Potential food allergy – need recommendations for a new food

[5CatDraw]

lisahe – you have really helped me rethink my approach for screening potential new cat foods. I had previously been mostly focused on what I thought indicated a high quality brand - like transparency, % protein from meat, etc. But I now realize that some ingredients just have no place in cat food, even if the % meat is high. And, I’ve come to realize that the additives are extremely important. Bailey’s POTENTIAL food allergies aside, I realize now that there has been way too much barfing in the house, so something in one of the foods is not agreeing with someone. So I need to press on with the detective work once the new foods arrive.

I also realize now that in the last couple months I have been feeding more and more canned fish recipes to Bailey and two other cats. Mostly because they often refused to eat the Tiny Tasters. Since they love fish, and I strive to please my cats, I had been feeding it more and more. In addition to the Farmina dry with herring.

I had decided previously that fish was best fed in moderation, but ok if I avoided tuna and mackerel. But I’m now determined to greatly reduce, or possibly even get them off of fish. The histamine alone could have certainly caused, or contributed to, Bailey’s bizarre eyelid incident (which continues to improve).

I responded to LadyLondonderry above with some potential quality control concerns regarding Rawz (from Amazon reviews). I know you mentioned that your cats are on/off on whether they like it or not. Thought you might want to take a look.

I really appreciate that you have taken the time to share your experiences with me. As I said, it has given me new, better, perspective.
The quest for the perfect food continues, and amen to a good week for all of us.

 

[lisahe]

I laughed at first, but you know what, I’m going to do that. I have a couple wildlife cameras that I will put out. I won’t catch all of the barfing, but maybe some of it.

I have to start with this: I've sometimes thought a camera would be helpful, too! Leave it to maggie101 to actually do it!

I saw your Rawz thread but also appreciate your summary on this one. Yes, it's a risky food! It's very odd: the company is based in my state (Maine) but lots of pet food stores don't seem to sell Rawz any longer. I checked around when the pandemic was easing a year or two ago and Rawz pate was very hard to find. So I order individual cans from Incredible Pets! The cats loved the shreds but they have tapioca starch.

lisahe lisahe – you have really helped me rethink my approach for screening potential new cat foods. I had previously been mostly focused on what I thought indicated a high quality brand - like transparency, % protein from meat, etc. But I now realize that some ingredients just have no place in cat food, even if the % meat is high. And, I’ve come to realize that the additives are extremely important. Bailey’s POTENTIAL food allergies aside, I realize now that there has been way too much barfing in the house, so something in one of the foods is not agreeing with someone. So I need to press on with the detective work once the new foods arrive.

That's very sweet of you to say, thank you, 5CatDraw . I'm just glad our experience can help someone else. I learned a lot of this from what I read when our previous cat was, well, dying in 2013: I knew next to nothing about cat food and additives or feline nutrition in general. I gave myself a sort of crash course. For starters, I lurked here, read catinfo.org, and noted results of human trials involving thickeners like carrageenan. And what still bothers me most is that a huge number of those thickeners and fillers just don't belong in cat food to begin with. The companies just change them. Yes, some thickeners may encourage cats to eat. Or at least lap up spurous gravy. But we know they can be harmful for cats -- I know for sure they're one of the causes of all that barfing in so many of our houses. Thank goodness for homemade food to round out the very few foods that I and the cats deem acceptable! Edwina, by the way, is now eating her Merrick without complaint.

As for fish, our (now retired) vet, a cat specialist, is very anti-fish. And our previous cat I mentioned above was a fish addict who I strongly suspect had a sensitivity or allergy to at least some types of fish. I totally agree with you about the possibility that histamine contributed to Bailey's eyelid incident. I wonder if the small amount of fish in the new Fancy Feast recipe might have contributed to Ireland's runny eyes and little coughs/wheezes, too. Side note: I'm glad Bailey's continuing to improve! Ireland seems to be improving as well. I'm not sure if it's the L-lysine, less stress, higher barometric pressure (seriously!), or good ol' time but I'm crossing my fingers that this flare is nearing its end.

