Managing Allergies to Cats - Does Purina LiveClear work?

Today, I'm talking about cat allergies and Purina's new way of tackling them.

Check out my enrichment guide for cats here:

I'm Tom Kirby, UW-AAB, LSHC-S and I'm a certified animal behavior consultant who specializes in cats. At Kitty Help Desk, I offer science-based, judgement-free, feline behavior consults.

DISCLAIMER: This video is provided for informational purposes only and should not substitute for a consultation with an animal behavior consultant or a veterinarian.

Video content by Tom Kirby, UW-AAB, LSHC-S
Original music by Tom Kirby
Modeling by Miss Lucy and Miss Mina

Please comment responsibly.

[Deathstar-Cheeseburger]

My husband has SEVERE cat allergies. He couldn't be near cats without having allergy induced asthma attacks. It's so bad, that he's had to be hospitalized after sleeping at my brother in law's house after one night with their "hypoallergenic" cat. Well, we had a kitten pop up in our back yard. She decided we were her family. She was staying outside, but we didn't want her to get hurt, or in fights, by being a 100% outdoor kitty. My vet recommended Live Clear. We started our little Renni on it at eight weeks old. She's seven months old, and she sleeps in bed with my husband and me. It's like she has very minimal to zero effect on his allergies. She gives him kitty kisses and everything. He even cleans her litter box daily!

This food works better than I could ever imagine.

Of course she also gets her wet food twice daily.

[vickihughes]

I love the picture in the background ❤

[Khaatana]

As someone who is allergic to cats (stuffy nose, red and itchy eyes, contact dermatitis), I got a Siberian cat this year after a successful 1 hour allergy sitting. However, I was recommended to feed her Purina Proplan LiveClear to help maintain mine and guests' allergies. The feeding guide recommends at least 50% of the cat's diet to be the LiveClear, but after seeing so much negativity with kibble I'm scared I'm not getting this right.

Previously I was feeding 20g kibble (3.8 calories per 1g) and the remainder raw food as per the guidance of the raw food manufacturer. She lost weight (3.5kg to 3.3kg) during this time and was regularly crying for more food. When I spoke to my breeder and vet they said that was not enough and I should free-feed dry. My cat is 1 year old, sterilised and kept indoors, so I'm conscious about the impact being too heavy might have on her.

I gradually upped the kibble until she stopped begging/crying for more food as I didn't want to free-feed. Now we're on 45g kibble and one (~85g) wet tin/pouch per day for convenience, as I've been away and had a cat sitter so didn't want them to deal with the faff with defrosting/portioning food.

But now she seems to be getting chonkier in a way I'm concerned I'm overfeeding! I haven't weighed her at home, but her weight gain is noticeable to me and others in the past month.

I've got two questions I hope you might be able to help with advice:
1) Is one meal per day of wet/raw food sufficient in terms of supplementing moisture content in a cats diet?

2) If dry food is being fed, which needs to be at least 50% of their diet to be effective; is there some kind of wizardry for figuring out portion sizes where you don't feel like you're being stingy or an excessive feeder? For example, I was given a daily calorie intake recommendation by the raw food manufacturer based on my cat's age, weight and activity, from this she was getting 20g dry food and 53g raw, this was when she lost weight, was hungry and I was told I wasn't feeding her enough. If I were to adapt the raw to complement her kibble now, that would mean only 35g raw food

[annikala]

If I mix this kibble with wet food, would that help? I love my baby, and I already take allergy meds, but I really need something more

[MikuMarmalade]

Thank you for sharing this. I had briefly considered this myself as a first time cat owner. However I realized that they didn’t have any wet food options. I mix wet and dry food and though if I feed them other wet food I’d probably be negating any benefits this kibble would bring.

[mo_bra]

Thank you for this info! I've been researching "hypoallergenic" cats. One video I watched said that Russian Blues might produce less of the Fel D 1. I'd love to find out if that's true... Although, like you said, some individual cats may have less of it too. ...On goes my search for the most allergy-friendly cat for our household!!! 🤞😻

PS - I really like the blue walls in the room around you, in this video! :-D

[olmktgp]

My cat has allergies not me. Does this help?

[edschulhof]

Good video. This is another dry food with corn, wheat and rice that cats don't need. And it is expensive.