Cheap food for cats with allergies?

Agapanthus

My daughter has two cats who seem to be allergic to just about everything. The only things that don't make them ill are fish and chicken. That's fine, but it's costing a fortune.

Can anyone suggest cheap sources of 100% fish and chicken without any additives whatsoever?

alleycat`

I would have suggested seeing if you can get friendly with a local fishmonger and/or butcher (if you have one nearby).

Putting your general (human) custom their way would possibly help as well

tango

Agapanthus wrote: »

My daughter has two cats who seem to be allergic to just about everything. The only things that don't make them ill are fish and chicken. That's fine, but it's costing a fortune.

Can anyone suggest cheap sources of 100% fish and chicken without any additives whatsoever?

It might be worth checking with your vet as I thought that just fish or chicken isn't enough ?

rita-rabbit

Agapanthus wrote: »

My daughter has two cats who seem to be allergic to just about everything. The only things that don't make them ill are fish and chicken. That's fine, but it's costing a fortune.

Can anyone suggest cheap sources of 100% fish and chicken without any additives whatsoever?

1) you can feed your pet whole `boiling fowl' chicken raw - chopped up small - they need the whole animal head, feet, entrails etc or they are missing out on essential nutrients.

2) I feed Burns dried - it's cheap & has no artificial additives.

Pets who only have meat must have it balanced out with additional things or they will get sick - there will be posts on this site on making your pets food from scratch yourself.

Agapanthus

Thanks, rita-rabbit. Unfortunately, they can't have the Burns food as it contains rice - which makes them sick. Theyt really don't seem to be able to eat anything at all except the meat/fish.

What I need now is a good source of cheap boiling fowls!

spookylukey

Can they eat other meats ie Beef? There's quite a few grain free wet foods available but a lot of them have beef in aswell. If they can eat other meats I'll come back to you with a few suggestions.

bethie

have you tried fish4cats?

http://www.fish4dogs.com/Products/Finest-fish-4-cats.aspx


they seem to be rice free.

Beckyy

They do need more than just fish and chicken. You could look into the raw diet, which can contain mainly fish and chicken with other things to ensure a healthy balance.

You could try Applaws cat food, it's hypoallergenic etc. comes in either chicken or fish and doesn't contain any rubbish. Buy a large 7.5kg bag, preferably when on offer, and it will last you AGES - much cheaper than most other things in the long run.

When you say some foods make them sick do you mean actually throwing up? When we first got one of our cats he threw up after eating meals, but we put it down to the food being rich compared to his previous diet (he was a rescue, found as a stray living off whatever he could find and still wasnt used to proper food) We persevered and after small and regular meals he is now totally fine with cat food, including foods which contain small amounts of rice. How long have you tried new foods for and have you tried gradually introducing them over time? What brands have you tried already?

rita-rabbit

Agapanthus wrote: »

Thanks, rita-rabbit. Unfortunately, they can't have the Burns food as it contains rice - which makes them sick. Theyt really don't seem to be able to eat anything at all except the meat/fish.

What I need now is a good source of cheap boiling fowls!

& they will do fine - v cheap up my neck of the woods - u should maybe ask them about extra heads/feet etc. Seriously though I think you would still need to supplement that diet to ensure moggs getting everything they need nutritionally.

jenhug

possibly origen?

Agapanthus

Sorry - been offline - had flu.

No, they don't seem to be able to tolerate beef. Anything other than fish or chicken makes them throw up. They're both pedigree Siamese and started on a mixed diet but it's had to be reduced down to that by elimination. One is worse than the other, but it's difficult to feed them separately.

Fish4cats is rice-free but also contains potato and beet fibre (only 70% fish), so I'm not very optimistic about that. Most of the Applaws products contain rice - except the dried one, which seems to contain all sorts of other things like cranberry extract and rosemary oil.

I'll leave the question of supplements to the vet - she'll have to suggest something there. I'm just trying to find something affordable that doesn't make them throw up all the time and it doesn't seem to be easy.