Dare I?

[poivre]

My darling Norma-Jean has been scratching and licking herself for a very long time. I have tried practically everything from Hills C-D hydrolyzed protein limited ingredient (she hated it and walked away) to Blue turkey and potato limited ingredient (which she loved but still scratched) to Blue whitefish and potato which she really doesn't like much but eats it (still scratched) and today I decided to try a brand new limited ingredient Merrick salmon (just a tiny teaspoon along with her regular whitefish) and she went nuts. She ate that side of the dish and walked away.
Big Question:
Dare I just go for broke and take the chance of giving her a complete dish of just the salmon to see if maybe that will stop her allergies even though it is a different company from the whitefish, or should I take the safe road and slowly introduce more of it for a couple of days? I'm really tempted.
How bad could it be?
Your opinions?

 

[Talien]

If she'll eat it, great. The possible problem is she might throw up because it's a new food all of a sudden.

 

[game misconduct]

better to do a slow mix in with the new food or you run the risk of giving her diarrhea shocking her system like that

 

[maggie101]

My darling Norma-Jean has been scratching and licking herself for a very long time. I have tried practically everything from Hills C-D hydrolyzed protein limited ingredient (she hated it and walked away) to Blue turkey and potato limited ingredient (which she loved but still scratched) to Blue whitefish and potato which she really doesn't like much but eats it (still scratched) and today I decided to try a brand new limited ingredient Merrick salmon (just a tiny teaspoon along with her regular whitefish) and she went nuts. She ate that side of the dish and walked away.
Big Question:
Dare I just go for broke and take the chance of giving her a complete dish of just the salmon to see if maybe that will stop her allergies even though it is a different company from the whitefish, or should I take the safe road and slowly introduce more of it for a couple of days? I'm really tempted.
How bad could it be?
Your opinions?

Can you find food that has salmon oil if that's what she likes or as a topper? Eating just fish she is not getting the protein she needs

 

[poivre]

Thanks for all the replies. The doctor is aware about the lack of protein so no worries on that score.
Also please know that I have given her entirely different foods but with the same maker. This time I am introducing a different company's food so I am a bit skeptical. I'll do 1/2 for breakfast and if she takes it well maybe try 3/4 at tomorrow's dinner.
My grateful thanks to all of you and special soft cat scratches.

 

[maggie101]

There's gotta be something she likes. Good luck!

 

[daftcat75]

Seafood isn't great for cats and is suspected to be allergenic. However, your cat will eat what she eats. So, step one, get her eating the food she likes. Later you can try to introduce some non-fish flavors to see if the scratching reduces. You can also mix the non-fish with the fish if she's being stubborn. Or you can add fish oil or salmon oil to non-fish flavors to give it a fishy aroma and flavor without adding in potentially allergenic fish proteins.

For your original question, if the cat doesn't want to eat the old food, there's no sense in trying an old mixed with new transition. Instead, you can try what I call a naked transition. You will feed her like the old food is still on the plate even if you aren't plating it. So if you start with 3/4 old and 1/4 new, you will instead just plate a quarter portion of the new food. She will be hungry because you are underfeeding her. You can give her an extra meal or two those first few days. But keep those to quarter portions. Wait a poop before you increase the portion size. Slightly softer is to be expected because it is a new food. An absolute blowout, though, rarely gets better with repeated feedings. If her first poop with the new food isn't a disaster, you can proceed to half portions and wait another poop to make certain you're still on the right track. Following this guideline, it can take four poops to get her to full portions. The drawback of a naked transition is that there is no old food to fall back on if the transition isn't going well.

If you are already feeding more than one food, I would instead try another strategy I call the "guest star" meal. Transition only one of her meals. Leave the other meal the same food she always eats. If the guest star doesn't work, you go fallback to the regular food. You can even combine these approaches if you're concerned about underfeeding her during the transition. You will give her regular meals with her regular food at her regular times. But then you can add an additional snack meal (a "tweener" I used to call them because they came between regularly scheduled meals) which is a naked transition to a new food.

Finally, I would encourage you to try either Rawz single protein pates to help steer her away from fish as well as figure out food allergens. If she can eat (and wants to eat) chicken or turkey, you might also consider homemade with a supplement premix like Alnutrin.

 

[poivre]

Thanks DAftcat -- very complicated but healthy instructions.
I will go with the first one and see what happens.
I am grateful to you for the time you took.
Soft scratches to you.