Looking For A Gluten Free/Low Carb Dry Food

[nettles4349]

Several months ago I found out that my cat, Oliver, is not only diabetic but also intolerant to gluten. Since then I've stopped feeding him regular dry food and instead have been making a kibble for him; unfortunately this kibble is not only a pain to make but when I figured out how much all the ingredients cost I realized that it would probably cost about as much to just buy dry food. I've been looking online for a dry food that is for diabetic cats, but I've had problems finding any that doesn't contain gluten (in the form of wheat gluten or corn).

Does anyone out there know of a good, low carb, gluten free dry cat food for diabetic cats that is reasonably priced (under $20-$25 for a 5lb or more bag)?

Please let me know if any of you have an idea of what to get and what website(s) sell it. Thank you!

 

[Elizabeth and Bertie]

Hello, and welcome to FDMB! :smile:

Would you be willing to try to switch Oliver to wet low carb food? The reason I say this is that dry foods, even most of the 'low carb' ones are still higher in carbs than most wet foods; and it can be very much easier to get a cat regulated - or even into remission (diet-controlled diabetes) - on a low carb wet diet. Dry food can also cause problems simply by the fact of it's being, well, 'dry'! Cats can have a low thirst drive and don't always drink enough to compensate for the lack of water in dry food.

However, if you do decide to switch Oliver's diet to wet food it is vitally important that you are testing his blood glucose at home. Dry food can raise blood glucose levels significantly in some cats. Therefore removing dry food can lower blood glucose levels. This means that an insulin dose that is OK when a cat is on dry food could be way too high when the dry food is removed. This could put the cat at greatly increased risk of hypoglycaemia (dangerously low blood glucose) if the insulin dose is not lowered as needed. Hence the importance of being able to monitor your cat's blood glucose during the transition.

If you're willing to learn to hometest we can help you. Hometesting isn't that hard to learn and has many benefits: It will help you to keep your cat safe from hypoglycaemia; it will help you to understand how the insulin is working in your cat's body; it will give you a sense of control over the situation like nothing else can; and it can save you a lot of money in vet's bills because you can do any 'curves' at home.

If it's not possible to transition your cat to wet food then I think a brand of dry that some folks use is 'Young Again zero carb'. You can read a bit about it in this thread:
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=93644&p=1004793&hilit=zero+carb#p1004793

Edited to add: (Duh! Haven't had enough coffee yet this morning... )
Even switching from a higher carb dry food to a lower carb dry food could reduce Oliver's blood glucose levels, so it would still be important to monitor his blood glucose levels while doing this...

What insulin is Oliver on? And what dose?

Eliz

 

[nettles4349]

First of all, thank you so much for your quick response, Eliz. Regarding his diet, once we figured out that Ollie had diabetes we immediately took him off of the dry food and have only been feeding him wet food and the low-carb, gluten free homemade kibble I mentioned, and it has seemed to work; he's not drinking massive amounts of water and urinating over a dozen times a day, and his hind legs have seemed to get better - they're not 100%, but when we found him he was a stray that was staying on the porch of an empty house that was being renovated a couple doors down, so I'm guessing the poor diet he had before we adopted him and realized that he diabetic did some permanent damage.

Unfortunately money is very tight right now and we have not been able to bring him to the vet to get a proper check up since taking him in 7 or 8 months ago. We had planned on bringing him in, but when he responded so well to the change in diet other financial obligations had to take priority.

The reason I'd like to get a dry food for him is because he's hungry all of the time, despite how much we feed him (and we do feed him often and amply), and it would be nice to have some kind of food we could leave out for him to eat at his leisure so that he doesn't try to knock over the trash can. The kibble I make for him is a good snack to give him between his meals of wet food but doesn't last so well if left out of the refrigerator and, as I mentioned before, is rather costly and quite a chore to make.

P.S. Is his constant hunger anything to be worried about? Since he was already an adult (I'm guessing at least 5 or 6 years old) when I found him we were never able to train him and he can be very ill mannered, especially with food (knocking over the trash, trying to steal it off plates or even out of our mouths while we're eating if he can - no joke), so I've always chalked up his appetite to a gluttonous mindset, but could it be something else?

-John

 

[BJM]

He is hungry because he is unregulated or he has an additional condition like hyperthyroidism.

You may add a tablespoon or two of water to his food to give it more volume and help replace what he urinates out.

Spreading his meals out across the day will help to keep him from being too hungry.

You might freeze some and put out both the fresh and frozen. He'll nibble the frozen as it thaws.

Its ok to feed him about 50% more but feeding too much more just raises his glucose without benefit to him.

Is he on insulin? His dose and/or timing may need adjustment.

 

[KPassa]

I wanted to mention one teensy problem with your request for an inexpensive, gluten-free, low carb dry food. There are only 3 dry foods out there that have low enough carbs to be considered appropriate for any cat, much less a diabetic one: Innova Evo Cat & Kitten, Wellness Core, and Young Again 0 Carb. All three of those are not cheap.

I also wanted to point you to this thread about feeding kitties as much as they want and how to go about doing it with canned food to see if it might give you some more ideas. ;-)