Homemade For (Potentially) Chicken Allergic Kitten

[GenCat]

I just wanted to share my ongoing venture into homemade cat food. 4-5 month old kitten vomiting 1-3 times daily. Vet is still unsure what is going on but suspects food intolerances. She is healthy, just very slim and gaining weight slowly.

I ordered EZComplete and Alnutrin (egg free, with calcium) to get started then realized Alnutrin with Calcium isn’t all life stages. EZComplete is, but it has dried chicken liver. She won’t eat raw so I can’t use the other variants of Alnutrin either.

The vet specifically wanted her on hydrolyzed protein food, which does not have an all life stages or kitten version. So I was tempted to just try it anyway, but remembered the vet himself mentioned Balance It and decided to give that a go. Will be updating this thread as I go!

Any advice is more than welcome. I have Nordic Naturals Omega-3 Pet ordered, as well as a few of the probiotics recommended by the IBD cats community.

*cat tax of YanYan (big classic tabby girl) and LiLi (Little dilute calico “recreational vomiter”)

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

So are you using the EZ complete then with cooked meat, or what? I'm a tad confused on what you are actually doing for her meals.

 

[GenCat]

Rewriting this since I must have been out of it when I posted lol

Alnutrin - Is not balanced for all ages
EZComplete - Is balanced for all ages, but contains chicken liver (not sure if that would be enough to trigger allergies/digestive issues?)
Balance It - Is balanced for all ages, but is confusing to figure out the recipes and expensive

I bought Alnutrin and EZComplete before I realized one isn’t for kittens and the other potentially could cause issues if she is sensitive to chicken. Cats love the Alnutrin, but are not a fan of the sent of EZComplete. I went ahead and ordered Balance It to use until LiLi is over 8 months, then will probably switch to Alnutrin.

All three cats love beef, but only YanYan is a fan of the lamb lol I’m using EZComplete with cooked meat for the kitten LiLi until Balance It arrives.

 

[GenCat]

No one was a fan of Balance It which was rather disappointing since it is a nice option for allergy issues. I may need to find someone to donate the bag to because the cats won't even consider it and I can't really waste the money on meat they would normally eat.

I've continued working on my plans to transition to homemade gently cooked as well as raw, all three seem to have moods where they prefer one or the other. I got in a box of Hare Today with an assortment of liver and kidney from bison, lamb, turkey, rabbit and beef. I'll take a day to chop them up and make the appropriate weights of each to mix with 1 pound of meat. I can find these meats ground or in chunks locally. Thankfully since I am already driving a town or two away for doctor or vet visits that also opens up more options for stores.

Kroger - Chunked lamb or bison ($8-12 per pound)
Food City/Ingles - Ground lamb or bison ($9-11 per pound)
Ingles - Turkey breast or thigh ($4-5 per pound)
Discount Grocery Outlet - Whole rabbit ($12-14 per pound)
Walmart - Grass fed beef ($7.30 per pound)

I used EZComplete for the lamb this time and all the cats liked it. Reminder to self that some meat balancers may have extra flavor that makes less smelly/tasty meats more appetizing. I'm planning to rotate proteins monthly as well as the meat balancer (EZ and Alnutrin).

**I am only using the organ meats for Alnutrin batches, not EZ Complete

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

How is your vomiting kitten doing on this new diet? Has the vomiting slowed down, or even better, completely gone away?

 

[GenCat]

How is your vomiting kitten doing on this new diet? Has the vomiting slowed down, or even better, completely gone away?

Sadly she has been doing worse due to other circumstances. She's lost her appetite so much that I can't get her to consume enough homecooked or raw to even test her reaction for sure. Will be taking her back to the vet next day off to hopefully figure out why she's having another separate set of issues (seems like mouth sores or something is making it hard to eat, thought she was just teething but it never got totally better)

The other cats have been doing very well so far. Hoping once they're totally on raw my boy's stomach will improve more but I have so much canned food scattered around the house that I have to use it up before that lol. A lot of the canned is being donated though.