# Canagan dried V Purina One Sensitive dried



## cat burglar (Jun 9, 2013)

I'm well aware that a dried diet alone is a no no, so please read on first! 

I have four cats, only one of which will eat raw food, the others have a rotation of Lilys Kitchen, Almo, Natures Menu and freshly cooked chicken and fish (my raw feeder also eats all these foods too  hell eat anything and everything!!).

One of my 4 cats, a 14 year old black DLH is an extremely fussy eater and suffers runny poos if fed on an only wet food diet so for the last few years Ive been feeding her Purina One Sensitive alongside her wet food and this has dramatically helped her poo consistency (shes had full blood works carried out in the past and all was in normal range/clear).

Today, while shopping at my local pet warehouse I bought a bag of Canagan Salmon (75% salmon) dried cat food to try. It claims to be the First British Made Grain Free Cat Food that has been designed to closely mimic the diets of Cats ancestors providing them with the best natural diet around.

I gave a small handful to all my cats tonight and they all wolfed it down. The ingredients look to be far superior to the Purina One Sensitive but dont know as yet how it will affect my 14 year old girls tummy.

A google search just now throws up mostly Canagan Dog food, with only a few results for the Cat range, as the Cat range looks to be very new. This food is not even showing up on my local pet warehouses website which I bought it from, but purely for info I found it available on this website:
Canagan Grain Free Cat Food - Salmon (available in 3 sizes) | Pets Corner

Just wondered if anybody else has tried Canagan and what they thought of it?


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## CharlieChaplin (Dec 30, 2012)

I found those biscuits at my local pets corner and started a thread on it
http://www.petforums.co.uk/cat-health-nutrition/311609-new-dry-food-opinions.html

That should have a few opinions on it. I think it is new to the shelves.

Anyway - regarding you 14year old can I ask what is the wet she is on which causes the runny poos?

That statement about closely mimicking a cats natural diet - I would take as advertisement spiel and not a word of truth to it. Anyway I digress.

It may affect her by giving her a poorly tummy as you need to slowly introduce it to her (like wet food). Hopefully the handful would have been small enough.


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## Satori (Apr 7, 2013)

I wonder how adding dry food can prevent dire rear? Surely, the dry food would have more ingredients that would cause GI issues? That's interesting.

I don't know the food you asked about but on paper it looks ok for a dry food.

Have you tried adding pumpkin to the wet food instead?


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## CharlieChaplin (Dec 30, 2012)

Satori said:


> I wonder how adding dry food can prevent dire rear? Surely, the dry food would have more ingredients that would cause GI issues? That's interesting.


Satori - that's what my vet suggested when my little one had a poorly tummy. I told her no  but I think her thinking was that wet food is 'too rich for him' and dry food is dehydrating so less fluid = harder stool.


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## cat burglar (Jun 9, 2013)

Thanks for your reply CC. I'll go check out your link in a mo 

Re wet food, I've tried many many brands of wet foods over the years (including prescription foods) and they have all had the same effect on her, ie. soft - runny poos. I've always introduced each new food slowly. Her poos only firmed up with the introduction of the Purina One Sensitive (or that could have just been purely coincidental, I don't know, but I've continued to feed her that ever since because whenever I've not fed her the Purina One Sensitive for a few days her poos go sloppy again). She is currently eating about a tablespoon (that's all she will eat of wet food daily) of Lily's Kitchen, Almo, Nature's Menu, freshly cooked chicken or fish + handful of Purina One Sensitive with every meal and her poos remain firmish. 

N.B. I should just add that my 14 year old girl has suffered with skin allergies for many years - she frequently has small scabs on her ears, head and neck from excessive scratching. Vet diagnosed an allergy, but said testing for what she's allergic to could prove to be something as simple as tree pollen which we couldn't do anything about, so she's had courses of steroids and even birth control pills! (she is neutered, but vet said he's had good results from birth control pills to treat many skin allergies in the past!). 

Unfortunately, neither treatments had much effect, apart from the steroids for a little while, plus I wouldn't have been happy keeping her on steroids long term anyway.

I'm convinced she has a food allergy, but am at a loss as to what else I can feed her on instead of the Purina One Sensitive added to every meal.


