Food Allergy Detective Plan - Page 2

Hi BeeTree,

I have a cat with allergies and I feed her Natures Variety Raw diet. She has had a severe allergy since she was 3 and she is now 11. I started her on raw a few years back and now she does not itch at all! Good Luck, allergies are so difficult to deal with!

gsdland,

I've never heard of that...I'll have to check it out. What does one need to know about "feeding raw" to a cat? I think that is probably the direction I'm headed for... Guess what he had for a snack last night? Started going raw on his own--we found a rather large bunny rabbit with his brains half eaten on the stone path this morning. No wonder kitty was out late last night! (YUK! My son and I had to shovel it up....!)

I tried the Natures Variety raw diet with my cats and neither one of them would eat it. So I gave it to the dogs....hehe. I feed my cats the Natural Balance duck and pea. They love it and are doing really well on it. I have one male cat that has bladder stones off and on. Since he has been on the Natural Balance he has been fine so far.

 if you want to go raw with your cat, you can either buy a commercial raw diet WITHOUT veggies, or you can make your own raw diet.  ratios are same as feeding dogs raw...80% meat + 10% bone + 10% organs (half of which is liver).  cats are obligate carnivores, so they have no use for veggies at all.  you should also add extra taurine for good measure, such as chicken and turkey heart.

if it's a food allergy, a lot of times it has nothing to do with raw protein.  in some cases, they animal can actually be allergic to a certain protein, but you can figure it out more easily on raw.  i would probably try turkey first.

if you don't want to feed raw, or you can not find quality meats etc., you can do canned wet food.  some of the brands that i would recommend (although i hate to recommend processed food if there's a chance you would feed raw) are natures variety canned, wellness canned, and other canned wet food that has the simplest ingredients available.  for example, when you look at the ingredient list of either of these brands you will find: turkey, turkey liver, water.  that's it.  so it's easier to pinpoint.  a little more expensive, but much better than dry food.  

cats should not be fed dry food.  they need to consume all their water form their food.  even if you leave a bucket of water next to their bowl, they will never drink enough.  dry food can lead to things like kidney disease, etc.

if you need any more help or have any questions, whether about raw food or 'cat food', please feel free to message me.

good luck!