male cat eats wet food, but mostly fish flavored (weight, blood, foods)
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We've completely eliminated dry food from our cat's diet. I assumed that was all I needed to worry about, but I recently read that fish flavored foods are bad and should rarely or never be given. That's pretty much all he eats. He likes chicken and beef flavored food but loves fish flavored. Should I get rid of all of it and only buy beef/chicken/turkey flavored? I don't ever feed him people food, but are cat specific fish flavored foods still bad for him?
Hi Tony,
I don't consider myself an expert on this, but my male cat is also very, very picky and I can get him to lap up the human tuna juice, not the meat itself. He is the snootiest cat I've ever met, yet he remains healthy.
I will be paying attention to your thread, to see what others with more experience have to say.
Truly, studies make me leery. Take coffee - on one day it's bad for you and on the next day a cup of joe is good for you.
The article that recently came out about fish-flavored food and hyperthyroidism said this:
"Based on their results, the team concluded that the byproducts that were detected at high levels in cats' blood samples likely came from fish-flavored food and not exposure to PCBs or PBDEs. The researchers say further work is needed to clarify whether these metabolites specifically contribute to hyperthyroidism. "
I honestly believe that sometimes these kinds of reports do a disservice ... "likely" and "further work is needed" are certainly terms that are not definitive nor conclusive.
Unless researchers who are trying to correlate hyperthyroidism and fish-flavored food can eliminate all other environmental effects on their test subjects (including food additives and the manufacturing process) - which is impossible - there can only be speculation. I just can't put a lot of weight upon speculation.
What about the good stuff found in fish like omega-3 fatty acids? Should that be eliminated from a cat's diet just because a inconclusive study speculates "fish-flavors" might contribute to hyperthyroidism?
Lastly - 1) there's a big difference between fish and fish-flavored, and 2) we don't know what controls were used in the study.
My cats like fish-flavored food, some more than others. One adores salmon ... there are times when that's all he wants, and other times when he turns up his nose at it. He's 18. As far as I know my kitties are healthy, so I'm not going to fix what ain't broke.
Picky is an understatement for our two sofa tigers
One will eat a bit of wet and then move to dry. The other one inhales wet. From time to time we try to get them to eat "high quality". It is a waste of money. They ignore it. Last Sunday both circled, giving us the poor starving kitty act until their favorite Fancy Feast was served. Go figure! Both are healthy females.
Actually, a little bit of fish now and then doesn't hurt. Long ago, I used to feed my cat tuna. He LOVES tuna. Not every day but once a week, years ago. He loves it and was never sick. Then I stopped because I wanted to eat tuna and he should learn to eat other cat food.
Try a different variety of flavors. Some kitties like the gravy kind that has turkey or chicken. That could entice your cat to eat other foods.
I guess I should have clarified. He will eat any wet food, I just always get the seafood flavors for some reason.
I'm interested to hear what the cat gurus like catsmom or catdad think about this subject.
If he likes flavors other than fish, then I would lean more to those, and less fish. I agree with Mawipfl, I'm not sure I totally buy into the 'fish is bad' thing quite yet. Having said that, if it's a concern for you then err on the side of caution and limit how often he gets it.
Out of my current 3 cats, 2 are not big fans of the fish varieties but will eat it on occasion, so no problem. The 3rd one will only eat the fish type food (Fancy Feast), and won't touch any thing else. But she's not a big fan of wet food anyway, and it's been a struggle in recent years getting her away from dry to wet. So whatever wet she's willing to eat, she gets it... fish or not.
I feed no fish, ever. Aside from the possible hyperthyroid connection (which isn't a new discovery, it's been tossed around for a number of years now) fish is high in histamines, making an allergic reaction more likely.
Fish is also high in phosphorous and magnesium which can lead to urinary tract problems.
The fish used in pet foods is generally very poor quality, and the more the fish is degraded, the higher the histamines.
The fish in pet foods is preserved during manufacturing using ethoxyquin, which is known to be a cancer-causing agent. Ethoxyquin is banned from use in human food (with the exception of spices)
Too much tuna can lead to thiamine deficiency.
Fish is highly addictive, which can lead to some cats refusing to eat anything else.
Cats may seem "fine" on a diet high in fishy cat foods, but as you may or may not know, seeming fine does not always mean fine. Cats often seem to suddenly become ill, when, what has actually happened is the illness has been building up for a long time, years even.
Since diet is so important, I commend you tonybarnaby for learning all you can about what to feed and what not to feed. Longevity is desirable, but so is the best quality of life we can give kitty. And the better the diet, the better kitty feels, both physically and mentally.
I used to have some links about fish in cat food, but I have changed computers a time or two since I last used them and will have to spend some time looking for them again. Maybe over the weekend.
One more thing. If you want to avoid all fish (as I do) you have to read labels very carefully. Fish is added to many cat foods, even if the food isn't named as fish. I mean it may say "beef cat food" but in the ingredients you will see things like "fish" "fish meal" "ocean fish"
Fish oil, used as a supplement is a different thing, but even then I would not recommend "fish oil" I would suggest pure salmon oil or krill oil.
We have an excellent traditional/holistic vet. She has convinced me that there is 'no commercial cat food' that is good for them except one - Fancy Feast Classic seafood only. She said to eliminate dry food because cats don't drink enough as it is and it isn't good for them anyway.
My cats are doing well on the canned diet mentioned above, and I try to stay away from salmon because all salmon in pet foods is farm raised. I don't eat farm raised salmon and I won't feed it to my kitties or my dogs. Same goes for salmon oil (it comes from farm raised salmon, much of it from offshore).
I was disappointed to learn all that because I was buying some of the best on the market. I'd been using Wellness for years until I learned from one of the better pet supply stores in town that they don't stock it anymore. I asked why and was told because they now use ingredients imported from outside the country.
Checking further, I learned they'd had several recalls that I hadn't known about. No illness in my pets from it, but I've eliminated it.
We have an excellent traditional/holistic vet. She has convinced me that there is 'no commercial cat food' that is good for them except one - Fancy Feast Classic seafood only. She said to eliminate dry food because cats don't drink enough as it is and it isn't good for them anyway.
My cats are doing well on the canned diet mentioned above, and I try to stay away from salmon because all salmon in pet foods is farm raised. I don't eat farm raised salmon and I won't feed it to my kitties or my dogs. Same goes for salmon oil (it comes from farm raised salmon, much of it from offshore).
I was disappointed to learn all that because I was buying some of the best on the market. I'd been using Wellness for years until I learned from one of the better pet supply stores in town that they don't stock it anymore. I asked why and was told because they now use ingredients imported from outside the country.
Checking further, I learned they'd had several recalls that I hadn't known about. No illness in my pets from it, but I've eliminated it.
FWIW, we're doing very well.
I would put Wellness on the same level with Fancy Feast Classics. Maybe slightly better because it contains no dyes or artificial flavorings. But not much other difference between the two other than that.Well, of course there's the fact that Fancy Feast is a Purina product. But at least they are wet foods.
No grains either, another plus, for both of them. .
Last edited by catsmom21; 01-21-2016 at 08:57 PM..
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