Multi Cat household food question

Hello Everyone,
First I want to say that I know a wet food diet is the most highly recommended for all cats. HOwever that is not financially feasible in our multi cat house.
We have only just begun this journey and change from free feeding to scheduled feedings on 10/01.

My question is in regards to our diabetic cat eating some of the dry food after his scheduled wet food feeding. Per direction from the vet he gets 5.5 oz of wet food twice a day, followed by 2 units of insulin.
During feeding time we separate him from the other 3 cats in the house and put out dry food for them. After he finishes his wet food and is let out of his room the very first thing he does is go to the dry food and attempt to eat. I am wondering if this should be a concern and we should keep him from having any dry food snacks. It is very difficult as the other cats are focused on the room he is in and only go to eat dry food after he is let out. If we close the others in a room they only focus on the door to get out and not the food.

Look forward to hearing some input from the experienced members.

Thanks,
Matthew & Rascal

 

Welcome Matthew and Rascal! I have several cats too and I think the food transition was the hardest part. In the beginning I did like you and separated my cats at feeding times, which for us was 4-5 times a day (even more often at first because going from free feeding to meal feeding was hard, or so they claimed) Unfortunately Most dry foods are way too high in carbs for diabetic kitties and even a few kibbles can raise their blood glucose. What are you feeding Rascal? If it’s prescription food, there are cheaper, low carb canned foods that might work for everybody. If you tell us what country you’re in we can help with recommendations for wet and lowest carb dry foods to help. Also are you home testing Rascals blood glucose? It’s highly recommended and easy to do. It’s really the only way to keep Rascal safe and know what how well the insulin is working.

 

Hi. As Sharon said, most dry foods are way too high in carbs and even just a tiny amount can impact glucose levels. Dr. Elsey's Clean Protein Chicken dry food is between 4 and 5% carbs so it is a good option when someone feels they must have a dry food option. (Young Again Zero has only trace carbs but it has been known to cause poop issues.) The lower carb dry food is going to be expensive though. so it would not help with your budget concerns. There are some pretty cheap wet foods, so you may want to consider changing everyone to wet. (There are other issues with dry food besides carbs. See this post: http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/...r-more-than-just-carbohydrate-content.175004/)

Many of us feed our cats more than 2 meals a day. My girls get 4, and any leftovers remain out for them to graze on. So, if eating only twice a day becomes an issue for your cat, you may want to consider that. (The AAHA Diabetes Guidelines support breaking food into multiple meals.) There are auto-feeders than can be used if you are not there/awake to feed the other meals. As long as you are feeding the appropriate amount of calories and two of the meal times correspond with your shot times, it is fine to have multiple meals.

 

Sharon14 / FurBabiesMama ,
He is on a low card wet food. Currently Fancy Feast Grilled. Started him on 9oz a day (9lb cat), but have increased it to 12oz as he seems to be more hungry and eating well again. It is wonderful to see him returning to normal after just a few days of low carb food and insulin. We are going to pick up a few cans of the special kitty from Wal-Mart to see if he like that.

The food charts provided by the group here is great, the Vet did give us the Binkys Page list as well. We also got 3 cans of the DM cat food and he did not seem to like that much at all.

Currently not doing home testing. Rascal will be going to vet next friday to be monitored all day to determine the next steps.

In regards to the scheduled feedings of the other cats we have added some wet food to the dry they get and it seems to be motivating them to eat more at meal times. Thanks so much for your input!

 

If you get them all on Friskies pate its cheaper than fancy feast. Might be more financially doable. Most dry foods are 35-40% carb which puts the others at risk for developing diabetes as well. I feed a little epigen 90 dry... It's about 8% carb. I keep it on the table because it's hard for my old diabetic girl to get up there and then put it out of reach of all of them at night and when I'm at work and just leave out wet.

 

Oh, and there's a video in my signature showing how I test my cat CC at home. I highly recommend you test. It has saved her life probably 10 times over the last three years.

 

JanetNJ
Thanks for the info. We just purchased the Wal-Mart special kitty 5.5 oz cans. He does not do well with pate foods and tends to pick at them. Since the goal right now is to get his weight back up and also reduce carbs we got him the cuts in gravy which were on a list from Binkys Page. So far he seems to be eating much better, reduced water intake to normal levels, and is also more active. Thank you all for your great input and concern.

 

add enough water to pate and most cats think it's gravy ....

 

Hi! We have a multi-cat (7) household too. We separate our Zoot!, who is diabetic, from the others so he can get his wet-only food. we have transitioned the others to low carb wet food, but we do supplement with some regular dry as well during feeding time.

I would definitely pick up the other cats' dry food before letting him out!

We put Zoot in his room, then feed the other cats; then we give Zoot! 1/2 his can (3 oz) of food and give him his insulin while he is eating. Wait until the other cats are almost done, then give him is second round of food (this is merely to pace his eating a bit). We pick up all the dry food from the other cats, leaving a couple of remainders of the wet - since it is low carb (Weruva chicken Frick a zee or Splash dance), we let Zoot clean up a couple of their plates (he gets about a tablespoon or two of the remainder from the other cats).

Don't fret, you will find your rhythm.