Picky eater and food allergies

[MachoZeCat]

Hi all,

Macho saw a feline specialist yesterday. She thinks he may have steroid induced diabetes, he had depo shot about 4 weeks ago for allergies. We will home monitor glucose to hope diabetes no longer issue. In the meantime we switched from Vetsulin to prozinc. Macho has food allergies, to what exactly? Not sure, suspect chicken for sure. That limits our options for food. So we need LID novel protein and low carb. Macho does not like wet food. IF he eats it, he wont after one day. I found a low carb LID dry food, which he wont eat either (weird- he loves dry). So, my option now is to go buy many different low carb novel protein flavors (turkey, rabbit, duck, etc.) and rotate them daily so he will eat it.

The brands are Natural balance, Wellness and blue buffalo. Is it ok to change brands/proteins daily as long as the carb stays low? Or will this change his required insulin dose each time there is a food/protein change? Is there a flavor enhancer or some kind of anything I can add to the canned food to entice him to eat? Thanks.

 

[Yong & Maury GA]

I've seen a lot of good things mentioned about Forti-flora. Some people say their cats would probably eat anything with that sprinkled on! If you use it for an enhancer, the packets last longer, I believe.

 

[Lisa and Witn (GA)]

I once had a dog with food allergies, so I understand what you are going through. It will be very difficult to determine which food is causing the allergies if you switch daily, unless Macho has an immediate response. Look for foods with a single protein in the ingredients and very few grains. Unfortunately, it is a process of elimination to find a food that does not trigger an allergic reaction. Through this process I found that my dog was allergic to anything that had fish in it (including fish meal) and the only thing she could eat were chicken & duck. You could also try a raw food diet.

 

[Lisa and Smoky]

I totally get it as far as the food allergies.
Smoky is allergic to chicken, soy, grains, brewers rice, and venison. He can't have beef, pork, or fish and very little liver as it affects his IBD. I have tried giving him duck, pheasant, quail, rabbit, lamb, and alligator so far. He will eat a novel protein for one day and then refuse it after that.
The only thing I haven't tried is a raw food diet which I've heard can be quite expensive.

 

[Sieden]

I once had a dog with food allergies, so I understand what you are going through. It will be very difficult to determine which food is causing the allergies if you switch daily, unless Macho has an immediate response. Look for foods with a single protein in the ingredients and very few grains. Unfortunately, it is a process of elimination to find a food that does not trigger an allergic reaction. Through this process I found that my dog was allergic to anything that had fish in it (including fish meal) and the only thing she could eat were chicken & duck. You could also try a raw food diet.

I second the raw food diet and recommend Primal
Primal Raw Food - Feline

 

[Sieden]

Oh also about the expense of the Primal, I guess it depends on where you get it but I get mine at a local small pet store and they order exactly what I want so that it's fresh and not just sitting in the freezer. I would suggest looking for a small run pet store like that and see if they will order from Primal directly like my place does for me. It doesn't affect the price especially if the place already carries Primal. Each flavor will cost a different price with rabbit being the most expensive. I don't recommend the beef as it's a very heavy meat and caused both of my cats to vomit. I feed my cats the Turkey formula and the Chicken and Salmon Formula. I pay about 20.00 per bag of food and I can say that a rough estimate for 1 cat weighing 13 lbs is about 70.00 a month if you choose to feed them Primal only. I choose to mix the Primal with Friskies Pate in order to make it cheaper because I'm feeding 2 cats.