Dry food

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granadilla

granadilla

Member Since 2015
First let me say that I totally know that Marshmallow should be eating wet food. I tried for over a year to get her to eat wet food, and that was before she was even diagnosed with diabetes. I've tried tons of brands and flavors, put meatballs of wet food in with her dry food, put a layer of dry food over wet food, sprinkled Fortiflora over the wet food, etc. I've tried everything I can think of and she would rather not eat than eat wet food.

My old bad vet put her on dry W/D when she was diagnosed and now I know that W/D isn't that great for a sugarcat. I can switch her to M/D or DM or try dry commercial food.

I've looked for Evo and YoungAgain but can't find either of them locally. My commercial options for high-protein food are Lotus, Blue Wilderness or The Blue Buffalo Co. Does anybody know anything about these brands? I've tried looking up carb values and can't find anything. There's a link on this site about dry food but it doesn't look like it's been updated since 2008 and those foods aren't listed (http://www.felinediabetes.com/diabetic-cat-diets.htm).

Anybody have any thoughts?
 
Young again zero carb is only online through them. Evo cheewys online or amazon. Really the two best choices.
 
I spent many hours yesterday reading (rather than just skimming through as I have been) Dr. Lisa`s writings on feline nutrition and she had some great ideas on transitioning dry food addicts to wet food: http://catinfo.org/
Tons of other good stuff on there, too (I`ve put my cat on a diet and wanted some good informed advice).
Hope this helps.
 
Thanks. I'll order some dry food and keep trying to switch her over to wet. I'd already seen that catinfo.org page but I'll go back to it and see if there's anything else I can try. I just tried syringe-feeding her wet food this morning (and I've done it before too). She's totally docile and ate some of it but it doesn't stimulate her interest in eating it when it's in a bowl! And when I've tried putting a blob of food on her paw, she runs with three legs (holding the offensive paw with wet food on it up in the air) under the couch. Oh the drama of having her paws defiled with wet food! Kind of how she reacts when I prick her ear to test her BG. :)
 
OMG! I laughed at your description of Marshmallow running on 3 legs holding the offensive paw up in the air. Sounds like your kitty is quite the drama queen.:cat: I have been waging an ongoing 4+ yr. battle with my kibble addict (started when she joined the family at 10 weeks old) and it ain't fun. Like you I have tried every trick in the book with no joy. :arghh: The only thing I haven't tried is caviar but I have to draw the line somewhere! Mine however just tries to bury the wet food as if it were her waste and gives me the glare! I have scratch marks on my kitchen wall to attest to this behavior as she tries to bury her civie brother's canned food every day! Any attempts to syringe anything into her mouth results in me having to change clothes as I end up wearing more than she takes in. :rolleyes:

Where are you located? Food choices differ a lot depending on where you are. I am in Canada and we have a major issue here getting low carb kibble. I'm pretty sure Blue Buffalo and Blue Wilderness are much higher in carbs than ideal.

Ideally you need the Dry Matter Analysis (DMA) to accurately calculate the carbs. Most packaging only tells you Guaranteed Analysis (GA). For a rough calculation, add up the Protein%, Fibre%, Moisture%, Ash% (if not listed use 6%), and Fat% from the GA and subtract that total from 100.
 
@MrWorfMen's Mom, thanks for the equation. I'll try it and see if those brands are acceptable. I'm in California. If need be, I'll order Evo online. Yes, Marshmallow is a true drama queen. :) Whenever I put her in the carrier to take her to the vet, she howls like I'm torturing her. Once I was carrying her to the car and someone came out of the building across the street and asked if a cat had been hit by a car. Nope, it was just my dorky feline making sure I knew that she didn't want to go to the vet!
 
Oh I fully understand the howling. I called my husband at work one day on my way home from the vet with Menace just to make him suffer with me. Someone walked past his cubicle and stopped to ask what the noise was! :D I cannot roll down the windows in my car when I have Menace with me because people driving alongside hear her howling and look at me like I'm torturing her. I'm afraid one day there'll be a police car beside me and they'll haul me over to investigate what I have done to the poor girl!:nailbiting:
 
But isn't that what makes our kitties so great, that they have strong personalities of their own! Marshmallow has now gotten over me putting wet food on her paw and just flicks it off, looks at me with disdain, and walks away with a swish of her tail. The only way I can get wet food into her is with a syringe, but I'll keep trying!
 
Yes, their individual quirks and habits are what make them such unique and wonderful creatures :cat:and I too will keep trying but I am not about to abuse her to get her to change her food preferences. I am a fussy eater too so I know where she is coming from.;)

I just got off the phone with my vet and heard the "gotta get her on canned food yadayadayada spiel yet again. It felt good to be able to interrupt the vet when she told me she had sent me the URL for a website about transitioning cats to canned food, by asking if she meant Lisa Pierson's site.

Vet stopped in her tracks....dead silence, I presume realizing I had done my homework and was way ahead of her. I have been trying to transition Menace for the past 4.5 years. I started when she joined our family at 10 wks old. I don't hold out much hope, I am persevering, but badgering me isn't gonna make Menace eat what she doesn't want or like!

Thankfully I love my vet and she was just relaying info from a consult because my sugar baby is not showing any improvement with dose increases so I forgive her but seriously I am at my wit's end over this food stuff.

And as for syringing food into my cat, I've tried that and it ain't gonna happen again unless I have no choice...ie she has a hypo reaction/is sick and won't eat on her own and I have to get something into her. It will be a fight and I fear she may win but I will try if it's a life or death situation.

So as a good pet parent, I am having the "transitioning to canned food" manual translated into "cat" and making Menace sit down and read it. Apparently I am a bad parent because I didn't make Menace do her homework. :p You want a copy for Marshmallow?:D:woot::D
 
Stella & Chewy's Tum Ticklin' Turkey. My secret weapon - crumble a few pieces over the top of wet food. Sly won't eat every wet food (that prescription stuff is a big fat NO dagnabit fostermom!!), but he dove into watered down Chicken Wellness and eats Turkey and Chicken&Beef too now as long as there is a sprinkling of his nummies on top. It has become hard to find and pretty expensive, Amazon is over $25 for the 12oz bag and Chewy's quit carrying it last I looked. My local shop still special orders it for me because I have a few others in the house who need their special sprinkles.

I've heard a lot of problems about the Blue Buffalo dry food causing crystals in both male and female cats. I recommend people don't feed that to their cats. Feeding prescription DM would be better. I've never heard of Lotus, but brown rice and barley are very high on the list of ingredients so I think carbs are likely pretty high. Ordering from Chewy.com is pretty cheap and easy. Orders over $49 are free shipping, under that its a flat rate $5. I've ordered EVO cat and kitten from them before.
 
Thanks @Melanie and Smokey. I did the rough equation that MrWorfMen'sMom mentioned and Lotus, Blue Wilderness and Blue Buffalo Co. are all too high in carbs.

I'll see if I can find those turkey treats. Marshmallow normally likes freeze-dried chicken as a treat but won't eat it if it's on top of wet food. I'll give it a whirl though with the turkey treats. Thanks!
 
granadilla said:
I'll see if I can find those turkey treats. Marshmallow normally likes freeze-dried chicken as a treat but won't eat it if it's on top of wet food. I'll give it a whirl though with the turkey treats. Thanks!
Click to expand...

Stella's is actually a freeze dried complete cat food so you could re-hydrate and feed as a stand alone food if you wanted to. Too expensive with 8 cats for us! So we just crumble some of it over their other wet food. There are other flavors that are more readily available, for some reason Tum Ticklin' has just been the one that works for us every time where the others are hit and miss.
 
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