? Getting cat to eat enough wet food

It looks like my kitty is headed into remission and I am so happy for that!

I've seen the general opinion that most cats won't overeat on a low-carb wet diet, no matter if it's freely provided. But what about a cat that needs to gain weight?

Ragnar is probably about 3-4 pounds under his ideal weight right now, and I'm worried that he isn't eating enough wet food to gain that back, even though I provide it for him multiple times a day, refresh it with water, amp it up with some bonito flakes, etc. He eats pretty slowly and sometimes it seems like he is licking more than actually eating. The vet says his teeth and gums are fine, and he has no other health issues of note.

On average, a cat at his ideal weight would need at least 300 calories per day, which is around 3 small cans per day. Right now, he's eating more like 2 cans per day unless I do tons of intervention to get him to eat a bit more.

Today he really loved and quickly ate the tub of Natural Balance Catatouille that I gave him (which was unusual since it is a shredded style food and he generally liked pate better in the past) but it was only 60 calories. I'm going to get some more shredded varieties to see if he's changed his opinion on those overall.

The food charts don't show the caloric density of the various foods per ounce, so no help there. I'm wondering if I should just aim for foods with high protein and also at the higher end of the "under 10% max carbs" rule in order to max out calories per ounce of food while still staying within LC guidelines.

 

Just a couple of comments about the SS.
I would continue to get tests in during the PM cycle as well as the am cycle. It is just as important as the am cycle. Yesterday Ragnar earned a reduction down to 0.75 units but you didn't get a PMPS test in and skipped the dose and then no tests during the pm cycle.
It is also a good idea to get in at least one test during the cycle when you give a NS...this will tell us if the BG is going down or up after eating
To get a strong remission we advise dropping the dose down to 0.5 then 0.25, then 0.1 and then a drop. That way you are supporting the pancreas while it heals and the remission is likely to last longer and be stronger.

If you get a lower than normal preshot, stall, don't feed and post and ask for help on if you should shoot.

This link gives you the number of calories in each can of food.
https://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf

 

What food charts? This chart https://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf gives the calories per can, either 3 or 5.5 oz

 

A low carb wet kitten food should be more calorie dense than regular adult cat formulations.


Mogs
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Thanks for pointing out that version. I was using the Google Sheets version here and it doesn't have the calories on it.

 

Thanks for that info. I don't mean to be rude, but I'm not asking for dosing advice at this point, although it's kind of you to want to help. I purposefully did a temporary hold on the insulin to see if he was able to remain euglycemic on his own. His steroid course and his diabetes situation was very short in duration, and I have no reason to believe that his pancreas was damaged to the level where he is unable to produce enough endogenous insulin at this point. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if just a diet change alone would have gotten him into remission, if I'd known that was even a possibility at the beginning of this journey. This morning, I have chosen to give 0.5u and will see how he runs today and tomorrow.