Ok, what do you all feed your kitties?

Karen&Rocket

Karen&Rocket

Active Member
I know about the sortable food chart, and I've seen Tanya's site where everything is sorted by phosphorus content -- but we were just diagnosed a few days ago, and I'm drowning in research! So, I thought I'd just ask what my fellow acro moms & dads here feed on a daily basis, to get an idea where to start. I know the FF pates are too high phosphorus, and that the sortable food chart hasn't been updated in a couple years. I'm also looking for something I can just pop over to Petco/Petsmart on occasion and buy a few sample cans. I'd hate to buy 24 cans of something on Chewy to find out Rocket doesn't like it.

I have a batch of FoodFurLife that we mixed in with cooked chicken, which was ok, but not a huge hit. Before we were diagnosed with acro, I was feeding FF pates, and finally YA Zero as a last ditch effort to get his numbers under control (when we thought he was "just" diabetic). And some Nutro Grain Free Perfect Portions - I contacted the manufacturer and they sent me carb content, but I have no idea about phosphorus. Too bad, because he LOVES those.

I hope this doesn't seem like a lazy question - believe me, I've done pretty much nothing but read everything I can on this disease since we found out. Just looking for some practical day-to-day advice. :)

Edit: I saw that JanetNJ feeds some Tiki After Dark; I think I've bought those before and he was kind of "meh" about them. Maybe time to give them another try.
 
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Colin was CKD as well as acro, so I tried to keep the phosphorus below 200. I fed him a lot of Whole Earth Duck and Pro Plan Focus Urinary Tract Health Turkey along with a few others. Tried Organix, but he didn’t care for it.
 
Sharon14 said:
Colin was CKD as well as acro, so I tried to keep the phosphorus below 200. I fed him a lot of Whole Earth Duck and Pro Plan Focus Urinary Tract Health Turkey along with a few others. Tried Organix, but he didn’t care for it.
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Thank you, that helps! :) Rocket used to eat mainly Pro Plan before this all started, so I'll look out for that one. I'm not familiar with the Whole Earth brand but I think I've seen it at PetCo.
 
Yes I got the Whole Earth at Petco. Like you I didn’t want to buy a case of something he wouldn’t eat. Once I found his favorites, I ordered from Chewy, but kept going to Petco and getting some other foods to give him some variety. Wellness Core Beef, Venison and Lamb was another one he liked, as well as Beyond Artic Char. For high carb food, I used Science Diet. Most all their foods are low phosphorus and high carb.
 
No more sugar cats here. Marco was prone to UTI and is impossible to pill. Almost two years now the whole bunch has been on Royal Canin SO, meant for urinary health but suitable as a daily food and Marco has never had a reoccurrence. I still have what seems like 1,000 cans of FF so that's their BigMac of the day.
Funny that you mention food sorted by phosphorus content. The hound came to us with failing kidneys and will be on Hills KD forever because of it's low phosphorus content.
Sorry, just realized what forum I'm in. I was cruising New Posts.
 
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Noah & me (GA) said:
No more sugar cats here. Marco was prone to UTI and is impossible to pill. Almost two years now the whole bunch has been on Royal Canin SO, meant for urinary health but suitable as a daily food and Marco has never had a reoccurrence. I still have what seems like 1,000 cans of FF so that's their BigMac of the day.
Funny that you mention food sorted by phosphorus content. The hound came to us with failing kidneys and will be on Hills KD forever because of it's low phosphorus content.
Sorry, just realized what forum I'm in. I was cruising New Posts.
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It's all good! I'm looking to keep Rocket's kidneys healthy, so I appreciate the info! :)
 
Neko ate mostly raw food. Some commercially made and some home made, first with TC Feline premix (special formula is low P) and then FoodFurLife. Alnutrin also makes a premix you can use with cooked if you don't want to do raw. Commercially made raw should be ones made with eggshells or other calcium sources that aren't ground bone, which is high phosphorus. For high carb she got some of the Weruva Cats in the Kitchen pouches. She didn't need really high carb, so the 16-17% carb ones were good enough.
 
