# brands with duck or rabbit



## davimee (Aug 28, 2011)

Hello,

I posted in here a while back about my cat Autumn who wouldn't eat. She's got IBD, and we're finally getting her to eat again! We went to a new vet who was so much more helpful than our previous vet (the old one said we should start thinking about euthanizing her, the new vet said that was pretty extreme!). The vet gave her a steroid injection, and sold us some cans of Royal Canin prescription food with rabbit, and our kitty is finally eating and gaining weight! I talked with the vet today and she said we should start weaning her off the prescription food, and she recommended anything with rabbit or duck. We live in a small town and don't have any pet food stores, but we usually get to the bigger city once a week. I've been looking online trying to get an idea of what to expect, and I'm wondering if anyone can recommend canned food with either duck or rabbit? The vet wants it to be limited ingredient, with either potato or peas for the carb. The two foods I've found so far are Natural Balance LID Duck and Green Pea, and Evo 95% Duck. Do any of you have a preference for one or the other? It looks like the Evo doesn't have any grains. Is that good, or bad? Is it too much protein? Or is it possible to have too much protein? The raw diets I've looked at don't have any veggies, so maybe that's not so bad. Although it looks like Evo might be more expensive than Natural Balance, and that's also a big factor. Can anyone recommend any canned foods with rabbit? Autumn seems to like the Royal Canin rabit, but at $2.30 per can, that's out of our budget. I'd like to find something around $1.50 per can (5-6 ounce can), if possible. It seems like we've tried Natural Balance LID duck in the past, and Autumn didn't like it, but we can try it again. We also have some fortaflora to try sprinkling on the food, this time around. We got that last week when we first started giving her the Royal Canin rabbit food. She wouldn't eat it without the fortaflora, but when I sprinkled it over her food it was like giving candy to my 7-year old. 

Oh, today the vet told me she wants us to take her off the Innova dry food, which is unfortunate, because we just bought a 15 pound bag yesterday! :? That's been the one thing I can sort of count on her eating.

Thank you for any suggestions you have. It looks like our kitty will be around for a while longer. 

Emily


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## SomeRandomChick (Sep 11, 2011)

Hi, I am sorry you are having trouble with your kitty's health. I haven't experienced IBD in a cat, so I really can't give you much help there, but I can answer some of the food questions.

In general, you do want to try to find grain free food if possible. I have heard that this is especially important for a cat with IBD. 

Of the two you listed, I would prefer the EVO. However, the Natural Balance does also appear to be grain free, and if cost is a big issue, it may be a better choice for you.

From what I understand of IBD, you want limited ingredients. There are a few other brands that are grain free with duck and rabbit flavors, but they have a second protein source. (For instance, rabbit with pork liver.) If price is a concern, then the Natural Balance is probably your best bet, being both limited ingredient as well as grain free. I did do a quick comparison of several of the brands I am familiar with that have those flavors, but the Natural Balance and the EVO were the only ones I saw that were both grain free AND single protein source.

If you don't absolutely require a single protein source, or only need to avoid chicken and fish as a protein source, I like Nature's Variety Instinct - they have both a rabbit and a duck formula, are grain free, and are more in line with Natural Balance pricing than EVO pricing. However, bear in mind that as a second ingredient one uses pork liver and the other turkey liver, so they may not work at all. I had a cat with some food allergies and had the best luck with this brand as far as him liking it - there's also a venison version, which was ok for my allergy cat, but may be something you need to avoid with IBD. The only reason I mention this at all is they do have a good selection of non-seafood, non-chicken flavors. 

I have also heard that switching to a raw diet can work wonders for a cat with IBD - but I don't know if that's an option you're even willing to consider, and if you are, there are others here who will be much more helpful in that respect.


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## Fran (Jan 9, 2008)

Have you figured out which protein might be the source of your kitty's food allergy yet? 

Besides duck and rabbit, there's also venison (as SomeRandomChick said) and beef as alternative proteins. Quail is another option, but you'll have to search a little. There used to be a quail flavor by Before the Grain, but they have blended it with chicken now. 

Fran


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## Nan (Oct 11, 2010)

My cat Sophie had IBD and she ate EVO 95% duck for a while. But then she changed her mind and wouldn't eat it. So I think the EVO duck is OK, but if you could get your cat to eat a couple different brands, it might help her to not be picky (which my cat was). My cat would eat the LID duck /pea dry but not the wet.

