Questions about Aussie Cat Food and Diet Options

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MangoPie

MangoPie

Member Since 2024
Hey there! You might remember me from this thread here, Hugo is recovering well and is expected to be home Monday afternoon!

The vets have been closely monitoring his blood glucose levels and what we've found is that he will likely require a very low dose of insulin. He had a small hypoglycemic episode (which was promptly treated and fixed-- no issues now), but it's definitely clear that low blood sugar is going to be more of a concern compared to high blood sugar.

I have been doing some research into different cat foods available to me and what his diet might look like from now on. Prior to his DKA episode, he was on dry food and a portion of wet food at night. The wet food I have been feeding is Ziwi Peak which is thankfully already suitable for diabetic cats. I will be eliminating dry food from his diet entirely.

Because Ziwi Peak is quite expensive, I've been looking into other wet food brands that I could use in conjunction. The resources here have been really helpful! Unfortunately since I live in Australia, not all of the recommended options are available to me. I have been using this guide here to figure out what will work best. Initially I was going to go with Fancy Feast (I always thought of it as lower grade food, who knew it could be suitable for diabetic kitties?), unfortunately the classics are no longer sold in stores (perhaps I will consider just buying them online).

I have bought some of the gravy varieties of Fancy Feast so I have some tools against hypoglycemia.

I don't think anything on the list that is nutritionally complete is sold at general supermarkets anymore (Woolworths / Coles) which is a shame. Please let me know if anyone has found any foods sold at these stores which could be used for a diabetic cat's diet! For now, I'll be looking at the Petbarn ranges.

Some questions I had for now:

  • Hugo has a form of gingivostomatitis which means he will likely have ALL of his teeth removed in the future. Does anyone have any recommendations for cat treats considering this? I don't feel as if he would be able to eat some of the freeze-dried treats without teeth.
  • I like to use the tube creamy treats as his treat food, but I'm worried about how much these will impact his blood sugar levels. Would half of one of these now and then be a big concern? How much of a high-carb food does a cat need to have in order to drastically affect their blood glucose?
  • Because he is on a low dose of insulin and is more likely to be hypoglycemic as opposed to having high blood sugar (based on the trends I've seen with him so far), how much do I really need to worry about carb content in food? Would it be better to still feed some high carb foods in order to balance things out, or is low carb always recommended, even when on insulin?

Thank you all so much for your help thusfar. I will like to setup a spreadsheet for Hugo soon but I'm still working out all the intricate details. I do not yet know what my main means of testing his blood sugar will be yet (he is currently using the Libre 2 but this might change in the future), and I've yet to test/give insulin at home since he is still at the vet.
 
Looks like you've found our list of Aussie foods, I hope that helps.

I've seen cats without teeth eat dry food where I worked at the shelter. As long as you get small pieced treats, you could try them.

As for creamy treat, it might depend on the brand. Which ones would you like to give? The Churu are OK.

I would not feed high food to "balance him out". It's much easier to regulate a cat if you are giving low carb food. Now that he's diabetic, low carb is recommended unless you are trying to bring his numbers up from too low. Even if he were to go into remission, he would be a diet controlled diabetic and should always be on low carb.
 
Wendy&Neko said:
Looks like you've found our list of Aussie foods, I hope that helps.

I've seen cats without teeth eat dry food where I worked at the shelter. As long as you get small pieced treats, you could try them.

As for creamy treat, it might depend on the brand. Which ones would you like to give? The Churu are OK.

I would not feed high food to "balance him out". It's much easier to regulate a cat if you are giving low carb food. Now that he's diabetic, low carb is recommended unless you are trying to bring his numbers up from too low. Even if he were to go into remission, he would be a diet controlled diabetic and should always be on low carb.
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Thank you for the advice! I'm sure he could eat some dry food if they are in small enough pieces, the vets have assured me that they can usually just swallow small pieces-- might just be a matter of finding treats that are small enough as the dry food ones I've found tend to be quite large.

The liquid treats he likes the best are the Dine Creamy Treats, but he'll eat any variety of liquid treats to be honest, he is not a fussy cat. I don't believe we have the Churu brand here-- we have a Tiki Cat brand of liquid treat which might be a little better but I'm not sure what the full breakdowns would be for them.

Makes sense about the low-carb food! Hypoglycemia sounds really scary and I didn't want to do anything that would accidentally throw him into the lower ranges. I'll make sure to only feed higher carb food in the instance that his BG level gets too low :)
 
Freeze dried treats can be rehydrated in water for a softer texture. It might take a few minutes in warm water. Small pieces reyhdrate faster than large pieces. Or feed plain cooked chicken or other meat. Poached chicken is popular with most cats.
 
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