Food recommendations, possible chicken allergy?

[Chibiwings]

tl;dr: I free feed due to rescue cats who only eat when no one is around. I have one who is recently having tummy issues (possible chicken allergy, no other symptoms aside from diarrhea) , so I am looking for a food that won't make me go broke, may agree with her better, that I can hopefully switch all the kikis to.

Hello! I am in the process of trying to find a new food for my cats, due to one 10 month baby having dietary issues. The vet warns she may have a chicken allergy, but we are not 100% sure on that. She has an extremely sensitive stomach, we are currently battling a bad flare up again with antibiotics due to her need to get into human foods. She is doing a trial of hydrolized food, just to see if she does indeed have a chicken allergy. Aside from very very bad diarrhea, she has no other signs of allergies. No hair loss, itching or flaking skin, no swollen or red eyes etc.

Anyway! I ramble a lot, sorry I am looking to see if there are any foods out there that won't break the bank that I can switch everyone to. I currently free feed as it is very very hard for me to individually feed 11 cats. They are all rescues, and I have a few who only eat late in the night when things are very quiet. One cat in particular is very bad about this, she is semi feral even after almost 2 years having her. (She literally only trusts me and it's barely)

So if anyone has any recommendations on a sensitive tummy food I would love to hear about it!

 

[artiemom]

Man, this is so complicated.. I, my else have had to deal with this with 2 cats.
I ended up settling on prescription novel protein diet food. It is so incredibly expensive; but, I have to trust that they are free from chicken..
Many people have success with the higher end products.. or even raw... Chicken, chicken meal, chicken by-products; seem to be the fillers in all lower end foods. I swear that is why so many cats are coming down with chicken allergies and IBD.

I hope someone comes along with specific suggestions; meanwhile, I would just take the time to Read the labels.. You have to be an informed consumer, at this point.

I commend you for taking care of so many kitties.. I hope they are all spayed or neutered..

 

[artiemom]

Man, this is so complicated.. I, my else have had to deal with this with 2 cats.
I ended up settling on prescription novel protein diet food. It is so incredibly expensive; but, I have to trust that they are free from chicken..
Many people have success with the higher end products.. or even raw... Chicken, chicken meal, chicken by-products; seem to be the fillers in all lower end foods. I swear that is why so many cats are coming down with chicken allergies and IBD.

I hope someone comes along with specific suggestions; meanwhile, I would just take the time to Read the labels.. You have to be an informed consumer, at this point.

I commend you for taking care of so many kitties.. I hope they are all spayed or neutered..

 

[Babypaws]

tl;dr: I free feed due to rescue cats who only eat when no one is around. I have one who is recently having tummy issues (possible chicken allergy, no other symptoms aside from diarrhea) , so I am looking for a food that won't make me go broke, may agree with her better, that I can hopefully switch all the kikis to.

Hello! I am in the process of trying to find a new food for my cats, due to one 10 month baby having dietary issues. The vet warns she may have a chicken allergy, but we are not 100% sure on that. She has an extremely sensitive stomach, we are currently battling a bad flare up again with antibiotics due to her need to get into human foods. She is doing a trial of hydrolized food, just to see if she does indeed have a chicken allergy. Aside from very very bad diarrhea, she has no other signs of allergies. No hair loss, itching or flaking skin, no swollen or red eyes etc.

Anyway! I ramble a lot, sorry I am looking to see if there are any foods out there that won't break the bank that I can switch everyone to. I currently free feed as it is very very hard for me to individually feed 11 cats. They are all rescues, and I have a few who only eat late in the night when things are very quiet. One cat in particular is very bad about this, she is semi feral even after almost 2 years having her. (She literally only trusts me and it's barely)

So if anyone has any recommendations on a sensitive tummy food I would love to hear about it!

Wow, I can’t really recommend any food because I have issues with my 11 cats. They only seem to eat Friskies wet food which is not great and I’ve noticed even on the label if they have turkey or beef when you look in the ingredients they sneak in chicken among other things that cats don’t really need, such as veggies, but I just had to make a comment. I’m not the only one with so many cats. I have one feral cat that’s been inside for two or three years now and she is so affectionate my only problem is I can’t get to cut their nails,there’s only three or four that will let me do it and sadly enough and unfortunately, I’m the only one who deals with them such as feeding and combing, etc.
I hope somebody can recommend a good food for all your little kitties. By the way mine are strictly indoor cats and all are spayed and neutered. Otherwise I’d have like 50 of them. Lol

 

[artiemom]

Another idea is to contact Chewy.com for help.. They are really good, and deliver..

I would stay away from Fancy Feast. It seems that they put chicken and fish in all their varieties, as a filler. They only one safe from chicken is the beef flavor.. but be careful..
any meat by-products-- listed on the label can be chicken parts...

