'Hypoallergenic Food' or Equivalent?

Well there are several limited ingredient foods designed to help you remove what the cat is allergic to. A lot of regular foods may say they are "beef" but also have some chicken in them or something. The limited ingredient foods are usually one protein and one carb type. What foods has your cat been on so far? If she's been eating anything with wheat or soy in it then that would be the first thing to eliminate as they are common allergens. Chicken and fish are often allergens in cats as well. So if you choose to stick with commercial foods I'd start with something that uses no chicken, fish, wheat, or soy. It doesn't have to be a limited ingredient food (doesn't have to say it is) just be sure to read the label to make sure none of those ingredients are in there in small amounts. Chicken fat may be fine for cats allergic to chicken. Some kibbles are even using things other than potato in their grain free foods for dogs who don't do well with potato (peas, chick peas, tapioca) Are you looking at dry foods or wet foods? Off the top of my head I know Nature's Variety and California Natural make limited ingredient dry foods. Wet food will probably be easier to find with fewer ingredients (finding a chicken and fish free dry food might be rough) I think Before Grain wet food is likely limited ingredient. If going off of fish and chicken make things better you can try adding one of those back in at some point to see which ingredient it was, or just stick to avoiding both.


Now, raw is a wonderful option and I would encourage you to go that way for overall health if it's something you are willing to put a bit of time into. Some cats who are allergic to an ingredient in commercial foods are not allergic when it is raw. Raw allows you to know EXACTLY what is going into your cat, there are not a whole bunch of these smaller ingredients that you find in commercial foods. It is easy to avoid the allergen. Raw is also just awesome for your cat's health. If that is something you are interested in then head over to the raw subforum and look around and make a thread if you'd like, people will be more than happy to teach you about it.

It's also possible it's not an allergy but an overall response to being on a poor diet, I don't really know how steroids work. If it's just a low quality diet issue you may just need to switch to a better food or switch from dry to wet or raw. What brand are you feeding now?

Thank you! My cursory research into specific hypoallergenic foods just revealed really expensive soy products, which seems strange to me. I'm honestly really overwhelmed by this whole idea, and really confused about where to start, so this forum is great!

I'm currently ruling out environmental because she stays with my dad occasionally when I go out of town (sometimes for a couple weeks) and has the exact same issue (I've come home to find bald ears). It's still a possibility, but food I feel I have more control over so I'm starting there?

I've fed her a wide range of what I hope to be 'high quality' food, a mixture of wet and dry (wet twice a day, dry out all the time): Wellness until their recall a year(?) ago, Avoderm, Blue Wilderness - finally settling on the seafood varieties (she dislikes chicken) of Weruva wet and Orijen dry. I've always dreamed of going raw, but have been a bit too timid to venture into that territory, but this might be the motivation I need. I've tried treating the dry skin/shedding specifically with fish oil, coconut oil, egg, etc. with no real results.

Eliminating wheat and soy seems like a really great first step. I was wondering too about the preservatives in the foods? I will look into those brands mentioned. Thank you!!

i just found one of the most exhaustive sites i have ever seen on feline nutrition. if you care to look at it, it's www.catinfo.org

it's gigantic in size but appears to have sound information on why cats with certain health concerns should not be eating particular things found in commercial cat food. (i.e. don't feed anything with soy in it to a cat with hyperthyroidism, etc.) she also includes a table with the nutritional info of some foods which is very helpful because it not only includes high-end food but more common, less expensive brands like fancy feast and whiskas. i will post the link to that table simply because it's a huuuuuuge site and kind of difficult to wade through: Canned Cat Food Nutritional Information

obviously you shouldn't trust what a manufacturer pushes on the public because their goal is to sell more cat food. (just an example: i didn't know that hill's science diet is extremely high in carbs and should never be fed but many vets push it.)

on the other hand, i take a lot of sites with a grain of salt until i have read several (case in point: colon flushes LOL) it's hard to trust the internet but some sources are better than others.

i don't know anything about hypoallergenic cat food, but i don't suppose they can give the little 20 injection test like my sister and i had as kids? well, not unless you shave the cat. i guess you'd have to start very stripped down and add things one at a time until *bingo*. i know plenty of people with IBS who are told to do that (and still won't) to find the offending food/drinks so i imagine it's just as annoying to have to try it with a cat. good luck.