justnancy

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justNancy

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Newly diagnosed. Need help with dry food selection. My cat will only eat dry. I have had no luck changing her to wet. Can someone help me select a dry food as the tables seem confusing. Thanks
 
Hi Nancy, welcome to the best place you never wanted to be:)

Is your cat on insulin? If yes, it's important to be home testing before any diet changes are made.

Young Again and Evo Cat & Kitten are 2 low carb dry foods. Evo can be bought in specialty pet stores though hard to find, and Young Again can only be purchased online.
 
Newly diagnosed. Need help with dry food selection. My cat will only eat dry. I have had no luck changing her to wet. Can someone help me select a dry food as the tables seem confusing. Thanks

My cat is not on insulin. The vet is hoping to change diet and reverse the diabetes. She sold me Hills prescription wd but the carbs are 37 on Binky's and the vet said should be less than 7. I can only find wet food which my cat has refused to eat. Thanks for the info.
 
Hi Nancy, welcome to the best place you never wanted to be:)

Is your cat on insulin? If yes, it's important to be home testing before any diet changes are made.

Young Again and Evo Cat & Kitten are 2 low carb dry foods. Evo can be bought in specialty pet stores though hard to find, and Young Again can only be purchased online.[/. QUOTE]
My cat is not on insulin. The vet is hoping to turn her around with diet since there are no ketones in the urine and she believes we caught it early on. She sold me Hills Prescription WD. The vet said I needed to feed a food higher than 28% protein and less than 7% carb. Hills has 37%carb according to Binky's so I am confused.
 
You're right that the W/D is no good.....it's too high in carbs for a diabetic cat and if you look at the ingredients, one of them is "powdered cellulose"...that's a nice word for sawdust!

The only dry foods that are low carb are the Young Again and Evo Cat & Kitten, but I urge you to continue to try to get your cat onto canned. We know it can be a struggle, but it's well worth the effort!

Here's a great website on Feline Nutrition ....it includes some tips on transitioning the hard core kibble addict too!
 
My cat is not on insulin. The vet is hoping to change diet and reverse the diabetes. She sold me Hills prescription wd but the carbs are 37 on Binky's and the vet said should be less than 7. I can only find wet food which my cat has refused to eat. Thanks for the info.
Agreed, even the Rx diet dry foods are horrible.

Most cats are eventually persuadable to eat wet food, it takes some patience and time. Here are some tips from catinfo.org
 
You're right that the W/D is no good.....it's too high in carbs for a diabetic cat and if you look at the ingredients, one of them is "powdered cellulose"...that's a nice word for sawdust!

The only dry foods that are low carb are the Young Again and Evo Cat & Kitten, but I urge you to continue to try to get your cat onto canned. We know it can be a struggle, but it's well worth the effort!

Here's a great website on Feline Nutrition ....it includes some tips on transitioning the hard core kibble addict too!

Thanks for the info. Purina DM shows a carb of 13 and was recommended but I can't find it anywhere. I will try for the Young Again and Evo. Still trying to switch to canned but Georgie is not impressed. Will try to go to Feline Nutrition. Thanks
 
another option is freeze dried stella and chewys.... you do not have to add the water --you break it up with your hands ... many flavors (I use some of the dog flavors as mine get it for treats they love the dog beef) I do keep some of the cat chicken as it has all the things a cats needs nutritionally .
it is not cheap but it is a very good quality food and very low or maybe 0 carb- it is not as hard like dry food but it is not "wet" and like I said as far as the carb count you would be doing really good and if you do decide to use it you for sure need to test the glucose as I am sure it will drop if you go with stella and chewys. Young again is 0 net carbs and is dry 8# is about 50$-- some cats like it some do not--
I have never seen a dog or cat refuse stella and chewys.
 
Call Young Again and ask for a sample to make sure Georgie will eat it before you buy it.
They are very nice and will send you some to try.
We've been free feeding it along with low carb canned food ever since IttyBit was diagnosed (he's in remission now) and are very happy with it.
 
Hi justNancy,
Maybe if you tell us what problems you're having with transitioning, some of us can help. Most of us have been through a diet change at some point, and many of our kitties did not take to it easily! Does your cat attempt to eat the wet food at all, or just ignore it?

I had to initially put a some wet food down several feet away from some dry food to even get her near it. She wouldn't eat anything at all if the wet food was close. But I just kept moving them closer together, and putting the wet food down sooner to give her a chance to try it before adding the dry. Eventually she took a bite of wet, and hasn't touched dry since! She just needed to know what it was.

Others try different forms of wet food. Some cats like the pate, some like things more liquidy, others like things more chunky. Some like cold food, some room temperature, some prefer it heated in the microwave. Some people mix dry in with the wet at first, and then slowly reduce the ratio of dry until it's wet only. There are lots of flavors and brands to work with to try to find something agreeable to your kitty.

Don't give up yet! Let us know what you've tried and where you're struggling. I'm sure someone here has dealt with a similar situation.
 
Sometimes a shaping approach may be helpful to try. for example, if you lightly sprinkled a few drops of water on a few pieces, would she eat them?
If yes, after a few days of a few damp pieces, you might increase the number of damp pieces gradually, every few days and/or increase the degree of wetness.
It might or might not work.
 
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