Need help with food

[Lauren & Red]

So I got rid of the dry food and switched my cats to wet LC only. I’ve been doing the fancy feast and Friskies classic pates. The problem is my non-diabetic cat has IBD.

The wet food I was feeding him was for sensitive digestion but ridiculously high in carbs (25%). I figured I shouldn’t be giving him something that unhealthy anyway. Plus, I never tried pates in the past.

Everything was fine at first and I thought both cats would be great on the new food. But for the past 4 days, my cat with IBD is throwing up constantly and having diarrhea again. This is how he was before switching to sensitive food.

There’s literally no way for me to keep them from eating each others food. I can’t monitor them all day. They are grazers and have been eating many times throughout the day for 10 years. I’m finding it impossible to get them to eat on a schedule.

Does anyone know of a low carb option that is also for sensitive digestion? All the ones that I know of are over 10%. I would prefer my diabetic cat not have anything over 6%.

Since I’m on the topic of food, can someone please tell me if certain friskies and fancy feast pate flavors are better than others? The fish ones seem to have the lowest carbs (but I feel like I remember reading somewhere that fish/seafood isn’t good—is that true?)
My diabetic cat loves the fancy feast seafood options (whitefish & tuna / salmon / cod, sole & shrimp) but I want to make sure those are ok.

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

I think all the pâtés are fine.
If your kitty has IBD, have you found out what is causing the problem? Often it is one type of food.
Have you thought about feeding a raw home made diet to both?
There are a couple of Facebook pages that might be able to help you..there is an IBD kitties fb page and a raw feeding for IBD kitties FB page. Try them.

 

[Librarianista]

The reason fish isn’t generally recommended is the same reason it’s recommended that people shouldn’t eat fish more than a few times a week: predator fish like tuna contain heavy metal minerals (e.g. mercury), or they are bottom feeders (can’t remember the species but most foods branded as “ocean whitefish” fall into this category. Basically you don’t know what that fish ate, and you or your cat are eating whatever they ate.

All that being said… I give my cat fish more than 3 times a week because the varieties I’ve found are low carb and low phosphorous, which will hopefully keep her kidneys from developing CKD, and it means she’ll eat (not always guaranteed). I tend to feel less bad about fish mixed with other proteins like chicken or turkey.

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

One of my kitties has IBD. I feed both of my cats a partial raw diet but the biggest switch with the IBD diagnosis was to novel proteins. My cats had been on an entirely poultry diet. With the IBD, I feed them a combination of pork, venison, rabbit, and lamb. This website on raw feeding for IBD cats has wonderful information, even if you don't want to switch to a raw diet (which would also be good for your FD cat). Their Facebook page is also excellent and very responsive to questions.

 

[Lauren & Red]

One of my kitties has IBD. I feed both of my cats a partial raw diet but the biggest switch with the IBD diagnosis was to novel proteins. My cats had been on an entirely poultry diet. With the IBD, I feed them a combination of pork, venison, rabbit, and lamb. This website on raw feeding for IBD cats has wonderful information, even if you don't want to switch to a raw diet (which would also be good for your FD cat). Their Facebook page is also excellent and very responsive to questions.

Thanks guys! The foods with novel proteins are all so high in carbs, aren’t they? I checked the food list for the ones I know of and they were all unacceptably high. What do you feed specifically?

What bothers me most about the raw food diet is I’m a vegetarian. I don’t like to eat anything that’s ever had a face. LOL. I love dairy, but I can’t eat animals or even fish. I have fish as pets.

I don’t even like feeding the foods I do to my cats, but I won’t deny them food they need because of how I feel about the issue. It’s the only exception I make (not without guilt though).

 

[Librarianista]

Thanks guys! The foods with novel proteins are all so high in carbs, aren’t they? I checked the food list for the ones I know of and they were all unacceptably high. What do you feed specifically?

What bothers me most about the raw food diet is I’m a vegetarian. I don’t like to eat anything that’s ever had a face. LOL. I love dairy, but I can’t eat animals or even fish. I have fish as pets.

I don’t even like feeding the foods I do to my cats, but I won’t deny them food they need because of how I feel about the issue. It’s the only exception I make (not without guilt though).

There may be some newer brands varieties when it comes to novel proteins. The food chart is excellent, but a couple of years old at this point. It might be worth posting a separate thread asking for suggestions for novel protein brands/varieties for diabetic cats. TikiCat was the first brand I've ever seen use pork. I have seen others mention rabbit, venison, even kangaroo.

 

[Jessica A]

Thanks guys! The foods with novel proteins are all so high in carbs, aren’t they? I checked the food list for the ones I know of and they were all unacceptably high. What do you feed specifically?

What bothers me most about the raw food diet is I’m a vegetarian. I don’t like to eat anything that’s ever had a face. LOL. I love dairy, but I can’t eat animals or even fish. I have fish as pets.

I don’t even like feeding the foods I do to my cats, but I won’t deny them food they need because of how I feel about the issue. It’s the only exception I make (not without guilt though).

Hi Lauren,

We have to feed Callie a novel protein/limited ingredient diet and just changed over to low carb when she was diagnosed with diabetes. We are currently only doing rabbit (wet and freeze-dried) and freeze-dried lamb because we are waiting on results from food sensitivity testing before branching out any more than that. (We are also using Limited Ingredient Zero Young Again dry w/ hydrolyzed pork for special treats but our goal is to move away from dry altogether.)

Specific wet food we found for Callie: RAWZ rabbit pate https://rawznaturalpetfood.com/product/96-rabbit-recipe/ and Koha rabbit https://kohapet.com/products/rabbit-au-jus-cat-food?variant=30327236329557 . Both were recommended to us by a pet nutritionist. There are definitely more LC options if you are able to feed additional novel proteins like venison, duck, etc.

Have you tried filtering the food chart by protein source (flavor/style in chart)? This is how I found a MC rabbit option. Just make sure to go to the food brand websites to check ingredients because sometimes foods will say they have one specific protein but actually have more than one. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...m6PPfEUz9YmzMGMxkmcBk6uRR0/edit#gid=113878384

I've also been a vegetarian for years (though now I do eat some fish) so I definitely get what you are saying about eating/feeding meat. But I also agree with you that we do what we have to do for our cats...

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

Look at the carb counts on ZiwiPeak. They have venison, lamb, and a lamb and rabbit combo. They also have an air dried raw variety that looks like jerky treats in the same flavors. I believe they are all low carb.