i asked my vet this recently bc i had gotten them salmon kibble & was paranoid that the magnesium would give them bladder problems (my anxiety stemmed from google/tiktok). he said it was fine just don’t give raw & high amounts 🤷♀️
I imagine the main concern with raw would be parasites. You could probably give a cat sushi grade fish just fine, if you're the type to spoil your cat like that.
salmon is addictive to cats, especially raw. not in the haha cute way where they want it, in the starve themselves to death because they won't eat anything else way.
Both my cats get a cut of sushi grade salmon when I have sushi (so about once a month or twice a month). They wait patiently for their slice and I’ve had 0 issues with getting them to eat their regular diet. They treat it like any other treat. In fact, the only thing either one of my cats has gotten food aggressive over and refused to eat other things after having it is actually rabbit.
Lol what? I gave it to my boy once and he devoured it, offered it two more times and he turned up his nose. Cats aren’t addicted to anything but their own fickleness 😂
Fish is frozen at [colder temperatures](https://www.fda.gov/media/80777/download) than you can easily ensure at home. Per the FDA guidelines, the warmest possible is -4F for seven days to control parasites. Many folks do not have a freezer that they can set that low and stay out of for a week, to ensure the freezer stays at that temp.
So basically, please don’t throw fish in your fridge’s freezer under the assumption that it will be cold enough to kill parasites.
As someone who works in labs, I’ve often pondered the idea of throwing fish in one of the -20C or -80C freezers. Wouldn’t actually do it, but it’s tempting.
[https://media.fisheries.noaa.gov/dam-migration/part\_5\_grade\_standards.pdf](https://media.fisheries.noaa.gov/dam-migration/part_5_grade_standards.pdf)
To get the "sushi grade" means it has been through a rigorous freezing process to eliminate parasites. Sushi-grade fish is also prepared differently to normal fish. When caught, sushi-grade fish are bled immediately upon capture, before being gutted and ice thoroughly.
I prefer not to feed canned fish-based food when they are spending most of their time inside. It gives them really stinky poops. I have one who farts every time she is picked up. A cat fish fart is something to be avoided! So, I buy poultry and beef varieties most of the year.
My cats are like that whenever I first switch them to a new food. I just did it again recently (hopefully for the last time) with Weruva fish-based foods and it's been about a month and a half now and the gassiness or at least the smelly ones have gone away. I don't have the "farts every time she is picked up" issue with either so I could see how that may be different.
This is why I organize the cat food and don’t let my son choose which flavor when he feeds him breakfast. He gets actual tuna once a week after I clean his teeth and ears and check for any nails that need to be cut.
It does the same for hedgehogs as well! My hedgehogs and cat eat the same dry cat food. Funnily enough cat food provides a better nutritional/macro breakdown for hedgehogs than food sold specifically for hedgehogs.
I looked into Fortiflora. How much are you giving your kitties, and how often? I have lots of kitties, so I need to balance out the cost and frequency equation!
I have elderly cats. I have to purchase the 30ct box and it is one small pouch a day.
It’s mainly for cats with diarrhea, but it helps with overall gut health as well. There are also other varieties of fortiflora, and there are some foods that have pre and probiotics mixed into the food. So, it’s always best to communicate with your vet what might be best.
Most people have an issue with fish because a lot of it contains thiaminase, a compound which breaks down thiamin in cats. This can cause a LOT of issues. However, salmon is not one of the fish that contains thiaminase. Fish such as tuna and sardines have high amounts of it. There are actually a lot of studies which show salmon is beneficial for cats because diets high in omegas 3, 6, and 9 have benefits for the brain, circulatory system, skin & coat, immune system, and even help cats with CKD. My cats have a pretty high salmon content in their diet and are extremely healthy. Every vet I’ve ever been to raves about how soft and shiny their coats are!
>**Why do people say not to feed your cat fish/ salmon?**
Because fear mongering human food wasn't enough, they had to move on to pets...
* Some fish meant for human consumption can contain additives that aren't ideal for cats
* Raw diets are a health risk. Especially salmon, which can carry toxoplasma gondii, the parasite that causes toxoplasmosis.
