I need an alternative diet for my 15yr old cat.?

Question

Currently he's on Science Diet Venison & Green Pea Diet. He gets diahorrea on anything else. Unfortunately he's not keen on this food. Need to feed him up as he's SO thin. He's also on Fortekor for failing kidneys. Any suggestions as to other proteins I could feed him please? He meows for food alot and wants to taste anything I have to eat! He's really spirited and purrs all the time. Thank you.

Answer 1

Hi Angela...senior cats benefit best from renal supportive diets that a vet hospital carries prescribed by a veterinarian. Some of the diets recommended are Purina NF Kidney Function Brand, Hill's Prescription Diet Feline k/d, Eukanuba Veterinary Diet Multi-Stage Renal Formula and a few others. The reason is that cats with failing kidneys (also known as Chronic Renal Failure-CRF) need diets low in salt, phosphorous and protein as they cannot eliminate the toxins that build up in the kidneys and as well as keep up the electrolyte balance. It's important to keep the proteins low to reduce build up of the toxins which can shut the kidneys down sooner. Unfortunately, this makes most of the food unappetizing to cats.

Here's a wonderfully well written website on CRF cats and how to manage their care: http://www.felinecrf.com/what0.htm

Diets to feed CRF cats: http://www.felinecrf.com/managd.htm

Answer 2

Becuase this is not your decision alone, you may have to put aside you instict for the time being. It's not "wrong" for you to want to get a new kitten, but you have to take into account that not everyone in yout family feels the same way. Give them some time to mourn the loss of your old cat. Then, when everyone feels ready, you can talk about starting a new relationship with a new cat. Allow yourself to miss having a cat for a little while and give your family the time they need to recover from the loss.

Answer 3

HI there I work at a pet store and we sell very high quality food for pets. I would like to point something out to you about your cats food. Science Diet is a good food but if you turn around that bag and read the ingredeints the first thing it may list is what the food mostly contains for example alot of foods say Meat By Product, basicly that means our pets food is meat scraps and of course a corn meal or something similar. Thats no good all they do is poop it out and never get any vitamins needed. The best cat food I know of that many cats love is called Evora. It is made of great wheats and actual Vitamins our pets need. I kinda think your kitty may be have Diahoria due to the lack of sugar in Science diet versus whatever you was feeding him before, Alot of pet owners dont know how much sugar is in these Name brand foods, the animals become addicted and when its taken away the body reacts. I hope I helped you, best of luck!!

Answer 4

I have never seen the ingredients list for the Science Diet venison and pea so can't evaluate that for you. Generally their products are very poor quality. Natural Balance has a venison and pea and the deer are raised in New Zealand. Deer cannot be successfully raised on feed lots and confined unnatural conditions so they must have a "natural" diet and would be a healthy protein source for your cat.

You do not need to reduce protein in a cat with compromised kidneys. I have a 22 yr old cat who eats a raw meat diet that is very high in protein and she has done very well in the four years since her kidneys started going berserk.

The study on reducing protein was done on rats thirty years ago. Rats are related to humans in evolutionary terms. Cats descended from an entirely different line. That's why rats and mice are used so much in human research. No scientific studies in the subsequent 40 years have proved that the reduction of protein either slows or stops the progression of this disease.

Don Hamilton, DVM states in his book that it is the QUALITY of the protein and not the QUANTITY that is the key issue in compromised cat kidneys. I have followed his lead in feeding my aging cat.

Answer 5

This is very normal. Most adults that age tend to ask for food and doesnt eat. Try to give him moist or wet food of that kind. Most cats that age perfer food that wont hurt their teeth.