Need a substitute for fish oil.

[mschauer]

I feed mostly ground raw and the recipe I use is the one found at catinfo.org and contains fish oil.

Coco has been scratching excessively since about the time she started eating the raw. There are a couple of things other than food that *might* be the cause and I'm investigating those first.

But if it turns out the food might be causing the problem the first thing I want to try is leaving out th fish oil. All the foods she ate before had no fish and fish is a common allergen with cats so I think removing it is a good place to start.

Does anybody know what I could use as a substitute for fish oil?

 

[carolina]

Maybe Flaxseed oil? Has a lot of the same properties as far as the Omega 3s... just a thought...

 

[mschauer]

All the references I find on the web seem to indicate that flaxseed isn't a good substitute for fish oil. The references all refer to humans though:

It's true that flaxseed oil and fish oil both contain omega-3 fatty acids, but there's an important difference between the two.

Fish oil contains the preformed omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA. Flaxseed oil, on the other hand, contains the omega-3 fatty acid called alpha-linolenic acid or ALA for short, which is the precursor of the omega-3 fatty acids present in fish oil.

The body can convert the ALA in flaxseed oil to EPA and DHA, but converted amounts seem to be minimal.

 

[carolina]

Well, fish is fish, flaxseed is flaxseed.... unless you just add straight omega 3, EPA, DHA, making sure it is not fish based... you are going to be out of luck. You can't substitute one thing with another and expect to be exact the same thing... But you can have some of those properties... Did you search for vegetarian Omega 3 and EPA and DHA?

 

[carolina]

Something like this might work look:
http://www.veganstore.com/635.html

 

[mschauer]

Originally Posted by carolinalima

Something like this might work look:
http://www.veganstore.com/635.html

That looks promising. I didn't think to look for a vegan supplement.

I'll have to look into what amounts of omega 3, EPA and DHA are needed and make sure those are all that are needed from the fish oil.

Thanks!

 

[carolina]

good luck - I hope it works!!

 

[sharky]

can you combine: flax oil , borage oil and sunflower oil>? Look up UDOs
http://www.udoerasmus.com/products/p...entials_en.htm

 

[mschauer]

Originally Posted by sharky

can you combine: flax oil , borage oil and sunflower oil>?

I'll investigate those. Thanks!

Look up UDOs
http://www.udoerasmus.com/products/p...entials_en.htm

Also promising. I'll have to email them to find out what the source of EPA and DHA are. If it's just flaxseed I don't think I would trust it as a substitute.

 

[mschauer]

As usual, nothing is ever as simple as it seems.

My results from web surfing:

Allergies are caused by proteins. Fish oil needn't contain proteins and some fish oil products specify they are protein free.

A small pilot study with 6 humans known to be allergic to fin fish were given fish oil capsules and had no allergic reaction.

Skin rash has been reported "rarely" in humans as a result of consuming fish oil.

I find it curious that none of the raw feeding sites that recommend the use of salmon oil say anything about an alternative in the case of allergy especially considering fish allergies are supposedly one of the more common with cats. Does that mean an allergic reaction to salmon oil is rare (or non-existent)?

*Sigh*

 

[sharky]

This is why I use a molecularly distilled kind ... why ?? because Proteins often show up as well as chemical impurities( which cause allergy like symtoms or intolerences)

Anything is possible as I have seen... My RB Kandie reacted to RAW but not cooked chicken thou the protein profile is the same... My Gigi was the exact opposite