New cat mom, leaving town w my kids

[Erin5x78]

Hi everyone. Needing recommendations for food as I need to run out and leave food for cat sitter before leaving town.

Just found you last night. I am pretty sure my new adoptee, Bingo. 8yo male, has diabetes. He has all the signs. Vet is out to first week January and will see him then.

I feed him wet food twice a day, Weruva packets. He has access to water. I have been leaving dry food out all day. I adopted a kitten along with him.

Question: should I take the dry food away? And if so can I replace with another dry food? And what is best wet food?


Sorry! I need to run out and get food before I leave w my kids around noon to pick up their brother at airport and then we head to family through Saturday.

I trust my cat sitter. Just need to provide him with correct food to give my cats.

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

Dry food is generally quite high in carbohydrates. There are a limited number of dry foods that are low in carbs: Dr. Elsey's Clean Protein and Young Again Zero Carb are the two I'm most familiar with. The latter may be available only online.

We recommend a diet that is under 10% carbs. There are a lot of canned cat foods that are lower in carb. Many of the members here feed their cat a diet that is around 5%. Fancy Feast Classics (pate style) is one food that members use. This is a chart that contains nutrition information for most of the canned foods that are available in the US. The percent of carbs is listed.

The "best" food for your cat is the food your cat will eat. Some cats are notoriously picky. Fancy Feast is popular. There are other foods that are closer to human grade but are much more expensive (e.g., Tiki Cat). You can also buy or make a raw diet. That may be a longer discussion than for right now if you're preparing to head out of town.

Please make sure your cat sitter keeps a close eye on your kitty. One of the risks with an undiagnosed diabetic cat is diabetic ketoacidosis. If he notices an acetone (think nail polish remover) smell on your cat's breath or if your cat is increasingly lethargic, it may be an emergency vet visit. Another sign would be that your cat's not eating.

 

[squeem3]

If you feed canned food, such as the Fancy Feast Sienne suggested (the Gourmet / Classic pate only ones, not Gravy Lovers or other variety) have your sitter provide several canned meals daily if possible. If the sitter is only able to come once a day, leave a big bowl or two if canned food out. Or buy multi compartment programmable timed feeders and have the sitter fill it up each day.

Some of the Weruva foods are fine. See this chart for which varieties https://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf

Air dried raw and freeze dried raw are healthier options to any dry food. Chain pet stores typically don't sell these but an independent pet store would.