New diabetic-food choice

Hello! My Echo was just diagnosed as diabetic and I'm unsure of what to do about her food. My vet recommended a high fiber diet such as Hills w/d or a Royal Canin equivalent. But from what I read here most feed their cats a wet food diet. Echo is overweight at 12 lbs so she needs something to slim her down a bit. Also, I am unsure of how to go about feeding her throughout the day. Currently I have a timed dry food feeder but both of my cats know how to get the food out of it if they want to and if there is none in the dish when they want it they just sit and meow at me until I put some in there, so basically they are free fed. I see some use a different type of timed feeder with wet food, however that won't work for me when I'm not home as I have two dogs that will most definitely eat any wet food they smell if I'm not around to stop them. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks all!

 

Several small meals of wet food is usually the best plan for diabetics. Many of us use Fancy Feast classic pates. at the top of this forum is a post from Dr Lisa Pierson that lists the types of food an their nutrient contents. You may also want to read the section on feline nutrition on her web page. Is there any way to separate the dogs when you are not home so that you could leave a timed feeder with wet food for the diabetic kitty?

 

Put the feeder up high enough to keep the dogs out?

 

Definitely check out Dr. Lisa's PDF of food values. I just changed both my cats (one diabetic one had a urinary issue, both only 10) and have found the following foods to be super high in protein while being very low in carbohydrate according to the food chart.

Fussie Cat super premium chicken with liver in pumpkin soup
BFF Tuna and Bonita (all the BFF's seem good)
Nature's recipe grain free chicken in broth

Both cats love all of these but yes they are a little expensive but worthwhile if we can control the diabetes and no more urinary problems. ($1500 last month was rough). I add extra water to the food and mix in and they drink it all up.

I'm having a hard time with one cat getting used to not having free access to food all day long but they get used to it. One can AM, one PM and one late night seems to do the trick. Good luck.

 

Forget the "prescription" diets....not only are they high carb (not good for a diabetic!!) but they have lousy ingredients.

Most of us here feed Fancy Feast classics, Friskies pate's or 9-Lives ground....they are low carb and fine for diabetics....and a lot cheaper too!!

If you look at the ingredients in those "prescription" foods and compare them to foods you can buy at your local store, you'll see there's nothing special in them....and in a lot of cases, the ingredients are even worse!

Both my civvies were overweight....When China was diagnosed and switched to low carb canned, they were too....and the both lost weight!!

 

Check out Dr. Lisa's list and look for food with 10% or less carbs and as high protein as possible ( assuming your kitty doesn't have any other issue ) if he's not too much overweight the change of diet to a high protein low carb one will help him lose some weight naturally, like Chris when I changed all my cats to this type of food obviously when Babu was diagnosed they lose some weight too.

There are some feeders that work with the microchip or a tag and will only open for one specific cat you could try one of those

 

Oh I did just see an ad for those types of feeders. That is actually a good idea, thanks!

 

Ok I just hate to go against my vet since obviously I don't know much about all of this. When asked about the prescription diet or other food options, she responded with the following, "I typically recommend a low carb high fiber prescription diet (like the w/d). These diets are intended to help with weight management and will make it easier for us to regulate Echo. Helps with glycemic control (so she’s not fluctuating her sugar)" I just don't want to do something wrong and cause any problems for my girl.

 

There's a great website that was written by a vet that has a keen interest in Feline Nutrition called
"Feeding your cat--Know the basics of feline nutrition" that has a lot of great information on what cats should eat.

Specifically, I'd start with the page on Diabetes

W/D is 25% carbs (that's for the canned)....the dry is even higher. Just like human diabetics need to restrict the carbs, so do our sugarcats. They need food that's less than 10% carbs.

Look at the Ingredients....the first ingredient is water....you can get that a lot cheaper in any other canned food .....then they have an ingredient they called "powdered cellulose"....that's a fancy word for sawdust!!!! There's absolutely nothing in it that's any better than foods you can get at your local store!

Water, Pork Liver, Pork By-Products, Powdered Cellulose, Chicken, Corn Starch, Soybean Oil, Guar Gum, Locust Bean Gum, Calcium Carbonate, Calcium Sulfate, Choline Chloride, Potassium Chloride, DL-Methionine, Chicken Liver Flavor, Carrageenan, minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Manganese Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Calcium Iodate), Taurine, vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, Ascorbic Acid (source of Vitamin C), Niacin Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement, Biotin, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid), Sodium Tripolyphosphate, L-Carnitine, Beta-Carotene.

