Is it safe to give my cat tuna or sardines as a food substitute?

Although good as a treat, sardines do not make up a balanced diet. What your kitty is doing is training you to feed her what she wants, when she wants it. Discontinue feeding the sardines. You can mix a tiny bit of the water from the can into the food to simulate her appetite. Warming the food slightly may also help. Be firm and be consistent. She won't starve herself.

If you feed occasionally and in moderation, it should not be cause for concern. Discuss the recurring UTI with your vet. Consider a urine culture and sensitivity panel to identify the organism responsible as well as the best antibiotic to use in treatment. Reculture the urine after a course of antibiotics to confirm resolution. Abdominal xrays or ultrasound can diagnose stones or tumors in the kidneys or bladder or bladder inflammation (cystitis). Sometimes, a cause for cystitis cannot be diagnosed. The sardines will contain beneficial omega 3 essential fatty acids which are thought to decrease inflammation. Consider adding an EFA supplement to the diet. Recommended brands to be discussed with your vet are DermCaps or EicosaCaps.

I bet he loves it! As long as there are no additives to the sardines like garlic or onions (which are toxic) I don't see anything wrong with doing this. You can also add warm water to canned cat food to make a gruel/ and feed this to him in additional to his dry food. Please feel free to post any additional questions.

I would advise against feeding many of these canned fish options meant for human consumption due to the extremely high sodium content. Cats do not do well with that much sodium in their diet. If there is no other option and it is going to be a ONE TIME thing, don't let your cat starve, but I wouldn't do it more than once.

If it's a complete and balanced cat food that contains tuna, that is fine to feed regularly. However, 100% tuna from a can (meant for human consumption) should only be given as a rare treat. You're welcome to post another question with the specific type of cat food in question, if you're unsure whether what you have is considered "complete and balanced."

Hi there and thanks for posting on Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Feeding a fish based commercial diet that is nutritionally complete is just fine as long as Cinderella is not allergic to the fish in the food you are giving. Cats that are fed raw fish frequently is more of the concern as they can develop serious nutritional deficits and vitamin deficiencies such as Thiamine deficiency which can be deadly. It is for this reason feeding raw fish primarily to cats is not recommended. However, feeding a small amount of tuna from a can occasionally as a treat is okay and will not cause a vitamin deficiency as long as they are also eating a commercially prepared food. No need to change the food Cinderella is enjoying now. From what you described, it sounds like she has tried a few foods that may have been giving her runny stools so if she is doing well on this particular food from Taste of the Wild, then I would keep her on that. I hope this helps!

A small amount of this would be fine. (1 tablespoon or less per day--- the tuna in oil is relatively high in fat, and more than that would probably add up to too many calories. ) Thanks for asking Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach!