Meal completer for supplemental canned?

moxiewild

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This isn’t technically homemade, but I know folks here are some of the best to help advise me on this.

I’m dealing with a cat with likely food allergies, and I’m trying to balance cost effectiveness with my aversion to certain unnecessary ingredients I’m finding in our canned options.

So far, we’ve eliminated a couple of typical protein allergies, chicken and turkey. He did really well on Evanger’s rabbit and quail; but by the second time around, we had taken in a bunch of sick kittens in and needed to cut costs, so we switched to Redbarn’s lamb. His sores cleared up a bit on Redbarn, but honestly, not as much as on the rabbit and quail. So I am thinking we’ll avoid lamb too, at least for now.

We’re trying to evaluate what potential options we have with rabbit, cost and quality wise.

I’m very immunocompromised, and while I’ve done raw in the past (haven’t been able to afford it in a while), with the current pandemic, we’ve decided to rule out raw for now out of an abundance of caution. That includes cooking it ourselves. Edit: I should clarify that I’m not implying Covid-19 would be transmitted in raw meat. Rather, the concern is a potential bacterial infection further increasing susceptibility, and vice versa.

My specific questions are as follows -

- Is it possible to safely use a meal completer for supplemental canned, like Evanger’s rabbit (Evanger's Grain-Free Rabbit Canned Dog & Cat Food, 12.8-oz, case of 12 - Chewy.com)?

- What meal completer options are available that can be used with cooked meat and contain no/minimal animal sources? (Is there a better way to navigate the animal sources for a meal completer?). So far, the only one I know of that meets those requirements is BalanceIt. Are there any others?

- Is there anything regarding composition details I should email Evanger’s about?

So far I’ve only asked about bone content, and they replied that it contains small bones, but didn’t offer a percentage. Should I be more specific about that? The label also lists liver on the ingredients, do I need further information about that as well? Anything else that might be relevant?

Also, if anyone knows of a complete, single protein rabbit canned food that doesn’t contain a bunch of junk ingredients, and also miraculously doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, I’d love any suggestions.

Thank you!

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kittyluv387

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I think you can use something like alnutrin for that evangers. It only lists rabbit, water, liver and guar gum. You need meat and liver to use alnutrin. Their website says to use alnutrin for raw or low fat cooked meat. To be honest I'm not sure what low fat cooked meat means because I just make raw food. Maybe email evangers and ask them if the meat and livers are low fat cooked? And email alnutrin for some guidance as well? Alnutrin has been pretty helpful from previous experience. Otherwise, I don't know of any food made out of only rabbit that isn't expensive. I feed Hound & Gatos Pate and Rawz Pate for my rabbit canned.

And sorry I don't know if alnutrin uses animal sources or not. Obviously the egg yolk is an animal source. But really it's better for your cat to get animal sources ingredients because cats are obligate carnivores. Oh right he has allergies. Do you know if he has reactions to egg yolk?
 
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moxiewild

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I think you can use something like alnutrin for that evangers. It only lists rabbit, water, liver and guar gum. You need meat and liver to use alnutrin. Their website says to use alnutrin for raw or low fat cooked meat. To be honest I'm not sure what low fat cooked meat means because I just make raw food. Maybe email evangers and ask them if the meat and livers are low fat cooked? And email alnutrin for some guidance as well? Alnutrin has been pretty helpful from previous experience. Otherwise, I don't know of any food made out of only rabbit that isn't expensive. I feed Hound & Gatos Pate and Rawz Pate for my rabbit canned.

And sorry I don't know if alnutrin uses animal sources or not. Obviously the egg yolk is an animal source. But really it's better for your cat to get animal sources ingredients because cats are obligate carnivores. Oh right he has allergies. Do you know if he has reactions to egg yolk?
I know a lot of Evanger’s other canned food can be higher in fat, so I will definitely ask them (and Alnutrition and whoever). That’s exactly the sort of insight I was looking for, so thank you! Not entirely sure what all I need to ask/consider so this helps.

Alnutrition also came to mind, but the egg yolk is what gave me pause. He definitely reacted strongly to chicken, so I figured it was best to avoid it if possible out of an abundance of caution. I’ll have to look into how common chicken allergies also extend to chicken by-products, and try to assess risk.

I was really hoping he’d do better on the lamb since rabbit is sooo expensive.

