Is pork for cats easy to digest?

[lisahe]

 
Pork seems to be the misunderstood meat. Just today I was at my local indy retailer picking up food for the cats, the owner was on the phone with a woman who wanted to order Stella & Chewy's raw rabbit for her cat (hard to get here in NYC, even special orders) and was also interested in FD food. The owner mentioned Primal's new pork and the woman gave a resounding "No way!!" the owner couldn't even explain any of the benefits of pork.  I am going to keep it though to just three times a week.

I wonder if the woman on the other end of the phone was concerned about trichinosis? I completely trust Primal on their raw pork (they freeze it for a long time, longer than USDA says you need to to kill trichinosis) and I've been known to serve pork that's still pink (I love the new guidelines!)... but I suspect that for a lot of people there's still a certain stigma to hearing the words "raw" and "pork" as a phrase.

One of our cats seems to like the Primal pork but the other doesn't. I may keep buying it for the one that does like it, we'll see!

Thank you, too, for posting that article about exotic meats. I'd read a that some time ago and forgotten where I'd read that feeding a lot of beef isn't a great idea. (The cat that doesn't like pork loves beef!)

 

[lisamarie12]

 
I wonder if the woman on the other end of the phone was concerned about trichinosis? I completely trust Primal on their raw pork (they freeze it for a long time, longer than USDA says you need to to kill trichinosis) and I've been known to serve pork that's still pink (I love the new guidelines!)... but I suspect that for a lot of people there's still a certain stigma to hearing the words "raw" and "pork" as a phrase.

One of our cats seems to like the Primal pork but the other doesn't. I may keep buying it for the one that does like it, we'll see!

Thank you, too, for posting that article about exotic meats. I'd read a that some time ago and forgotten where I'd read that feeding a lot of beef isn't a great idea. (The cat that doesn't like pork loves beef!)

Maybe the customer was concerned about trich or maybe it was just a general bias. I myself initially thought, "Eew, pork" but mainly that cats wouldn't catch a pig in the wild, I also assumed it was a fattier meat.  Little did I know it's (or at least in the case of Primal), leaner than Primal's turkey.  But a similar argument could be made for raw fish, lest it be frozen to avoid parasites.

Wasn't that an interesting article? She's in New Zealand so I thought some of her comparisons were informative re: NZ's exotic meats.  I didn't know about beef and histamine, my cats never liked beef.

Your cats are like mine and I guess many others -- one likes a food, the other doesn't, don't you just wish you didn't have any hold-outs and they could all eat the same thing?! Ah cats ....

 

[lisahe]

 
Maybe the customer was concerned about trich or maybe it was just a general bias. I myself initially thought, "Eew, pork" but mainly that cats wouldn't catch a pig in the wild, I also assumed it was a fattier meat.  Little did I know it's (or at least in the case of Primal), leaner than Primal's turkey.  But a similar argument could be made for raw fish, lest it be frozen to avoid parasites.

Wasn't that an interesting article? She's in New Zealand so I thought some of her comparisons were informative re: NZ's exotic meats.  I didn't know about beef and histamine, my cats never liked beef.

Your cats are like mine and I guess many others -- one likes a food, the other doesn't, don't you just wish you didn't have any hold-outs and they could all eat the same thing?! Ah cats ....

I don't think they'd be cats if everything about the feeding was easy!

 

[lisamarie12]

 
My cat with severe food allergies is currently on Pork.

I had him on pork for one month and his allergy symptoms vastly improved. We switched him back to his previous food and within days he broke out in a rash and had oozing sores develop.  So back to Pork again!

It has made a world of difference. For a few years he tolerated turkey but eventually he became allergic to that as well. We've also tried lamb, turkey, chicken, venison, beef etc... with no relief.

He seems to be thriving on the pork, as soon as I get his skin lesions healed up again.

It could be the overall balance of the diet you are feeding is deficient in something, rather than any one particular ingredient being problematic for your cats.

Also, some cats like to switch their schedules with the change in seasons. My cats now want to party at midnight, and sleep all day, whereas in winter they were more active during the day.

Sarah Ann,

I am wondering if maybe my little guy has a sensitivity to turkey as well as chicken. Both cats' energy level seems better these days so maybe it was something else when I first posted the question re pork. I've noticed MIkey isn't itching and licking at his neck sores as much as he usually does. He's also FHV but his symptoms, runny eyes, etc., are better. Usually I have a little bib on him but I've been able to take it off and keep it off for two days now. I was hoping that maybe the cats were reacting to denatured proteins when I wasn't feeding raw (the vet diagnosed a chicken allergy). I have been feeding Primal FD turkey for awhile now and I was going to go back to turkey after this last bag of pork but I decided to get another bag of pork. So they are eating rabbit (canned still, occasionally some Primal rabbit) and FD pork.

How can it be that some cats are allergic to raw, hormone / antibiotic free meats? I don't understand these protein allergies entirely, or rather, I understand how they may be allergic to certain cooked proteins but not raw, unless it's genetic.

And if your cat tolerated turkey for a few years but then developed an allergy, wouldn't the same thing happen with pork if you do that for awhile? I've read that cats can become allergic to a protein they get too much of, hence the importance of rotating proteins.

I just don't get it.