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## cat burglar (Jun 9, 2013)

Satori said:


> I wonder how adding dry food can prevent dire rear? Surely, the dry food would have more ingredients that would cause GI issues? That's interesting.
> 
> I don't know the food you asked about but on paper it looks ok for a dry food.
> 
> Have you tried adding pumpkin to the wet food instead?


Thanks for your input, you posted while I was typing up my reply to CC. I've tried adding a little Libby's pumpkin, but she wouldn't touch the food because it was then 'tainted'! lol! She really is a very very fussy picky eater.


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## CharlieChaplin (Dec 30, 2012)

At the end of the day if it works (and you are 100% it works) then I would stick with it. But make sure she gets plenty of fluid - have you tried chicken broth? This may increase fluid intake. Especially for these hot coming months. 

I found my boy was insensitive to natures menu, causing him runny pooops. Crazy! I don't know why - it may be the consistency cos he ate it too fast or something. But now he is on a wide rotation of other great food and he eats it all with no ill effect! 

Do you know almo is complimentary and so is the cooked chicken and fish really. So don't make it the main source of food. Albeit a tablespoon won't matter! 

If you do change her dry just do it slow too. And gauge any symptoms. 

It's a shame about the allergens tho - I think my mums cat has an allergy to tree and grass pollen!

If you were to introduce wet food fully (which I fully support and I guess you do as you feed raw ). I would place on boiled chicken for a few days with broth and slowly introduce new food. Probably a single protein or try an elimination diet. 

Have you looked into a pro biotic? I've used fortiflora before and found it helped settle my ones stomach. Especially when I introduce new foods. There is another good one, but I can't remember it's name!!


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## cat burglar (Jun 9, 2013)

This particular girl has always drank a LOT of water for a cat (long before I added the dried food to her diet), but only from a glass jug or my hands*! She's been tested negative for diabetes, renal probs, pancreatis and goodness knows what else, she just likes to drink water - *she insists on accompanying me when I have a bath just so I can drip bath water onto her face and head so she can lick it off, making weird noises and purring loudly in the process - very weird cat!!

I guess, as you say, if the Purina One works for her then I should continue with it, but after discovering this [allegedly] nutritionally better dried food today I would rather she switched to that, but will gauge how she reacts to it over the next few days. As she literally only eats approx a tablespoon of wet per day, I don't think any wet food on its own will sustain her sufficiently.

I have tried adding a pinch of Pro-C Probiotic in the past but to no effect - still got the tub here hardly used!

I would love for all my cats to be fed a raw only diet, but it just ain't gonna happen unfortunately  I still offer it to my other 3 from time to time but they sniff it and look at me as if I'm trying to poison them and then walk away in disgust. My raw feeder is very happy with their reactions 'cos it means more for him, lol!

Can I ask what wet foods you feed to your boy, so I can may be try those too?


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## CharlieChaplin (Dec 30, 2012)

Ahh bless her she sounds like a princess  

My boys get dry applaws on occasion as it is one of the higher meat content biscuits which was recommended on this forum. Only as a treat tho. Some cats react to applaws and it makes them poorly. But with this new one, if it is grain free and a higher meat content then I would make the switch and see how it goes. 

I would love my cats to be on raw but it's a slow transition time ATM and I need to find a good supplier, space and get organised to do it! 

At the moment I feed them on Mac's (grain free), grantapet, feringa (rabbit), catzfinefood (chicken) and slowly introducing Grau (grain free). NM pouches made Chaplin poorly. Bozitas I (for some unknown reason) don't want to feed it to them, I think I don't trust the quality. I tried omnomnom but they didn't like the heart chunks in it.

Macs is their main food but I have been slowly introducing the other brands over the past 2 weeks and they have taken to them so well! No poorly bottoms. So next ordering I can get more of those meals  I also try to reduce the amount of fish they get as I have read about contamination etc but need to do more research into that. 

I made this transition by putting Chaplin on boiled chicken for a few days with broth to heal his tummy. Then slowly added in the new food with fortiflora. No problems. Charlie didnt go on the boiled chicken as his tummy was fine.