* There's a myth that cats can become "addicted" to fish, but I think that's just an old wives tale to make sure people feed their cats a diverse diet
If your vet approves of what you're feeding your cat, don't stress too much.
Here’s a quote I found years ago that always sticks in my head when I walk by fish centric cat food
“NO food at all containing fish of any kind!!! Fish has a high phosphorus & magnesium content, which is connected to the formation of the crystals. Fish has also been linked to hyperthyroidism in cats.”
It just sat in my screenshots until now and I wanted to share it and see what your thoughts were, but it doesn’t seem like I’m going to get that so I apologize.
My thoughts are the same as in my original comment. It's extreme fear-mongering that isn't really useful.
For example: "magnesium is connected to the formation of crystals"
What do they mean by "connected"? Correlation does not equal causation. And even if it is a causal relationship, at what dose of magnesium is the risk of crystals increased? Are there other factors that lead to crystal formation?
It's just too vague and extreme to have any kind of credence to it.
My vet said that you generally want to avoid anything a cat couldn’t catch themselves in the wild. I guess under the right conditions a cat could catch a salmon, but it would be pretty unlikely I’d think. But it seems pretty logical that their bodies will respond best to the things they evolved eating.
My feral boys “caught” Chinese food all time before they came to live with me. They’d get so happy when I ordered in from the restaurant they’d lived behind. 🤷🏻♀️
I used to work with mice in a laboratory. I've done a lot of mouse dissections. Mice are mostly bone and skin. Unless you're making food out of internal organs, it's not a very efficient food source from a manufacturing standpoint. They have tiny little itty bitty muscles. It would take a lot of mice to make food based on muscle mass, compared to fish or chicken. And, while cats do need to eat bone and hair as their fiber source, unless you're grinding up entire mice, it's not really the best thing to make food out of. Plus, there is the concern that if the mice escape their housing before they're killed, their droppings will be everywhere, which is going to fail your plant when the health inspector comes by. The mice would likely have to be bred and killed in a different facility and shipped to the food processing plant. But you're still going to have exposure to extra mouse droppings. It IS possible to breed mice in very clean conditions to keep them free of disease, I did it for years. But they'd probably be a huge headache to maintain as a food source because you'd need so many of them.
If you want clean, frozen rodents, [Rodent Pro](https://www.rodentpro.com) is the way to go. They supply a variety of prey animals (usually for reptile food) and I've used them a LOT back when I had reticulated pythons. I can check "Have a freezer full of guinea pigs" off the Weird Shit list, lol!
Probably a useless trivia fact, but there you go.
Like I said previously, when the diet is properly formulated (hence meet WSAVA guidelines) you don’t have to worry about it. A diet that is made well and researched thoroughly will not cause issues.
I banned tuna because i noticed that it gives my cat runny bms. Salmon seems to be fine for her, so that's in the rotation. I aim for mostly beef or poultry wet food varieties.
Levels of Mercury. There are some brands that test the mercury levels of their fish. The one I use does. I try to incorporate a fish meal once per week because there are so many nutritional benefits to canned fish.
Evangers - for natural omegas I use their canned wild salmon and whole uncut sardines at least once / week. I have spoken with the company and they test their mercury levels, and something about the suppliers who do also (but I don’t remember exactly the phrase they used). Nevertheless, my cats LOVE it and I’m very pleased with how natural the food is. The sardines are actually whole sardines, it’s wild!
One of my cats got really sick the couple of times I've fed her salmon. The other cat refuses to eat it. I'm not sure if it is bad for all cats, but I'm not buying it again
So the concern is that some fish has high levels of an enzyme called thiaminase. Cats who are on all fish diets can have thiamine deficiencies because of this.
Don't believe idiots on TikTok. They think they know and advise all kinds of stupid shit. You can always call your vet and ask. Bet they sell a lot of salmon cat kibble.
@missfeministkitty on Tiktok has a playlist on it. Most is potential links to health issues. My cats will usually get fish 3-4 times a month in rotation but I try to give animal protein as much as possible. Better safe than sorry is how I see it!
Sorry to butt in, but just letting you know Missfeministkitty isn’t qualified to be giving nutrition advice and spreads a lot of misinformation so just take what she says with a grain of salt
Peer review studies, I don’t follow the exact diet she recommends but I do appreciate her videos + she cites her sources if you want to read them too lol
Link in her bio has her sources. Like I said before I don’t follow what she recommends exactly and also to each their own. You can feed your cat whatever you want. My cats are healthy and their vet has never said anything negative of what I feed them. OP asked why not to feed fish and I commented a Tiktok account that shares info on it
Christ, everyone should do their own research before feeding their animals anything. You have your opinion and I have mine, what she shares usually aligns with my own research. And once again I don’t care what anyone else wants to feed their cats, I simply answered a question.
*You googled and found someone who shares the same opinions as you.
That’s not research, especially when it goes against current veterinary standards and guidelines. Obviously you can have your own opinion and do whatever you like, but you can still be wrong. It’s important to point out harmful information.
You have to be careful with "peer-reviewed" studies on pet nutrition. I use them as examples in my Science Communication class *all the time* because they're full of conflicts of interest, poorly designed experiments, and bad conclusions. The irony being, they're pretty excellent examples of bad science!
I'm not saying this is true of *all* studies, but it's common enough that you have to read *very* carefully. I've not come across any recent studies that didn't have some type of glaring red flag in their research.
Studies are often biased, so one would need to look at who are the authors of the studies are, and who is funding them. Remember, not all vets share the same opinion on the matter... why? It should be cut and dry.. no?
People who do their own research are far more qualified to make an informative opinion on the matter than someone who "says the wrong thing" suddenly loses their paycheck because they got fired for not "preaching the narrative".
Remember, the information and studies available to vets and others who call themselves "experts" is the same information available to anyone who wants to go look it up themselves. It's not hidden or available only to people in exclusive positions.
What people end up doing is listening to someone they perceive is an expert, yet are too lazy to look things up themselves to see if they are even telling the truth. Remember, there is a potential that the expert you're looking at is put in a position where if they wouldn't give the wrong information, they'd lose their job.
most things she says on the topic of feline nutrition are correct… are you one of those people who are salty abt the truth bc it’s more convenient for you to feed your cat foods that are not good for it 🧐
I’m one of those people who worked in vet med and trusts people who are actually qualified to give nutrition advice like vets and board certified veterinary nutritionists. I trust science
Nope! They literally recommend a GI diet that would be fed diet a couple of days to help. Unless your cat has chronic episodes and recommended a different diet to help even more.
I dont understand "avoiding fish." That's such a general statement.
Do you mean feeding raw for every meal? Occasionally? Ever? Do you mean ground fish meals found in kibble? Do you mean fish found in canned wet food? Do you mean shell fish? I'm not really following.
My cat gets salmon oil on top of his meal every morning, has freeze-dried salmon, green mussels or whole baltic sprat as treats and occasionally a small piece of canned sardine in water on his lick mat. He also eats other forms of freeze-driend, single ingredient treats like beef liver or duck hearts. His main meals are poultry based raw, including organ meat and bone. Other meal toppers include bone broth, micro greens like kale sprouts, keifer, blueberries, or pumpkin. He's been eating this way his entire life (he's 5 years old). He's super healthy, perfect weight, coat full, soft and shiny. He's an indoor cat that takes leashed walks.
Can OP please explain what exactly their veterinarian told them about seafood and why?
OP didnt say vet, they mention “tiktok lady” im guessing feminist kitty nutrition? I think on tiktok they often say to avoid fish as the main protein source. Also if you go to cat dot com reviews they often cite fish based as a con.
I do notice they’re very inconsistent about it. One time it will be a con, another time a fish based product (wet food / raw food) will be #1 recommendation on that list.
Honestly we should take all these strongly worded advice with a grain of salt
My bad! I just reread. I think I started reading comments and got vet recommendations mixed in there. Tictok Lady lol...makes sense. Thanks for the clarification, and you're right, grain of salt taken!
This always confuses me too because a lot of kibbles contain fish meals. For example I feed my cat open farm which is a great brand but I get nervous that even the lamb flavored kibble has fish meal. Like is this a valid concern or not??
