Carrageenan

Hi guys, I am wondering if anyone more knowledgeable on carrageenan can chime in?
My IBD cat who had a 3 week bout with anorexia is finally eating, but he's only eating Royal Canin K/D Tuna which a rep from their company confirmed has carrageenan in it (he refuses to eat his previous prescription food which we syringe fed him). I just emailed them to ask them the exact amount of carrageenan in it.
Does anyone know how much carrageenan it takes to produce inflammatory effects in animals/cats? He's been on the Royal Canin food for 2 weeks and will have to be on it for another week while I wait for the new prescription food to come in (which I hope he eats). Does anyone know how long it'll take before a cat will get harmful effects from the carrageenan? Any advice or information on this would be much appreciated!

This is a guess, I'm sorry, but...generally speaking, with ALL mammals, different individuals will have different sensitivity levels to things like that, so what is true for one cat may not be for another. And IBD effects can vary widely from one individual to another. You will probably get a pretty wide range of answers when those who know first-hand spot this. However, if he has been on it for two weeks without ill effects, you are probably going to be ok for another week.

I think Mamanyt1953's answer is about the best I could come up with, too: I don't think anyone could predict. The whole carrageenan question, beginning with its potential for harm, is murky at best. I won't feed it to our cats (except a can of a favorite food every few months or so) because they have tricky stomachs but plenty of people feed lots of the stuff to no (apparent) ill effect. Personally, I don't think it's worth the risk.

That said, based on the fact that you mentioned K/D food, it sounds like your cat probably has kidney disease, is that right? If that's the case, I think getting him to eat anything at all is probably your most important task, given that you also said he'd been anorexic for a few weeks.

If your cat -- what's his name, by the way? -- likes tuna and it entices him to eat, it might be worth trying some of Weruva's foods. Many of them contain tuna and lots of their foods are quite low in phosphorus for nonprescription foods, making them a good choice for many kidney cats. They aren't high in calories but when our previous cat -- who had the combination of diagnosed mild kidney disease and digestive problems that were likely IBD/lymphoma but were never properly diagnosed because she was too frail -- was in her last months, she readily ate quite a bit of Weruva. Eating low-carb, high-protein foods with low phosphorus was our goal and Weruva fit.

You didn't mention what triggers your cat's IBD but Weruva makes foods that contain both chicken and fish (meaning in the same can!) or foods with just fish, primarily tuna. Best of all there are pates as well as shreds of various types. Just ask if you want more ideas on those: Between Brooksie and our current two cats, we've fed a lot of them! Soulistic, sold only at Petco, is part of Weruva and has similar foods.

My kidney cat is also on a Royal Canin food, she is on the Renal Support D. Of the prescription foods that I tried it was the only one that she would eat, the vet gave me a few cans of several different foods and the princess turned her nose up at all the others. Carrageenan has a bad reputation, lots of negative info on many websites, but to be honest I don't know how much of that is hyperbole. The thing about all natural, clean food has become almost like a religion for pets as well as humans. Your cat may or may not have a reaction to it. If this food is what he will eat and he has no reaction then I would continue to give it to him.

Totally depends on the cat. My cats have never seemingly had a reaction to it at all and I couldn't even tell you which foods on my shelf right now even have it or don't. Meanwhile other cats on this forum have awful and quick reactions to it.

mizzely said:

Totally depends on the cat. My cats have never seemingly had a reaction to it at all and I couldn't even tell you which foods on my shelf right now even have it or don't. Meanwhile other cats on this forum have awful and quick reactions to it.

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True. I have one cat from the same litter that has projectile diarrhea if she eats the stuff. While the other cats are fine with a 3 oz can.