Rocky trying to eat the dog food now

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Bee

Bee

Member Since 2017
Rockys #'s have been pretty good this weekend mid 200 to low low 300 Ive been feeding him extra like everyone suggested hes still hungry. Last night i caught him eating the dogs food this morning i caught him in the garage again he had ripped open a small bag of dry cat food . Right now he's eating 4-5 cans a day . When my other 2 cats are done with the bag of dry food i think im going to switch them all the wet ( i am also trying to find some freeze dried and or raw food). Does the food affect his BG levels? I am worried eating to much will keep his # high.
 
Bee said:
Rockys #'s have been pretty good this weekend mid 200 to low low 300 Ive been feeding him extra like everyone suggested hes still hungry. Last night i caught him eating the dogs food this morning i caught him in the garage again he had ripped open a small bag of dry cat food . Right now he's eating 4-5 cans a day . When my other 2 cats are done with the bag of dry food i think im going to switch them all the wet ( i am also trying to find some freeze dried and or raw food). Does the food affect his BG levels? I am worried eating to much will keep his # high.
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Food can have a major effect on BG. The best diet for a diabetic kitty is wet food under 10% carbs.
 
Bee said:
he's been eating FF 3-5% carbs for about a week now but the last couple of days hes been xtra hungry
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You can increase his daily food ration if he's too hungry. Several small meals a day can help. Is he thin or at a good weight?
 
i feed him a full can 3.3oz morning and night and then i feed him 1/3-1/2 can 2-3 xs in between and before i go to bed.
 
If Rocky should weigh about 10 lbs, he needs to eat at least 205 calories/day. The formula for calories is:

weight (or desired weight) of cat x 13.5 + 70. So a 10 lb cat would need (10 x 13.5) +70, or 135 +70, = 205.

This is an estimate of how many calories a kitty needs and can be adjusted up or down to suit each kitty's situation. If you are using Dr. Pierson's list of foods, the calories are listed per can in the far right column.

Diabetic kitties whose BG is not yet well-controlled or regulated cannot properly metabolize their food, so they are always hungry; their bodies are, literally, starving. If Rocky is hungry and underweight, I would feed him as much low-carb canned food as he wants. :)
 
Ive been using the list to find a good food for him , he's eating classic Fancy Feast now (1 week) I just noticed the FF Naturals they are High Protein 68-77 all are 0 carb but only 41-47 calories the classics are 27-48 % protein 0-3 carbs but calories are 84-96 .
 
Squalliesmom said:
If Rocky should weigh about 10 lbs, he needs to eat at least 205 calories/day. The formula for calories is:

weight (or desired weight) of cat x 13.5 + 70. So a 10 lb cat would need (10 x 13.5) +70, or 135 +70, = 205.

This is an estimate of how many calories a kitty needs and can be adjusted up or down to suit each kitty's situation. If you are using Dr. Pierson's list of foods, the calories are listed per can in the far right column.

Diabetic kitties whose BG is not yet well-controlled or regulated cannot properly metabolize their food, so they are always hungry; their bodies are, literally, starving. If Rocky is hungry and underweight, I would feed him as much low-carb canned food as he wants. :)
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so he needs 205 calories a day (normally) i know everyones saying once is diabetes is controlled better he should eat less. He was only DX 2 weeks ago and has been on insulin for 12 days. If i did the math good hes eating 273-364 calories a day. I think him being on mostly carby dry food his whole life has something to do with it. I know when i eat carbs im full for a a while so i think hes use to be full longer
 
Bee said:
When my other 2 cats are done with the bag of dry food i think im going to switch them all the wet ( i am also trying to find some freeze dried and or raw food). Does the food affect his BG levels? I am worried eating to much will keep his # high.
Click to expand...

Eating too much won't keep his BG levels high as long as he's just eating low carb, canned food and not getting into the crunchy stuff and dog food (those will raise his BG). Switching them all to wet might be the easiest solution--You can buy low carb Friskies pates or Wellness/ EVO Pates (depending on your food budget) in big 12 oz cans, and leave it out to free feed all the cats if they're grazers. I don't free feed canned, but I have friends who do with their cats without a problem! They usually add a little water to keep it from drying out, or leave out some frozen nuggets of food for them to nibble on if they won't be home for 6+ hours. I can't do that with my cats--both are food crazy and would eat until they barf if I left it out (or gnaw at the cat food popsicles for hours).
 
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Bee said:
so he needs 205 calories a day (normally) i know everyones saying once is diabetes is controlled better he should eat less. He was only DX 2 weeks ago and has been on insulin for 12 days. If i did the math good hes eating 273-364 calories a day. I think him being on mostly carby dry food his whole life has something to do with it. I know when i eat carbs im full for a a while so i think hes use to be full longer
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Bottom line - if he's hungry, feed him. As long as it's low-carb, wet food it can't hurt him. His little body can't process his food properly so he is losing weight and hungry all the time. Once he's better controlled with the insulin, he'll stop being so ravenous all the time, and then you can start cutting back on his food, if you need to.
 
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I feed Chuck about 310 calories a day. He was getting a tablespoon or two of young again mature zero before switching to Lantus. Which made it about 400-415 calories a day.
He went from 9 pounds in September 2016 to 12 pounds now. He's maintaining on the 300-310 calories a day now.
It can take a while to gain. If the extra food increases his need for insulin you'll just have to dose around his diet. That's what I had to do. We thought it was the diet requiring so much insulin in the first few weeks. But that's not the case today.
 
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