Compare that to a can of Fancy Feast Liver and Chicken...the first ingredient is a protein!! Cats are obligate carnivores....they only process protein.

Liver, Meat Broth, Meat By-Products, Chicken, Artificial and Natural Flavors, Tricalcium Phosphate, Guar Gum, Potassium Chloride, Salt, Magnesium Sulfate, Taurine, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin E Supplement, Zinc Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, Niacin, Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin A Supplement, Copper Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (Source of Vitamin K Activity), Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin Supplement, Vitamin B-12 Supplement, Biotin, Folic Acid, Vitamin D-3 Supplement, Potassium Iodide

The sad truth is that vets get little or no education on nutrition when they're in school....and once they're in practice, the only "education" they get is from the "Prescription" food salesmen with their fancy charts and graphs.....and the fact that selling their foods also makes a profit for the vet doesn't hurt either!! But the "prescription" food industry has absolutely no scientific data to show their foods do anything to cure or prevent disease. It's a fake term made up by the pet food industry. There's even been a class action lawsuit filed against the "Prescription" pet food manufactures, basically for false advertising.

Trust me.....there have been thousands of people on this message board and they've all gotten this same message.....that the prescription foods are totally unnecessary and a waste of money.....and in most cases, can prevent your cat from doing as well as they can!! Feeding a high carb food to a diabetic is like a human diabetic eating potato chips all day and wondering why their blood glucose is still high!

We all truly understand how hard it is to take a leap of faith and listen to a bunch of crazy cat ladies on the internet, especially when so many vets tell you to stay off the internet and don't listen to anything you read, but the facts are here.....cats that are fed a species appropriate low carb diet do much better and have a much greater chance at remission.

 

Yes I was actually just reading that article and a couple of studies on the topic as well and I am now convinced that the low carb diet is the way to go. Thanks!

 

Hi Amber and welcome. I haven't been around here nearly as long as some including Chris but one thing I know for sure is the importance of diet. I was feeding my Ruby girl an all dry Royal Canin 'prescription' diet and realise now I was killing her with it....diabetes and CKD. The turn around by putting her on a low carb, low phos all wet diet (she's on Weruva Cats in the kitchen) has been nothing short of a miracle. I really agree with @Chris & China and what she says including nodding politely to the vet and buying elsewhere.

 

Hi, I am new to the forum and have a newly diagnosed diabetic cat. I have been researching food and choose Weruva Paw Lickin Chicken. However, it is causing her diarrhea. I would like to change to Friskies as it is lower cost and seems to be well liked on this forum. However, I have a concern about the Menadione in it. Thoughts?

 

A friskies pate diet only lead my Leo into remission... not implying any promises and I’m definitely not the most informed, but it seems to be a great cheap and good cat food choice!

 

Happy to hear that Leo is doing well.

 

I mistakenly said Friskies and meant Fancy Feast. I am going to switch as the diabetes is of more concern than menadione right now.

 

My vet also had Lilly on the dry DM "prescription" food and her numbers were still high. I switched her to FF pate and Tiki Cat (Ahi Tuna) and her numbers are better and she is taking about half of the Lantus she was taking. Food makes such a difference. I don't know why vets continue to push the DM diets when there is so much good info out there about the carb content. This site has saved my Lilly. She was going up and down so much I almost lost her. I still don't have her leveled out like I would like for her to be but she is definitely getting better.

 

I've been thinking of switching Nami to Fancy Feast. She's currently on the DM diet. Which has 43% crude and 6% carbs.
If you stick only to Fancy Feast Classics, you get 27-48% protein, and 0-3% carb.
Friskies is 35-40% protein, and 3-5% carb.
You have the benefit of lower carbs, but you also have less crude protein. So numbers-wise I don't see much of a difference between them, but Fancy Feast and Friskies is cheaper and more readily available, and comes in a variety of flavors.
For you personally I would start with kicking the dry food to the curve. Place your timed feeders in a room blocked off by a doggie gate that has a smaller gate to allow your kitties in if possible. ( https://s7d1.scene7.com/is/image/PETCO/1438140-center-1?$ProductDetail-large$ ) If not, I guess get into the habbit of doing 2-3 meal times when you're at home to feed them.