Catfood wet/dry with food allergies (eating, throw, foods, diet)

[johnfrisco]

My friend's cat has developed food allergies (according to the vet).

The cat scratches ears until bloody and scrathes other areas of his body too. He also started scooting.

He tried a few different foods, but none have seem to worked so far.

Not sure of what ingredient he is allergic to.

Any advice on narrowing down the culprit and any advice on good quality wet & dry catfood is greatly appreciated!

[goose0]

It would be best to put the cat on a protein source that it hasn't eaten before. Some good brands of cat food would be, Evo, Wellness, Weruva, Natures Variety, Natures Balance, Ziwipeak. The food should be grain free.

[beachmouse]

When we were going the elimination diet route with Five, we liked Nature's Balance Green Pea and Duck dry because it actually was nothing he'd eaten before. They've also got duck and venison wet food that doesn't overlap with conventional cat foods.

[johnfrisco]

Thanks for all of your recommendations. I will let you know how it works outs.

Thanks!

[FiveHorses]

Originally Posted by beachmouse

When we were going the elimination diet route with Five, we liked Nature's Balance Green Pea and Duck dry because it actually was nothing he'd eaten before. They've also got duck and venison wet food that doesn't overlap with conventional cat foods.

Excellent recommendations. Both duck and venison are considered "novel" protein sources and are widely used in limited ingredient diets for pets. I would have thought duck & cats were a good fit (ie, it's something they'd conceivably eat in the wild). It always makes me wonder why no one makes a grouse or partridge or pheasant food.

[luvmycat]

I agree, all the foods listed here are great recommendations!
For the irritated and broken skin, I would use either aloe vera or virgin coconut oil, or a combination of both...neither is toxic to kitty if ingested, and both have excellent healing properties...good luck, I hope your friend gets this matter under control soon and everyone's happy!

[Ummm]

I'm going through the same thing - I am writing down what food she's eating and what reaction she has (some food she itches, some she doesn't), and then to see if I can find common ingredients among the ones that don't work.

[tilli]

First thing to do - completely eliminate the dry if possible. Dry foods are by necessity mostly carbs which are common allergens in cats. Dry is bad for many other reasons too, but that's a different topic. When one of my cats had allergies she was a dry food junkie and it was very difficult to find a food that she did not react to because it was impossible to do a true elimination diet with her eating only kibble.

The first time she manifested the allergy she had been eating Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul dry which contained a great variety of grains and I am pretty sure that one of those was her trigger. She definitely could not tolerate wheat gluten or corn and this food contained barley, oats, millet, and an ingredient I later determined was problematic for her - kelp. So I started trying grain-free dries, but they almost all contained algae or kelp and she was still reacting. I tried the Natural Balance venison and green pea and she liked it but I didn't have time to determine if it worked for her because a few days later that huge pet recall began and I had throw that food away. Thus began a long stressful period as the recall greatly complicated the situation, but to make a long story short, finally with Taste of the Wild dry (the venison and salmon formula) she was OK. I was eventually able to get her on wet food and she ate Natural Balance chicken & liver canned for the rest of her life, proving that it wasn't the chicken or even the rice that was effecting her but something else.

Anyways - it is much easier to do food trials with wet foods as it is much easier to find simple wet foods that don't contain multiple meat proteins and grains. Most cats are just fine with a chicken or turkey-based formula and those are especially easy to find, so I would try that first. Some good brands include Wellness, Merrick, Evo, Nature's Variety, & Nature's Logic. And of course you can try the limited ingredient foods that Natural Balance offers like the duck and green pea. The NB formulas are much better than the limited ingredient veterinary formulas. Common allergens in cats include grains, beef, and fish, so try to pick formulas that don't contain these ingredients.