Do You Have A Cut-off Point Re: Order Of Ingredients For Potential Food Sensitivities?

[cheeser]

Let's say there's a particular protein or other ingredient that might be a little iffy for a cat with food allergies and/or sensitivities, or that you're just not too keen about for whatever reason. What is your comfort zone as to how far down that item appears in the list of ingredients for you to consider it worth giving that product a try?

Buddy has gotten bored with the "perfect" and carefully researched foods that best meet his health needs, and now we need to try some options that are a little less perfect for now just to get him to eat on a regular basis.

 

[Azazel]

Doing research on cat food drove me to madness until I just gave up and made my own food. There’s just too many factors that I worry about (ingredients, source of ingredients, protein levels, etc.) so I guess my cut off is too high for the pet food industry. Really the only commercial food I felt good about feeding my cats was Rad Cat.

 

[MissClouseau]

Most fish don't work for her so I avoid anything with fish. (Her dry food has couple of different fish meat but it has such a long ingredients list and she's been eating it before I noticed her sensitivity.)

But she has several different issues about food. If something, particularly dry food, clicked on most of her needs and preferences but had fish in less than like 20% or as the third or fourth in the ingredients list, I would give it a go.

I also wouldn't even try a wet food that had two main different meats. She hates it.

 

[cheeser]

Doing research on cat food drove me to madness until I just gave up and made my own food. There’s just too many factors that I worry about (ingredients, source of ingredients, protein levels, etc.) so I guess my cut off is too high for the pet food industry. Really the only commercial food I felt good about feeding my cats was Rad Cat.

I've tried cooking my own homemade cat food, but alas, Buddy wasn't impressed with my efforts. Then again, he's not too impressed with most commercially prepared food either, so it's not just my cooking that doesn't tickle his fancy.

 

[Azazel]

I've tried cooking my own homemade cat food, but alas, Buddy wasn't impressed with my efforts. Then again, he's not too impressed with most commercially prepared food either, so it's not just my cooking that doesn't tickle his fancy.

I wouldn’t be too hard on yourself, he sounds like a picky little guy.
I don’t even bother cooking, just feed it raw!

 

[cheeser]

Most fish don't work for her so I avoid anything with fish. (Her dry food has couple of different fish meat but it has such a long ingredients list and she's been eating it before I noticed her sensitivity.)

But she has several different issues about food. If something, particularly dry food, clicked on most of her needs and preferences but had fish in less than like 20% or as the third or fourth in the ingredients list, I would give it a go.

I also wouldn't even try a wet food that had two main different meats. She hates it.

We learned our lesson the hard way re: fish, so we don't care how far down the list it is! But he tolerates fish oils okay, which is a darned good thing since the few canned foods he currently deems somewhat acceptable contain salmon oil.

Okily-dokily. Just for grins, I'll take a look to see which questionable ingredients are listed fourth or further down and at least see what my options are. Thanks much!

 

[cheeser]

I wouldn’t be too hard on yourself, he sounds like a picky little guy.
I don’t even bother cooking, just feed it raw!

Unfortunately, Buddy is FIV+ and tends to be pretty sickly, so the vet doesn't want us to feed him anything raw, even if it's a commercially prepared product.

Part of Buddy's problem is that his sense of smell is pretty much shot because his sinuses are all screwed up from chronic upper respiratory infections that went untreated when he was a stray. So it has always been a challenge to get him to eat. It's just more of a challenge these days than usual since he seems to have gotten bored with his current menu options. Cats and their quirky ideas!

 

[Azazel]

Unfortunately, Buddy is FIV+ and tends to be pretty sickly, so the vet doesn't want us to feed him anything raw, even if it's a commercially prepared product.

Part of Buddy's problem is that his sense of smell is pretty much shot because his sinuses are all screwed up from chronic upper respiratory infections that went untreated when he was a stray. So it has always been a challenge to get him to eat. It's just more of a challenge these days than usual since he seems to have gotten bored with his current menu options. Cats and their quirky ideas!

Oh, poor little guy. Have you tried sprinkling fortiflora on his food? I find that the animal digest smell is really strong.

