Gimme Fish Fish Sish

[GranolaLouise]

Now my finicky cat won;t eat chicken or turkey, something she craved for a long time.
Now all she will eat is FF petites white fish, salmon and human canned tuna without added salt crumbled. She inhales it!

In YOUR opinion...is there a danger in allowing her to eat fish fish fish every day until she starts back wanting poultry?

 

[GranolaLouise]

of course title should read fish fish Fish, but..no way to edit.
Anyway.. I guess by the silence no others feed fish exclusively?

 

[daftcat75]

It's not ideal. Fish can be inflammatory. Can you mix the fish with something else and slowly adjust the mix away from fish over time?

 

[vansX2]

Now my finicky cat won;t eat chicken or turkey, something she craved for a long time.
Now all she will eat is FF petites white fish, salmon and human canned tuna without added salt crumbled. She inhales it!

In YOUR opinion...is there a danger in allowing her to eat fish fish fish every day until she starts back wanting poultry?

Is your kitty a indoor/ outdoor or only indoor? My older boy (Miles) occasionally has diarrhea issues when eating canned fish products. Both of my boys are indoor only. Miles generally prefers dry food over wet food. So lately I alternate Blue Buffalo "Salmon" dry; Blue Buffalo true solutions "Perfect Coat; Blue Buffalo Indoor Hairball control. For Soft Food: Fancy Feast Poultry & Beef.My feeding preceedure is constant variety so neither boy gets bored with his food.

 

[maggie101]

Fed fish only she is missing out on essential nutrients like thiamine

Cats And Seafood Canned Food: What You Need To Know – Munchkin Kitten Store

 

[daftcat75]

Fed fish only she is missing out on essential nutrients like thiamine

Not quite true. If it’s only raw fish meat, then yes. That would be the case. However the AAFCO statement of “nutritionally balanced and complete” on the label ensures that the food has been properly formulated and supplemented to meet your cat’s basic needs.

 

[GranolaLouise]

Thank you for that reference, Mag. I have highlighted this " The evidence we have gathered suggests that feeding fish-flavored canned food to kittens or adult cats is not harmful at all"
From the article, I believe the dangers are feeding straight home cooked fish rather than fish with nutrients beneficial to cats added to canned cat food.

I am feeding Fancy Feast Petites White fish or Fancy Feast PetitesSalmon and sprinkling about 1 teaspoon of crumbled tuna water or 1/2 teaspoon of crumbled human no salt added tuna as a treat 2x a week for an added treat.

My concern was about the Fancy Feast Petites white fish or the Fancy Feast Petites Salmon exclusively every day. But I guess as long as these have the nutrients added it is ok.

Next week I go to the Renal Specialist to get a knowledgeable direction for me to treat my cat with her early Stage 2 CKD, and also ask about if and when a phosphorus binder is appropriate for her . All the general Vets can say is "feed her prescription renal foods" and that just ain;t workin'!!! (2 have even mentioned that their cats won't eat it either) HELLO!!!!
So this week she gets to eat everything she fancies.

 

[lisahe]

I'd feed her fish in this situation, too, particularly if the foods have relatively low phosphorus. I do agree with daftcat75 , though, that if you could "dilute" the fish foods with, say, some chicken foods, maybe by blending them, that would be good. Some of Weruva's chicken/fish foods are great for fish addicts because they smell really fishy but have a lot of chicken in them. The big thing is that it's really important for kidney cats to eat so they can maintain their weight an muscle mass. So if it's fish it's fish.

 

[GranolaLouise]

And eat she will! I will try sneaking in some chickentoo!But weruva is poison as far as she is concerned. I have a case she won't even taste. Face it...it does look rather blah!

 

[lisahe]

And eat she will! I will try sneaking in some chickentoo!But weruva is poison as far as she is concerned. I have a case she won't even taste. Face it...it does look rather blah!

Ah, yes, the "it's poison" thing they do! Our cats loved some of the Cats in the Kitchen cans that have fish and chicken, particularly Funk in the Trunk and Goldie Lox. I fed them as occasional treats and they lapped them up but I stopped feeding any fish after Ireland was diagnosed with asthma.

