Too much liver?

[coolforcats]

A question on liver in commercial cat food.  I live in the Uk and have finally found a complete food that my fussy cat will eat. Freshpet Select Chicken and Beef with Garden vegetables. My cat loves it. I am concerned about the chicken liver in it after being contacted by a breeder advising me not to feed my cat too much of it and no way would she give this to her cat ! The ingredients are below and I would very much appreciate any advice please.

Chicken (55%)

Chicken Liver(20%)

Beef (8%)

Pea protein

ocean white fish

Pea fibre

Carrots (1%)

Nutritional additives regarding Vit A  I cant see that in the list.

I began feeding  my two year old cat this food about a month ago. At the moment I am only giving her 75 grams although 75-125g is recommended for a cat weighing up to 4.5kg. my cat is around 4.5kg. I have found that any complete food that is of good standard she will not eat making it very difficult to give her the right balance of nutrients. So as well as the Freshpet she has a little fresh cooked coley.  Applaws any of the fish varieties ( she wont touch chicken) also Almo Nature. These are all complimentary foods. So you can understand the concern I have regarding her diet. Last week I tried her on Hilife Fish in sauce. (complete) She loved it. Unfortunately even though I introduced it gradually over that time she began to pass blood after passing a stool. This has happened before soon after I rehomed her. She had been fed for two years on Felix  plus any kibble the previous owner had available which was causing her to have massive stools which were difficult to pass hence the blood. My vet suggested a change in diet which I have been doing gradually. It was working until I gave her the Hilife.

I have tried a raw diet she no like.

I have owned cats for many years and never had this problem before.

Any ideas please and advice regarding the liver content of this food. Thanks

 

[LTS3]

Too much liver can cause vitamin A toxicity in cats. I'm not familiar with UK brands but @Columbine and @Verna davies do and would likely know more about this particular brand.

There are UK brands suggested here: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/332370/my-kitten-doesnt-like-posh-expensive-wet-cat-food

 

[Columbine]

I've never come across that food before, but (on the US site) it does say that it meets AAFCO standards. I very much doubt that there's a risk of vitamin A toxicity, unless you were unbalancing the diet by adding extra liver.

If you're wanting to expand the range of foods she'll eat, there are many other options out there. If she liked the HiLife Ocean Fish food, then she might well like Thrive Complete Ocean Fish. In fact, I've found the Thrive range of canned foods to be pretty irresistible, even with my ultra fussy boy (who was eating a lot of Almost Nature pouches before we tried it). They're not the cheapest, but we have zero waste - something that was previously unheard of in this house The best prices I've found are from Zooplus and Amazon UK if you go for their Subscribe & Save option. Purely Holistic pouches (Pets at Home) might be worth trying too.

If it's any help, these are the other foods I feel good about feeding, along with where to buy them:-

From Zooplus (in no particular order):-

Grau
GranataPet
Catz Finefood (they also have a range called Purrr that is limited ingredient/novel protein)
Bozita tetrapacks (in jelly or sauce - both grain free).
Animonda Carny
Feringa
Terra Faelis (low phosphorus)
Thrive Complete
Animonda Von Feinsten
Smilla (slightly lower quality than some of the others, but still a good food, imo)


Foods from other suppliers:-

Nature’s Menu www.naturesmenu.co.uk and various other suppliers
Meowing Heads - www.barkingheads.co.uk / Pets at Home and others
Wainwrights - the trays are a lot better than the pouches, ingredients-wise. (Pets at Home own brand)
Hi Life Tempt Me (Pets at Home and various retailers, including some supermarkets)
Forthglade www.forthglade.com and various online retailers
Purely Holistic (Pets at Home)


You might find these articles interesting:- [article="33544"][/article][article="29707"][/article][article="32669"][/article][article="31127"][/article][article="31120"][/article]

 

[coolforcats]

Too much liver can cause vitamin A toxicity in cats. I'm not familiar with UK brands but @Columbine
and @Verna davies
do and would likely know more about this particular brand.

There are UK brands suggested here: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/332370/my-kitten-doesnt-like-posh-expensive-wet-cat-food

 

[verna davies]

Columbine is the queen of cat food in the UK. I followed her recommendations when I was looking for a good cat food

 

[coolforcats]

Thank you Columbine for all your information. Most of the foods you suggest I have tried. Miss finicky will not eat any pate food. I have given her Frisk the fish recipe. She will eat that but not the chicken. Her previous owner told me that she eats everything. Not so. I think possibly there may be a problem with my beautiful girl. Nothing serious just down to the rubbish, according to my vet, that she was feeding her on. I will read all the links you have sent me with interest. Thank you.

 

[mschauer]

Vitamin A toxicity is very difficult to achieve.  There was a case reported where a woman fed her poor cat NOTHING but liver every single day, every single meal.  The cat developed vitamin A toxicity but only after years of being fed like that.

If that food is sold in the UK then it meets FEDIAF (European equivalent of the AAFCO) recommendations and so does not exceed the maximum recommended level of vitamin A.

 

[coolforcats]

Thank you mschauer looks like it will be ok especially as I am not giving it as a whole diet.

 

[coolforcats]

Thank you Columbine for all the articles. Very informative especially what makes best canned food.