Novel protein rotation or not?

[MidniteRaven]

Hi everyone! I have an 8/9 year old cat that I rescued off the streets when she was about 5. Her name is Luna. She is on a novel protein diet (Freely Rabbit) because she has chronic pancreatitis and possible IBD. Symptoms were chronic diarrhea, some vomiting, inappetence. She was put on metronidazole (twice), prednisolone(currently taking every other day as we are weaning her off to see which dosage will control her inflammation) She is currently eating extra well, pooping solid and back to her normal self. All this to say, that I want to introduce other proteins in her diet as I am afraid that she will either get bored with just eating rabbit or perhaps develop an allergy to it. At the moment, she is on freely rabbit and I wanted to introduce perhaps, lamb, venison and maybe salmon. If I do introduce these they would have to be a different brand of wet food since freely only has rabbit, turkey, chicken and salmon. So I guess my questions are:
1. Should I or shouldn't I introduce more proteins into her diet?
2. Can she eat different brands of wet food without a slow introduction to them or do I have to slowly introduce them by adding a bit of the new food to the old?
3. Also, I would like to feed her a bit of dry food as well but I am afraid this will make her possible IBD flare up and give her diarrhea again. Can you feed and IBD kitty dry food if it's a novel protein dry food like Freely Rabbit? I want to do this for calorie content as a can of freely only has 175 calories and she needs an additional 25 to 30 calories to maintain her 8.5 lb weight.
Any thoughts, ideas and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[LTS3]

1. Should I or shouldn't I introduce more proteins into her diet?

It won't hurt but watch out for any IBD symptoms on a new protein. Symptoms might not show up right away. Apparently my IBD cat can eat small amounts of turkey and beef just fine but a week of eating one of those proteins exclusively was enough to trigger a flare up. So he's stuck eating rabbit until I can find another novel protein for meals he can tolerate.

2. Can she eat different brands of wet food without a slow introduction to them or do I have to slowly introduce them by adding a bit of the new food to the old?

You generally don't need to do a transition between brands. I'd keep a log of any new food to the diet so that if an IBD flare up happens, you can take a look at the food and what ingredient(s) might have triggered the flare up.

3. Also, I would like to feed her a bit of dry food as well but I am afraid this will make her possible IBD flare up and give her diarrhea again. Can you feed and IBD kitty dry food if it's a novel protein dry food like Freely Rabbit? I want to do this for calorie content as a can of freely only has 175 calories and she needs an additional 25 to 30 calories to maintain her 8.5 lb weight.
Any thoughts, ideas and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Maybe. It really depends on the individual cat and how the tummy can or can't handle dry food. Can you just add a little more of the canned food to the diet? Or add in some freeze dried raw or a high calorie supplement?

 

[MidniteRaven]

Thank you for responding LTS3. The reason I want to add dry food is because she has always eaten a mix of dry and wet and because she would need to eat a can and a 1/4 to a can and 1/2 to get enough calories to maintain her weight and I simply cannot afford to do this. 12 5.5 oz cans of freely is 36.00 on chewy making it almost 100 a month just for her and I have another cat to feed as well. My husband is not currently working due to cancer and it's just my salary. This is why I was looking to add dry food back into her diet.

 

[MidniteRaven]

Thank you for responding LTS3. The reason I want to add dry food is because she has always eaten a mix of dry and wet and because she would need to eat a can and a 1/4 to a can and 1/2 to get enough calories to maintain her weight and I simply cannot afford to do this. 12 5.5 oz cans of freely is 36.00 on chewy making it almost 100 a month just for her and I have another cat to feed as well. My husband is not currently working due to cancer and it's just my salary. This is why I was looking to add dry food back into her diet.

Also, forgot to answer your other two questions, sorry.
She won't eat freeze dried anything, lol I have tried. I haven't checked into a high calorie supplement but I will look into it and see if I can find one that does not have chicken or chicken anything in it. Thanks !

 

[lisahe]

Is chicken a definite "no"? The one really good dry food I'm aware of is Dr. Elsey's Clean Protein, chicken only, since the duck and other flavors have chickpeas added. To me, "really good dry food" is one without carby fillers: no grains, no potatoes, no legumes, etc. Unless something has changed in the last several months, only Dr. E's chicken seems to meet those criteria.

 

[MidniteRaven]

Is chicken a definite "no"? The one really good dry food I'm aware of is Dr. Elsey's Clean Protein, chicken only, since the duck and other flavors have chickpeas added. To me, "really good dry food" is one without carby fillers: no grains, no potatoes, no legumes, etc. Unless something has changed in the last several months, only Dr. E's chicken seems to meet those criteria.

Unfortunately, chicken is a definite no.

 

[lisahe]

Unfortunately, chicken is a definite no.

That's what I thought, but figured I'd ask to be sure!

