Tiki Wet Food Making Cat Sick?

plisa21

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Hi! My name is Payton. I have two cats, one male and one female. The female is estimated at 3-4 years old as I adopted her from a shelter. The male is going to be 2 next month. I have been feeding them Tiki Cat food, wet and dry, for well over a year now. They just recently started getting sick, throwing up both wet and dry food. It is intermittent but always happens after they eat the wet food. I cut out the wet food completely for a couple of weeks and neither of them got sick. I fed a small amount to them this week and one of them did vomit. They both seem to get excited about eating it but they don't gorge themselves on food. I can put out full bowls of food in the evening and at times it will last longer than a day.

Has anyone else noticed Tiki Cat wet food making their cats sick? I haven't found any recalls or other articles about the brand.

I have considered changing their food altogether to a more affordable but still quality food. Does anyone have any food suggestions??
 

Allyocean

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I don't feed my cat their food but do give my 10yr old male the tikicat mouse treats. I have considered that they may be a problem as he seems "not right" after them. Matter of fact just a half hour ago he had his second one of the day and now is whimpering under a chair. ( not normal for him) now seeing your post it will make me stop giving him those treats. He won't eat their wet/ dry
Let me know if you figure it out
 
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plisa21

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which food is it exactly that your feeding the chicken,crab, sardines etc?
They’ve had all the different kinds. Recently they had the sardines and tuna with prawns, or tuna with crab.
 
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plisa21

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I don't feed my cat their food but do give my 10yr old male the tikicat mouse treats. I have considered that they may be a problem as he seems "not right" after them. Matter of fact just a half hour ago he had his second one of the day and now is whimpering under a chair. ( not normal for him) now seeing your post it will make me stop giving him those treats. He won't eat their wet/ dry
Let me know if you figure it out
Thank you for your input. I’ll let you know!
 

game misconduct

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They’ve had all the different kinds. Recently they had the sardines and tuna with prawns, or tuna with crab.
guess only an assumption could be they are allergic to the seafood or lil tummies just cant handle eating it graycie always pukes eating tuna from wellness and tiki(they use the dark meats of tuna i noticed the really fishy bloody part) and wont touch the shrimp ones etc. but is perfectly fine eating white meat albacore when i make sandwhiches with it
 

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Hi! My name is Payton. I have two cats, one male and one female. The female is estimated at 3-4 years old as I adopted her from a shelter. The male is going to be 2 next month. I have been feeding them Tiki Cat food, wet and dry, for well over a year now. They just recently started getting sick, throwing up both wet and dry food. It is intermittent but always happens after they eat the wet food. I cut out the wet food completely for a couple of weeks and neither of them got sick. I fed a small amount to them this week and one of them did vomit. They both seem to get excited about eating it but they don't gorge themselves on food. I can put out full bowls of food in the evening and at times it will last longer than a day.

Has anyone else noticed Tiki Cat wet food making their cats sick? I haven't found any recalls or other articles about the brand.

I have considered changing their food altogether to a more affordable but still quality food. Does anyone have any food suggestions??
My cat peaches throws up tiki but not weruva. I think it's because the shredded chicken in weruva is smaller and thiner. She eats too fast and doesn't always chew her food. I feed her in my bedroom so she can't see my other cats and also feed half her morning meal late at night with a timer
 

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I don't feed mine Tiki, but glad I saw this thread, as I was looking at one of their products.
As you stated you've been feeding them the same food for over a year without previous problems, I'm guessing it's the same problem I've had with number of foods this last year. I had 3 cats on Royal Canin SO dry (for kidney & urinary problems) and 3 other cats on Hill's WD dry (for IBD- both Rx foods) for more than 3-4yrs. All with great results.
However, when the food shortage (with cat food) began in 2020, they ALL took a bad turn. WD stands for Weight/Digestive, I get that. But none had lost weight until this. WD made one drop 5lbs in just
2 1/2mo! All others on those 2 different foods lost at least 2lbs. I still have 2 unhealthy ones at 8lbs I've been desperately trying to bring back up. One of the ones on SO lost 2lbs in 1 1/2mo. It was scary.
I believe when the shortage happened, something drastic was changed in some foods. It's the only explanation. I can't tell you what to buy. But I can say you're not alone in the change after years.
Best of luck
 

lisahe

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So many things can make cats barf that I want to mention non-food issues, too. One of our cats -- Edwina, the fluffier one! -- has been, er, active lately. This seems to be an annual happening that seems to be related to shedding; she sometimes brings up small clumps of fur, something that doesn't happen for most of the year. The vet also mentioned a couple years ago that pollen could be part of the problem (since cats lick their fur so much). We don't know for sure what causes it but it seems to ease if I give her a few doses of Vaseline that helps clear the fur out of her faster.

Another factor: Edwina, like maggie101 maggie101 's cat, also tends to eat too fast. She loves to eat and she gets agitated before and during meals. This also sometimes makes her regurgitate. To be clear: she sometimes regurgitates (gacks the food up almost immediately after eating, due to behavioral issues) and she sometimes vomits (upchucks hours after eating).

