New Diet After Vet Visit

[Paris Pluto]

Hi all,

After taking my almost 2yo Jiggy to the vet for some hair loss around her face and the vet came to the conclusion that it may have been caused by plastic bowls in the Petkit feeder I was feeding her in so I have changed to stainless steel bowls.

The vet also recommend that I feed her grain free and silly me didn't even ask why because I'm feeding her Fancy Feast Pate's and Applaws dry which are all grain free already so it slipped my mind to even ask.

I've heard alot of negativity surrounding Fancy Feast but the range I buy seems to have decent ingredients for supermarket products.

Can anyone please provide some insight as to why grain free is better than cat foods with grains.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[KarenKat]

Cats are obligate carnivores, which means for their diet they only need meat (balanced with the right nutritents of course). Since grains are not part of their natural diet, they are mainly considered filler. Often they can be a source of carbs or allergens, and many people avoid them. Sometimes the protein listed in the label comes from wheat or corn, which is harder for cats to digest than meat protein.

That being said, many grain free foods replaced the grains with peas and potatoes, which can be as for the same reasons.

If your vet recommended grain free, is call the office up and ask why. That way you know if it’s a standard feeding guideline or something specific to your cat.

 

[Talien]

Unfortunately "grain free" has basically become a buzzword, because as KarenKat mentioned, the grains are just replaced with other plant based fillers like peas and potatoes. The gums that are often used can also cause digestive issues in animals.

It's true that Fancy Feast classic is better than a lot of what you can find, but it's still not what I'd call great.

There are some canned foods that are (mostly) good though. Tiki Cat (moreso the after dark flavors) and Instinct come to mind but they are fairly expensive.

 

[lisahe]

Our vet recommends grain-free foods for all cats because, as KarenKat says, grains increase carbs (which cats don't need) and can cause sensitivities. Our vet also recommends not feeding the other sorts of fillers mentioned, stuff like potatoes and peas.

Since none of those ingredients are necessary or even good for cats (they're empty calories), your vet might just make that recommendation to everyone. But given your cat's hair loss (which is sometimes caused by itching) I can see where the grain-free suggestion may come from concerns that an ingredient is causing an allergic reaction. Since some other fillers can cause problems, too, I'd take a close look at the ingredients of the foods you're feeding.

 

[MissClouseau]

Grain-free wet foods rarely have ingredients like peas, potatoes, etc... they add them to the dry food as a replacement for grains to keep things together. Which isn't needed for wet food obviously.

Most sources I know claim grain intolerance is rare. Personally I'm skeptical on what "rare" means there. They might very well be more rare than meat intolerances but considering how many cats frequently regurgitate/throw up or get diarrhea but it's downlooked as "cats throw up", hairball assumption etc, I think secondary ingredients' intolerances are just reported and diagnosed less as the symptoms probably won't be as severe as the symptoms caused by intolerance to the first ingredient meat, you know.

e.g. Technically my cat doesn't have severe shortterm problems with all grainy foods but she does get smelly gas and bloating, and stomach noises for at least an hour after a meal. I spoke to three vets about this and one of them didn't even see it as a problem. But it IS a problem especially with its the longterm effect (see IBS and IBD.)

Also even if we say grain intolerances are rare, if a cat doesn't handle wheat well, that alone makes finding a good (grainy) food extremely difficult. Even all hypoallergenic dry foods I have checked contain at least one wheat ingredient.

With that said, as a side note Royal Canin Sensible 33 has one of the most simple dry food formulas I've seen. It still has some grains including wheat so it didn't work for my Hima but both of us were upset that it didn't. (She loved the taste too much.) My brother's cat is super allergic. He does well on Hill's z/d.

Well I GOT CHATTY, didn't I? :-) I hope it helps.

 

[lisahe]

Grain-free wet foods rarely have ingredients like peas, potatoes, etc... they add them to the dry food as a replacement for grains to keep things together. Which isn't needed for wet food obviously.

