All fish, all the time?

Hey there lovely people.

Please may I have some opinions?

Now that I have transitioned both my funky felines (one civvie, one diabeticat) to canned food, it has struck me that nearly all their favourite flavours have fish or seafood in them. :-|

I seem to remember reading somewhere that too much fish ain't good for kitty due to phosphorus content (?)

Would it be detrimental to their health if they ate fish every day? :?:

Should I be convincing them to eat more birds & bunny rabbits?

Thanks in advance,

juliet

 

Fish are not recommended daily due to chemicals like mercury and PCBs.
The recommendation is to feed once or twice a week OR put a smidge in several meals that adds up to that.

Besides - when did you ever see a cat catch a salmon, tuna, etc?

 

So it's the environmental contaminants that pose the risk? Not the fishy content itself?

 

Hi Juliet,

My understanding is that the occasional fishy treat ain't such a big deal, but that fish should not comprise the main part of a cat's diet.

A quick trawl ( :lol: ) of the internet just now brought up quite a few articles on this; the link to one is here:
http://catnutrition.wordpress.com/2007/09/22/eight-strikes-against-fishy-feeding-for-cats/

I do occasionally feed fishy cat foods, mainly because of my 'tuna addict', Jim Bob (a rescue who had become addicted to canned tuna...).

However, on the other side of the coin entirely, I know of some very adept raw fooders who include a very small amount of raw salmon in their mixes because of the vitamins and minerals it contains. And many raw fooders include salmon oil or small fish oil (ideally taken from little fish at the lower end of the food chain) to make sure the cats get their omega oils (which normally would come from the eyes and brains of their mammal and bird prey).

I also know of people who give fish oil supplements to cats with joint problems. (I tried that with my little chap, Moses, but he hated the stuff!)

 

Thanks People.

It's a confusing world of ingredients out there.

I'm not feeding them pure fish, apart from the dried cubes at blood-test time.

The tinned food that contains fish, doesn't actually appear to be predominantly fish (it just smells that way to us hoomins at home!). For instance, even the Ziwipeak Venison & Fish, which is the fishiest thing in the house (and stinks!) is listed as "Venison - Meat, Fish, Venison - Meat, Liver, Tripe, Kidney, Green-Lipped Mussel = 66%". The predominant protein is Bambi-based. :cry:

On the flipside, the Bozita chunks with Haddock is listed as "Composition: Chicken, haddock (7.2% in the chunk), pig, beef, calcium carbonate, yeast (β-1.3/1.6-glucan 0,01%)." So the predominant protein is birdie. :roll:

Sooooo, the question is......how much is too much? Or is that just a ridiculously complicated question? @-)

 

People seem to have differing views about that, and I don't know if you'll find a definitive answer... If you search the internet you'll get a range of different answers. Some say it's OK to feed fish occasionally as long as it doesn't comprise a large part of the diet; some say it should be fed only as a treat. Dr Lisa Pierson, on her website catinfo.org says that she doesn't feed her cats any fish at all:

"Fish - I do not feed fish to cats for the following reasons:
* high allergy potential (manifested as skin allergies or inflammatory bowel disease, and possibly asthma)
* toxin/mercury contamination
* PBDEs (fire retardant chemicals) - PBDEs are potent thyroid disruptors
* often high in phosphorus and magnesium
* highly addictive - the cat will not eat anything else
If you want to feed a fish-based food as a treat, please limit it to once or twice a week. (I do not feed any fish to my cats.)"

 

Oh dear. My brain is imploding.

I think a life without fish for my two furry-purries would be a life not worth living!

Might try diluting their fishy faves in some mushed up canned birdie-meat & see what they think. I can just imagine the disapproving stares....I may have mutiny on my hands if I remove it altogether.

 

Maybe try different kinds of low carb birdie foods? Like fancy feast classic pates? The difference might be enough to tempt them.

 

My Squeak is 16. He's evolved to be a bit picky about his food. Considering his age and a recent bout of liver issues, I do not fuss about the fact that he eats a fair bit of fish in his foods. He eats mostly fancy feast foods, many of which have fish of some sort in them even if not in the name. He has yearly or twice yearly blood work and his kidneys are fine. If they weren't I would give him phosphorous binders in his food because I'd rather have him eat fish than not eat.

So. it comes down to pick your battles. If you can reduce the fish content, awesome. If you can't, don't stress it. Watch blood work and consider phosphorous binders should there be any warning signs.

My two cents Canuck

 

Yep... Personally, I absolutely agree with Jen...

We all live in the real world, and so much of living in the real world is 'quality of life' - however we determine that... I suppose if I tried really, really hard I might be able to persuade my tuna-addicted cat to eat more non-fishy foods. But sometimes he just looks so....'miserable'.... So I feed him a little fishy food and he's a happy bunny again (so to speak...)...

 

I agree with recent posters - maybe try to wean your cats off a 100% fish diet but if you can't, you can't, and meanwhile try to introduce gradually more of other type of foods that aren't known or suspected to be associated with certain problems.