 

[cheeser]

Oh, poor little guy. Have you tried sprinkling fortiflora on his food? I find that the animal digest smell is really strong.

That was one of the first things we tried. Nada.

Nor did we have any luck with any other toppers or mixers. The best we've been able to manage is to just warm up his food and spoon feed it to him. It's like he has to be able to get a good whiff of each bite for him to be able to recognize it as food. Suffice it to say, each meal is quite an adventure as we have to chase him all over the place so we can keep waving spoonfuls of food under his nose!

 

[Jem]

What if if along with warming the food, you also add a table spoon of water. When it's heated, the added moisture may help infiltrate his nostrils a bit more. Obviously not to the point where it's "steaming" but, it might help.

Is he chronically congested or has he lost his sense of smell from damage?
If it's chronic congestion, maybe doing saline nose drops every few days or so would help clear the sinuses a bit and sooth the tissue helping with inflammation and his sense of smell.

 

[cheeser]

What if if along with warming the food, you also add a table spoon of water. When it's heated, the added moisture may help infiltrate his nostrils a bit more. Obviously not to the point where it's "steaming" but, it might help.

Is he chronically congested or has he lost his sense of smell from damage?
If it's chronic congestion, maybe doing saline nose drops every few days or so would help clear the sinuses a bit and sooth the tissue helping with inflammation and his sense of smell.

We always add water or homemade broth to Buddy's food. We started doing that a few years ago to get some extra moisture into his diet after he developed some urinary tract problems. He liked that so well, now he expects about half of each meal to have the consistency of a half-melted slushie.

Unfortunately, even when the meds and supplements help and he's not as congested as usual, meal times are still quite an adventure.

We recently took Buddy to the vet for a routine checkup, and he said turmeric might be worth a try for the chronic inflammation. Fingers crossed.

 

[Jem]

have you ever heard of this?

https://www.chewy.com/homeopet-feline-nose-relief-cat/dp/138097

I've seen good and not so good reviews. I've not personally used it, but was tempted at one point. Unfortunately, the kitty I was going to use it for has passed, but now that I have another cat with Feline Herpes, I'm tempted again. We currently have his nose issues under control, and I've started him back up on Lysine (had some already...might as well), but if it flairs up again, I may give it a try.

Anyway, I thought you might like to do your own research on the product.

 

[daftcat75]

We learned our lesson the hard way re: fish, so we don't care how far down the list it is! But he tolerates fish oils okay, which is a darned good thing since the few canned foods he currently deems somewhat acceptable contain salmon oil.

Okily-dokily. Just for grins, I'll take a look to see which questionable ingredients are listed fourth or further down and at least see what my options are. Thanks much!

Fish sensitivities and allergies are related to the proteins. The immune system doesn’t care about fats which is what salmon oil/fish oil is. My Krista can’t have fish proteins anymore but has no issues with fish oils. Except too much fat in her diet causes her hairballs. But that’s a different issue.

 

[cheeser]

have you ever heard of this?

https://www.chewy.com/homeopet-feline-nose-relief-cat/dp/138097

I've seen good and not so good reviews. I've not personally used it, but was tempted at one point. Unfortunately, the kitty I was going to use it for has passed, but now that I have another cat with Feline Herpes, I'm tempted again. We currently have his nose issues under control, and I've started him back up on Lysine (had some already...might as well), but if it flairs up again, I may give it a try.

Anyway, I thought you might like to do your own research on the product.

We've seen lots of people highly recommended that, and thought about giving that a try, but I can't remember why we didn't. Maybe an inactive ingredient or something? *scratches head*

Thanks for the reminder. I'll take another look at it and see if I can jog my pitiful little memory.

 

[cheeser]

Fish sensitivities and allergies are related to the proteins. The immune system doesn’t care about fats which is what salmon oil/fish oil is. My Krista can’t have fish proteins anymore but has no issues with fish oils. Except too much fat in her diet causes her hairballs. But that’s a different issue.

Yep, I know what you mean. To quote that great philosopher Roseanne Roseannadanna, "It's always something."

 

[miagi's_mommy]

Rufus gets super sick on fish based foods whereas Angel gets itchy if anything has rice in it so we avoid those particular foods.