This is such a pain. I may just have to compromise and feed him something less ideal just to get through the food trials, especially with access to boutique shops being limited for the foreseeable future. I can always get him on better quality food after.

Oh, I just remembered Wysong also has a similar product - Wysong Epigen Rabbit Formula Grain-Free Canned Dog Food, 12.9-oz, case of 12 - Chewy.com

According to Chewy it doesn’t contain organs or bones, I’m not sure if that makes it harder or easier in terms of supplementing? But I’ll go ahead and email both Evanger’s and Wysong and see if it gets me anywhere and go from there.

Thank you again, I feel like I did/would have missed the whole “low fat” thing with Alnutrition were it not for you!
 

kittyluv387

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I know a lot of Evanger’s other canned food can be higher in fat, so I will definitely ask them (and Alnutrition and whoever). That’s exactly the sort of insight I was looking for, so thank you! Not entirely sure what all I need to ask/consider so this helps.

Alnutrition also came to mind, but the egg yolk is what gave me pause. He definitely reacted strongly to chicken, so I figured it was best to avoid it if possible out of an abundance of caution. I’ll have to look into how common chicken allergies also extend to chicken by-products, and try to assess risk.

I was really hoping he’d do better on the lamb since rabbit is sooo expensive.

This is such a pain. I may just have to compromise and feed him something less ideal just to get through the food trials, especially with access to boutique shops being limited for the foreseeable future. I can always get him on better quality food after.

Oh, I just remembered Wysong also has a similar product - Wysong Epigen Rabbit Formula Grain-Free Canned Dog Food, 12.9-oz, case of 12 - Chewy.com

According to Chewy it doesn’t contain organs or bones, I’m not sure if that makes it harder or easier in terms of supplementing? But I’ll go ahead and email both Evanger’s and Wysong and see if it gets me anywhere and go from there.

Thank you again, I feel like I did/would have missed the whole “low fat” thing with Alnutrition were it not for you!
Of course, no problem happy to help. I'm imagining any fat that comes from the meat is fine. Maybe they mean not too much added fat. But yes ask evangers and alnutrin about it. You can test out the egg yolk thing my feeding your cat some cooked yolk.
 

kittyluv387

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I know a lot of Evanger’s other canned food can be higher in fat, so I will definitely ask them (and Alnutrition and whoever). That’s exactly the sort of insight I was looking for, so thank you! Not entirely sure what all I need to ask/consider so this helps.

Alnutrition also came to mind, but the egg yolk is what gave me pause. He definitely reacted strongly to chicken, so I figured it was best to avoid it if possible out of an abundance of caution. I’ll have to look into how common chicken allergies also extend to chicken by-products, and try to assess risk.

I was really hoping he’d do better on the lamb since rabbit is sooo expensive.

This is such a pain. I may just have to compromise and feed him something less ideal just to get through the food trials, especially with access to boutique shops being limited for the foreseeable future. I can always get him on better quality food after.

Oh, I just remembered Wysong also has a similar product - Wysong Epigen Rabbit Formula Grain-Free Canned Dog Food, 12.9-oz, case of 12 - Chewy.com

According to Chewy it doesn’t contain organs or bones, I’m not sure if that makes it harder or easier in terms of supplementing? But I’ll go ahead and email both Evanger’s and Wysong and see if it gets me anywhere and go from there.

Thank you again, I feel like I did/would have missed the whole “low fat” thing with Alnutrition were it not for you!
Without any organs it would be hard to supplement. You would have to use ez complete but for sure I know they use chicken liver for the organ portion.
 

Furballsmom

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How are things going for you-all in general with all that's happening?

if anyone knows of a complete, single protein rabbit canned food that doesn’t contain a bunch of junk ingredients,
Would something like this be of help? I can't tell how easy or not it might be to obtain;
Vital Cat Frozen Raw Cat Food, Rabbit, 14 oz

I and Love and You Whascally Wabbit Pate Grain-Free Canned Cat Food, 3-oz, case of 24 - Chewy.com this has rabbit and beef, would that work?

Ziwi Peak Rabbit & Lamb Recipe Canned Cat Food, 3-oz, case of 24 - Chewy.com this has rabbit and lamb, maybe this would be ok?
 

sidneykitty

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Hi moxiewild moxiewild ! I was just browsing the raw & home cooked forum and I am wondering similar question to you. Can you use complete supplement to add to a supplemental canned food? I'm wonder if you came to a decision or found out any more about this?
 
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