New here & looking for kibble advice!!

Hello... My just turned 5 year old Maine Coon was diagnosed last week with diabetes... I've started giving her twice daily insulin injections of one unit twice a day... Have switched her food to the PV dietetic, but I've done research on other potential non-prescription kibble to feed her, as I'm not a real fan of the by-product, corn, wheat, Etc, that they put in many of the prescribed Foods. I know that Evo is one that is lower carb, but seems to be hard to find here... I also looked at Go! kibble, which when you do the adding and subtracting, it looks like it has about a 10% carb amount, which seems really good, compared with the 18% carb on the PV Vet prescribed food. Anyone have any suggestions on what food for Kibble and wet food to feed? Thanks in advance!!

 

Evo Turkey Cat and Kitten food is one of the more easily available low-carb try foods. There is also Young Again Zero Carb (it really has about 6 carbs). There is also Wysong Epigen 90. Usually you have to order those over the internet.
Can you provide a link for information about the Go? kibble?
Low-carb canned is best have you tried that?

 

Here is a photo of the ingredients & analysis for their "fit & free" chicken, turkey, duck combo kibble (link below)... my kitty doesn't have any issues with eating either kibble or canned, for the most part. Just hoping to get some options from what others have found for low carb and tasty. Thanks again. http://www.petcurean.com/for-cats/go/

 

Fro the ingredients 10% calories form carbs seems very reasonable

 

I feed Magellan canned a mix of fancy feast classics and friskies pates and he does well with that. Though getting him off of kibble was a bit of a challenge inmho you might not want to feed kibble as I found they are not low enough for our super sweet children and cost way too much.

 

I usually don't recommend dry foods unless the cat absolutely refuses to to eat canned food. Even the lower carb dry foods can cause problems with regulation in some cats (Bandit's blood sugar levels will shoot up 100 points if he even has just a few pieces of the EVO dry), because they are not low glycemic foods. Also, dry foods are chronically dehydrating, so they can also cause kidney and urinary tract disease. Diabetic cats already have a lot of strain on their kidneys; it's best to keep as much moisture in their diet as you can.

Here's a great website that explains the basics of feline nutrition and why dry food isn't great for cats: http://catinfo.org/.

If the convenience factor is the issue, canned food can also be convenient for feeding when you're not home or sleeping with a little creativity. Some owners can free feed canned food the same way you do dry food--you just add a little water in to keep it moist. Some people freeze portions of canned food to leave out for the cats to nibble as they thaw. My cats are food crazy and will sit and lick at the frozen food, so I use auto feeders to release the canned food at their feeding times (every 6 hours).

If you have any other questions about diets for diabetics (or any questions at all!), come over and post in the Health Forum!

 

Here is the details for the go food
http://www.petcurean.com/app/uploads/2015/11/FF_CTD_Cat.pdf

 

Thank you all for the info... I have read up a lot about it, and have seen that wet food is something that is recommended over kibble, but being as I free feed (both of my cats are grazers, and one is a puker if he doesn't get to graze appropriately), I prefer to find a kibble that will work in conjunction with wet food. I was able to connect with a nutritionist at Petcurean, who is the company that produces the Go! kibble... She said that the turkey chicken duck kibble is their "go-to kibble" for diabetics. I also heard that Orijen has a very low glycemic index kibble, so I was going to research that one next... If anyone has any current information on that brand, I would love to hear about it! Thanks again!

 

Oh I meant to mention in my last post, that I just found out that Evo food was pulled altogether from Canada... So I guess that option is out!

 

Another food that @Merlin found is called Waggers. It's a semi-moist food no starch and no grains - my cat's blood sugar is not raised from Waggers -and Evo definitely does raise his blood sugar (Young again and Epigen 90 also do not raise his blood sugar) I found it at a local pet food shop but you can also order on-line.

 

There are no dry foods that are as low glycemic as wet foods. Because of the way they are manufactured, dry foods must use some starch to to to bind the food together. Otherwise, the food would remain a powder. None of the Orijen dry are low enough carbs for a diabetic, and even if it was low the lower carb levels do not mitigate the problems with chronic dehydration from dry food. Cats do not have thirst drives like dogs or humans--they need to consume adequate moisture in their food or they become dehydrated and that causes all sorts of other health problems.

Bandit is also a puker if I free feed---that's why I use auto feeders for the cats when I'm not home to feed them. Have you thought about switching to scheduled instead of free feeding? It tends to be healthier for diabetics that way anyway, but some households with many cats can't do feeders because of logistics. If there's only two cats in your house, that's very doable (I have two at my house as well). I'm not sure what you mean when you say he's a grazer, but a puker if he doesn't graze appropriately? Do you mean he'll puke if he eats too much wet food in one sitting? That can be solved by feeding smaller, more frequent scheduled portions.

 

Thanks for the info. He will puke if only fed a couple times per day, so I leave food out for them to graze on all day.

 

Gotcha! Yes, Bandit will do this too if he goes too long between meals. As long as Bandit's eating frequently enough (4+ times a day), we don't have any problems with this. It seems like a lot of meal times, but it's not at all with the autofeeders (you just set them at the previous meal).

If he's not a cat that gorges himself on wet food, you can also free feed the wet food by adding water to it to keep it moist longer, or just setting some frozen portions out for them to nibble on as they unthaw. This method works great for one of my friends who has a lot of cats, so she can't really do the feeders. None of her cats will sit and gnaw at the frozen food like mine do, so it works great for her.