new here!

Status
Not open for further replies.
T

tiggerandkalyn

New Member
Hello everyone,

I'm new here to the forums. My cat 13 year old cat Tigger was diagnosed with diabetes a year ago and it's been a bumpy road, but we're hanging in there. My main question is food. I've been feeding him different varieties of canned food, which he loves - so I'm thankful for that. I feed him grain free choices that are either turkey/chicken based or fish (tuna, salmon, etc.) I really like the price of the Friskies canned foods and I feed him the lower carb ones that I found on the binky list on this website. Does anyone here feed Friskies? I sometimes buy him Wellness and Evo, but he doesn't like Evo much and he inhales the Wellness and makes himself sick because he loves it so much. Friskies is kind of a middle ground. I'm just wondering if Friskies is really the best choice? Can anyone tell me what canned food brands and types they feed their sugar kitty? I'm dying for a little variety and I'm sure he is, too. Is any grain free canned food okay? Should I avoid beef flavors?

My other question is, I have 2 other cats who aren't diabetic. One is also 13 (named Socks) and wont go anywhere near canned food - I've got her on Evo dry food. The other is 5 months old (named Liam) and he's also eating the Evo dry and the occasional wet food. He loves the canned food and I don't mind feeding it to him, but he leaves nothing for my diabetic kitty. That's sort of my issue. I work 10 hour shifts and when I'm gone, I worry myself sick over whether or not he's got access to food or if Liam has eaten it. I didn't have to worry about this before I adopted him because I know Socks would sooner starve than go anywhere near wet food. Does anyone have any suggestions? Does Tigger need to have access to food at all times. I just worry about him going hypo. His numbers are all over the place. It's been a frustrating year of trying to find the right amount of what he needs and we're still working on it with my vet.

I would definitely appreciate any advice!
Thank you!
 
knowing what insulin you are giving and if you are testing will help with answering if food needs to be out all the time.catinfo.org has how to transition from dry to wet. this is info from a vet that visits the site. I am sure someone will be along to give the proper website to this
 
Thanks for the reply. Sorry I excluded this information. He is getting PZI insulin and right now he's receiving 1.5 units twice daily. We started at 1, which worked for a while, his numbers went back up, so we went up to 2, which was too much. He's doing alright at 1.5, but he spikes a lot throughout the day. Usually around +8, he is anywhere from 100-200, but he is around 300 around +1 and +12. He has yet to stabilize. My vet is considering another form of insulin, but she wants to try him at 1.5 for a few months. I should also mention that for the first 6 months of his diabetes, we attempted to lower numbers strictly by diet, which didn't work out.

Forget to mention, I do home test.

I'm not worried about feeding dry with my 13 year old female. She's very set in her ways (she was adopted when she was 10) and I've tried persistently for months to get her on wet food too. I'm not even concerned with it anymore. She's a super healthy cat at an ideal weight and I watch her like a hawk. I am fully aware that dry food isn't the ideal choice, but it's going to have to work. I make sure that my diabetic cat doesn't go anywhere near her dry food. She eats twice a day and she's supervised.
 
Excellent, thanks both of you. I will set up a spreadsheet this weekend. I can't test very often during the week due to the fact that I'm not home for 12 hours at a time. (My commute to work is an hour long each way)

He gets his shot the minute before I leave and 30 minutes after I get home, so it's never 12 hours exactly. It's the best I can do. I try to test him in the morning around +8, but that's about all I'm able to do during the week.

Lynn, do you mind me asking what you do feed your cat if not canned food?
 
Hi I am new here too, we just found out a week ago that our cat Rusty has diabetes and are trying to learn everything that we can. I can sympathize with the long work hours and the commute, sounds like my hours. There's nothing like being at work and worrying that something is going wrong with him while you cant get to him. I am hoping that your little kitty will improve quickly!
 
I have ten cats and only one is Diabetic. Out of my ten cats, I still have one hold out that still eats dry food. Katrina is twenty years old but is still the Queen of the house. I give her a small dish of grain free dry she guards with her life. If any of the other cats. try to go near her bowl, she begins hissing and howling at them. When I. tried to completely take the dry food away from her she stood in front of the cabinet where I store the cat food and howled at me. She even started batting at me and hissing when I was trying to eat my meals. She finally won when she started attacking the other cats in the house. Someone said cats can get addicted to dry food. With Katrina I believe it.

My cats get the lower carb flavors of nine lives, friskies and fancy feast, I will occasionally buy some of the store brands. Usually the ground and pate versions without gravy are lower in carbs. Some people freeze canned food so it will last longer during the day and not go bad.

For some reason my cats usually don't like the beef or liver flavors anyways. Some other members have also remarked that their cats have gotten sick eating Friskies mixed grill. My cats have been avoiding that flavor also recently so I think they did change the formula.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top