Anyway, fingers crossed she'll keep eating!

 

[wrenka]

I used to take a whole fish and boil it down for an entire day, then add the broth from it's bones and such to my cat's poultry foods, which was a good first step to getting them off of fish food! Might work for you..

 

[lisahe]

I used to take a whole fish and boil it down for an entire day, then add the broth from it's bones and such to my cat's poultry foods, which was a good first step to getting them off of fish food! Might work for you..

Yes, something like this (though I'd skip the bones with a kidney cat) or a few drops of tuna water or some bonito flakes might be very helpful!

 

[GranolaLouise]

OK..gotta ask.. I see ads and suggestions for Bonito flakes. What is BONITO? What brand is good? Do you soak them? Sprinkle them? How often do you use them and how much? I do use tuna water, but it is naturally salty.

 

[lisahe]

OK..gotta ask.. I see ads and suggestions for Bonito flakes. What is BONITO? What brand is good? Do you soak them? Sprinkle them? How often do you use them and how much? I do use tuna water, but it is naturally salty.

I don't use bonito flakes -- our asthmatic cat can't have fish so I just avoid them -- so will leave specifics to others. But from what I gather, people just sprinkle a little on the food. I've seen lots of mentions of using them on meals for inappetent cats.

It's often the smell that gets the cat to eat rather than the flavor that gets a cat to eat, which is why Fancy Feast and Friskies (which often contain small amounts of fish even if they're, say, primarily chicken or beef foods) so often entice cats. The stinkier the food, the better. Then again, for our cats, the magic stuff is plain freeze-dried chicken, which smells like almost nothing to me!

 

[daftcat75]

Bonito flakes are thinly sliced fish that’s dried. Krista loved them. I don’t remember the brand. I don’t think it mattered. It started as a way to up her food intake during pancreatitis. I also wanted to get her active again after losing weight to make sure she was putting the right kind of weight back on as she was recovering. After her meals, I would seed her many cat trees with some flakes and she would go off on a fish flake hunt through them all. It’s sad that her greatest joy would eventually become an IBD/lymphoma trigger food for her.

 

[daftcat75]

I went to a hot dog joint that specializes in their dog concoctions. One of them was topped with bonito flakes. They’re quite tasty. I understand why Krista went for them. It’s probably the only cat treat I’m willing to try myself.

 

[GranolaLouise]

so what brand do you all recommend?

 

[GranolaLouise]

I went to a hot dog joint that specializes in their dog concoctions. One of them was topped with bonito flakes. They’re quite tasty. I understand why Krista went for them. It’s probably the only cat treat I’m willing to try myself.

ok so I see it is sold as a human food in asian markets. what brand do YOU get for cats?

 

[daftcat75]

ok so I see it is sold as a human food in asian markets. what brand do YOU get for cats?

Cat-Man-Do is the brand I used to get. I would get it from Chewy or a pet food store just to make sure nothing cat-unfriendly was added to a human preparation. That said, feel free to snack on this cat version. It's just dried fish. And it's quite tasty.
https://www.chewy.com/cat-man-doo-extra-large-dried-bonito/dp/35538

 

[suzeanna]

I went to a hot dog joint that specializes in their dog concoctions. One of them was topped with bonito flakes. They’re quite tasty. I understand why Krista went for them. It’s probably the only cat treat I’m willing to try myself.

Not gonna lie, I've tried a piece of the freeze-dried chicken.

To the original poster -- my cat (similar to yours I think, 10 y/o female calico with early CKD) was on a fish-inclusive renal food (Purina pro) and developed a light allergy/patch of missing fur, also had soft-ish poops. I switched her to a Weruva pate bc she loves pate, but it took a lot of trial and error -- she hated pretty much all of them except for the "Press Your Dinner!" pate which is pretty high calorie. I mix that with two alternating other lower-phosphorus Weruva shreds foods -- Paw Lickin Chicken and Steak Frites (SF is very low in phosphorous).

Other people have said that fishy foods can be best reserved as a last resort/strong motivator to get cats to eat when they're having other issues -- I would agree (tuna and any other remotely fishy foods are extremely appealing to my cat).