I really appreciate that you have taken the time to share your experiences with me. As I said, it has given me new, better, perspective.
The quest for the perfect food continues, and amen to a good week for all of us.

I'm glad to write about this stuff: not only does it help me re-sort my own thoughts about how to feed our two cats (that's a never-ending process) but I'm glad it might help someone else. I've learned to let some things go, everything from guar gum (the least worst gum, IMHO!) to Ireland's unilateral decision last spring to eat only Dr. Elsey's dry food, no wet food. At least Dr. E's food is good, far better in terms of low carbs, low phosphorus, and absence of fillres than many, many wet foods. Plus Ireland loves to have a good drink of water, often with a splashy paw washing, after she eats dry food. The litter box tells me she's not having any hydration problems. That said, I'm relieved that she's now eating more wet food than dry again. As for the perfect food, I hate to say it but I think the most perfect food we feed is homemade, with Alnutrin. The cats (even Ireland) eat it. It's more work but, honestly, less headache than most canned foods because at least I know what's in it. Second best is probably Nulo, because Ireland loves it and will eat a full meal but Edwina is "meh" about it, meaning she won't eat it too fast and regurgitate!

Happy feeding!

P.S. And good luck with the videos!

 

[5CatDraw]

lisahe - Well first, congratulations that Edwina is eating the Merrick. I’m even more anxious for mine to arrive now. Also, that Ireland’s flare is burning out.

I’m hoping that many of my failed attempts to get my cats to eat canned food was not necessarily because they were being finicky, but because an additive in the food disagreed with them. So maybe since I have paid more attention to additives for the new foods, I will be more successful this time.

Thanks so much for mentioning Incredible Pets! for Rawz. You are such a great resource! I was going to order it from Amazon, but I feel better about ordering from Incredible Pets!. I always wonder if pet food might have been in an Amazon warehouse for a while without temperature regulation (of course I have no way to know if Chewy is any better). And to be able to buy it by the can is great! I’m going to order a few cans of each of the pates. And, probably some Mouser. I had never heard of it until you and others mentioned it in the other post. The brewer’s yeast makes me a little nervous, but . . . maybe it will be fine.

It is quite puzzling that the local stores in the state where Rawz is made don’t seem to carry it. I can’t quite decide what to think of that. I reached out to Rawz about the “Natural Flavor” ingredient and got a disappointing nebulous answer (whereas Merrick gave me a straight forward answer). But I have learned that companies don’t like to divulge too much about exactly what goes into that ingredient. I’ve decided that I need to let it go. It’s a matter of lesser evils when it comes to pet food. And hopefully what I was reading in the Amazon reviews was an isolated quality control issue that has been resolved.

Next post from me will be some info on Dr. Elsey’s Dry Chicken. I pulled it from the cats’ dry buffet because right after the start of the Bailey food allergy debacle I read that they had recently changed recipes. I’ve put it back out now and Bailey is extremely thankful for that. Fingers crossed that we don’t have a relapse.

You have inspired me to try home made for the cats again. I’m going to start by trying to get them interested in eating a little bit of cooked turkey every day. If I’m successful, then I will move on to including Alnutrin or something similar. I had bought some TC Feline a couple years ago for my failed food making attempt. But Alnutrin looks a little better.

You mentioned that Ireland likes to splash water with her paws. Jodie is the same way. I recently put out a very large glass container just for her. She really goes at it, to the point it sometimes wakes me up in the middle of the night. It seems to keep her grimy little paws out of the other cat water bowls.

 

[5CatDraw]

I mentioned earlier that I had read about (on cats.com) Dr. Elsey’s having made a recipe change to their CleanProtein Dry Chicken, and this caught my attention when the idea of Bailey possibly having food allergies came up. Bailey really liked this food and it was what she ate the most.

