I've ALWAYS had dry out for him and finally found this Young Again brand that has close to zero carbs, hence the name Young Again Zero. It is made especially for diabetic cats. He also has Fancy Feast Classic canned food in his diet, so he's getting his moisture from that, along with plenty of fresh water. He's not underweight, just the opposite. I hate that it's given him runny diarrhea, so I will have to keep working with him. If that food is just not going to be good for him, I'll maybe consider all wet, since there's no other dry I would consider. Aren't those auto feeders on a timer? If so, how is it guaranteed the cat will eat when he's supposed to? Not sure how that works.
The Young Again is not actually zero carbs--it's zero
digestible carbs, so they aren't counting carbs from sugar in their count. The actual carb count is around 5-6%. I believe they recently removed the "zero" from the food name because it was misleading. But it's not a low glycemic food--all dry foods must use some type of starch to bind the food together--which is why it can cause problems for carb sensitive diabetics like Bandit. Bandit can eat canned foods at 8-9% carbs with no effect on his BG, but if he has just a few pieces of a low carb dry food at 8% it will shoot his blood sugar levels up.
But ALL dry food is dehydrating for cats, even the lower carb ones. It's very important to consider this because dehydration can lead to
urinary tract blockages, which is very painful for cats, and contributes to Chronic Kidney Disease, which is the leading cause of death in older cats.
Yup, the autofeeders are on timers. Bandit and Orpheus eat every 6 hours, at usually the same time every day. When they hear the feeders go off, they run and eat their meals. The meals are small enough that they both eat everything in one sitting. How often are you feeding the canned food per day (minus the dry)? Frequent, scheduled meals also helps reduce the impact of food on BG levels. I'd be happy to give you some pointers with the feeders!
If he's always free fed and prefers to have food left out for him, you can also just free feed the canned food. Just freeze portions and leave them out, and he'll eat them when they thaw, or add some water to the food to keep it from drying out if you want it out immediately. I have friends that do this, but I personally prefer scheduled feedings for my cat because they like the routine of scheduled meals and I can get them to eat whenever I need to (can be important with diabtics!) because of the controlled feedings.