 

[t c c]

Hi everyone! I have an 8/9 year old cat that I rescued off the streets when she was about 5. Her name is Luna. She is on a novel protein diet (Freely Rabbit) because she has chronic pancreatitis and possible IBD. Symptoms were chronic diarrhea, some vomiting, inappetence. She was put on metronidazole (twice), prednisolone(currently taking every other day as we are weaning her off to see which dosage will control her inflammation) She is currently eating extra well, pooping solid and back to her normal self. All this to say, that I want to introduce other proteins in her diet as I am afraid that she will either get bored with just eating rabbit or perhaps develop an allergy to it. At the moment, she is on freely rabbit and I wanted to introduce perhaps, lamb, venison and maybe salmon. If I do introduce these they would have to be a different brand of wet food since freely only has rabbit, turkey, chicken and salmon. So I guess my questions are:
1. Should I or shouldn't I introduce more proteins into her diet?
2. Can she eat different brands of wet food without a slow introduction to them or do I have to slowly introduce them by adding a bit of the new food to the old?
3. Also, I would like to feed her a bit of dry food as well but I am afraid this will make her possible IBD flare up and give her diarrhea again. Can you feed and IBD kitty dry food if it's a novel protein dry food like Freely Rabbit? I want to do this for calorie content as a can of freely only has 175 calories and she needs an additional 25 to 30 calories to maintain her 8.5 lb weight.
Any thoughts, ideas and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

How long were you feeding the rabbit exclusively before you saw a difference in the diarrhea situation?

 

[MidniteRaven]

How long were you feeding the rabbit exclusively before you saw a difference in the diarrhea situation?

It was pretty quickly. I started feeding her rabbit exclusively on Nov. 19th and by the 21st her poops had become soft but formed and 2 days later or so they were nice and formed and solid.

 

[t c c]

It was pretty quickly. I started feeding her rabbit exclusively on Nov. 19th and by the 21st her poops had become soft but formed and 2 days later or so they were nice and formed and solid.

Thanks so much. I'm not having that kind of great result. We are starting day 4 today of 100% rabbit and poop is still liquid. He starts chlorambucil next Monday. I am hoping to see results before then. Once he starts the meds, it will be impossible to tell if it was the food or the drug that (praying) makes him better. Thanks again.

 

[artiemom]

M MidniteRaven My guy is fed rabbit, just rabbit. Nothing else. I was giving him some dry food with chicken, but he was vomiting too much.

I give him both canned and dry rabbit— no treats.

Unfortunately, I spoiled my last guy by rotating foods, even novel proteins.
He knew that if he turned up his nose at one, then I would give in and get a new novel protein.

Also, if he were to become allergic to the rabbit, and I was rotating proteins; it would be more difficult to find a protein he never had. It would make eliminating the protein almost impossible.

I learned quite a lot from my last guy.
I am not spoiling Geoffrey, as much as I did to Artie.

I buy the same brand of both wet and dry food , in the same protein— rabbit.

Geoffrey gets wet during the day and dry at night.

Good luck.

 

[MidniteRaven]

M MidniteRaven My guy is fed rabbit, just rabbit. Nothing else. I was giving him some dry food with chicken, but he was vomiting too much.

I give him both canned and dry rabbit— no treats.

Unfortunately, I spoiled my last guy by rotating foods, even novel proteins.
He knew that if he turned up his nose at one, then I would give in and get a new novel protein.

Also, if he were to become allergic to the rabbit, and I was rotating proteins; it would be more difficult to find a protein he never had. It would make eliminating the protein almost impossible.

I learned quite a lot from my last guy.
I am not spoiling Geoffrey, as much as I did to Artie.

I buy the same brand of both wet and dry food , in the same protein— rabbit.

Geoffrey gets wet during the day and dry at night.

Good luck.

Artiemom, I hadn't thought about that, it makes sense. I was thinking that by varying her protein that I would keep her from developing an allergy to the rabbit as she would not be exposed to just rabbit. I was also thinking that this would also avoid her not wanting to eat anything else but rabbit(which she loves) and put me in a bind if it were to ever

 

[MidniteRaven]

to become unavailable. I have added dry food (about 1/8 of a cup total) to her meals. I tried Freely rabbit but it gave her diarrhea so she must be reacting to one of the ingredients. I have now been feeding her Instinct limited ingredient diet Rabbit and so far so good.

 

[artiemom]

((hugs))) This was pointed out to me by a couple of Vets...

Also, the fussiness is something to think about. It depends on the cat. I know, that my current guy, would be just like Artie, if I rotated proteins..

I think it depends on the cat... how easily they can grow to expect a rotation.

It is so difficult to do, but I have to play, 'Bad Mama"...

Right now Geoffrey is refusing his wet rabbit...He wants the dry food... nope, not giving in today.
He ate just a tiny bit this morning...

I also think he eats the dry, to settle his tummy a bit.. As we do when we have an upset tummy, with soda crackers...

He did not eat much dry last night, so I am expecting a vomiting episode--fur....

Also, Geoffrey does not get any treats... nope, none at all..
~~
I did try Fussy Cat when I could not get the RC rabbit. It seemed to upset G's stomach, even more... I have some in the house, but am afraid to try it...

Wish you luck....