I feed my cat Wellness canned food. She really prefers the Chicken and Herring and Turkey and Salmon flavors, and will turn her nose up at just plain Chicken or Turkey. She will eat it, but only after going on a hunger strike. I am wondering if only feeding her the fish flavors would be bad for her. I know that with lower quality foods, it can be bad, but since Wellness is higher quality, what do you think?
I worry about the mercury in any of the fish flavored foods. My cats love the fish flavors, but I only will give it to them as an occasional treat, or as an incentive to eat if they aren’t feeling up to par.
I would like, too, to know if I am overreacting where the higher quality foods are concerned.
[QUOTE=Frivian;6604803]
I feed my cat Wellness canned food. She really prefers the Chicken and Herring and Turkey and Salmon flavors, and will turn her nose up at just plain Chicken or Turkey. She will eat it, but only after going on a hunger strike. I am wondering if only feeding her the fish flavors would be bad for her. I know that with lower quality foods, it can be bad, but since Wellness is higher quality, what do you think?[/QUOTE]
Herring and Salmon are actually very low in mercury, they’re the fish recommended for pregnant women, who need all the good things from fish and none of the mercury. Has to do with the environments in which they’re raised, what they eat, who they eat, etc.
So if that really is what she wants to eat…I say let her have it, while trying to mix some other flavors in, maybe aiming for 50%.
I have two that will only eat fish flavors. So that’s all I’ve used for years. My oldest is seven/eight-ish (adopted, so I’m not exactly sure :)) and none of them have ever had an issue. I use mainly salmon.
I have heard from my vet and others that a fish based diet is NOT good for kitties and it can lead to bladder and kidney issues.
Fish occasionally is fine. Only fish cat food? Not good.
[QUOTE=Frivian;6604803]
I feed my cat Wellness canned food. She really prefers the Chicken and Herring and Turkey and Salmon flavors, and will turn her nose up at just plain Chicken or Turkey. She will eat it, but only after going on a hunger strike. I am wondering if only feeding her the fish flavors would be bad for her. I know that with lower quality foods, it can be bad, but since Wellness is higher quality, what do you think?[/QUOTE]
My two are the total opposite; LOVE the plain Turkey or Chicken, hate the ones with fish.
The mixes aren’t all fish – ie, the other protein is either turkey or chicken. If you’re worried about it, you could always see what accepted ratio you can mix of the pure Turkey or Chicken in with the fishy mixes so you end up with significantly more poultry than fish (such as what GoForAGallop suggested).
My cat vastly prefers the fishy flavors, so that’s what I buy. I’d say I buy 80% fishy/20% non-fishy. He is ten years old and extremely healthy.