Since your cat already likes the RC rabbit, I would definately try some other brands with rabbit. Maybe keep the RC rabbit in the rotation, but not feed her that exclusively & that would help with the cost factor.


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## davimee (Aug 28, 2011)

Thank you for your suggestions!

SomeRandmomChick, I thought about trying a raw diet. We don't have a grinder, but I'm willing to chop up the meat with a knife. I tried just a plain chicken thigh, and at first she loved it! She gobbled the couple tablespoons I gave her, but then threw it all up... and once she throws up a food she'll no longer eat eat. I'm hesitant to try raw rabbit, because there is nowhere nearby I can buy it. I hate to order a large quantity online without knowing if she'd eat it. I've priced it, and from what I've found it looks like it would be around $30 for a 4 pound supply, including shipping. If I could just buy a pound locally I'd try it, but I'm not finding anyplace nearby that sells rabbit. 

Fran, as to the single or multiple source of protein, I'm not really sure what she's allergic to, or what will work. For now the rabbit seems to be working. She used to love turkey and giblets canned foods, but then she started throwing that up. We've also tried fish varieties, and they work for a while, but then she throws them up. I wish there was a simple way to know what she can and cannot eat.  I'm not sure if she can tolerate chicken, or not. She's been eating Innova dry food which has chicken, but when I tried the raw chicken she threw it up. I wonder if I should try it again, now that her tummy is under control with the steroid shot?

Nan, that's a good idea to find multiple foods that she will tolerate, because Autumn is a very picky eater. That's what started this in the first place, I think. She'd stop eating a food, so we'd switch to something else... she'd eat that for a while, then stop eating it, so we'd switch to something else... eventually we just started buying cheap (dry) grocery store foods, and that's when the vomiting and diarrhea started. I feel bad because I think it's our fault this developed, but at the time we didn't realize how bad those foods were for her, and we grew tired of buying something new every month or so, so we just got whatever was cheap.

My mom in law is coming to our house this afternoon, and she lives in the bigger town with the pet food stores. I called her last night and asked her to pick up a few cans of the Natural Balance duck and green pea, so we'll give that a shot this afternoon. Hopefully I can entice Autumn to eat it. 

Thanks again for your suggestions!


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## Nan (Oct 11, 2010)

>>but then threw it all up... and once she throws up a food she'll no longer eat it

Sophie did the same thing (BTW she lived a good long life up to 17.9 yrs old). Once she started eating something, that's all she wanted. I did find with the EVO that their batches aren't always consistant. So some she would eat and some she refused.

So good luck! I can sympathize living with a picky eater!


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## Alpaca (Dec 21, 2009)

Yep, Nature's Variety Instinct would also be my suggest but cost is way out of your preferred range. They have duck, rabbit and also venison too. Cost me roughly $2.79CDN per can.

Since cost is an issue, why don't you try process of elimination with raw, trying each meat by itself to see which ones she can tolerate? When she threw up for the canned/dry food, it might also be related to the other products found in there and not necessarily the primary meat itself.

You don't need a grinder for the meat. Cutting the meat up is fine. You can try the Asian supermarket to see if you can find rabbit and duck. You can also try quail or cornish hen too.

Might be too late for you, but just FYI. I feed my guys a different protein for every meal to prevent pickiness. So I rotate between beef, chicken, quail, venison, duck, lamb.


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## Odin's Mom (Sep 28, 2011)

The Nature's Variety Instinct dog and cat formulas are exactly the same (I wrote the company and they verified this), so you could buy the larger "dog" cans to save money. I buy NV Instinct Rabbit cases on Amazon, and with the subscribe and save discount, the large 13.2 oz size is $3.15/can. Duck and venison Instinct cans are the same price; lamb NV Instinct (13.2 oz dog size can) is cheaper at $2.31/can on Amazon.

Nature's Logic makes a rabbit canned formula, as well as a duck & salmon formula, but these are more expensive. 

Addiction also has rabbit, duck, buffalo, and venison canned varieties.

Edit: You can buy individual cans of all of these foods on onlynaturalpet.com if you want to try several different brands and flavors before you commit to buying cases, however, their shipping prices can get pricey.


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