Young Again Zero Dry Food - Anyone Feeding It Exclusively?

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Michele A & Christy

Michele A & Christy

Member Since 2022
I ordered a bag of Young Again Zero. I messed up and ordered the kind for kittens, but I have someone I can give it to, but before I order the kind for mature/senior cats, I wanted to find out if anyone has fed it exclusively.

The instructions that come with the food say that once you start feed YA Zero, you have to stop all other food and never go back to even LC canned.

Christy has slightly elevated kidney values so I've been adding water to her canned food and would be worried about going to a purely dry food diet.

HOWEVER... if it meant that she could get off insulin, then I would buy every type of water fountain on the planet to get her to drink as much water as she needs. And/or give sub-q fluids since a smidge too much can't kill her (unlike insulin).

Any experience with this kind of food? Any cautions? Any advice?

Thanks,
Michele
 
Previous post
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/thr...94-6-70-6-5-79-7-82-8-92.266717/#post-2985353
Since you are following SLGS you should have reduced the dose to 1.75 units on 8-4 the PM cycle .Christy dropped below 90 during the day cycle when you got the 70 @+6
Bandits Mom mentioned that to you on your previous post which I put above in blue.
Looking at your spreadsheet we don't increase or decrease by half units.
We adjust the doses by 0.25 units.
I would give her 1.75 units for tomorrow morning

Per Bandits on your previous post
Yes, a drop below 90 earns a dose reduction when you are following SLGS. So her dose going forward would be 1.75u.
 
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Michele A & Christy said:
I ordered a bag of Young Again Zero. I messed up and ordered the kind for kittens, but I have someone I can give it to, but before I order the kind for mature/senior cats, I wanted to find out if anyone has fed it exclusively.

The instructions that come with the food say that once you start feed YA Zero, you have to stop all other food and never go back to even LC canned.

Christy has slightly elevated kidney values so I've been adding water to her canned food and would be worried about going to a purely dry food diet.

HOWEVER... if it meant that she could get off insulin, then I would buy every type of water fountain on the planet to get her to drink as much water as she needs. And/or give sub-q fluids since a smidge too much can't kill her (unlike insulin).

Any experience with this kind of food? Any cautions? Any advice?

Thanks,
Michele
Click to expand...
I can tag a few members for you about feeding dry food only but I don't think that's a good idea, I could be wrong though
@tiffmaxee

@Suzanne & Darcy

@Wendy&Neko

@Bron and Sheba (GA)

@Bandit's Mom






You mentioned she has slightly kidney values
I can give you some suggestions on what to feed if you want to

weruva has low carb and low phospherous wet food
With weruva foods
You want the metabolizable energy profile percentage of carbs to be less than 10%, and the phosphorus which Weruva lists in Minerals to be less than 250 mg per 100 cals. So you have to look at two different places in the Weruva charts.
https://weruva.com


For diabetic cats and cats that have elevated kidney values
You want to feed low phosphorous wet food

When you go to the weruva site and click on one of the pics of the food , click on Detailed Nutrition information that is under guaranteed analysis to the left
YOU WANT CARBS UNDER 10% AND PHOSPHORUS IDEALLY LOW 200's OR LESS

Go to this thread , there are a lot of weruva foods listed here in post #3 , post numbers are to the left
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/kidney-disease.262271/#post-2940026

Also
https://www.soulisticpet.com/nutritional-information-pate
I think you look under the same two places like in the Weruva to get the carbs and phosphorus %

If Christy likes Pate here are the weruva pages
Take a look here https://weruva.com/nutrition-landing/pates-ni/

Try not to feed a lot of fish flavors , once a week is fine
 
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Diane Tyler's Mom said:
Previous post
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/thr...94-6-70-6-5-79-7-82-8-92.266717/#post-2985353
Since you are following SLGS you should have reduced the dose to 1.75 units on 8-4 the PM cycle .Christy dropped below 90 during the day cycle when you got the 70 @+6
Bandits Mom mentioned that to you on your previous post which I put above in blue.
Looking at your spreadsheet we don't increase or decrease by half units.
We adjust the doses by 0.25 units.
I would give her 1.75 units for tomorrow morning

Per Bandits on your previous post
Yes, a drop below 90 earns a dose reduction when you are following SLGS. So her dose going forward would be 1.75u.
Click to expand...

