What is the best food that you can feed a diabetic cat?

Emory

This cat is a spayed female, 9 yrs old, and also overweight. She is on special cat food from the vet. She was recently put on insulin 2x a day, instead of once. She is not losing any weight, even though she is restricted in her eating. She does not like the canned food that my sister got from the vet, so she is eating the dry(I think it is OD) Is there any other food recommended for a diabetic cat?



Adell

Hi I own and have adopted diabetic cats as well as helped many people learn how to deal with this disease. Your cat is pretty smart. OD is not for diabetic cats and the diabetic cat foods DM and MD arent so hot either. Dry food should not be fed to any cat let alone a diabetic. Dry food is the number 1 reason cats get diabetes in the first place. The best thing you can feed is canned foods that dont have gravy. Fancy feast is a middle grade cat food and is fine for diabetics and better for diabetics then the prescription stuff. The thing is lower carbs can reduce insulin needs and with you not testing (I assume) there is no way to know the affect the food change will have on the blood glucose. Heres another thing. She should not be restricted in her eating right now. If the blood sugar gets too low, cats will eat to protect themselves sometimes so food should be available for that. Please contact me if you want to learn how to treat this disease and take control. Include type of insulin, how much you giv, when diagnosed and the name of the food you feed. I will be happy to help you. Your profile states you do not allow emails so I would need one to contact you.



Dinorah

Wed started with Purina DM, which is a good food, but my cat was allergic to something in it so we had to switch him to Royal Canin Siamese 38, hes done a lot better with that. They have to have high protien and low carbs, so a few foods fit the bill. The silver bag of Wysong called "Vitality" is good. So is EVO, and a few others. Check this out:



Libby

I have never had to deal with diabetes in a cat. I have two cats with cancer and I belong to Yahoo groups where people discuss treatments, give support etc. There is a Yahoo group for diabetic cats. To join you go to http://www. yahoogroups. com and put in a search for feline diabetes and then request membership in the group (there may be more than one). Thats the best place to be to find out what diets are most successful with the diabetic cats. I have only heard that a diet high in quality meat protein - with no carbohydrate - is best to keep the insulin regulated successfully. Actually that is the best approach with cancer too as carbohydrates supposedly "feed" cancer growth.



Charis

My diabetic male has been on Purina brand DM for about 6 months now and since being on it, weve been able to lower his insulin dosage. The vet says that we may eventually be able to control the sugar levels by diet alone -- which would be great since giving shots every 12 hours isnt exactly fun for either of us. You should know, however, that my cat was originally on Hills MD, and that brand was the ONLY of the prescription brands to be on the recall list. So please be careful when you look into purchasing food for your baby.



Angle

Follow the vets advice and also let the vet know she is not losing weight. Also talk to the vet about activities and exercise for the cat. Not only does she need a reduce fat and calorie diet and restricted portions, but also exercise and activity. It sounds like she is lacking exercice, the food portions are too large, or the diet isnt sufficient. The added issue that the cat is diabetic makes it something you definately want to discuss with the vet before doing on your own.



Arminda

Speek to your vet. There are many brands of Prescription diest foods from Purina to Hills. The prescription is the best for her being that she is a diabetic. But thankfully there are differrent brands of pretty much the same make of food. Hopefully she will like another brand. Good luck