survive before microwaves LOL

i have tried adding warm water but i have to be careful and only add a smidge (translation, about 1/2 teaspoon per 2 oz of food) any more than that, and she will not touch it

she seems to have trouble smelling things, which is probably why the fishy stuff got her back to eating again. it really stinks!

so sorry you have two CRF kitties! it can be a lot of work, eh??
hugs
althea

Click to expand...

I do use the microwave just a bit (I also use baby food meat for Patrick - and the refrigerated portion I will nuke for just 8 to 10 seconds as he won't eat it cold...best would be if I just let it get to room temp).

You can find a lot of online stores that carry these, and many upscale brick and mortar stores will as well - especially as these are dog or cat treats - grandma lucy's has a website with a store (internet or by state I believe) locator - www.grandmalucys.com, as does dr. harvey's - www.drharveys.com and yes, you are correct that I do as well.

How about just feeding her real chicken? With the bone (or bone meal),liver and heart of course. Would that be bad for a kitty with CRF?
I mean why try and find a brand with no allergic ingrediants and mostly chicken when you can just feed her chicken?

oh no, i went surfing around your site, i am in trouble now!
i cant find the clown loach toy pictured on the home page, are you all out of those?

you have some great toys, to heck with food now, i just wanna play!

i'm hopeless. i spoil my cats the way i used to spoil my daughter.

thanks! i have tried that, and no matter how it is cooked, she wont eat it (i've tried simmered, fried and roasted) she will eat simmered chicken livers but she is not supposed to have those too often.
hmm, just gave me an idea!! maybe if i cook up some of those and portion it out in tiny portions and freeze it, i could sprinkle some on her food to see if that would get her to eat (i mean, after thawing it and re heating it)

thanks!!

This is not for everyone but how about raw? I feed raw and have found nothing but health benefits with it. It cured my girl with IBD.
I know she can't have fish but maybe one fish oil capsule squirted over the food will give it enough of an oder to get her to eat it.
You can also try mixing the chicken in with her normal food that she like s and slowly decrease the commercial food till she's at the point where she's eating the food you want for her to eat.

Fish oil is a good suggestion. Even if she has a fish allergy she may be able to tolerate fish oil without a problem since allergies are to proteins and fish oil would have only residual amounts of protein. And it might give her food enough of a fish taste that she will eat it.

Originally Posted by catnapt

oh no, i went surfing around your site, i am in trouble now!
i cant find the clown loach toy pictured on the home page, are you all out of those?

you have some great toys, to heck with food now, i just wanna play!

i'm hopeless. i spoil my cats the way i used to spoil my daughter.

Click to expand...

ah the clown fish is a Mr. Fish by VEE Enterprises...they are on the organic catnip toys page

"Mr Fish" my apologies for not using your title, sir! LOL
i love the way clown loaches look, so, well clownish!

(ok so maybe its for me as well as the cats...)

thanks Pat

Originally Posted by semiferal

Fish oil is a good suggestion. Even if she has a fish allergy she may be able to tolerate fish oil without a problem since allergies are to proteins and fish oil would have only residual amounts of protein. And it might give her food enough of a fish taste that she will eat it.

Click to expand...

you know her last vet told me to put fish oil on her food (he was more into the holistic stuff than most vets around here) and i got the stuff he suggested, and put some on her food, and she would not touch it!

this is one finicky cat! i think she does not like the oiliness, because he suggested several other oils that i could use, safflower was one, and she did not like that either

but she will lick margerine of my toast.
go figure!

thanks

Have you tried any of Merrick's foods? You might look at Turducken, Grammy's Pot Pie or Thanksgiving Day Dinner (if turkey ends up not being an allergen). Some of their foods have dried egg, so read the labels carefully (of course!). Precise foods have dried egg, but otherwise might be worth a shot. Natural Balance has a few formulas that seem like good ones. Max Cat Chicken and Lamb seems to meet the requirements.

Good luck.

if she likes margerine maybe you could put a little melted butter on her food. Butter shouldn't hurt her and the extra fat would be good for a cat that's underweight. Im not sure if you said weather she's underweight or not.