Are there any non-prescription cat foods for diabetic cats?
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Anonymous
| Our cat was just diagnosed with feline diabetes. We love him and want to take good care of him, but some of the expenses are busting our budget -- $300 for insulin and another $50 for syringes! (But obviously they are necessary expenses.) I just purchased the cat food the vet prescribed, which is about $35 for a 6 lb. bag. Is there any cat food on the market that is meant for diabetic cats, is non-prescription, and is maybe not quite so pricey? |
Anonymous
| I think they say certain cheap wet foods are good for diabetic cats - Google it. Apparently dry food isn't great for them in general, though I do feed my cat the prescription dry. |
Anonymous
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You can also get a book or look at websites about how to make your own catfood, which is ultimately healthiest of all for the cat. You can make it in batches and freeze if you want.
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Anonymous
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My aunts diabetic cat just switched from the special diabetic dry food to grocery store wet food. The vet said they are equivalent.
We buy our cat's wet food in bulk on Amazon to save some money. |
Anonymous
OP. That's really interesting about wet vs dry food. I'll definitely have to look into wet food on Amazon. Thanks! |
Anonymous
Yes - Fancy Cats classics - 50-75 cents per can - less on sale (same price as other wet cat food). It MUST be the classics type. We started off with prescription dry food, then prescription wet food. Very expensive - plus the wet food (liver based) smelled God awful going in and worse coming out. It would actually wake me up in the middle of the night and I'd have to clean out the cat box before I could get back to sleep again. Also, if your cat pees like mine did (buckets), then you'll need a different cat litter. After considerable experimentation, I found that Worlds Best Cat Litter (yes, that's actually the name) was the best litter for a diabetic cat. It's expensive, but worth it. |
Anonymous
| ^ Correction - Fancy Feast. |
Anonymous
| Canned wet food is best. Find the lowest carb one you can. Our diabetic cat wasn't happy to give up dry kibble, but kibble was too hard on her kidneys, even the grain-free stuff. She would accept regular canned Fancy Feast. |
Anonymous
| My cat has a different health issue but the Hill's website has detailed nutritional info on their special and regular diet foods. I was able to find a nonprescription food to meet my cat's requirements. |
Anonymous
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Below is a link to a list that provides the protein/fat/carbohydrate breakdown of many foods. The goal with dietary management of diabetes is to feed a diet that contains less than 7% carbohydrates on a caloric basis (NOT "dry matter" or "as fed" basis). Generally this requires switching to canned food.
http://catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf |
Anonymous
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Definitely check out that chart PP posted. The website has lots of good info regarding caring for a diabetic cat: http://catinfo.org/?link=felinediabetes
I did the prescription (Hill's) diabetic dry food for about a year. Now I know that the quality of that food is really poor. After a year, I switched to a lower carb dry food - Wellness Core - and then later the GO! brand. After that I slowly switched to a nearly all wet food diet - although I always left out some dry food. Finding wet food they liked took a lot of trial and error. But, the Fancy Feast classics they would always eat. I was lucky in that my cat's diabetes went completely away after changing up her diet. Good luck! |
Anonymous
| Tuna |
Anonymous
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Per a vet I was told Purina Friskies mixed grill (use the classic one only because it has the Turine diabetics need)wet food. She is off insulin now. Can find at the dollar store
Or sometimes for less at dept.stores for a big 13 oz can. |
Anonymous
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Per a vet I was told Purina Friskies mixed grill (use the classic one only because it has the Turine diabetics need)wet food. She is off insulin now. Can find at the dollar store
Or sometimes for less at dept.stores for a big 13 oz can. I was sure happy to get this information. |
Anonymous
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homade
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