I have two bags that I have had for a while and they have slightly different ingredients – and neither one is the same as the ingredients shown on Chewy (which matches the Dr. Elsey’s website).
So I reached out to Dr. Elsey’s to get the scoop and was told that yes they have made a recipe change twice recently, but what is shown on Chewy is the current recipe.

My Bag BFB 11 Sept 23 (distributed by Precious Cat, Englewood, CO): Chicken, Dried Egg Product, Pork Protein Isolate, Gelatin, Chicken Fat, Flaxseed, Natural Flavor

My Bag BFB 04 Feb 24 (Precious Cat, Cheyenne, WY): Chicken, Dried Egg Product, Gelatin, Chicken Fat, Natural Flavor, Salmon Oil

On Chewy (Precious Cat, Cheyenne, WY): Chicken, Hydrolyzed Pork, Pork Plasma, Gelatin, Chicken Fat, Ground Flaxseed, Natural Flavor

Just thought I would share this, for others who feed it and might be interested.

 

[lisahe]

Oh my, 5CatDraw , that's interesting about all the Dr. Elsey's! I can't believe there have been two recent recipe changes, though that does make sense, given the differences in the food. The food one iteration ago (I think it was?) was very difficult to crush. What we have now, though, practically crumbles in my fingers! It's actually perfect for our purposes.

And how funny that Jodie's also a paw washer! Ireland sometimes splashes out a lot of water.

I love Incredible Pets! The single cans are wonderful, given that the foods I buy from them (Mouser and Rawz) aren't the most popular foods here. Edwina did eat up her Rawz chicken this evening, though. (Ireland, of course, wouldn't touch it.) I also bought Nulo for the first time from Incredible Pets. Thank goodness! That's a key part of Ireland's diet and I never would have tried it if I'd had to buy a case!

I hope Bailey's doing better today!

 

[maggie101]

Only thing I don't like about Nulo is the variety so be really careful when ordering
Turkey duck,turkey chicken,turket salmon,turkey halibut
Couldn't figure out why my cat kept throwing up. She can't eat chicken and I accidentally got that!

 

[lisahe]

She can't eat chicken and I accidentally got that!

So often it's just "by accident"! It was the same with Edwina and potato.

 

[Alldara]

Only thing I don't like about Nulo is the variety so be really careful when ordering
Turkey duck,turkey chicken,turket salmon,turkey halibut
Couldn't figure out why my cat kept throwing up. She can't eat chicken and I accidentally got that!

Oh goodness!

It really does happen by accident. Magnus kept having an allergy flare up last year or so and I kept checking the food and nothing! ..... It was the cat wipes I used to wipe the dirt off him. They had milk.

 

[lisahe]

It really does happen by accident. Magnus kept having an allergy flare up last year or so and I kept checking the food and nothing! ..... It was the cat wipes I used to wipe the dirt off him. They had milk.

Wow, that's an unusual one! Were Magnus's symptoms respiratory or digestive? Or maybe skin?

With all our cats' known allergies and sensitivities, this is why I don't want to try kitty litters made out of pine, grass seed, or tofu, thank you very much!

 

[Alldara]

Wow, that's an unusual one! Were Magnus's symptoms respiratory or digestive? Or maybe skin?

With all our cats' known allergies and sensitivities, this is why I don't want to try kitty litters made out of pine, grass seed, or tofu, thank you very much!

He just seemed like a picky eater. We had to push him to eat, hand feed him. The only thing they could find was his congenital heart murmur.

Then he got a bacterial infection in his toe nail beds. But the swelling never went away and he constantly had puritius there.

 

[5CatDraw]

Oh goodness!

It really does happen by accident. Magnus kept having an allergy flare up last year or so and I kept checking the food and nothing! ..... It was the cat wipes I used to wipe the dirt off him. They had milk.

How common are dairy allergies in cats?

 

[Alldara]

How common are dairy allergies in cats?

No idea. My understanding is that all cats are lactose intolerant.

 

[lisahe]

No idea. My understanding is that all cats are lactose intolerant.

Same here.