Eat

R

rada

Member Since 2026
Hi. My cat weighed 6 kg and dropped to 4.5 kg due to mouth inflammation. After the inflammation cleared up, he developed diabetes. Now, he isn't gaining weight. He eats only Fancy Feast. How should I feed him so he gains weight? How much pâté should I give him daily? Can I add other food—and if so, what kind—that won't spike his blood sugar but will help him gain weight? Thanks.
 
Welcome, was your cat prescribed insulin? what insulin? Diabetic cats need to have a diet of wet can or raw foods between 0-10% carbs, most members feed Fancy Feast Pates between 0-10% carbs, most feed up to 5%, a link for a carb food calculator below, you will use the nutrient of the food on the label, we are looking for Dry Matter carbs, food list link below, the third column contains the carb %, a diabetic cats should have at least 3-4 small meals or snacks during the day as well as the main meal before shot, also home testing is suggested, testing before each shot is important to avoid hypoglycemia and at least 3-4 times during the day, most members use the ReliOn human meter and strips (Walmart) or any human meter, no need to spend on a pet meter, they are expensive and the strips are very expensive, and the human meter is just as accurate, we base our numbers on them as well. A non-diabetic glucose level is between 50-120, once your cat begins insulin and feeding schedule, he should begin to gain weight, you can get an idea of a feeding schedule and what food I feed Corky, by clicking on Corky's Spreadsheet below in blue, and scrolling the SS to the left you will see when what I feed and how often, to get an idea, before diagnosed he was weighing 16.5 lbs., he is a very large cat, when diagnosed he was weighing 8.5lbs he quickly regain his true weight in about 2 months or so, Please keep posting, no concern is a small one, let us know what insulin you are using 🫶

Carb Calculator - Felinediabetes.com
 
CORKY said:
Welcome, was your cat prescribed insulin? what insulin? Diabetic cats need to have a diet of wet can or raw foods between 0-10% carbs, most members feed Fancy Feast Pates between 0-10% carbs, most feed up to 5%, a link for a carb food calculator below, you will use the nutrient of the food on the label, we are looking for Dry Matter carbs, food list link below, the third column contains the carb %, a diabetic cats should have at least 3-4 small meals or snacks during the day as well as the main meal before shot, also home testing is suggested, testing before each shot is important to avoid hypoglycemia and at least 3-4 times during the day, most members use the ReliOn human meter and strips (Walmart) or any human meter, no need to spend on a pet meter, they are expensive and the strips are very expensive, and the human meter is just as accurate, we base our numbers on them as well. A non-diabetic glucose level is between 50-120, once your cat begins insulin and feeding schedule, he should begin to gain weight, you can get an idea of a feeding schedule and what food I feed Corky, by clicking on Corky's Spreadsheet below in blue, and scrolling the SS to the left you will see when what I feed and how often, to get an idea, before diagnosed he was weighing 16.5 lbs., he is a very large cat, when diagnosed he was weighing 8.5lbs he quickly regain his true weight in about 2 months or so, Please keep posting, no concern is a small one, let us know what insulin you are using 🫶

Carb Calculator - Felinediabetes.com
Click to expand...
Hi . We using lantus insulin. 1 dose twise of the day.
Tuki, my cat, eating only fansy feast. We dont want dry diabetic because glucose
 
CORKY said:
Welcome, was your cat prescribed insulin? what insulin? Diabetic cats need to have a diet of wet can or raw foods between 0-10% carbs, most members feed Fancy Feast Pates between 0-10% carbs, most feed up to 5%, a link for a carb food calculator below, you will use the nutrient of the food on the label, we are looking for Dry Matter carbs, food list link below, the third column contains the carb %, a diabetic cats should have at least 3-4 small meals or snacks during the day as well as the main meal before shot, also home testing is suggested, testing before each shot is important to avoid hypoglycemia and at least 3-4 times during the day, most members use the ReliOn human meter and strips (Walmart) or any human meter, no need to spend on a pet meter, they are expensive and the strips are very expensive, and the human meter is just as accurate, we base our numbers on them as well. A non-diabetic glucose level is between 50-120, once your cat begins insulin and feeding schedule, he should begin to gain weight, you can get an idea of a feeding schedule and what food I feed Corky, by clicking on Corky's Spreadsheet below in blue, and scrolling the SS to the left you will see when what I feed and how often, to get an idea, before diagnosed he was weighing 16.5 lbs., he is a very large cat, when diagnosed he was weighing 8.5lbs he quickly regain his true weight in about 2 months or so, Please keep posting, no concern is a small one, let us know what insulin you are using 🫶