Sharon14 said:
Yes I got the Whole Earth at Petco. Like you I didn’t want to buy a case of something he wouldn’t eat. Once I found his favorites, I ordered from Chewy, but kept going to Petco and getting some other foods to give him some variety. Wellness Core Beef, Venison and Lamb was another one he liked, as well as Beyond Artic Char. For high carb food, I used Science Diet. Most all their foods are low phosphorus and high carb.
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Thank you! :)
 
Wendy&Neko said:
Neko ate mostly raw food. Some commercially made and some home made, first with TC Feline premix (special formula is low P) and then FoodFurLife. Alnutrin also makes a premix you can use with cooked if you don't want to do raw. Commercially made raw should be ones made with eggshells or other calcium sources that aren't ground bone, which is high phosphorus. For high carb she got some of the Weruva Cats in the Kitchen pouches. She didn't need really high carb, so the 16-17% carb ones were good enough.
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This helps, thank you! :)
 
Sorry, I didn't monitor the forum as much. Leo, Little Dude, and Chinus all ate Fancy Feast classics. They all had their favorites. But I would say the Chicken was well liked. And the 2 seafood varieties too. Really, they seemed to like all of it.

Leo always liked cooked chicken too. Especially from Taco Cabana. I used to feed him pieces from the table. But if I put some in a bowl, it somehow magically went bad and he was not as interested.

Now just Little Dude and Chinus - and they like most of the FF varieties too. We supplement with some other foods such as Tiki for variety. LD seems to be a bit off this week with his appetite. We are hoping he perks back up.
 
You just posted 25 minutes ago. We are just people, not paid monitors on the forum. Wendy and I both just posted on your thread. There is no immediate fix for Acro. And Acro is not a death sentence.
 
Philly loves his smokey said:
Hell, ur getting replies about who feeds their cat what. I cant get a single kreply sitting here literally in tears about hearing my cat basically just got a death sentence???
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This really isn't fair to me, or anyone else on this forum. If you look at the timing on my post, I waited almost a full day before bumping the thread, only because I had noticed it had gotten a lot of views, but no one had posted any ideas. I wasn't upset at anyone, I was just trying to get folks to post whatever. And here's the important bit - I've done a lot of crying too. I just got the diagnosis last Friday. I have never ever cried as much as I did the day I found out my cat had Acromegaly. "Hell," I just burst into tears over dinner. So please treat everyone here with compassion; especially here in the acro/cushings/iaa forum. There is a TON of heartbreak here.

Edit: I just want to add - we understand your pain. Really. And I still would love to help you in any way I can.
 
Philly loves his smokey said:
I'm sorry if I seemed insensitive. I am just emo right now and read the post time wrong or something. I didnt mean anything mean towards you. I apologize..
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No need. I get it. And I'm sooooo incredibly sorry that this is happening to you too. I'm going to hop over to your other thread and post over there. This is a very sad thing happening to our kitties. We have to help each other. :)
 
Philly loves his smokey said:
I misread things, i thought the post was 5 mins old and mine was 25. Noob mistake!!!
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I
Keskat said:
No need. I get it. And I'm sooooo incredibly sorry that this is happening to you too. I'm going to hop over to your other thread and post over there. This is a very sad thing happening to our kitties. We have to help each other. :)
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Ya, I was pleasantly surprised when i found this website. Nice to know that were not alone in this!
 
The food info in this current thread is good too.

She's right about Acro - most of us including me, a grown man have shed tears over it. My world revolved around Leoberry. I would do it all over if given the chance.

The cruddy thing is that hardly any vets know about Acro. Even at CSU, where Leo had the radiation therapy, the vets were focused on the radiology, more than the Acro. They did a good job though.
 
JeffJ said:
Sorry, I didn't monitor the forum as much. Leo, Little Dude, and Chinus all ate Fancy Feast classics. They all had their favorites. But I would say the Chicken was well liked. And the 2 seafood varieties too. Really, they seemed to like all of it.

Leo always liked cooked chicken too. Especially from Taco Cabana. I used to feed him pieces from the table. But if I put some in a bowl, it somehow magically went bad and he was not as interested.

Now just Little Dude and Chinus - and they like most of the FF varieties too. We supplement with some other foods such as Tiki for variety. LD seems to be a bit off this week with his appetite. We are hoping he perks back up.
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Thanks, I missed this earlier. We often cook up some chicken just for Rocket as a treat. :) I hope Little Dude perks up too. Give him a lotta extra love (I’m sure you are).
 
