New Member - 20 May 2024 - challenges with food boredom (UK)

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Benny's chef

Member Since 2024
Hi all

Benny was diagnosed diabetic about 3 years ago and his diabetes has been managed quite well with a does of 2 units morning and evening.

Benny is a rescue cat so we're not entirely sure how old be his but the best estimate is that he is 10 this year.

When I first got him (2019) he was eating Whiskas, we had quite lengthy experimental transition to higher quality foods, but got stuck at about 40% meat content foods - he just wouldn't touch the higher ones - so I took that as a win.

When he was diagnosed the Vet Nurse was adamant I needed to order diabetic food for him and reeled off a list of foods, followed by "which do you want me to order?". Having no idea what any of these were like (neither did the nurse as far as I could tell) I went away to do my research, however on returning to see the Vet and start insulin treatment they said what he was eating was find and not to cause another upset.

So for the following years he's broadly been eating, 2 pouches per day selected from:
Webbox in jelly
IAMS delights Senior land and sea in gravy
Aldi Vitacat Senior Poultry Collection in jelly
Morrisons Adult Grain Free fish in jelly

And 25g twice per day of Purina Pro Plan Vet Diabetes Management dry food.

Over the past few months, hes become quite dismissive of, in rotation, most of these. He will still eat them all but his top priority has become eating what we're eating... Which has led to a bit of a naughty treat becoming far too frequent - roast chicken.

If you're familiar with the foods concerned you'll know that they are all broadly manufactured chunks and all with a reasonable meat content. I've been looking around for something suitable to insert into the rotation for a bit of interest for him, but also considering whether he'd now go for something higher quality, plus remembering he's now getting car-diarrhoea nearly every time, and found myself a bit confused and stuck in a loop - I wondered whether anyone had any ideas or suggestions!

Many thanks
 
I suspect what you've been feeding Benny is high in carbohydrates. We encourage members to feed a low carb (under 10%) diet. I'm guessing you're in the UK? If so, this is a list of low carb cat foods that are available in the UK. A bit of roast chicken is fine. Any protein is zero carb.
 
I was just looking at that list, and I think they look ok?

Webbox in jelly (9.3%)
IAMS delights Senior land and sea in gravy (2.5% not listed but working backwards from the box?)
Aldi Vitacat Senior Poultry Collection in jelly (6.3%)
Morrisons Adult Grain Free fish in jelly (6%)
 
If you can wean him off ProPlan, I think that'd be a good idea too. Not sure about Benny, but I've noticed how much it negatively affects Mister's BG. It's supposed to be a DM food, but is pumped with nasty additives. I hardly anymore feed Mister dry food, but when I do [mainly when he's constipated] I give him Carnilove hairball control Duck & Pheasant. That, and Chicken & Rabbit from their Carnilove Fresh line are the lowest in dry matter carbs [approx. 20-25%] and they don't have any nasty additives in their ingredients. The analyticals are listed on Carnilove's website - you can always use an online carb calculator to double check the values.

Even though ProPlan is advertised as diabetic kibbles, the moisture content isn't listed on the packaging, which I perceive to be a red flag. Furthermore, regardless of the dry that I'm feeding Mister supposedly having higher DMC% content than ProPlan, it does not seem to affect his BG. At all.
Now when he gets into the other cats' ProPlan bowl, that's a whole different story. [They only still get the Purina, because they wouldn't touch anything else. They're not diabetic. They're just hooked on it, like it's infused with cat crack or something.]

Edit: I'm feeding mine Sheba Fine Flakes in Jelly [they're in the midst of a changeover - the old line is 0% the new one is 2.1%], Lily's Kitchen smooth patés [the multipack from Amazon, where the highest DMC is the Turkey & Duck at 6.3%] and Lidl's Coshida mousse at 3.3% DMC.
 
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Interesting thoughts on ProPlan, when I first moved him onto it I perceived him getting more stability from it. We're in a food waste situation at the moment so I will start by reducing the portion size.

Interesting that Sheba gets a good write up, I'd always perceived 4% of the advertised meat (with unknown other meat content) with the chunks being of 40% of the product as a bit dubious?

Unfortunately he won't touch pates or mousses so those are out.
 
I'm going to be honest with you, my cats have been used to "junk protein" as one of the vets referred to Felix/Whiskas, and no matter how much I tried to encourage the change to a variety of high quality foods, they all rejected them, hence why we are stuck with the lesser of two evils, Sheba, and are focused on DMC% content over protein quality. Not great, but you gotta do, what you gotta do.

If you're specifically looking for novelty protein, I'd suggest you to try Animonda Carny, Smilla, Mac's and Wild Freedom. They all can be found on zooplus, although are not listed as diabetic foods, they're mostly grain- and additives free and also low in carb. My German friends-in-[DM]arms over on Diabetes-Katzen use those too, and focus on protein/overall food quality over carb content.
They come in tins, so you have the option to break them up into chunks. [Mister doesn't have many teeth left at this point, hence he prefers paté/mousse, which is also doable with these by diluting them with water and squishing them.]

Alternatively, Thrive seems to be well loved and recommended as well - good quality protein [or so I was told], low carb, and I believe they're flakes/shreds in a tin.
 
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