Carb Calculator - Felinediabetes.com
Click to expand...
I have a very difficult cat—suspicious and skittish. He lived on the street for 10 years and has been with us for the last three, strictly indoors. Administering injections is also very hard; it takes two people—one to hold him and the other to inject. He even associates mealtime with the shot and gets scared to eat. We monitor his blood sugar using urine test strips; I wouldn't be able to manage a blood test.
 
Tim & Pookey said:
Hi there and welcome.

This calculator is a good starting point for caloric intake. It takes into account the Body Condition Score (BCS) and calories per can. Fancy feast pate is roughly 90 calories per can.
Calorie Calculator - Felinediabetes.com

Where are you located? Here are a bunch of food charts for you to look at.
Links to FOOD CHARTS
Click to expand...
Hi . We using lantus insulin. 1 dose twise of the day.
Tuki, my cat, eating only fansy feast. We dont want dry diabetic because glucose
 
Which Fancy Feast varieties? The Gourmet / Classic pate ones are low carb and good for diabetics. There are a few other Fancy Feast lines that are also good. Have you seen the food charts?

Links to FOOD CHARTS
Cat Food As-Fed Chart
Glutenfree - Felinediabetes.com

Any food that has under 10% carbs is good. There are many other brands you can feed besides Fancy Feast. Whatever brand your cat likes and you can afford is fine.

What country do you live in?

Ask the vet about using a CGM to monitor blood glucose levels. It sticks onto your cat's shaved skin and is supposed to last for 2 weeks before it needs to be replaced. The readings can be automatically sent to an app on a spare phone you keep in the home or you can just scan the CGM with your phone as needed to download the readings. There's info here: Getting Started With Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGMs) for Diabetic Cats
 
squeem3 said:
Which Fancy Feast varieties? The Gourmet / Classic pate ones are low carb and good for diabetics. There are a few other Fancy Feast lines that are also good. Have you seen the food charts?

Links to FOOD CHARTS
Cat Food As-Fed Chart
Glutenfree - Felinediabetes.com

Any food that has under 10% carbs is good. There are many other brands you can feed besides Fancy Feast. Whatever brand your cat likes and you can afford is fine.

What country do you live in?

Ask the vet about using a CGM to monitor blood glucose levels. It sticks onto your cat's shaved skin and is supposed to last for 2 weeks before it needs to be replaced. The readings can be automatically sent to an app on a spare phone you keep in the home or you can just scan the CGM with your phone as needed to download the readings. There's info here: Getting Started With Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGMs) for Diabetic Cats
Click to expand...
Hi.
I live in Israel. We feed them three cans of Fancy Feast Classic pâté. The cgm for monitor , you recommend , is very expensive here—$170—and only for two weeks. Plus, there’s no way to know if my cat won’t just knock it down the very next day.
Thank you
 
rada said:
I have a very difficult cat—suspicious and skittish. He lived on the street for 10 years and has been with us for the last three, strictly indoors. Administering injections is also very hard; it takes two people—one to hold him and the other to inject. He even associates mealtime with the shot and gets scared to eat. We monitor his blood sugar using urine test strips; I wouldn't be able to manage a blood test.
Click to expand...
Many of our members including me, shoot while the cat has his face in the bowl caress his back while Toki is eating, pick up the fur, and VIOLA! he won't even notice, protocol is TEST-FEED-SHOOT. Testing glucose with urine is not optional, the glucose lever is tested with blood,

Hometesting Links and Tips

We would like you to create your signature and spreadsheet for Tuki, we are very numbers oriented, this way we can assist you better and we are all on the same page, asking you the same questions and we can assist you with dosing as well, if you need assistance creating the spreadsheet let us know and we will create it for you once the signature is created:bighug:


Sticky - New? How You Can Help Us Help You!
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-create-a-spreadsheet.241706/
 
CORKY said:
Many of our members including me, shoot while the cat has his face in the bowl caress his back while Toki is eating, pick up the fur, and VIOLA! he won't even notice, protocol is TEST-FEED-SHOOT. Testing glucose with urine is not optional, the glucose lever is tested with blood,

Hometesting Links and Tips

We would like you to create your signature and spreadsheet for Tuki, we are very numbers oriented, this way we can assist you better and we are all on the same page, asking you the same questions and we can assist you with dosing as well, if you need assistance creating the spreadsheet let us know and we will create it for you once the signature is created:bighug:


Sticky - New? How You Can Help Us Help You!
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-create-a-spreadsheet.241706/
Click to expand...
We tried giving it to him during mealtime, but we haven't succeeded.
 