Hi Diane,

My syringes don't have 1/4 marks on them. Or 1/2 marks. "Skinny 2u" is the closest I can get to 1.75 units. So, I tried my dead-level best with the tools I have on hand to follow Boohma's advice for that PM shot on Aug 4. I wrote "skinny 2u" because I want my data to reflect my reality, since I will be referring back to it months from now when I will have better tools and a better grasp of all the details of care.

The shots of 1.5 units were based on a conversation with my vet.
 
The smallest increments you can get on a syringe are half units. There are no syringes that have 1/4 unit markings.

Many people here will used digital calipers to help with consistent dosing. There are instructions for their use if you're wanting to go that route.
 
Michele A & Christy said:
I ordered a bag of Young Again Zero. I messed up and ordered the kind for kittens, but I have someone I can give it to, but before I order the kind for mature/senior cats, I wanted to find out if anyone has fed it exclusively.

The instructions that come with the food say that once you start feed YA Zero, you have to stop all other food and never go back to even LC canned.

Christy has slightly elevated kidney values so I've been adding water to her canned food and would be worried about going to a purely dry food diet.

HOWEVER... if it meant that she could get off insulin, then I would buy every type of water fountain on the planet to get her to drink as much water as she needs. And/or give sub-q fluids since a smidge too much can't kill her (unlike insulin).

Any experience with this kind of food? Any cautions? Any advice?

Thanks,
Michele
Click to expand...


What the ?? I would be extremely suspicious of any company that says you have to feed their very expensive food exclusively. They must have one hell of a marketing team if they're actually pulling that off. Reminds me of Hills.

Diabetes is already a dehydrating disease (one of the first symptoms is excessive water intake), so it flies in the face of logic to feed any dry food which promotes further dehydration. Furthermore, if a cat has kidney issues, dry food puts even more strain on those fragile organs. If you haven't done so, please read the info about dry food at the top of this page.

Is YA better than Cat Chow or Meow Mix? Absolutely. But no cat, and especially not a diabetic, should be fed any dry food exclusively. And there are other dry foods that are just as good, low carb, less costly, readily available and manufactured by companies with better ethical practices. I keep some on hand for treats and to tempt inappetent cats.

As far as remission goes, some cats will get there and some won't no matter what. YA is not a magic bullet, regardless of what BS the company spews. I've cared for 16 or so diabetics and about half went into remission with proper diet, care and common sense.

As far as giving sub-q fluids, yes, you can overdose on them and they should only be used when medically necessary. You've only been at this for a few weeks so try to be patient. It really does get easier and you're doing a great job for Christy.
 
Deborah & Muffy(GA) & Wendall said:
As far as giving sub-q fluids, yes, you can overdose on them and they should only be used when medically necessary. You've only been at this for a few weeks so try to be patient. It really does get easier and you're doing a great job for Christy.
Click to expand...

Yes, of course. That's why I clarified a "smidge". If she's supposed to get, say, 60 ml and I accidentally give her 61 ml, I'm not risking her life and don't need to monitor her extra closely because of that 1 ml.

Thank you for you input based on your experience with 16 diabetic kitties. That's very helpful.

And, yes, I'm aware that dry food is bad because (a) no moisture, but more importantly (b) it's mostly grains and the carb content can be 35-60% (or higher). The carb content in YA Zero is 0%, which is why I asked if anyone here has fed it exclusively.

The company says not to feed other foods because the other foods have carbs. It could just be a marketing ploy, but I was hoping to hear about real life experience before writing them off as crooks and liars.
 
I don’t known if anyone feeding exclusively YA or any dry food but I guess it’s possible. I think it’s a marketing ploy. I would not want to have to feed any one brand because what do you do if discontinued or your cat no longer will eat it. For me the exception would be if allergies are present and you need a novel protein.

Giving a skinny dose this early in fd is not a good idea. I’d reduce to 1.75.
 
