Hi...I have two cats, and two dogs. One of my cats was just diagnosed with diabetes, and she started insulin six days ago. I have been searching for an appropriate wet food for her (high protein; low carb) that she will eat. She has ALWAYS insisted on eating only shredded wet food. Now that she is diabetic, her choices are very limited. To get her to make the transition from her previous wet food to the new wet food, I have had to put a small amount of the food she loves into the new stuff to get her to eat it. I am sure eventually she will eat the pate without my having to put shredded food in it. However, I have an additional issue. I went to the pet store this evening and searched their wet cat food looking for anything shredded. However, I found a wet food that was extremely high in protein, much higher than the other brands, so I snapped up a few cans. The brand name is Legends, Almo Nature. Binx had her first can and she loved it. She ate the entire bowl in one sitting, without my having to add any of the previous wet food. I was relieved. But then I looked the brand up online, only to find at least one website stating that if you feed your cat only this food, she will not have a nutritionally balanced diet and could get sick. Does anyone know much about this brand of cat food? I can't feed Binx any dry food, so I am wondering if I can feed her just this, (one website said this brand does not contain Tourine) or if I rotate this with another brand would that give her a complete diet? Any help on this would be tremendously appreciated. Thank you so much!
10 year old Binx just diagnosed...wondering about diet....
- Thread starter Eulogia
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BJM
Member Since 2010
Welcome to the message board, the best place you never wanted to be.
See the Cat Info link below. Maybe that will give you some ideas.
There are 4 things you'll need to manage your kitty's diabetes:
- You - without your commitment, the following won't work.
- Low carb over the counter canned or raw diet, such as many Friskies pates. See Cat Info for more info. If already on insulin, you must be home testing before changing the diet. Food changes should be gradual to avoid GI upsets - 20-25% different food each day until switched. There are 2 low carb, dry, over the counter foods in the US - Evo Cat and Kitten dry found at pet specialty stores and Young Again 0 Carb found online.
- Home blood glucose monitoring with an inexpensive human glucometer such as the WalMart Relion Confirm or Target Up and Up (the pet ones will break your budget!). This saves you the cost of going to the vet for curves and done regularly, removes the need for a fructosamine test. All of our insulin guidelines use human glucometer numbers for reference.
- A long-lasting insulin such as ProZinc, Lantus, BCP PZI, or Levemir. No insulin lasts 24 hours in the cat, so giving it every 12 hours is optimal for control.
See the Cat Info link below. Maybe that will give you some ideas.
There are 4 things you'll need to manage your kitty's diabetes:
- You - without your commitment, the following won't work.
- Low carb over the counter canned or raw diet, such as many Friskies pates. See Cat Info for more info. If already on insulin, you must be home testing before changing the diet. Food changes should be gradual to avoid GI upsets - 20-25% different food each day until switched. There are 2 low carb, dry, over the counter foods in the US - Evo Cat and Kitten dry found at pet specialty stores and Young Again 0 Carb found online.
- Home blood glucose monitoring with an inexpensive human glucometer such as the WalMart Relion Confirm or Target Up and Up (the pet ones will break your budget!). This saves you the cost of going to the vet for curves and done regularly, removes the need for a fructosamine test. All of our insulin guidelines use human glucometer numbers for reference.
- A long-lasting insulin such as ProZinc, Lantus, BCP PZI, or Levemir. No insulin lasts 24 hours in the cat, so giving it every 12 hours is optimal for control.
billysmom (GA)
Member Since 2015
There are some very low carb shreded style cat food like tiki cat and weruva (check the food list on the cat info page BJM mentioned). They are expensive especially when you consider they are low calorie so you need to feed more. However you may be able to add it to a low carb pate style food. Or you could try adding a little plain boiled chicken to the pate (up to 20%). Maybe she would like that.
Thank you...adding it to a low carb pate is a great idea...I was so focused on the "high protein, low carb" issue that I wasn't thinking about the low calorie issue that goes along with it. The food does get very expensive!
billysmom (GA)
Member Since 2015
Part of the reason the two foods I mentioned is low calorie they have a lot of moisture. In addition Tiki cat, at least, is lower fat.
Djamila
Member Since 2015
Moving my cat from gravy-laden canned food to pate was tough. He did NOT want to eat the new stuff, even doing the whole mixing thing. I started adding a bit of water to it to make it more gravy-like and now he gobbles it up. Since your kitty seems to like the shredded texture, I'm thinking @billysmom (GA) suggestion of adding some shredded chicken might help your sugar kitty to be happier with the change.
Great job working to find a healthy food that will work for you cat! It can be challenging, but is such an important part of taking care of a diabetic cat! It took me quite awhile to find the right foods, but once we did, my kitty improved tremendously!
Great job working to find a healthy food that will work for you cat! It can be challenging, but is such an important part of taking care of a diabetic cat! It took me quite awhile to find the right foods, but once we did, my kitty improved tremendously!
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