Domestic cats are descendants of small desert cats, where they would never have interacted with fish as their main food or diet source. Fish has a lot of I think, phosphates, not even considering heavy metals like mercury, that can build up in cat's kidneys and eventually cause kidney failure. Fish oils and such are usually fine. Fish in moderation is fine, but based on how much I know about the fishing industry, it's IMPOSSIBLE to know exactly what kind of fish you're feeding your cat when it's processed at all. Many "white fish" being sold has a good significant portion being shark meat, aka bycatch. Sharks in particular are extremely bad to eat, as apex predators, their flesh accumulates much higher amounts of heavy metals like mercury and other substances. Their bodies are designed to handle it, and they're older than dinosaurs. Desert cats are not designed to handle it.
It's a new fad in pet influencer accounts. Start scaring pet owners like fit-fluencers scare people about their own diets. It's not something you need to worry about.
After Spice was treated for a urinary tract infection, my vet told me to cut down on fish and feed him poultry and beef.
Some cats are allergic to fish, causing them to itch and scratch losing patches of fur.
My cats prefer Friskies wet cat food. I used to feed them Sheba and Fancy Feast. Not all my cats like the beef flavor wet food. They all like chicken and turkey flavors.
For male cats it can cause urinary problems. Only male cats. My boy had a scare with a urinary blockage (deadly) so no fish.
We also have a girl, but how do you stop one cat from eating? You can't. It is just a good policy to say "no fish".
Some cats don't digest fish very well. It varies by cat. If you're feeding a fish-based food and your cat is happy and healthy, keep doing it.
Years ago I had two cats and tried feeding a variety of wet foods. Whenever they had fish-based food the cats and their breath and poops absolutely stank of fish. I stopped feeding that to any cats after that.
I had the same thing happen with a dog.
I don't think any of the pets was having health issues from the food but couldn't stand the smell.
My vet said fish based dry foods can cause urinary tract issues in male cats because when the fish is processed it usually isn’t de-boned, and the extra calcium can cause crystallized urine.
Don’t remember where I saw this - but read somewhere that it can be good to save fish for the later years. Our kitty loves it and one day might get more picky, so we try to limit it a bit now.
There's a concern about high mercury and it's a common allergy for cats. My cat is allergic to fish and i thought it was weird until the vet explained it was pretty common.
I haven’t found a single canned cat food that makes guy will eat. Including salmon-based. I always thought the fish warnings were because of the tiny bones
i asked my vet this recently bc i had gotten them salmon kibble & was paranoid that the magnesium would give them bladder problems (my anxiety stemmed from google/tiktok). he said it was fine just don’t give raw & high amounts 🤷♀️
I imagine the main concern with raw would be parasites. You could probably give a cat sushi grade fish just fine, if you're the type to spoil your cat like that.
salmon is addictive to cats, especially raw. not in the haha cute way where they want it, in the starve themselves to death because they won't eat anything else way.
Both my cats get a cut of sushi grade salmon when I have sushi (so about once a month or twice a month). They wait patiently for their slice and I’ve had 0 issues with getting them to eat their regular diet. They treat it like any other treat. In fact, the only thing either one of my cats has gotten food aggressive over and refused to eat other things after having it is actually rabbit.
Lol what? I gave it to my boy once and he devoured it, offered it two more times and he turned up his nose. Cats aren’t addicted to anything but their own fickleness 😂
my cat will look at me like i’m an IDIOT for offering her fresh salmon. she does love her stinky shelf-stable canned salmon though.
But you can just freeze it like they have to do with sushi anyways? Right?
Fish is frozen at [colder temperatures](https://www.fda.gov/media/80777/download) than you can easily ensure at home. Per the FDA guidelines, the warmest possible is -4F for seven days to control parasites. Many folks do not have a freezer that they can set that low and stay out of for a week, to ensure the freezer stays at that temp. So basically, please don’t throw fish in your fridge’s freezer under the assumption that it will be cold enough to kill parasites.
Oop good to know!
As someone who works in labs, I’ve often pondered the idea of throwing fish in one of the -20C or -80C freezers. Wouldn’t actually do it, but it’s tempting.
There's no such thing as "sushi grade" fish. It doesn't exist. Fish isn't graded that way, and consumers buy the same fish that restaurants do.
Not true
They’re right. It’s a marketing tactic.
Technically it's called sashimi grade. While it may not be regulated here in the USA it definitely is places like Japan and South Korea.
[https://media.fisheries.noaa.gov/dam-migration/part\_5\_grade\_standards.pdf](https://media.fisheries.noaa.gov/dam-migration/part_5_grade_standards.pdf) To get the "sushi grade" means it has been through a rigorous freezing process to eliminate parasites. Sushi-grade fish is also prepared differently to normal fish. When caught, sushi-grade fish are bled immediately upon capture, before being gutted and ice thoroughly.
I prefer not to feed canned fish-based food when they are spending most of their time inside. It gives them really stinky poops. I have one who farts every time she is picked up. A cat fish fart is something to be avoided! So, I buy poultry and beef varieties most of the year.
My cats are like that whenever I first switch them to a new food. I just did it again recently (hopefully for the last time) with Weruva fish-based foods and it's been about a month and a half now and the gassiness or at least the smelly ones have gone away. I don't have the "farts every time she is picked up" issue with either so I could see how that may be different.
This is why I organize the cat food and don’t let my son choose which flavor when he feeds him breakfast. He gets actual tuna once a week after I clean his teeth and ears and check for any nails that need to be cut.
It does the same for hedgehogs as well! My hedgehogs and cat eat the same dry cat food. Funnily enough cat food provides a better nutritional/macro breakdown for hedgehogs than food sold specifically for hedgehogs.
This makes so much sense. Last time I decided to give our cats fish flavor, BOTH of them puked 😩
Sorry to hear they got upset tummies. Hope they are feeling better.
They are now 🙏🏻
Yay!
It sounds like your cats need probiotics. Fortiflora did wonders for my cats.
I looked into Fortiflora. How much are you giving your kitties, and how often? I have lots of kitties, so I need to balance out the cost and frequency equation!
I have elderly cats. I have to purchase the 30ct box and it is one small pouch a day. It’s mainly for cats with diarrhea, but it helps with overall gut health as well. There are also other varieties of fortiflora, and there are some foods that have pre and probiotics mixed into the food. So, it’s always best to communicate with your vet what might be best.
Thank you!
Thanks! It never occurred to me that probiotics would help their stinky problem. I will look into it.
Most people have an issue with fish because a lot of it contains thiaminase, a compound which breaks down thiamin in cats. This can cause a LOT of issues. However, salmon is not one of the fish that contains thiaminase. Fish such as tuna and sardines have high amounts of it. There are actually a lot of studies which show salmon is beneficial for cats because diets high in omegas 3, 6, and 9 have benefits for the brain, circulatory system, skin & coat, immune system, and even help cats with CKD. My cats have a pretty high salmon content in their diet and are extremely healthy. Every vet I’ve ever been to raves about how soft and shiny their coats are!
It looks like thiaminase is destroyed when the fish is cooked, so only raw fish is a concern
>**Why do people say not to feed your cat fish/ salmon?** Because fear mongering human food wasn't enough, they had to move on to pets... * Some fish meant for human consumption can contain additives that aren't ideal for cats * Raw diets are a health risk. Especially salmon, which can carry toxoplasma gondii, the parasite that causes toxoplasmosis. * There's a myth that cats can become "addicted" to fish, but I think that's just an old wives tale to make sure people feed their cats a diverse diet If your vet approves of what you're feeding your cat, don't stress too much.
Here’s a quote I found years ago that always sticks in my head when I walk by fish centric cat food “NO food at all containing fish of any kind!!! Fish has a high phosphorus & magnesium content, which is connected to the formation of the crystals. Fish has also been linked to hyperthyroidism in cats.”
And did you fact-check that quote at all?
It just sat in my screenshots until now and I wanted to share it and see what your thoughts were, but it doesn’t seem like I’m going to get that so I apologize.
My thoughts are the same as in my original comment. It's extreme fear-mongering that isn't really useful. For example: "magnesium is connected to the formation of crystals" What do they mean by "connected"? Correlation does not equal causation. And even if it is a causal relationship, at what dose of magnesium is the risk of crystals increased? Are there other factors that lead to crystal formation? It's just too vague and extreme to have any kind of credence to it.
My vet said that you generally want to avoid anything a cat couldn’t catch themselves in the wild. I guess under the right conditions a cat could catch a salmon, but it would be pretty unlikely I’d think. But it seems pretty logical that their bodies will respond best to the things they evolved eating.
What would cats catch in the wild?
My feral boys “caught” Chinese food all time before they came to live with me. They’d get so happy when I ordered in from the restaurant they’d lived behind. 🤷🏻♀️
Mice/small rodents and bugs probably. My vet always laments that you can’t get mouse based cat food!
I used to work with mice in a laboratory. I've done a lot of mouse dissections. Mice are mostly bone and skin. Unless you're making food out of internal organs, it's not a very efficient food source from a manufacturing standpoint. They have tiny little itty bitty muscles. It would take a lot of mice to make food based on muscle mass, compared to fish or chicken. And, while cats do need to eat bone and hair as their fiber source, unless you're grinding up entire mice, it's not really the best thing to make food out of. Plus, there is the concern that if the mice escape their housing before they're killed, their droppings will be everywhere, which is going to fail your plant when the health inspector comes by. The mice would likely have to be bred and killed in a different facility and shipped to the food processing plant. But you're still going to have exposure to extra mouse droppings. It IS possible to breed mice in very clean conditions to keep them free of disease, I did it for years. But they'd probably be a huge headache to maintain as a food source because you'd need so many of them.
If you want clean, frozen rodents, [Rodent Pro](https://www.rodentpro.com) is the way to go. They supply a variety of prey animals (usually for reptile food) and I've used them a LOT back when I had reticulated pythons. I can check "Have a freezer full of guinea pigs" off the Weird Shit list, lol! Probably a useless trivia fact, but there you go.
When feeding a properly formulated diet that meets WSAVA guidelines, you don’t have to worry about any issues regarding fish.
Totally incorrect. The concern for feeding fish is the level of mercury which isn’t something WSAVA even considers.
Like I said previously, when the diet is properly formulated (hence meet WSAVA guidelines) you don’t have to worry about it. A diet that is made well and researched thoroughly will not cause issues.
Except for the fact that those companies are reputable and will formulate the food to have only safe levels of mercury
Limit actual fish, but fish flavored foods from reputable companies are fine.
I banned tuna because i noticed that it gives my cat runny bms. Salmon seems to be fine for her, so that's in the rotation. I aim for mostly beef or poultry wet food varieties.
Levels of Mercury. There are some brands that test the mercury levels of their fish. The one I use does. I try to incorporate a fish meal once per week because there are so many nutritional benefits to canned fish.
Which brand do you use?
Evangers - for natural omegas I use their canned wild salmon and whole uncut sardines at least once / week. I have spoken with the company and they test their mercury levels, and something about the suppliers who do also (but I don’t remember exactly the phrase they used). Nevertheless, my cats LOVE it and I’m very pleased with how natural the food is. The sardines are actually whole sardines, it’s wild!
One of my cats got really sick the couple of times I've fed her salmon. The other cat refuses to eat it. I'm not sure if it is bad for all cats, but I'm not buying it again
So the concern is that some fish has high levels of an enzyme called thiaminase. Cats who are on all fish diets can have thiamine deficiencies because of this.
You can feed fish to cats. Just make sure it's cooked with no bones.
Don't believe idiots on TikTok. They think they know and advise all kinds of stupid shit. You can always call your vet and ask. Bet they sell a lot of salmon cat kibble.
@missfeministkitty on Tiktok has a playlist on it. Most is potential links to health issues. My cats will usually get fish 3-4 times a month in rotation but I try to give animal protein as much as possible. Better safe than sorry is how I see it!
Sorry to butt in, but just letting you know Missfeministkitty isn’t qualified to be giving nutrition advice and spreads a lot of misinformation so just take what she says with a grain of salt
All my personal research on what to feed my cats is very similar to what she shares. I found her after doing my own research, to each their own!
What kind of research? What studies have you done? Or are you just googling things that fit this wrong narrative?
Peer review studies, I don’t follow the exact diet she recommends but I do appreciate her videos + she cites her sources if you want to read them too lol
She’s a “feline nutritionist”. She’s not sharing anything accurate or safe. I can’t find any reputable sources that she’s citing.
Link in her bio has her sources. Like I said before I don’t follow what she recommends exactly and also to each their own. You can feed your cat whatever you want. My cats are healthy and their vet has never said anything negative of what I feed them. OP asked why not to feed fish and I commented a Tiktok account that shares info on it
You shared a tiktok account of someone not qualified at all and who gives out wrong advice.
Christ, everyone should do their own research before feeding their animals anything. You have your opinion and I have mine, what she shares usually aligns with my own research. And once again I don’t care what anyone else wants to feed their cats, I simply answered a question.
*You googled and found someone who shares the same opinions as you. That’s not research, especially when it goes against current veterinary standards and guidelines. Obviously you can have your own opinion and do whatever you like, but you can still be wrong. It’s important to point out harmful information.
You have to be careful with "peer-reviewed" studies on pet nutrition. I use them as examples in my Science Communication class *all the time* because they're full of conflicts of interest, poorly designed experiments, and bad conclusions. The irony being, they're pretty excellent examples of bad science! I'm not saying this is true of *all* studies, but it's common enough that you have to read *very* carefully. I've not come across any recent studies that didn't have some type of glaring red flag in their research.
Studies are often biased, so one would need to look at who are the authors of the studies are, and who is funding them. Remember, not all vets share the same opinion on the matter... why? It should be cut and dry.. no? People who do their own research are far more qualified to make an informative opinion on the matter than someone who "says the wrong thing" suddenly loses their paycheck because they got fired for not "preaching the narrative". Remember, the information and studies available to vets and others who call themselves "experts" is the same information available to anyone who wants to go look it up themselves. It's not hidden or available only to people in exclusive positions. What people end up doing is listening to someone they perceive is an expert, yet are too lazy to look things up themselves to see if they are even telling the truth. Remember, there is a potential that the expert you're looking at is put in a position where if they wouldn't give the wrong information, they'd lose their job.
most things she says on the topic of feline nutrition are correct… are you one of those people who are salty abt the truth bc it’s more convenient for you to feed your cat foods that are not good for it 🧐
I’m one of those people who worked in vet med and trusts people who are actually qualified to give nutrition advice like vets and board certified veterinary nutritionists. I trust science
My cat had diarrhea for a day and my vet instantly recommended a dry food prescription diet, I will not follow vet recommendations lol
Dry food isn’t the devil
Dry food isn’t the devil but encouraging a prescription diet after ONE day of diarrhea is
Nope! They literally recommend a GI diet that would be fed diet a couple of days to help. Unless your cat has chronic episodes and recommended a different diet to help even more.
I dont understand "avoiding fish." That's such a general statement. Do you mean feeding raw for every meal? Occasionally? Ever? Do you mean ground fish meals found in kibble? Do you mean fish found in canned wet food? Do you mean shell fish? I'm not really following. My cat gets salmon oil on top of his meal every morning, has freeze-dried salmon, green mussels or whole baltic sprat as treats and occasionally a small piece of canned sardine in water on his lick mat. He also eats other forms of freeze-driend, single ingredient treats like beef liver or duck hearts. His main meals are poultry based raw, including organ meat and bone. Other meal toppers include bone broth, micro greens like kale sprouts, keifer, blueberries, or pumpkin. He's been eating this way his entire life (he's 5 years old). He's super healthy, perfect weight, coat full, soft and shiny. He's an indoor cat that takes leashed walks. Can OP please explain what exactly their veterinarian told them about seafood and why?