For Edwina's behavioral issues, it's been helpful to feed her five small meals a day, put her dishes on a platform a few inches off the ground, not feed her after she's been playing, and separate her from her sister, so she can't get agitated about going to munge the leftovers on her sister's dish. Our cats are rescues from a too-many-cats situation and Edwina has residual food insecurity after being underfed for the first ten months of her life.

If none of those issues apply to your situation and you're certain it's the food that's causing the problem, I'd suggest keeping a food diary that tracks meals and vomiting incidents. This helped us determine that we can't feed ingredients like potato, agar-agar, and green-lipped mussels. Just about anything can cause sensitivities so I did a lot of label reading.

As for Tiki, our cats had been loving the After Dark foods... but are now pretty indifferent. The broth/juice seems thinner now than it had been so I wonder if there was a recipe change. In the seven or so years we've been feeding Tiki there have been lots of changes! Their food's not cheap so it's really annoying when the cats don't like it anymore.

Good luck!
 

Danneq

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I'd look at all of the ingredients and compare them to foods that don't make them sick. Tiki uses a lot of eggs, for example -- they may have developed an egg allergy. Or it could be the seafood, cats can be allergic to fish and/or shellfish just like humans. Allergies can (and frequently do) develop over time, so that could explain why something that didn't make your cats sick before has started to. I wouldn't think it's a quality issue -- Tiki has never had a recall. My understanding is that Tiki is produced solely in Thailand and that there are very high standards for the quality of the food. But you never know, the pandemic has made things tough for everybody, maybe there's been some slippage.
 
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plisa21

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I'd look at all of the ingredients and compare them to foods that don't make them sick. Tiki uses a lot of eggs, for example -- they may have developed an egg allergy. Or it could be the seafood, cats can be allergic to fish and/or shellfish just like humans. Allergies can (and frequently do) develop over time, so that could explain why something that didn't make your cats sick before has started to. I wouldn't think it's a quality issue -- Tiki has never had a recall. My understanding is that Tiki is produced solely in Thailand and that there are very high standards for the quality of the food. But you never know, the pandemic has made things tough for everybody, maybe there's been some slippage.
Thank you for your response! I was worried about allergies but the dry food I feed them also has seafood in it so I wasn’t sure since that doesn’t seem to make them sick. I didn’t really think about the egg though! I’ll have to read the labels and track what seems to be making them sick.

thanks again!
 
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plisa21

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So many things can make cats barf that I want to mention non-food issues, too. One of our cats -- Edwina, the fluffier one! -- has been, er, active lately. This seems to be an annual happening that seems to be related to shedding; she sometimes brings up small clumps of fur, something that doesn't happen for most of the year. The vet also mentioned a couple years ago that pollen could be part of the problem (since cats lick their fur so much). We don't know for sure what causes it but it seems to ease if I give her a few doses of Vaseline that helps clear the fur out of her faster.

Another factor: Edwina, like maggie101 maggie101 's cat, also tends to eat too fast. She loves to eat and she gets agitated before and during meals. This also sometimes makes her regurgitate. To be clear: she sometimes regurgitates (gacks the food up almost immediately after eating, due to behavioral issues) and she sometimes vomits (upchucks hours after eating).

For Edwina's behavioral issues, it's been helpful to feed her five small meals a day, put her dishes on a platform a few inches off the ground, not feed her after she's been playing, and separate her from her sister, so she can't get agitated about going to munge the leftovers on her sister's dish. Our cats are rescues from a too-many-cats situation and Edwina has residual food insecurity after being underfed for the first ten months of her life.

If none of those issues apply to your situation and you're certain it's the food that's causing the problem, I'd suggest keeping a food diary that tracks meals and vomiting incidents. This helped us determine that we can't feed ingredients like potato, agar-agar, and green-lipped mussels. Just about anything can cause sensitivities so I did a lot of label reading.

As for Tiki, our cats had been loving the After Dark foods... but are now pretty indifferent. The broth/juice seems thinner now than it had been so I wonder if there was a recipe change. In the seven or so years we've been feeding Tiki there have been lots of changes! Their food's not cheap so it's really annoying when the cats don't like it anymore.

Good luck!
Thanks for responding! I don’t think my cats tend to eat too quickly. They both graze gradually throughout the day. They do get excited when I’m putting food in the bowls but they don’t tend to eat a lot right away. My youngest cat, Trouble, used to have a slight food aggression when I first got him from an acquaintance (he was about 5 months old), but I believe he was being underfed for his age at that time. He has since realized food is always available and he’s not hungry, so it seems to have subsided completely.

There has been a couple times that the “vomit” is more or less just hair. Probably just a hairball, but those are few and far between from both cats.

I think I’m going to start reading all the ingredients and keeping track of their vomiting episodes. But I’m still considering switching up their food altogether.
 