FWIW I don't feed my Sapphire any fish at all, just Whiskas poultry pouches in jelly which are chicken, turkey or duck based. I read somewhere ages ago that "bird"-type foods, maybe ones cats would catch in the wild, are optimum. I also give her a bit of fresh fish if I am cooking it for myself, and she does enjoy that, but it's a treat, not a meal. But a little of what you fancy does you good and treats are essential to us all. Is chocolate or wine or cake good for us? Probably not, in quantity, but a little, even if every day, is hardly a sin, it adds to our enjoyment and we are all here to tell the tale...

Diana

 

And another thing....

Juliet, I've recently started making homemade raw food to supplement the canned stuff, and sometimes I find myself really stressing over the ingredients; ie whether chicken is a better protein source than rabbit, or whether this source of B vitamins is better than that source of B vitamins... And I have to remind myself that - until Bert's feline diabetes diagnosis - I fed my cats total crap for years!!! (Dry food (Hill's Science Plan)).

The single most important change I made to my cats' diets was switching to low carb wet/canned food. I kinda think that any changes I can make to that to improve it further are just 'the icing on the cake'...

Oh, hello, Diana. Is it 'wine time' yet'..? drinking09

 

Any time is 'wine time', Eliz! But we must be careful or people will start to think that's all we're interested in ;-)

Was going to email you today to try and arrange a date to meet up and do that 'something nice' we had promised ourselves - will write more in a PM!

D

 

Tee Hee!
You lot make me laugh!
You're also very reassuring.
Milo's not really the problem wrt species-of-choice. Now his appetite is back he'll try & wrap himself round anything. It's his fussy sister Madam Lola that's the problem. Proper little madam!
However, now that we've tried dozens of wet food brands, we've realised that the other issue is texture. If they're presented with chunks in goop, they'll lick up all the goop & suck the chunks dry, then refuse to eat the chunks........ Grrrrrr! Which means that I have to mash everything up into a coarse paste with a fork. If I add water to it to make a meaty cat porridge, then that's even more acceptable. :roll:

Am I pandering to them?

Juliet-the-complete-sucker

 

Maybe thats where fancy feast pate might be better - no chunks. I buy these bags of freeze dried chicken but you get all this chicken powder at the bottom of the bag. So i save it and sprinkle a pinch over the top of any food they are getting picky about.. and its all gone! You can get freeze dried shrimp too.

 

Ummm.....think you answered your own question there, hun.... :lol:

 

My civie - Minkie - is a total fish-fanatic.
The only non-fish flavour he'll go for is beef - which has its own issues regarding poss. allergies.

I'm trying to ween him but some days he won't eat anything.
I've started giving chicken pates but mixing in a little Fussie Cat tuna and anchovy as he loves it and it is extremely smelly so that attracts him as well.
He basically has it as 'sprinkles' on the top.

Sometimes this works but sometimes he just picks out the 'good bits' and leaves the rest cat(2)_steam

 

It has been a while, but when I was answering a fishing advisory hotline, I learned that the older, ie bigger, the fish (in its species size range), the more likley it was to have picked up contaminants.

Also, certain fat-soluble toxins hide in the skin and the fatty part of the fish near the skin, so if you happen to be doing your own filleting, removing the skin and the "dark meat" portion of the fish near the bottom helps reduce exposure, as does any cooking method which allows the fat to drain off - steaming, grilling, and broiling.

 

BJM - yes, the longer lived the fish, the higher up the food chain, the more heavy metals & organochlorides 'n' phosphates they will accumulate over a lifetime. It's why dolphins etc (yes, I know they're not fish!) are so high in mercury & other horrids.
So, if you want to feed your cat fish and avoid the environmental contaminants, best give them tiny whitebait, sardines & anchovies.

Wendy & Tiggy and Denise & Honey - I like the 'sprinkles' idea! I tried it with the Thrive dried white fish & she just licked off the top layer of food, then demanded more! Cheeky witch. :roll:

This morning I've left them at home with 3 bowls of food: Natures Menu (NM) Beef & Chicken, NM Chicken on its own, and a mixture of Bozita Chicken Liver & the NM Fish 'n' Chicken. I'll see what's left when I get back. Milo seems quite happy about it!

RE: Friskies - We can't get it in the UK, I don't think. Can we? Anybody know?

 

No, I don't think we can get it here. Shame though, because I love the name 'Friskies'! Has a kind of cheery ring to it!

Edited to add:
Just found out that it is available in France. So if you're popping across the Channel at any time maybe you can pick up a case of 'Le Friskies'?

 

If, at any point in my life, I do pop across the channel to pick up a crate of cat food, please call the Social Services. And the army.

They have me wound round their little amputated fingers already. If I ever go that far, we'll know they've completely mastered mind-control & are about to take over the world. :lol:

 

Surely they have and they are already haha_smiley haha_smiley haha_smiley haha_smiley

 

I think you're right!

Last night I mixed a 400g can of Butcher's Classic (cheap!) with a 170g can ZiwiPeak Venison (expensive, but their fave), mushed it all together with a fork in an old icecream tub, and have fed them that in portions overnight. They've already eaten most of it in 12 hours & will get through the rest today :shock:

I can hear contented squelchy munching as I type. Om nom nommy nom. (I can also hear my bank account sighing with relief ;-) )

Puny human: 1
Feline Overlords: Nil

:razz: