Top 5 Cat Food Intolerance Triggers

Your meat-loving kitty needs around 30 to 35% crude protein in their diet (at least 26% for adult maintenance and 30% in dry food for growth and reproduction). A balanced meat-based protein diet is nutritionally essential for all cats, but it’s also the first place vets look when trying to understand what could be triggering your cat’s food intolerance.

Some cats have a hard time digesting chicken, seafood, and meat by-products, so it’s good to read your cat’s food label so understand the source of the meat blend. If you’d like to remove chicken or fish from your cat’s diet, you could try introducing them to some new meat altogether; some sensitive cats do well with recipes that include duck or venison.

Lower end cat food often contains corn gluten meal as a cheap ingredient to bulk up their recipes. It will feed your cat’s appetite but corn is not ideal for cats on a nutritional level.

Essentially, corn gluten meal is what’s leftover when corn is processed into corn syrup or sweeteners. It adds to the recipe’s carbs (bulking it up to almost 50%) and protein and also acts as a binder to shape dry kibble. Even though it contains protein, it’s not the kind of protein that cats digest well, often creating an intolerance.

Also, aging cats don’t need the high density of carbohydrates found in corn-based recipes – without the need to convert those calories into energy; some cats gain an unhealthy amount of weight and risk an early onset of diabetes when on a cornmeal rich diet.

Adult cats who are consuming a healthy, balanced diet have little nutritional need for dairy – in fact, they struggle to digest it properly. A bowl of cow’s milk actually has more lactose and casein (a common allergen) than most cats can handle.

As they grow older, kittens lose more and more of the digestive enzyme (lactase) responsible for breaking down the sugar found in dairy and dairy-based products.

Around 10% of all cats actually become completely lactose intolerant as adults. As with humans, the most common tell for lactose intolerance is an upset tummy (diarrhea or vomiting) within 8 to 12 hours of consuming a dairy-based product. If it’s suspected that your kitty may be lactose intolerant, your vet will recommend that you completely remove any traces of dairy from your cat’s diet – this will also include dairy-based treats.

Most vets agree that there is really no need to give your adult cat cow’s milk at all; access to a bowl of freshwater is all they really need for hydration.

Like with long-life human food, cat food manufacturers have to add preservatives to their recipes to extend the shelf lives of their products. Without the right temperature control and certain chemical additives, their delicious meals will easily spoil. The downside to this is that some preservatives aren’t really good for your kitty to consume an excess of.

The most common dangerous antioxidants used by manufacturers are BHA, BHT, and ethoxyquin (often listed as ‘E’ on the packaging) – and this goes for premium brands too!

While the FDA does regulate how much of these can be added, you’ll still want to be mindful of their presence as they have been identified as common cat food allergens. There is also a link to BHA and BHT as catalysts to underlying liver and kidney issues within cats – so try to avoid them in your cat’s diet as much as possible.