Unfortunately, quite a few wet foods in the US do now have ingredients like peas and potatoes. There are lots of Weruva foods that I can't feed because of potato starch, we stopped feeding our cats Merrick LID (which had been their favorite!) because the company added peas, some Wellness Core has potato, and at least some Ziwi Peak (expensive!) has chickpeas. Alas, I could go on and on! There may be fewer instances of this in Europe, but I have to check labels all the time because this junk keeps getting added. The potato and legume situation is one of the big reasons I think Fancy Feast Classics and Sheba pates -- no grains, no legumes or potatoes! -- are better food than lots of the expensive brands. This has also been a big reason I've been making more homemade food!

e.g. Technically my cat doesn't have severe shortterm problems with all grainy foods but she does get smelly gas and bloating, and stomach noises for at least an hour after a meal. I spoke to three vets about this and one of them didn't even see it as a problem. But it IS a problem especially with its the longterm effect (see IBS and IBD.)

This is so true! Edwina got those exact same sorts of apparently mild short-term problems, plus vomiting, after potato -- as soon as we stopped feeding it in any form, the problems went away. A few other people on the site have said their cats get the same symptoms. The short-term problems don't seem too bad but I, too, worry abut the longer term. The vets we took our previous cat to also didn't worry about her digestive symptoms... and she ended up with what was likely IBD and lymphoma. (Unfortunately, there weren't the online resources then that there are now!)

It's not half as easy to feed cats as most people seem to think it is!

 

[Hey therr0789]

We're starting to phase out and not recommend grain diets where I work but it may be mostly dogs. Grain free may cause heart disease. They said grain free is just a marketing thing especially to boutique shops.

 

[GalaxyGirl]

Unfortunately, quite a few wet foods in the US do now have ingredients like peas and potatoes. There are lots of Weruva foods that I can't feed because of potato starch, we stopped feeding our cats Merrick LID (which had been their favorite!) because the company added peas, some Wellness Core has potato, and at least some Ziwi Peak (expensive!) has chickpeas. Alas, I could go on and on! There may be fewer instances of this in Europe, but I have to check labels all the time because this junk keeps getting added. The potato and legume situation is one of the big reasons I think Fancy Feast Classics and Sheba pates -- no grains, no legumes or potatoes! -- are better food than lots of the expensive brands. This has also been a big reason I've been making more homemade food!


This is so true! Edwina got those exact same sorts of apparently mild short-term problems, plus vomiting, after potato -- as soon as we stopped feeding it in any form, the problems went away. A few other people on the site have said their cats get the same symptoms. The short-term problems don't seem too bad but I, too, worry abut the longer term. The vets we took our previous cat to also didn't worry about her digestive symptoms... and she ended up with what was likely IBD and lymphoma. (Unfortunately, there weren't the online resources then that there are now!)

It's not half as easy to feed cats as most people seem to think it is!

I loved ziwi’s wet food. Saw they started using chickpeas. So I don’t feed it. I was really devastated since my catshave allergies. They were sick after new cans I bought. I was confused and looked and saw they added them.

 

[lisahe]

I loved ziwi’s wet food. Saw they started using chickpeas. So I don’t feed it. I was really devastated since my catshave allergies. They were sick after new cans I bought. I was confused and looked and saw they added them.

Oh no, that's terrible that your cats got sick from the new food with chickpeas! Cats just shouldn't be eating chickpeas to begin with! It's good you checked the label.

You have to really be vigilant about that: the Whole Earth Farm duck I'd been feeding now has menadione (which I try not to feed too often) and they changed the agar gum (whatever that is!) to agar-agar. I've been suspicious that agar-agar has been causing one of our cats to barf so was going to take it off the list anyway but wasn't too happy to see they'd made other changes, which of course I discovered by accident. (That was our other cat's favorite food!)

 

[Paris Pluto]

Wow thanks for all your input. It certainly has confused me abit but I'm gonna look into it more and speak with the vet too!