CORKY said:
Many of our members including me, shoot while the cat has his face in the bowl caress his back while Toki is eating, pick up the fur, and VIOLA! he won't even notice, protocol is TEST-FEED-SHOOT. Testing glucose with urine is not optional, the glucose lever is tested with blood,

Hometesting Links and Tips

We would like you to create your signature and spreadsheet for Tuki, we are very numbers oriented, this way we can assist you better and we are all on the same page, asking you the same questions and we can assist you with dosing as well, if you need assistance creating the spreadsheet let us know and we will create it for you once the signature is created:bighug:


Sticky - New? How You Can Help Us Help You!
https://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/how-to-create-a-spreadsheet.241706/
Click to expand...
Thank you so much for wanting to help me. However, I can't really maintain a spreadsheet. We can't perform blood tests on him; we only manage to get urine samples, and even that isn't possible every day. We have a major problem: he is afraid to even eat around the time of his injection because he associates it with the shot and being restrained. It’s a struggle just to get him to eat... If we were to attempt a blood test on top of that, it would be a total disaster.
 
rada said:
Thank you so much for wanting to help me. However, I can't really maintain a spreadsheet. We can't perform blood tests on him; we only manage to get urine samples, and even that isn't possible every day. We have a major problem: he is afraid to even eat around the time of his injection because he associates it with the shot and being restrai
Click to expand...

rada said:
ned. It’s a struggle just to get him to eat... If we were to attempt a blood test on top of that, it would be a total disaster.
Click to expand...
It is a risk to give 1 unit of insulin before testing hypoglycemia is not pretty and it is painful, it can damage other organs, cats are magician at hiding illness, see link below
Sticky - How to treat HYPOS - THEY CAN KILL! Print this Out!!
 
Glucose levels are tested with blood, Ketones are tested with urine
 
Last edited:
No, glucose builds up in urine in between trips to the litter box. By the time you get a pee sample, the glucose level will be high. This is not helpful at all, especially if your cat is hypoglycemic and you need to know exactly how low the blood glucose level is.

There have been members from Israel in the past. You can search the forum to see if there is any helpful info in those threads that may be able to help you.
 
squeem3 said:
No, glucose builds up in urine in between trips to the litter box. By the time you get a pee sample, the glucose level will be high. This is not helpful at all, especially if your cat is hypoglycemic and you need to know exactly how low the blood glucose level is.

There have been members from Israel in the past. You can search the forum to see if there is any helpful info in those threads that may be able to help you.
Click to expand...
Hi. My cat suffered from hypoglycemia only when we gave him a dose of 2 units; the vet had initially told us to give 2. We immediately reduced it to 1. We check his urine at least 6 hours after the injection. If the result is high or low, isn't that a reliable indicator? Thanks.
 
Once again, it does not matter the dose, and waiting 6 hours later, especially not testing before shot, you are taking a major risk, even on 0.25 units if the cat does not need insulin because the glucose level is very low, the cat can become hypoglycemic, diabetic humans wouldn't give themself a shot of insulin, if they do not test first, the same objective is for cats you need to test the glucose level before each shot , I am sure that if your cats' vet has Diabetes, he will test his glucose level before giving himself a shot of insulin; cats system is unpredictable on insulin, you will not notice until it is too late, if your cats is having a hypoglycemic episode, you are risking organ damage if this were to happen and his life as well, the glucose level can change from 1 hour to the next after shot, a non-diabetic cats' glucose level is between 50-120 and the glucose level is tested with BLOOD NOT URINE ;)

please see Corky's Spreadsheet, below in blue to see how to test, I test often, you do not have to, testing before each shot and at lest 2-3 times during the day is sufficient, you want to know how the insulin is reacting in your cats' system during the day, especially after a dose increase or decrease
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top