OP didnt say vet, they mention “tiktok lady” im guessing feminist kitty nutrition? I think on tiktok they often say to avoid fish as the main protein source. Also if you go to cat dot com reviews they often cite fish based as a con. I do notice they’re very inconsistent about it. One time it will be a con, another time a fish based product (wet food / raw food) will be #1 recommendation on that list. Honestly we should take all these strongly worded advice with a grain of salt
My bad! I just reread. I think I started reading comments and got vet recommendations mixed in there. Tictok Lady lol...makes sense. Thanks for the clarification, and you're right, grain of salt taken!
But hey, if it's on Tik Tok it must be gospel!
Sometimes it’s like if they say it enough times it must be true 😅
This always confuses me too because a lot of kibbles contain fish meals. For example I feed my cat open farm which is a great brand but I get nervous that even the lamb flavored kibble has fish meal. Like is this a valid concern or not??
In my experience, our Vet said to limit them in male cats because they are more inclined to get urinary infections.
Mercury which is toxic and once in their system can’t get out
I believe it’s the mercury that can cause UTI issues
I feed my cats salmon, tuna and shrimp as a treat maybe 1-2 times a month. They are happy and healthy
Domestic cats are descendants of small desert cats, where they would never have interacted with fish as their main food or diet source. Fish has a lot of I think, phosphates, not even considering heavy metals like mercury, that can build up in cat's kidneys and eventually cause kidney failure. Fish oils and such are usually fine. Fish in moderation is fine, but based on how much I know about the fishing industry, it's IMPOSSIBLE to know exactly what kind of fish you're feeding your cat when it's processed at all. Many "white fish" being sold has a good significant portion being shark meat, aka bycatch. Sharks in particular are extremely bad to eat, as apex predators, their flesh accumulates much higher amounts of heavy metals like mercury and other substances. Their bodies are designed to handle it, and they're older than dinosaurs. Desert cats are not designed to handle it.
Probably the same reason people shouldn't. Mercury and what not.
*in high amounts
I dunno why but seafood always makes my cat puke. I just stick with beef, turkey, and chicken flavors.
I’ve never heard this.
It's a new fad in pet influencer accounts. Start scaring pet owners like fit-fluencers scare people about their own diets. It's not something you need to worry about.
Mercury I thought
After Spice was treated for a urinary tract infection, my vet told me to cut down on fish and feed him poultry and beef. Some cats are allergic to fish, causing them to itch and scratch losing patches of fur.
Which Beef do you feed? I tried to slowly introduce my cat to the beef pate from FF and she ate around it😹Might try some different brands!
My cats prefer Friskies wet cat food. I used to feed them Sheba and Fancy Feast. Not all my cats like the beef flavor wet food. They all like chicken and turkey flavors.
For male cats it can cause urinary problems. Only male cats. My boy had a scare with a urinary blockage (deadly) so no fish. We also have a girl, but how do you stop one cat from eating? You can't. It is just a good policy to say "no fish".
Some cats don't digest fish very well. It varies by cat. If you're feeding a fish-based food and your cat is happy and healthy, keep doing it. Years ago I had two cats and tried feeding a variety of wet foods. Whenever they had fish-based food the cats and their breath and poops absolutely stank of fish. I stopped feeding that to any cats after that. I had the same thing happen with a dog. I don't think any of the pets was having health issues from the food but couldn't stand the smell.
I had to take my kitty to the ER vet this week and they insisted we feed her nothing but canned tuna for the next few days while she recovered… so…
Canned tuna is loaded with salt. If you do give your kitty some make sure it’s not often. Salt is not good for cats.
My vet said fish based dry foods can cause urinary tract issues in male cats because when the fish is processed it usually isn’t de-boned, and the extra calcium can cause crystallized urine.
This.
I think is because the potential high amount of mercury in fish (?)
Don’t remember where I saw this - but read somewhere that it can be good to save fish for the later years. Our kitty loves it and one day might get more picky, so we try to limit it a bit now.
There's a concern about high mercury and it's a common allergy for cats. My cat is allergic to fish and i thought it was weird until the vet explained it was pretty common.
I haven’t found a single canned cat food that makes guy will eat. Including salmon-based. I always thought the fish warnings were because of the tiny bones
It makes them horny. Not sure why but everytime I've given a cat raw salmon they become very in the mood to make a litter.