Great question!
It took me a long time to find the right foods for Cricket because it turned out she either had IBS or some allergies.
She can't eat turkey or beef or pork or tuna (All found through elimination)

So I currently feed her Hound & Gatos, rotating chicken and duck. I add in a little lamb when she seems bored of the flavor, but just lamb is hard on her guts. When I have extra money, I give her rabbit (Its her favorite). I'm going to try out salmon soon,

I supplement that with Vital Essentials raw Duck or Rabbit as the frozen snack I leave her when I go to work and overnight (She likes it so much she eats it as soon as she finds it tho :cat:)
Also, she gets a tablespoon of Tiki Cat mousse chicken or salmon twice a day as a way to easily give her liquid meds.

Previously, I was feeding her Pure Vita canned chicken- which she did fine on but they only have chicken, beef and turkey.

I also tried feeding her Nulo, but she reacted badly to it... that may have been an issue with turkey though.

I used to giver her Tiki chicken or After Dark chicken, but it is super expensive and she doesn't love it enough.
And I give her Instinct freeze dried rabbit toppers for a post shot treat.

She also did well with Instinct canned food.

There's some other brands I am going to play with for a more affordable Rabbit.

A lot of folks her feed Fancy Feast, but I have to be extra careful with her gut issues.
 
Teresa & Cricket said:
Great question!
It took me a long time to find the right foods for Cricket because it turned out she either had IBS or some allergies.
She can't eat turkey or beef or pork or tuna (All found through elimination)

So I currently feed her Hound & Gatos, rotating chicken and duck. I add in a little lamb when she seems bored of the flavor, but just lamb is hard on her guts. When I have extra money, I give her rabbit (Its her favorite). I'm going to try out salmon soon,

I supplement that with Vital Essentials raw Duck or Rabbit as the frozen snack I leave her when I go to work and overnight (She likes it so much she eats it as soon as she finds it tho :cat:)
Also, she gets a tablespoon of Tiki Cat mousse chicken or salmon twice a day as a way to easily give her liquid meds.

Previously, I was feeding her Pure Vita canned chicken- which she did fine on but they only have chicken, beef and turkey.

I also tried feeding her Nulo, but she reacted badly to it... that may have been an issue with turkey though.

I used to giver her Tiki chicken or After Dark chicken, but it is super expensive and she doesn't love it enough.
And I give her Instinct freeze dried rabbit toppers for a post shot treat.

She also did well with Instinct canned food.

There's some other brands I am going to play with for a more affordable Rabbit.

A lot of folks her feed Fancy Feast, but I have to be extra careful with her gut issues.
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Thanks! This is very helpful. A few foods I haven't actually tried lol. It must be hard with Cricket's food allergies! Yeah Rocket isn't a huge fan of Tiki Cat either, which is too bad. It is expensive, but it's good diabetic food. Like I was saying, before Rocket's acro dx, we tried YA Zero dry food. Rocket loved it, but I want to keep him on wet food, or a mix of the two; preferably low phos. to help delay future kidney issues. But trying different foods has led to him having runny poo from time to time, unless that's just the diabetes and the acro. Or everything combined. :confused:
 
Diabetes or acro shouldn't cause runny poo. Changing foods quickly might do tho. Some kitties need slower food transitions than others. Have you ever tried raw food? Some manufacturers have sample packs so you can try a bit. Or if you eat meat, let him try some of yours. Raw is great for getting firm results. As usual, slow transitions may be best, though Neko took all of two days to switch over. Civvie took a couple weeks.
 
Wendy&Neko said:
Diabetes or acro shouldn't cause runny poo. Changing foods quickly might do tho. Some kitties need slower food transitions than others. Have you ever tried raw food? Some manufacturers have sample packs so you can try a bit. Or if you eat meat, let him try some of yours. Raw is great for getting firm results. As usual, slow transitions may be best, though Neko took all of two days to switch over. Civvie took a couple weeks.
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Thanks Wendy :) We've dabbled with raw, but haven't found one he really liked - well, except for Savage, which is suuuper expensive. We have a friend who gave us a couple of servings to try. Of course Rocket liked the rabbit the best, which is the most expensive of them all. :rolleyes: We tried the Primal nuggets for a while, but he'd just throw up the dry ones, and wouldn't eat them if we got them wet. He's been better the last couple of days; we've struck a balance between leaving some of the YA Zero food out, along with FF and Nutro Grain Free Perfect Portions pates (not on the food list, but I contacted the manufacturer and got an email back stating that they're between 1 & 3 percent, as fed anyway) which Rocket loves. I don't know the phosphorus on them though. We do give him a plain portion of chicken or beef as a snack when we cook at home, but we cook it for him (the chicken more than the beef). After his treatments (I'm about to create a new post about that in a moment) we might do something different.
 
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