 

[Chibiwings]

Man, this is so complicated.. I, my else have had to deal with this with 2 cats.
I ended up settling on prescription novel protein diet food. It is so incredibly expensive; but, I have to trust that they are free from chicken..
Many people have success with the higher end products.. or even raw... Chicken, chicken meal, chicken by-products; seem to be the fillers in all lower end foods. I swear that is why so many cats are coming down with chicken allergies and IBD.

I hope someone comes along with specific suggestions; meanwhile, I would just take the time to Read the labels.. You have to be an informed consumer, at this point.

I commend you for taking care of so many kitties.. I hope they are all spayed or neutered..

Its definitely a hard time, every food that doesn't have chicken also seems to be grain free and I've heard TONS of mixed things on feeding grain free food. It's honestly such a battle atm, she was fine on kitten food with chicken but the slow switch to adult food something went wrong somewhere I will try contacting chewy to see if they can reccomend anything!

Almost everyone is fixed I've got 3 going in at the end of March for spays (our poor clinic is 6-8+ months behind due to how very bad the cat and stray cat population here is)

 

[Chibiwings]

Wow, I can’t really recommend any food because I have issues with my 11 cats. They only seem to eat Friskies wet food which is not great and I’ve noticed even on the label if they have turkey or beef when you look in the ingredients they sneak in chicken among other things that cats don’t really need, such as veggies, but I just had to make a comment. I’m not the only one with so many cats. I have one feral cat that’s been inside for two or three years now and she is so affectionate my only problem is I can’t get to cut their nails,there’s only three or four that will let me do it and sadly enough and unfortunately, I’m the only one who deals with them such as feeding and combing, etc.
I hope somebody can recommend a good food for all your little kitties. By the way mine are strictly indoor cats and all are spayed and neutered. Otherwise I’d have like 50 of them. Lol

Mine were on friskies for a long time and I honestly never had much of any issues with it until this girl. Her siblings have no problems with it, she's just a special case baby ig

Also cats just...find me I moved in 2022 with five and I was happy with that...then in the last 2 years the universe said have all the cats *Esp* the cats no one wants. The untouchable, unsociable, crszy, weird, or unable to walk properly. I've tried to find rescues for all of the new ones I've found, but there are just so..so many cats out here. Every rescue that's said sure we will help has just ended up ghosting me. So they're just here with me~

 

[Babypaws]

Mine were on friskies for a long time and I honestly never had much of any issues with it until this girl. Her siblings have no problems with it, she's just a special case baby ig

Also cats just...find me I moved in 2022 with five and I was happy with that...then in the last 2 years the universe said have all the cats *Esp* the cats no one wants. The untouchable, unsociable, crszy, weird, or unable to walk properly. I've tried to find rescues for all of the new ones I've found, but there are just so..so many cats out here. Every rescue that's said sure we will help has just ended up ghosting me. So they're just here with me~

BLESS YOU….Ten out of 11 of my cats were born in our yard… the mother who had 2 litters has 6 of her kitties with her inside and the feral cat has 2 of her kitties with her inside, she had a third one but he was the runt and I guess his organs weren’t completely developed so he got sick and had to be put to sleep when he was only 11 months old…miss him terribly

 

[Chibiwings]

BLESS YOU….Ten out of 11 of my cats were born in our yard… the mother who had 2 litters has 6 of her kitties with her inside and the feral cat has 2 of her kitties with her inside, she had a third one but he was the runt and I guess his organs weren’t completely developed so he got sick and had to be put to sleep when he was only 11 months old…miss him terribly

Oh no I am so sorry. I just went through a similar.. The kitty with the sensitive tummy is from a group of 4 two week old kittens that I bottle raised... their brother had to be pts at 5 months due to kidney deformities.

 

[Babypaws]

Oh no I am so sorry. I just went through a similar.. The kitty with the sensitive tummy is from a group of 4 two week old kittens that I bottle raised... their brother had to be pts at 5 months due to kidney deformities.

it breaks your heart when we lose them…they are family, especially the little ones, so young….

 

[Alldara]

Its definitely a hard time, every food that doesn't have chicken also seems to be grain free and I've heard TONS of mixed things on feeding grain free food. It's honestly such a battle atm, she was fine on kitten food with chicken but the slow switch to adult food something went wrong somewhere I will try contacting chewy to see if they can reccomend anything!

Almost everyone is fixed I've got 3 going in at the end of March for spays (our poor clinic is 6-8+ months behind due to how very bad the cat and stray cat population here is)

Grain free wet food tends not to have legumes/peas so is fine. Grain free dry food may or may not cause heart conditions...unfortunately we have to wait for the science to do more studies and make some conclusions.

I think Purina's Lamb recipe contains no chicken, but do read the label first. Labels change frequently these days.

You'll need to look for LID (Limited Ingredient Diet) lines in brands. For wet, I recommend Instinct.

But you might also have some luck just looking at beef or fish foods in general. Some of those have no chicken as well.