I need feeding instructions

[Scratches123]

Scratches crashed last night. Her bs fell to 41. I eventually got it up into the 90s and I felt comfortable enough to finally fall asleep almost seven hours later. Long story short, I think I haven't been feeding her completely right and I need help. With this new insulin dosage, (two units to one twice a day) im going to go get her some fancy feast classics that everyone recommends. She's eating tiki cat now but I notice a whole lot of fish in it and it's a lot of water, not to mention too pricy for my budget. I will still be feeding her the tiki cat dry along with the fancy feast classics. I'm posting pictures of the nutrition facts/calorie content of both foods. She usually eats wet food three times daily. And dry food at shot times. Im trying to cut the kibble out. I obviously need some help trying to get her diet correct and I thought with the new dose of insulin this will be easier for me to do now. She went from 2 units twice a day to one unit twice a day. Like I said she gets fed three times a day wet food, and twice a day dry food at shot times, but doesn't usually finish her whole meals and grazes all day until it's gone or it gets dried out. She weighs 12 pounds.

 

[FurBabiesMama]

Are you using the dry food as a food topper or treat or something like that? Have you considered trying something like PureBites freeze dried chicken instead?

There are a lot of options for quality high protein, low carb wet foods. Phosphorous is another factor to consider if you have any kidney concerns. Moisture is not necessarily a bad thing. It is good for their kidneys. The database version of Dr. Pierson's food chart allows you to filter by your desired criteria. I have a link to it in my signature below. She says, "I usually like to start with protein minimum of 40, fat maximum of 50, carb max of 10, and for cats with kidney issues....phos less than 300". Notice she said 'start with', you can fine tune that even more. Lower than 10% carbs is usually best. I shoot for staying under 5%, but 'every cat is different'. Also, higher protein than the 40% minimum can help prevent muscle wasting.

Tiki Cat and Weruva are good brands, and they have several options that meet the criteria. My girls eat Weruva Chicken Frick A' Zee. A lot of people here feed their cats Fancy Feast and swear by it. I am personally not a fan of it. (For one thing, notice that if you filter the food list with the criteria Dr. P gave, none of the FF Classics are even on the list for meeting the criteria.) I understand that cost can limit your options even more, but I would suggest filtering the list by your desired criteria and seeing what options exist that might be less expensive than Tiki Cat or Weruva.

I feed my girls 4 times a day, and whatever is left remains out for them to graze on. They are fed at 6am and 6pm which are Mia's shot times. Initially, their other meals were at 12pm and 12am, but I have adjusted those times based on what seems to work best for Mia's blood sugar as well as their 'hunger cycle'. So, they are usually fed the other meals at 11:30am and 10pm.

Have you calculated the number of calories she needs in a day? A common formula is 20 calories per pound of health body weight. That can help you determine how much food to feed, then you can divide that up over the number of meals you want to feed.

 

[Scratches123]

Are you using the dry food as a food topper or treat or something like that? Have you considered trying something like PureBites freeze dried chicken instead?

There are a lot of options for quality high protein, low carb wet foods. Phosphorous is another factor to consider if you have any kidney concerns. Moisture is not necessarily a bad thing. It is good for their kidneys. The database version of Dr. Pierson's food chart allows you to filter by your desired criteria. I have a link to it in my signature below. She says, "I usually like to start with protein minimum of 40, fat maximum of 50, carb max of 10, and for cats with kidney issues....phos less than 300". Notice she said 'start with', you can fine tune that even more. Lower than 10% carbs is usually best. I shoot for staying under 5%, but 'every cat is different'. Also, higher protein than the 40% minimum can help prevent muscle wasting.

Tiki Cat and Weruva are good brands, and they have several options that meet the criteria. My girls eat Weruva Chicken Frick A' Zee. A lot of people here feed their cats Fancy Feast and swear by it. I am personally not a fan of it. (For one thing, notice that if you filter the food list with the criteria Dr. P gave, none of the FF Classics are even on the list for meeting the criteria.) I understand that cost can limit your options even more, but I would suggest filtering the list by your desired criteria and seeing what options exist that might be less expensive than Tiki Cat or Weruva.

I feed my girls 4 times a day, and whatever is left remains out for them to graze on. They are fed at 6am and 6pm which are Mia's shot times. Initially, their other meals were at 12pm and 12am, but I have adjusted those times based on what seems to work best for Mia's blood sugar as well as their 'hunger cycle'. So, they are usually fed the other meals at 11:30am and 10pm.

Have you calculated the number of calories she needs in a day? A common formula is 20 calories per pound of health body weight. That can help you determine how much food to feed, then you can divide that up over the number of meals you want to feed.

Thank you that is all good information. I think for now, I will go by weight and how many calories she should be given daily, and just do the math in how many cans to give her/how much kibble. I was advised to not stop the kibble immediately but to wean her off so it doesn't affect her sugar too bad.