Glad she's not barfing more! Yes, sometimes the tried-and-true is the best thing.
happened during the night. I think it was the bedtime snack: Rawz duck, which she doesn't like very much but eventually ate anyway. She was hesitant about it the last time I fed it, too, so maybe now I know why!?
Oh man! I'm surprised the gave in and ate it if she didn't like it, is she better now?Glad she's not barfing more! Yes, sometimes the tried-and-true is the best thing.
I wrote yesterday that I'd probably jinxed Edwina... and I did.
Duck is fatty already. But then the Rawz duck adds salmon oil. All that fat might be begging for a hairball. Krista would have hairballs when I fed her Rawz duck exclusively. When I started cutting her duck with rabbit or adding the salmon oil to the rabbit but diluting it with non-oil added rabbit, her hairballs cleared up.Glad she's not barfing more! Yes, sometimes the tried-and-true is the best thing.
I wrote yesterday that I'd probably jinxed Edwina... and I did.
Yes, she's fine now, thank you for asking! Edwina will almost always eat almost everything so she did finish her food hours later. (I heard her slurping it during the night after our power went off in a big storm!)
Thank you so much for this post,
daftcat75
, I'd almost PMed you because of a vague recollection that Krista had trouble with Rawz duck. Edwina did, in fact, barf up a small clump of hair so I think you're probably right about the fat and the fur. (There was a separate "egg white" puddle, too, probably from later, after she got hungry.) The Cat Log shows that she had a similar incident (both kinds of barfs) with Rawz in late August, so I think I should set the Rawz aside. What's interesting is that she does perfectly fine with Fancy Feast Classics, which the cats get once a week and which are also pretty fatty. I admit I haven't always been good at tracking which foods the barfs followed but I have to wonder if the guar gum, which is also an emulsifier (ding, ding, ding!) might have some sort of mitigating effect. (Fenugreek is apparently also a good emulsifier but I kind of doubt the scientific articles I glanced at took hairball formation into account.)
I wonder if you just trade duck for rabbit (or turkey or another flavor Edwina might like) and add your own fish oil or salmon oil to get the same excitement duck gets, i wonder if this would also work for Edwina like it does with Krista.Yes, she's fine now, thank you for asking! Edwina will almost always eat almost everything so she did finish her food hours later. (I heard her slurping it during the night after our power went off in a big storm!)
Thank you so much for this post,
At the time, Krista was eating about 8-10 oz a day. So I could add salmon oil to one can, open another can without salmon oil, and strike a mix between the two so that she would get just as much salmon oil as I wanted her to have. Usually just one pump so split the first can however may times she ate and fill the rest of the plate with the second. I don't know if that adds up from percent of calories as fat. I only know that when I took control of the salmon oil vs leaving it up to Rawz, the hairballs cleared up.Looking at the Rawz website, looks like the rabbit is just as high in calories from fat as the duck. Both are 57-58%.
Huge thanks to both of you! I confess, daftcat75, that I've always avoided rabbit because we had (pet) rabbits when I was a kid.Looking at the Rawz website, looks like the rabbit is just as high in calories from fat as the duck. Both are 57-58%.
That's been a good excuse to keep rabbit in reserve as an incaseweneedit protein...
tapioca starch to the roast turkey food, yet another unnecessary ingredient in cat food. They took out the byproducts, though. (I'd rather feed byproducts -- which were only fifth and sixth ingredients in the roast turkey food anyway -- than endless tapioca starch!) I got out a magnifying glass and checked an old school Sheba roast turkey package on the cat food cart and see there is no tapioca starch. Sheba was a very decent food for the price and the cats really grew to love it so I'm very sorry to take it out of the regular rotation.
SpecterOhPossum
, it was you, wasn't it, who didn't want to keep feeding Sheba? 
Yep! I just don't like the byproducts and guar gum despite that it's technically safe; I want to do home cooked instead, so I know what's in it!Huge thanks to both of you! I confess, daftcat75, that I've always avoided rabbit because we had (pet) rabbits when I was a kid.
Azazel, thank you for the check on the calories from fat! What's really interesting is that (according to Dr. P's charts) those Rawz foods are comparable with the Fancy Feast Classics and Sheba pates that we feed. And neither of those seems to bother. This makes me come back to the guar gum again.
News flash on Sheba, though: When I checked Sheba ingredients for guar gum online (here) I first noticed obvious new packaging and then noticed the addition of
Which I do understand!
OOP! Dang it, there goes our luck! I;ve been having to personally step in and coach specter not to scarf and barf latley, she's become somehwat of a pig which is amazing because just a few weeks ago, I was stressing about wanting to pack weight on her but she was too picky! GOD that backfired! Anyways, I hope yours is okay! Whats with these little pigs?! Sheesh!
Did you say Specter sometimes barfs up hairballs? If so, fat could be a culprit -- it helps bind the fur together. (This is why I feed egg yolk: it's an emulsifier, to help prevent the binding.)
Yes, she seems fine, thank you! I always try not to feed Edwina when she's too wound up but I think that night, with the power outage and change in routine, put her over the top.
GASP, WHAT! I didn't know that! OMG .. Holy cow! No, she doesn't have hairballs often (only once in three months) but you're probably right! Oh.... Dear I'm dumb, wow.. Well, I know what I need to stop doing at least! Thank you!! I was feeding the skin to get some meat on her but that's probably what caused the odd throw up.. Man oh man
It's not just you: I forgot about this, too!
