Feeding of a diabetic cat in a multi-cat household

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mr_fergus_cat

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Hello!

I'm new to this site and my lovely young cat Fergus was diagnosed recently with diabetes and chronic pancreatatitis. This has probably been caused by steroid treatments for a skin condition. After a few long visits to the vet hospital and around £5000 later, we have him stabilised and he seems to be doing ok! The vet has recommended that he eats m/d dry food by Hills as it is high in protein and we need to manage his weight to get his diabetes under control. I also have two other non-diabetic cats and wondered whether it would be appropriate to let my other cats eat this as well (they're both older cats, around 8-9 years of age). It is very difficult to feed them separately and Fergus will always try to eat what the other two have and vice versa. Obviously though I don't want to harm my other cats if the m/d isn't right for them. Set feeding times is difficult as my older cats tend to just graze all day, and I'm out of the house for nearly 12 hours when I'm working, so would prefer to leave a little dry food down.

Can anyone advise me what would be best to do?

Thanks,
Jo
 
Hi and welcome to FDMB.

It is easy to feed a diabetic cat in a multicat household. They can all eat the same food. However, you do not need to feed your cat prescription food. Also dry food is not recommended since it is high in carbs. Many of us feed our cats either Fancy Feast or Friskies. If you look under our Health Link page http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewforum.php?f=14, you will see links for nutrition. An excellant resource is Janet & Binky's food list. Look for canned foods that are less than 10 in the carbs column and have a higher number in the protein column.

You can also change your grazer's schedules to feeding twice a day. Most of us that are not home during the day feed our cats on that schedule.

Can you tell us more about your cat? What insulin is he on and what dose? Do you test his glucose at home?
 
Dr. Lisa Peterson's site (http://www.cat info.org) is a great resource. She explains why wet food is best for every cat, but especially diabetics.

Lots of us freeze the wet food and use automatic feeders to help with confirmed grazers.
 
I'm in the same situation - 1 diabetic and the rest (so far) normal ... and I have 11 cats total.

I switched everyone to canned food in the 10% or less carbs level and put down food twice a day
Binky's Page, Canned Foods They don't eat it all at once so its out for a while, but no one is having a problem with that. Yes, there may be a bit of waste until you nail down portion sizes.

If you are concerned about spoilage, divide up the amount onto 2 plates and freeze one. Put down both plates at the 12 hour point, after testing. The frozen will thaw and when it is, it will be eaten.
 
I have 5 cats - two diabetics (adopted after my first diabetic cat died)

They all eat the same low carb canned food - Wellness brand

In the morning, i put out enough to last all day - approx 15 hours
at bedtime, I add another 12 oz to the various bowls, so they will have food all night (to allow me to sleep in peace).

There is usually a little bit left in the morning.
 
Once my Ginger was diagnosed, I switched all 3 cats to low carb canned food.
Of course the diabetic one was the only one that didnt really like the canned, so I also gave her some
EVO Cat and Kitten low carb dry food, after trying to get her to eat the canned.

Giving the other cats low carb food might help them not get diabetes.
 
Just chiming in here ... a "diabetes" diet is actually a species appropriate diet for a cat - protein, fat and moisture. No grains or veggies and very low carb. Like eating a mouse or a bird. All cats should eat low carb canned or raw food.

Check the ingredient list on the bag of your m/d:

Chicken By-Product Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Pork Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), Pork Protein Isolate, Powdered Cellulose, Brewers Rice, Whole Grain Corn, Dried Egg Product, Chicken Liver Flavor, L-Lysine, Calcium Sulfate, Potassium Chloride, Choline Chloride, Vitamin E Supplement, vitamins (L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Folic Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement), Taurine, DL-Methionine, Iodized Salt, minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite), L-Carnitine, preserved with Mixed Tocopherols and Citric Acid, Phosphoric Acid, Beta Carotene, Rosemary Extract.
Click to expand...

Remember that cats are obligate carnivores and need only fat and protein. Their bodies can barely digest carbohydrates. Where's the real meat?

This may be the most important reason of all to switch to canned or raw food: a cat's most vulnerable organ is their kidneys - kidney failure is the leading cause of death (by disease) in cats. Moisture intake is VITAL for good kidney health. And for diabetics, this becomes crucial! Dry food is... well... dry. And cats have very low thirst drives, so never get enough water by drinking. The moisture has to be in their food. A cat at a water bowl is already dehydrated.

So, for the health of your little Fergus - and the prevention of this for the other kitties - we really do suggest going to a canned food.

We can supply vet-written articles, etc., for your vet if you meet with resistance. It's a slow process, but many vets are coming to realize how terrible dry food is for our cats. Most vets are not taught nutrition in their training, so they repeat what they learn from the pet food salesmen. Obviously pet food companies have a vested interest in selling their product.

My own vet (after my nagging uh, urging) has been doing her own research and has stopped routinely prescribing dry food. So much is just common sense... once you realize what's going on!

Best of luck!
 
Also chiming in to give my two cents worth. I have 11 cats here and everyone eats the exact same low carb/high protien diet. We made the switch after my first cat was dxed with Diabetes, now while Muse has passed away, we never went back to the dry food, even before we adopted Max as a diabetic. One of the reason we never looked back after the switch to low carb canned food is because of what we started seeing in the other 10 civies. Their coats were the most remarkable changed.

My blue-point siamese mix Bert was the most changed, before the diet switch his coat was always fairly course and I had just thought that was the way his adult fur was going to be. However, after several months of feeding a good low carb canned diet, Bert started to shed like crazy and the fur that was coming in was so soft and silky. Not only has the texture of his fur changed, all the cats coloring and markings have darkened and become much richer in color. Their eyes are brighter and their energy levels are way up, even my couple of senior cats are running around like kittens again. I have several friends that hadn't seen the cats for awhile all remark on how beautiful they had become.

And our two 6 month old kittens that have never known a single piece of dry kibble in their lives are some of the shiniest kittens I have ever seen. They are both tuxes and the black parts of their coats give off a rainbow of colors when they are sitting in the sun. They are absolutely beautiful. I'm only sorry that I spend so much time and with so many cats feeding them dry food. Had I known back then what I know now I would have never fed anything but canned food. Especially since this new diet got the added bonus of my new sugarcat Max is also OTJ because of it.

At first I was worried that since we feed so many that feeding everyone a complete wet diet would be cost prohibitive, but in truth what I am finding is that it is actually costing us way less. We feed 9-lives that at Walmart I can get 12 (5.5oz) cans for about $5 so that figures out to $35/week now my cats always got wet in the mornings and evenings but had dry to nibble on all day. When we were feeding both it was running us about $45 a week to keep everyone in food, so we have actually saved about $10 a week, and we have healthier cats to boot. Ever my one cat with severe food allergies and was being medicated daily with prednisone to keep them under control soon had all his allegies cleared up in about 2 weeks of the food switch. Now my cats only see the vet's for routine stuff like shots and yearly physicals. Even the vets have remarked on how lovely my cats have become, and are now fully behind my decision to change their diets to all wet. (we had a dispute in the beginning, but you can't argue with results).

Mel
 
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