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## cat burglar (Jun 9, 2013)

CharlieChaplin said:


> Ahh bless her she sounds like a princess
> 
> My boys get dry applaws on occasion as it is one of the higher meat content biscuits which was recommended on this forum. Only as a treat tho. Some cats react to applaws and it makes them poorly. But with this new one, if it is grain free and a higher meat content then I would make the switch and see how it goes.
> 
> ...


Sincere apologies for the delay in replying to your most informative post 

I haven't as yet tried Macs or Grantapet, so these will be next on my list to try when my current stash of food is depleted 

P.S. No runny poos to report since switching to Canagan, so I'm happy in that respect as Canagan is more nutritious/healthier than Purina One Sensitive 

Thanks once again for your much appreciated input xx


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## chillminx (Nov 22, 2010)

The chances are if your cat has skin allergies and also runny poos that she has a food allergy, or rather -- a food intolerance. These are far more common in cats than tree or pollen allergies, (which in any case would be more likely to cause sneezing or other respiratory problems).

The food intolerance could be due to grains, or it could be a specific protein (or 2), or it could be a combination of grains and a protein. With my cat who had bad skin problems when I adopted him, it turned out to be all grains and beef.

To identify a food intolerance you would need to put her on a strict elimination diet. This is where you would feed her a novel protein for 6 weeks, i.e. a protein she has never eaten before, e.g. horsemeat, kangaroo, reindeer, venison. A company in Germany called Vet Concept sells good quality cans of these. Their foods are also grain free, and this is important too.

https://www.vet-concept.com/

(if you use Chrome as your browser it will automatically translate the page into English).

After the 6 weeks on a novel protein, assuming there is considerable improvement, you then re-introduce foods such as chicken, lamb, turkey etc, but you only give them as single proteins. This means only feeding foods that state they are single proteins, such as Feringa, Macs Sensitive, Terra Faelis, and one or two others. You add them in to the diet one at a time every two weeks, keeping a daily log of symptoms as you go. Eventually you should aim to end up with about 4 different protein foods she can tolerate that you then feed in rotation.

Any food you are not sure is a single protein, check the ingredients on the manufacturer's website or email them. Many cat foods contain e.g. beef byproducts but these are not always stated clearly on the can/packet.

Regards dry food, I agree that it can have the effect of *hardening* the stool, especially if not enough water is being drunk to hydrate the dry. Personally if, as a last resort I had to feed my cat dry food I would want it to be the best possible quality. I don't know anything about Canagan dry catfood other than what I have read on the bow-wow-pets website, but at least it has the merit of being grain-free. Surprised to see it contains peppermint & aniseed which I had thought were toxic to cats

Otherwise the best makes of dry cat food are Applaws, Arcana and Orijen, which are all grain-free. Applaws can be bought from [email protected], and the other 2 from Zooplus.


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## cat burglar (Jun 9, 2013)

chillminx said:


> The chances are if your cat has skin allergies and also runny poos that she has a food allergy, or rather -- a food intolerance. These are far more common in cats than tree or pollen allergies, (which in any case would be more likely to cause sneezing or other respiratory problems).
> 
> The food intolerance could be due to grains, or it could be a specific protein (or 2), or it could be a combination of grains and a protein. With my cat who had bad skin problems when I adopted him, it turned out to be all grains and beef.
> 
> ...


Chillminx, thank you sooooo much for your very informative post, it is muchly appreciated  It all makes sense. I'm going to avidly follow your advice down to the last letter and work this process of elimination out on my own without my vet's involvement this time .

Watch this space!


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## CharlieChaplin (Dec 30, 2012)

Good to hear and hopefully it will work! 

Another food which I believe is single protein is ropocat - now (CM - will prob have to confirm my information is correct) but they have venison which could be your novel protein and they also have chicken, lamb rabbit etc which you could introduce after she has been on the novel protein food for the 6 weeks.

This is available from the happy kitty company. Which is based here in the uk. 

Good luck!!


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## chillminx (Nov 22, 2010)

Very good point CC -- I had forgotten about Ropocat. Thank you for reminding me You are right, they are single protein foods, and being available from The Happy Kitty Company are much easier to order than the Vet Concept foods. :thumbup1:


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