High protein dry without soy, peas, lentils, seed oils?

[BluOnyx]

I want to find something high in protein but without soy, peas, lentils, tomatoes, and all that other nonsense they put in cat food now. Cats can't digest this stuff. I don't do a dry diet but use it as filler when my boys are being picky. They get it a few times a week. I want to move them away from Fancy Feast dry. I am fine with rice and grains being in the food but I absolutely do not want peas, soy, or things like canola oil.

Does anyone know of a brand that offers this sort of recipe?

 

[Alldara]

Freeze dried might be your best option.

All the grain foods (you get either grains or the additives you mentioned for dry), have "lower" protein. But that's basically because thr legume/pea food includes the protein from the legumes and peas in the protein count....which likely isn't applicable to the cat anyway.

 

[Tobermory]

Have you looked at Dr. Elsey’s dry food? I use the chicken as a treat for Mocha because it’s high protein, low carb, and no fillers. She loves it.

 

[lisahe]

Have you looked at Dr. Elsey’s dry food? I use the chicken as a treat for Mocha because it’s high protein, low carb, and no fillers. She loves it.

Yes, this is my suggestion as well. Some people don't like that it has pork plasma in it but it works very wells for our cats. It's about 1/3 of one cat's diet and just a treat/topping for the other. It's the only dry food I'd feed because the carbs are so low (around 3% dry matter, lower than in lots of wet foods) and there are no fillers.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

First Mate is also a decent dry food. It contains brown rice and some berries, but other than that, nothing "weird".

 

[Biomehanika]

First Mate is also a decent dry food. It contains brown rice and some berries, but other than that, nothing "weird".

They also have grain free dry foods in chicken, duck, and ocean fish, so no rice in those but there is some potato instead. Overall both versions are quite limited ingredient which is nice. My cats get a bit of their duck dry food every night and they love it.

 

[BluOnyx]

pork plasma

What exactly is this and why is it considered bad by some cat owners?

I was looking through the formulas and this has to be one of the cleanest I have seen. Flaxseed is probably the only thing I wish it didn't have but it has none of the other junk which is great.

 

[BluOnyx]

First Mate is also a decent dry food. It contains brown rice and some berries, but other than that, nothing "weird".

This sounds decent from looking at the labels but I know all three of my boys are not fond of anything with berries in them. I have tried treats in the past and they snub them.

 

[lisahe]

What exactly is this and why is it considered bad by some cat owners?

I was looking through the formulas and this has to be one of the cleanest I have seen. Flaxseed is probably the only thing I wish it didn't have but it has none of the other junk which is great.

Yes, that's how I feel about the food, too: it's very clean but I could also do without the flaxseed! This food works very well for our cats (albeit not as either cat's sole food) and the extraordinarily low carbs (and lack of fish in the food) are crucial. When I did some googling about pork plasma, I found a fair bit of information but still came away with the sense that (as seems to happen a lot) nobody really knows how it might affect cats. There's no perfect commercial cat food and I can't feed our cats only homemade (they'd rebel) so Dr. Elsey's stays, at least for now!

This thread has posts with concerns about pork plasma:

Dr. Elsey's Formula Change

Did anyone else notice that Dr. Elsey's cleanprotein dry food recently had an (unannounced) formula change? I just bought a fresh bag of the chicken variety since the beginning of the summer. The dried egg product is out, for instance, with hydrolyzed pork and pork plasma added. Nutritional...

thecatsite.com

 

[BluOnyx]

Yes, that's how I feel about the food, too: it's very clean but I could also do without the flaxseed! This food works very well for our cats (albeit not as either cat's sole food) and the extraordinarily low carbs (and lack of fish in the food) are crucial. When I did some googling about pork plasma, I found a fair bit of information but still came away with the sense that (as seems to happen a lot) nobody really knows how it might affect cats. There's no perfect commercial cat food and I can't feed our cats only homemade (they'd rebel) so Dr. Elsey's stays, at least for now!

This thread has posts with concerns about pork plasma:

Dr. Elsey's Formula Change

Did anyone else notice that Dr. Elsey's cleanprotein dry food recently had an (unannounced) formula change? I just bought a fresh bag of the chicken variety since the beginning of the summer. The dried egg product is out, for instance, with hydrolyzed pork and pork plasma added. Nutritional...

thecatsite.com

The cyanide thing is a bit concerning but it seems like that was due to the old formula?

I am assuming they changed away from eggs because the cost of eggs was so dang high during that time. They are expected to go up in cost again due to the bird flu scare as well.

 

[BluOnyx]

I do wish one of the formulas was chicken free. Even the salmon one has chicken fat. One of my boys can't each chicken or I would have switched all of them. I keep bouncing around trying to find one he likes but I have to be careful cause of his HCM. I can't do Blue LID because of the filler and the new one I got he is not a big fan of.

 

[Tobermory]

BluOnyx , you might find the following website helpful. It lists dozens of dry and canned foods and their ingredients. Much easier than peering at tiny type on a few bags or cans at the store!
catfooddb.com

 

[lisahe]

The cyanide thing is a bit concerning but it seems like that was due to the old formula?

I am assuming they changed away from eggs because the cost of eggs was so dang high during that time. They are expected to go up in cost again due to the bird flu scare as well.

I don't remember the details about the "cyanide thing" with regard to this specific food. But I do recall that cyanide is apparently destroyed or at least degraded with heat in processing.

I also wonder how this latest bird flu problem will affect cat foods... We've already seen so many recipe changes!

 

[Biomehanika]

I do wish one of the formulas was chicken free. Even the salmon one has chicken fat. One of my boys can't each chicken or I would have switched all of them. I keep bouncing around trying to find one he likes but I have to be careful cause of his HCM. I can't do Blue LID because of the filler and the new one I got he is not a big fan of.

I’m not sure about other brands, but my boy has a chicken allergy and I feed him a bit of the First Mate Duck dry everyday, and it has chicken fat in it. Their website/ingredients list says the “chicken fat used in FirstMate Pet Foods is processed free of protein, eliminating the risk of allergies derived from chicken” — he has no issues with it.