What Food Is Safe?

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RUSTY'SMOMNC

Member Since 2014
As a newbie here and with a newbie diabetic kitty, I have been driving myself nuts trying to figure out the best food with the lower carbs. I've read reviews at petfoodtalk.com and most reviews seem to bash the FF and Friskies (the ones I purchased). Honestly, that site makes me question most of the foods I thought were ok. I have Dr. Pierson's list and FF and Friskies are listed. Has anyone had problems with their kitties getting sick from these brands? I use FF for my outdoor kitty and never noticed a problem with her. Also, I'm transitioning my other 2 plump non-diabetic kitties to wet food. I want a good low carb food for all that I can afford on a regular basis. I'm trying to figure out what brand and how much to feed all. One 5.5 oz can or two 3 oz cans/cat seems like not enough since they all act like they are starving. Am I being played by my cats?? angry(2)_cat I'm going crazy trying to calculate calories for their weights per day. I do not want to feed too little and deal with other health issues that can crop up with that.
 
Mine are feed Friskies canned foods. For diabetics you want to try to feed mainly pate flavors. Any flavor with gravy is going to be high in carbs.

If your kitty's glucose is not regulated, then you will need to feed more. Right now, your kitty's body is not processing food correctly and will be hungrier than usual. You may need to feed extra food.

For my civies, they get 1/2 of a 5 oz can twice a day.
 
I use Purina DM wet. Also have the dry DM for a treat after injection and sometimes for testing.

Both get 1/2 of 5.5 oz. can twice a day 6 AM and 6 PM. Nothing in between..Except for the above.

Purina DM may be more expensive than the store brands, but I have not thought about anything different since DX.

Am I wrong?

It is not that "Price is No Object", but in the case of my kitties, I will go without before they will!

Are there better foods than the Purina DM, that I might want to look at?

Thank you.
 
Hi Rusty's Mom!

Welcome to FDMB. I wish I had some easy answers for you; the food issue is one I've struggled with, too. We started out on Wellness Core, which is supposed to be one of the "better" foods. For a while, the cats ate it. (I have six cats.) Then they decided they weren't crazy about it, which wasn't a bad thing since it's soooo expensive. We then switched to Fancy Feast pates. I don't like that it has byproducts in it, but at least it's low-carb. It still ended up being really expensive, though, so I tried Friskies Special Diet next. They kind of liked it, but then we got a bad batch, perhaps, that they just didn't want to eat. So now we're back to mostly Fancy Feast with the occasional can of Friskies Special Diet turkey & giblets. We've been on the Fancy Feast since around February and Friskies since around June. So far, none of them have been sick. It's just so hard to find a quality, low-carb canned food that's economically feasible.

I'm going to be following your post closely - I'm struggling with how much to feed, too. When we first started out, Jersey (our diabetic kitty) was ravenous, so I fed her a lot. (Unregulated diabetic cats often need more calories since their bodies can't properly use the energy in the food.) That meant that the other cats were also eating right alongside her. Now we're struggling to get weight off of one of them. ohmygod_smile

I'm not sure what your current feeding schedule is, but you might try several small meals a day. Smaller meals are easier for the pancreas to process, and it might also help you from being played by your cats! ;-)

Shelly
 
Budster: there's no reason to use the Purina DM. From a quick look, it's 8.26% carbs, which is on the high side for "low carb."
If you want to keep using it, that is fine, but there are many other varieties that are lower in carbs. I'm not sure about phosphorous content.

It's also better for diabetic cats to get several small meals throughout the day. Mine eats about six times a day, I would reckon. More frequent meals are much better for the pancreas.

This list is cool and fun to look at. . :-D . It lists plenty of fancy expensive foods. Not the DM though, unfortunately.

http://catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf
 
We rotate between Wellness Chicken grain free, Turkey Grain free, and Fancy feast pate's. I have 6 cats so I coupon shop a lot! Two and my diabetic get raw as well, which we buy from Feline's Pride. If you are concerned about quality canned food, you could try making your own raw food. I know there's a few owners here that make their own food.
 
Thanks to all for the input. This is totally new ground for us. I will continue with the FF and Friskies since all seem to like it now and no one here has had a problem with those. I will also start feeding Rusty more that twice a day. Perhaps he will stop inhaling his food then! Our vet had told us to feed twice daily but that doesn't seem to be working for his hunger. My other two "fluffy" kitties will just have to watch him eat from another room. They certainly don't need extra food. Think I'll also purchase some Sheba to join the rotation and see if all like that as well.
 
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