High calorie, low carb foods?

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jmalasiuk

jmalasiuk

Member Since 2014
Hello, it's been a few years since I've posted. Tonka is still with us, still OTJ and doing well - diabetes-wise (thank you again to this wonderful group for your help in getting him to that point), and is the same affectionate trouble maker that he's always been. But my poor little old man is getting so skinny. His blood sugars are always decent when I check him (usually 5.0 to 5.5 on a human meter, so a touch higher than ideal, but really not much), so I think it's mainly age related muscle wasting.
Does anyone know of foods that are good for putting weight and muscle back onto diet-controlled diabetic seniors? Commercial or home-made suggestions are both welcome.
Or, given my not-unlimited budget, should I just feed him more of his usual food (PC Extra Meaty and Fancy Feast classic pates) and test him more often to make sure that more of the limited but present carbs in those don't cause him to start creeping up again?

Thanks for any ideas, and for being here for all the diabetic kitties and their people :)
 
Hi Jordi. Tonka is indeed a handsome boy. :) Muscle wasting isn't uncommon in senior cats, but sometimes other issues can be going on that cause weight loss, like kidney disease or hyperthyroidism. That aside, I would think it would be OK to just let him eat more of the food he already likes and enjoys. I make raw food for my crew and add a raw food completer (EZ Complete), but that can be costly and it's definitely more time consuming. However, my senior cats seem to have benefited from it. Is Tonka's appetite still hardy? If he's losing weight from not being interested in food, you can try different toppers (freeze dried chicken or shrimp, tiny pieces of tuna, bonito flakes, nutritional yeast, tuna water or chicken water, etc.) that might interest him or offer him a variety. And just keep an eye on his BG, the way you're doing now, just to be sure that high numbers aren't causing him to lose any weight. And congrats on keeping him in remission for so long!
 
I'm going to link Dr. Lisa's food chart. You may want to take a look at the carbs and calorie columns and see what's a fit.

I use EZ complete with a raw diet for my guys, as well. You can increase the calories by using something like ground lamb, providing your kitty likes it. Ground beef is probably higher in calories than ground chicken or turkey. The only downside is that right now, the company that makes EZ Complete (FoodFurLife) is backordered.
 
Thank you for those :) I should have mentioned, he did have a full blood screening this spring to rule out other causes: everything but kidney came back in the normal ranges, and his kidney disease is so early at this point that his vet didn't think it should be causing him to have any symptoms (but it's presence is reason for me to want to keep the phosphorous content of his food down, which isn't a help when I'm trying to increase his protein). He's still got a hefty appetite (he'd eat himself silly if I let him), but it's not high BG causing that. He's been been sure that he's been starving his entire life ;) I've considered trying to make him a raw food diet (Teeger loved raw, so we've done it before), but Tonka was never a fan - surprisingly, because he likes pretty well all food. Worth trying it again though. Any animal proteins that are better than others for the seniors?
 
Oh, perfect - thank you (sorry, I was responding to Daddy Jack's Mommy before I saw the other comments). Good to know. He gets mostly poultry canned foods, but I've wondered about trying him on red meat critters.
I was just going through Dr Lisa's chart yesterday (bless her for putting that together and for trying to keep it updated). It looked like Tiki Cat poultry pates might be my best best for high protein, high calorie, low carb, low'ish phosphorous, but it's hard to find here (ditto for most of the foods with those attributes), so if I can get him to eat raw, it sounds like that might be our best bet.
 
Catching kidney disease, so early on, gives you such a great advantage. Just feeding low phosphorus will make an enormous difference on how fast or how slow it progresses. I have a 16 year old who was diagnosed 2nd stage CKD 2 years ago. I immediately followed the low phosphorus rule, and today, she's not even stage 1. EZC is also good for that as well, because they use egg shell, not bones, so it's not high in phosphorus. I use a mix of chicken, beef and pork, and I have 4 seniors.
You could also check out Tanya's website for a very comprehensive list of canned foods and their nutritional info.
 
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