? New kitty, need diet advice please

Hi all,

About three weeks ago, we unexpectedly took in our 12-yo cat, Fezzik, after a vet tech friend of ours called to say that someone had brought in a very sweet cat to be put to sleep rather than deal with the diabetes dx. The owners had received the diagnosis a couple of weeks prior, and thankfully they agreed to surrender him. So, we have a new cat!

Fezzik went through hell the first week he was at our place. Untreated diabetes + major trauma from losing his only home resulted in DKA, and he spent five days at the emergency vet. He's back now and doing much better, has started on Lantus and seems to be improving. We're getting ready to do our first glucose curve at home this week, and I also want to figure out a better diet for him.

He's currently on canned W/D because that was the only thing the e-vet could get him to eat. Now that he's out of crisis, we'd like to move him onto higher-protein, lower-carb foods. He needs to lose about two pounds, and we're going to move very slowly so we don't send him back near any sort of crisis.

I'm particularly interested in sustainable, certified-humane brands, but unfortunately both Open Farm and Tender&True seem to have very low protein %s based on the info they sent me. Open Farm's wet foods hover between 32-37%, for example, which is a real bummer.

My questions, if anyone can help:
- is it possible to supplement protein somehow, e.g., add something that bumps up his overall protein intake from 30-some% to 40% or more? Or does that create whole new problems since I'd be introducing another food source? We're also mostly vegan, so we would have to add either eggs or a commercial product since I have no idea how to cook meat!
- Does anyone feed Halo canned? Their "indoor cat" wet formulas look decent to me, but I can't find many reviews.

I'll pick up some appropriate Tiki After Dark and Weruva flavors today to see if he likes those, but I really would like to incorporate Halo or Open Farm if I can. Oh, and we're definitely no/low-fish for Fezzik, and no rabbit or pork (we have several house rabbits, and pigs are so intelligent — unless Fezzik becomes food-sensitive, those are off the table for us). Thanks much!

 

That's amazing! Ty for opening your hearts and home to this kitty! Diabetes is not a death sentence and they can live with it for many years.

I feed weruva. It's an excellent food. I don't know much about the other brands. My cat especially loves the weruva bff play foods.

 

https://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf

Halo is listed in it. You want to pick foods under 10 percent carb

 

http://fnae.org/carbcalorie.html

You can find food with higher Proteins but there is a difference of quality.

 

Thank you, friends! Looks like Halos are all below 30%, too. Does that mean it's a no-go?

 

WELCOME TO FDMB! Just the place for folks with BIG hearts!Theres a wealth of information here with dedicated people to help you help Fezzik!
I'm glad you found us and look forward to hearing about Fezzik's new journey.

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Again WELCOME to the best darn site helping you you to learn how to navigate this disease.