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plisa21

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I don't feed mine Tiki, but glad I saw this thread, as I was looking at one of their products.
As you stated you've been feeding them the same food for over a year without previous problems, I'm guessing it's the same problem I've had with number of foods this last year. I had 3 cats on Royal Canin SO dry (for kidney & urinary problems) and 3 other cats on Hill's WD dry (for IBD- both Rx foods) for more than 3-4yrs. All with great results.
However, when the food shortage (with cat food) began in 2020, they ALL took a bad turn. WD stands for Weight/Digestive, I get that. But none had lost weight until this. WD made one drop 5lbs in just
2 1/2mo! All others on those 2 different foods lost at least 2lbs. I still have 2 unhealthy ones at 8lbs I've been desperately trying to bring back up. One of the ones on SO lost 2lbs in 1 1/2mo. It was scary.
I believe when the shortage happened, something drastic was changed in some foods. It's the only explanation. I can't tell you what to buy. But I can say you're not alone in the change after years.
Best of luck
I can’t say my cats are having any other issue other than the intermittent vomiting episodes, but I hope you’re able to figure out your babies’ weight loss!
 

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I have 4 Cats that have been eating several of the chicken varieties for a couple years and have never had any issues.
 

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Do you buy the Tiki Cat from the same provider, in bulk, and was most or all of it bought at the same time? If so, it could be a storage issue at the provider's that has tainted the food. After comparing ingredients to see if you can find some common denominators, and you can't make a connection, you might consider going to a local pet store and picking up a few new cans of their food and see if it poses the same issue. If not, the next step is to ask Tiki if they have changed their suppliers for any of the ingredients in the types/flavors you feed them. They are pretty responsive to inquiries, or at least they were for me when I asked for a dry matter basis listing of all their After Dark foods.
 

daftcat75

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They’ve had all the different kinds. Recently they had the sardines and tuna with prawns, or tuna with crab.
A number of the fish flavors have more than one gum in them. Those could be causing issues just as much as any protein. One of the sardine recipes has agar-agar which frequently doubled over my Krista with gut pain. 😿

Looked something like this. Not a happy cat loaf.
IMG_4637.JPG

Some of the other recipes have xanthan gum. It is used to make smooth foods smooth. For those sensitive to it, it can also make their poops smooth. Mousse in. Mousse out. 🤦‍♂️

Fish isn't an ideal protein. Fish is also addictive. Cats will hold out for fish and avoid other flavors. For this reason, I recommend avoiding fish as a regular food. Save it for disguising medicine or getting a sick cat eating again. Exceptional times require exceptional measures. But if you feed it on the regular, you lose that nuclear option when you need it most.

Getting them off fish may be a long-term goal depending on how stubborn and picky they may be. In the meantime, there are a number of Tiki Cat recipes that don't have any or as many gums. The Ahi Tuna, Ahi Tuna with Crab in Broth, Ahi Tuna and Prawn in Broth are three recipes that don't have gums. If you can get them eating those in rotation (or even just picking one and sticking with it), you can see if eliminating the gums makes the vomiting go away. That they barf with the wet food but not the dry food suggests to me that it may very well be an issue with the gums vs. the proteins.

When looking at gums, guar gum is the probably the most benign of the gums. If I see guar gum in the recipe, I don't give it a second thought. My verdict is out on cassia and locust bean gum. Those were often paired with other gums that gave Krista grief. Carrageenan and agar-agar should be avoided. Xanthan gum may (or may not be) suspect.

Tiki Cat is a good brand. I would look at their After Dark line of wet food to see if you can interest your cats in something other than fish.
 
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Allyocean

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Wow! Really made me think! I've always had a nagging feeling that the mouse treats ( tikii cat and nulu churus). were bad but he loves them so but now I will begin investigating. for my boy
 

susanm9006

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I would try a different brand catfood - some just don’t agree with certain cats. Tiki is one of the highest in protein but my girl Willow just didn’t care for it. She now loves Nutro which is about 11.5% protein.
 

lisahe

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One of the sardine recipes has agar-agar which frequently doubled over my Krista with gut pain.
Agar-agar is definitely a bad one! It made both our cats barf. Edwina has a long history of barfing but I think agar-agar's the only thing that's ever made Ireland barf. (Other than forbidden stuff like pine nuts and the rubber band she ate years ago...)
 

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Wow! Really made me think! I've always had a nagging feeling that the mouse treats ( tikii cat and nulu churus). were bad but he loves them so but now I will begin investigating. for my boy
If your cat isn't sensitive to xanthan gum (and you would know in the litter box if he is), the mousse treats aren't terrible. They're high protein and high moisture. But my disclaimer about fish still applies. I would reserve the fish-flavored mousse treats for disguising medicine or getting old or sick cats to eat. However, the mousse treats may just be the thing to convert a fish-addict to non-fish flavors. You could top the non-fish flavors with the fish toppers to generate interest in the non-fish flavored food. Then slowly wean your cat off the topper. Or look for a non-fish topper that is also appealing.
 
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