Diabetic cat. What food do you recommend

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Stephanie Howard

Stephanie Howard

Member Since 2016
I just found out my 10 year old cat is diabetic. We just recently started with insulin twice a day and vet has started him on new cat food. We are now using Prescription Hill M/D dry food and also wet food. Does anyone else have any recommendations for different type of food to be giving him. I feel like this food is a little expensive and I have read mixed reviews about it
 
Stephanie Howard said:
I just found out my 10 year old cat is diabetic. We just recently started with insulin twice a day and vet has started him on new cat food. We are now using Prescription Hill M/D dry food and also wet food. Does anyone else have any recommendations for different type of food to be giving him. I feel like this food is a little expensive and I have read mixed reviews about it
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Both the Hills m/d wet (15% carbs) and dry (18% carbs) are too high in carbs for a diabetic kitty. Dry food..prescription or otherwise is not considered good for any kitty, especially a diabetic kitty. It is best to find a food that is 10% carbs or less. Many people use Firskies pates (not the Indoor Cat with the green lid) Fancy feast pates, or 9 Lives. Make sure the food is a pate form and not the ones with gravy.

However if your kitty was previously eating a diet of dry food as the regular meals, DO NOT CHANGE to a wet low carb diet until you are home testing with a glucose meter, to track where the glucose numbers are. Some kitties have had their glucose levels drop considerably just with the change from a dry food diet to a low carb wet food diet which means the insulin dosing would need to be lowered. In order to keep your kitty safe, please start home testing before doing a drastic diet change. Actually home testing should be done regardless as this is the best way to keep track of glucose changes.


http://www.hillspet.ca/en-ca/produc...w-carbohydrate-glucose-management-canned.html

http://www.hillspet.com/en/us/products/pd-feline-md-dry
 
I'm gonna give my vet a call this afternoon. Thank you for this information. My cat would always eat fancy feast. We would switch to many different flavors but he hated the classic ones(pate). The vet told me about this new dry food/wet food to try and he seems to like it but I just want to make sure I am giving him the right thing.
 
Stephanie Howard said:
I'm gonna give my vet a call this afternoon. Thank you for this information. My cat would always eat fancy feast. We would switch to many different flavors but he hated the classic ones(pate). The vet told me about this new dry food/wet food to try and he seems to like it but I just want to make sure I am giving him the right thing.
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With fancy feast the only ones low in carbs are the classic pates, so if he didn't like that you could try the Friskies pate (not the Indoor Cat with the green lid) or the 9 Lives if you are in the US. (I am in Canada and they don't sell 9 Lives here anymore) Many vets "think" the prescription foods are better, which is not true, but pet food companies are usually the ones who do the nutrition teaching during vet school, so they have been conditioned to believe this. Also they make a good profit selling the food :) As with home testing, many vets do not endorse pet parents doing their own testing. Newer Veterinarian standards are now recommending that owners be taught to home test, since this is the best way to see how the progress is going and makes sure the glucose numbers are safe to give a shot. Fingers crossed that your vet is one of the more enlightened ones.
 
I feed both my sugar cat & civie, fancy feast, nine lives & friskies. You can give them Young Again dry food which is low in carbs. You have to
order the Young Again online. This website is the best for sugar cats, because a lot of the vets aren't up to date on diabetic menu for cats.

Take care & hang in there!
 
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