Feeding plain chicken

Juniper_Junebug

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How long can you feed your cat plain chicken and be reasonably assured it won't cause any harm from nutritional imbalances?

I realize it's not nutritionally balanced and so have previously only given it as a treat (keeping to the <10% rule). My question is about how long I could safely conduct an experiment about food sensitivities. My kitty Juno has persistent loose stools (not always, but often) and I wonder if they are related to a food intolerance. (She was treated for giardia twice, and based on stool color and smell, I don't think that's the problem anymore, though I may get her tested again to confirm). I had some chicken so I decided to feed her only chicken today to see if that helped. Of course she hasn't pooped yet so I have no idea. How many more days would it be ok to continue with the chicken? (She's normally on wet food).
 

daftcat75

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An otherwise healthy adult—not pregnant and not a kitten—(I believe I have read) can eat an unbalanced diet for about two to four weeks before it might become problematic. You can order samples or a package of EZ Complete premix supplement powder which would probably take two to four weeks to receive. You can add this to plain chicken to make it nutritionally balanced and complete. Assuming your cat enjoys the flavor (many do!) and it doesn’t make matters worse from plain chicken, you can feed this indefinitely as the EZ Complete makes it balanced and complete.
https://www.foodfurlife.com/samples.html#/
 
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daftcat75

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Though I would still try to reintroduce a canned food once she’s stable again. I would do this in case there are any shortages, supply, or production issues (eg can’t get the powder or the chicken or forgot to make a batch.) Having at least one other canned food helps you through these times without a rapid/emergency transition to a new food.
 
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Juniper_Junebug

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Though I would still try to reintroduce a canned food once she’s stable again. I would do this in case there are any shortages, supply, or production issues (eg can’t get the powder or the chicken or forgot to make a batch.) Having at least one other canned food helps you through these times without a rapid/emergency transition to a new food.
Yup, I don't intend this to be permanent but I just figured I might test to see if checken-only helped. Doing a limited ingredient diet with canned food seems so hard, so I figured I would at least start with this to get a sense of if there was a food sensitivity issue. My vet had said she didn't think I needed to do a limited ingredient diet yet, but that was several weeks ago and she thought over time my kitty's bowels would improve after the giardia treatment. They have, but not completely.
 

LTS3

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I'd add a pre-mix to the plain chicken or any other protein for the duration of a food sensitivity trial to avoid any nutritional issues. Food trials should be done for at least 13 weeks or so. A few days of unsupplemented meat would be ok but definitely not for 13 weeks or more.
 
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Juniper_Junebug

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I decided the logistics were too complicated so I gave up on the chicken diet after two days. So the only thing I managed to accomplish was to make my kitty newly picky and entitled, turning her nose up at her regular food. That's ok, I'm more stubborn than she is and I know she'll eat her Ziwi when she's hungry....
 
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