Pumpkin, carbs, and BG question

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Djamila

Djamila

Member Since 2015
Sam's been OTJ for just over a month. The last few days I've been noticing an increase in his appetite and acting like he's ravenous even though he's had all of his normal food. Sure enough, his number today was a little higher than I've seen in awhile. Still in the normal range, but it's inching up. (BG - 98)

I started giving him pumpkin because since going to the raw food, both of my cats have been a bit constipated. Pumpkin has natural sugars and I'm wondering if I'm either giving him too much, or if it's just more carbs than his little pancreas can handle. I know lots of kitties on here eat pumpkin though.

So I guess my question is really just how much pumpkin do y'all give your kitties per day? Or should I only give it to him a couple of times each week? He seriously loves it and I think he would eat the whole can if I let him, so I may have been just letting him have too much.
 
My cat had stomach issues so I gave her about 1.5 to 2 teaspoons every night. It didn't affect her BG. I know some cats on here get higher doses of pumpkin and do okay. I don't think pumpkin is supposed to raise BG. Could Sam have gotten into anything he shouldn't have?
 
Djamila said:
I started giving him pumpkin because since going to the raw food, both of my cats have been a bit constipated.
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Are you sure about the constipation? Raw fed cats have very small, dry poops because their bodies are able to use so much of the food and there's little "left over" to create stool

They're generally much lighter in color, much smaller and drier than poops in a cat that's fed canned or dry
 
Chris & China said:
Here's a video that graphically shows the difference in stools between a raw fed cat and cats fed cooked/dry diets
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That was pretty graphic!:eek: What were they feeding that second cat!?!?!?

Thank you so much though! I didn't realize that raw food is supposed to make such dry little poops. I do still wonder if my civie is having some issues though since he was only pooping every other day, and seemed to be straining. The video seemed to say they should still be pooping daily. Does that sound right? But that video showed that Sam was actually totally normal.

Also, I was letting him have much more than a couple of teaspoons of the pumpkin, so I think I'll cut that way down and see if his appetite and BG numbers come back down.

Where else can you talk openly about your cat's pooping habits? ;) You are all so great!
 
Djamila said:
That was pretty graphic!:eek: What were they feeding that second cat!?!?!?

Thank you so much though! I didn't realize that raw food is supposed to make such dry little poops. I do still wonder if my civie is having some issues though since he was only pooping every other day, and seemed to be straining. The video seemed to say they should still be pooping daily. Does that sound right? But that video showed that Sam was actually totally normal.

Also, I was letting him have much more than a couple of teaspoons of the pumpkin, so I think I'll cut that way down and see if his appetite and BG numbers come back down.

Where else can you talk openly about your cat's pooping habits? ;) You are all so great!
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If your civvie is straining, maybe he needs a little more pumpkin?
 
Yes, Atticus (civie) hasn't been getting much of it, because Sam's a bit of a bully around the pumpkin. I think I'll try giving him some in a closed room, and then reducing how much Sam is getting.
 
Also, ECID. The pumpkin may work well for Sam but not as well for your civvie. Some people use unflavored psyllium husk powder when pumpkin doesn't work. I didn't try that but I used 1/8 tsp of Miralax for Marshmallow and that worked like a charm. I used pumpkin when she had diarrhea but it didn't work as well when she had constipation so I used Miralax for that. The vet told me I could go up to 1/4 tsp of Miralax but the lower dose worked for her.
 
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