A couple weeks ago Puck visited a new vet for his over-grooming problem. The vet said it was probably partly due to stress but he was also having an allergic reaction to something. The vet recommended a Feliway Diffuser for the stress and he recommended switching Puck’s food for three months to see if the problem went away. The vet had food that I could buy but they didn’t push it on me. The dry food was $64 for an eight pound bag. I decided to try my luck at a local natural pet food store where I buy the cat’s current wet food, Earthborn Holistic Chicken Catcciatori.
The Feliway was expensive, over $50 at the pet food store, but I did find it on Amazon for Under $30 so I ordered it. The food was also expensive but getting it at the pet food store was cheaper than getting it at the vet.Limited IngredientLimited Ingredient
I needed to buy a food with a single protein that was unlikely to be in our cat’s current food. The vet suggested rabbit or bison but he did not limit it to those two. He said duck was okay but sometimes an allergy to chicken can cross over to duck since they are both fowl. The woman at the pet food store helped me and we found a dry food with rabbit as the main protein from Nature’s Valley called Instinct Limited Ingredient Diet Rabbit Meal Formula. I shared an Amazon link to the food so you can see what it is but in this case it was cheaper to get it at the pet food store.
While the dry food was more money than normal (I don’t remember what I paid), it was not unreasonable. The Instinct wet rabbit food, however, was too much to justify buying, especially considering that I have to buy it for three cats since I don’t want the trouble of trying to separate them for meals. I don’t know the exact price but it was around $3.50 per can.
The pet food woman found another brand of rabbit food called Wild Calling: Rabbit Burrow, for $1.89 a can. That was just a little more than I was already spending on wet food so we added a few days worth of that food (about 6 or eight cans) to my order. I didn’t want to buy too much in case they didn’t like it.
Finally I picked out a cat treat that was also rabbit. This was yet another brand called Vita Essentials Freeze Dried Rabbit. The one I bought was labeled “for dogs.” It was a larger package then the one for cats but had the same ingredients. The entire order was just under $64.
They loved the dry food and the treats, but unfortunately, they were not crazy about the wet food. When I would open a can they would all get so excited and then Frankie would give me this “What are you trying to push on us?” look.
After a couple of days of that I went back to the pet food store and we decided that I didn’t need to feed them just rabbit. The goal was to avoid the proteins that Puck was eating such as chicken, beef and salmon. With that in mind I bought food from a company called Mauri. They use a single protein, New Zealand sourced meat that is unlikely to be in American pet food. Their website even says it is great for pets with allergies. I bought New Zealand Unagi, Wild Brushtail, New Zealand Venison, New Zealand Hoki, and Australian Wild Kangaroo.
These are mostly pâté type foods that our cats are not crazy about but they seem to be okay with this food. Chris does not generally care about wet food, he is more of a dry food junkie (hence the girth) but yesterday he would not give up his Venison to Frankie. Usually Puck or Frankie scarf their food down and then take what is left of Chris’s food. Chris usually takes a couple of bites and is done by then anyway or he walks away when he sees another cat coming his way, but this time Frankie had to force his head into the bowl because Chris would not walk away.
The Feliway showed up about a week later and I plugged it into the bedroom where Puck was spending much of his day. He was in a self-imposed exile until Rose’s son left the day after Christmas. I then moved it out into the living room near the door to the patio.
It’s been a couple of weeks now and Rose seems to think Puck’s fur is looking a little better. I am not sure I can see a difference yet. The vet did say it could take eight to twelve weeks because certain allergens can remain in their system for that long. If it doesn’t work, I don’t know what else we can do.
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Bad Cat Chris 
We hope these changes help Puck. Ernie has had reactions to food and our vet told us that the usual culprit for most cats is beef. That doesn’t mean that it couldn’t be another protein, but she said in her experience, beef is usually what cat’s are allergic to. Thus, no beef foods for us.
That’s fine. They are not crazy about beef anyway. I think canned mice would go over well but I never see that. 🙂
Paws crossed that all these dietary changes and the Feliway help Puck! It sounds like you’ve covered just about everything – and how cool that the cats get to dine on such exotic fare!
Thanks Summer. I don’t know what to do if it doesn’t work.
I hope all these changes help. We get the Natural Balance limited ingredient venison which is about $1.89 a can. She likes it, but she also likes to steal everyone else’s food so she needs to be watched. I can’t afford to feel that to all 14, I am impressed you are doing it for all 3.
Don’t be impressed. I’m too lazy to separate them. 🙂
It was hard enough to separate two cats when we had to put meds in Frodo’s food, so I understand why it’s so much easier to feed them all the same. I do hope the new foods have the desired result and that Puck’s fur recovers. It’s so hard when our cats are ill.
Thanks Carole. Puck has very nice fur. It would be nice to see him back to normal.
Hope all these changes help!
Thanks.
Mukava tavata kissanomistaja. Kiitos vierailusta blogissamme, toivottavasti pidät siitä. Siellä on muutama kuva meidän Kosmo kissasta. Nice to meet cat owners. Thank you for visiting our blog, we hope you like it. There is some photos of our cat Kosmo.
Thank you. I will look for Kosmo.