Guidelines on how much fish is okay for cats?

pmv

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My oldest cat, Reggie, is a bit of a picky eater (although getting better now that I've figured out his preferences in terms of food texture), and one of his favorite meals is Fancy Feast whitefish & tuna pate. While I had originally thought that "whitefish" might be included since tuna can be high in mercury, I've found out that whitefish (tilefish) is even higher in mercury concentrations than tuna.

I do want to wean him off of this, but he's also had some recent medical problems that have resulted in reduced appetite and significant weight loss. Thankfully we were able to address the problems and his appetite has been rebounding, but even so I'm somewhat loathe to reduce one of the foods he eats passionately until he's demonstrated that he's maintaining a healthy weight.

Are there rough guidelines for how much fish products per week are safe for a cat? Ideally over the next few months I'll reduce fish down to a "maybe occasional" meal, but right now he eats about three 1.5 ounce cans per week.
 

StefanZ

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This amount isnt excessive, so its OK whichever way you look at it. If you want to increase, and if you do worry, be sure he gets extra vitamine E and B...

If he eats very much white fish, be sure he gets some extra calcium, to balance back the phosphor - calcium quote.
 

FeebysOwner

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Hi. I agree with StefanZ StefanZ that the amount of fish you are feeding him per week isn't really too much. Feeby (16+ yo), who is also going through some weight loss issues, has been eating various 'flavors' of Fancy Feast pates for a little over a year now, but recently has seemed to lose some interest in many of them. If Reggie heads in that same direction, you can try Sheba Perfect Portions pate just to keep him eating. So far, it is working for Feeby.
 
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pmv

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Thank you both! It's reassuring to know that I can continue to give him his favorite food regularly for now.
 

FeebysOwner

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I was remiss in pointing out that many FF foods (at least the pates I have) contain fish, or fish flavoring - so something to keep in the back of your mind. Surprisingly, FF beef and FF chicken pates contain fish. Some others contain fish flavoring. Others just say natural and artificial flavorings, so who knows if that means fish or not.
 
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pmv

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Yeah, when I eventually do wean him off Fancy Feast, I'll probably move him to the Tiki Cat mousses, which my kittens get already. He seems to enjoy their chicken mousse, which at least per ingredient labels doesn't list any kind of fish.
 
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pmv

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Well, it wasn't as hard as I thought to get him off of FF Whitefish and Tuna. If I give him a smaller portion of each option, he'll completely finish his Tiki Cat chicken mousse before he starts on the Fancy Feast. And I can give him a meal of just the Tiki Cat Chicken without any complaints (and he definitely isn't shy about complaining when he doesn't like food!)

Still have some cans to use up, so I'll give him a bit now and then until it's gone, but I think he's successfully switched over, and with much less pain than I expected.
 
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