Regarding the dehydration Michele, it can affect a lot of diabetic cats and can make them really ill and constipated.
Dry food has zero moisture as you know so by eating that Christy is getting no fluid whatsoever and if she's like most cats she won't make up the loss of fluid by drinking alone.
I have a personal hatred to dry food as i don't think it should be given to any cat let alone a diabetic cat.
My cat was dehydrated a while ago and what we do to stop him being dehydrated is syringe water into his mouth a few times a day, it's no hassle, when i check his BG i give him water at the same time.
We try to make sure he gets about 330mls of fluid into him daily, this includes the moisture content from his food.
We also add 25mls of water to his breakfast and supper.
If you take away the moisture content from his/her food eaten daily then depending on your cats weight syringe the remaining amount of water slowly into their mouth a few times a day.
They say a cat should have 50/60mls of fluid per kilo body weight daily.
We have been doing this with our cat for about a year now because after a vets visit she said he was dehydrated and doing this method has worked well keeping him hydrated, plus his coat is a lot more healthier with no dandruff.
Obviously this will be different with Christy as she on sub-q's but i'm just saying that's what we do with Duke if it helps.
Can i ask why she's getting sub q's?
 
Teetee (UK) said:
Can i ask why she's getting sub q's?
Click to expand...


She is not getting sub-Q's.


I was only saying that I feel more comfortable giving sub-Q's (which I have done for CRF/CKD kitties in years past) than giving insulin, simply because the margin of error is so much greater.

I apologize that my question and the wording were imprecise to the point that they have led people in directions away from the only thing I really wanted to know:

**Is anyone feeding YA Zero to their cat exclusively?**

I will take all of these replies as a "No".

Thank you, everyone, for your input.

ETA: I genuinely and sincerely appreciate everyone's help, information, and commitment to giving our cats the best life possible.
 
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Michele A & Christy said:
My syringes don't have 1/4 marks on them. Or 1/2 marks
Click to expand...
You can order these even though they are not 1/4 inch markings but the half unit markings make it easier if you ever had to give example ( 1.25 units)
https://www.adwdiabetes.com/product/16367/carepoint-vet-u-100-pet-syringe-31g-half-unit

or these
https://www.adwdiabetes.com/product/5739/ulticare-u100-vet-rx-half-unit-syringes-31g-3-10cc-60ct


If you have a Walmart by you this was posted by one of our members , but you need to go into the store to buy them , they are not sold on their site

As for syringes, if you have a Walmart near you, you can get U100, 3/10ml, 30 or 31 gauge insulin syringes (the 3/10ml syringes ALL have half unit marks no matter what they might tell you). They should hold a maximum of 30 units. Either one of these is fine (and can be 30 gauge or 31) They are $12.58/100
upload_2022-7-12_20-33-38-jpeg.64779
 
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Michele A & Christy said:
I ordered a bag of Young Again Zero. I messed up and ordered the kind for kittens, but I have someone I can give it to, but before I order the kind for mature/senior cats, I wanted to find out if anyone has fed it exclusively.

The instructions that come with the food say that once you start feed YA Zero, you have to stop all other food and never go back to even LC canned.

Christy has slightly elevated kidney values so I've been adding water to her canned food and would be worried about going to a purely dry food diet.

HOWEVER... if it meant that she could get off insulin, then I would buy every type of water fountain on the planet to get her to drink as much water as she needs. And/or give sub-q fluids since a smidge too much can't kill her (unlike insulin).

Any experience with this kind of food? Any cautions? Any advice?

Thanks,
Michele
Click to expand...
I am deeply considering changing all of my cats to the Young Again Mature simply because it has zero carbs, for the few cats of 12 I have (street rescues) who do not eat wet at all. I currently feed dry and wet food to all except my sugar cat, Cap'n Jack. He loves dry which is why I am sure we are where we are now with diabetes. I have been in emails back and forth the with CEO of the company for weeks now and he recommends if using their food, do not of course, use other dry formulas/brands. He has never advised me not to feed canned. I will email him tomorrow and directly ask the question and will return here with his answer. Have a good night, Sarah
 
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