Does anyone know what other cat food I can feed my cat besides Hills K/D?

Question

My cat is on the prescription Hills K/D cat food and has started not wanting to eat it. Does anyone know of any other cat food that I can feed her? She is on the K/D because of renal kidney disease. Thanks.

Answer 1

Hi
Yes There are different thoughts on what to feed cats with this.
Treatment of Chronic Renal Failure

If your cat is not in final stages, this is not want you want to do. There are new thoughts on this and the thinking is it is not the amount of protein but the quality of protein that matters.
The Merck veterinary manual [www.merckvetmanual.com] says that cats need "4 g of protein of high biologic value per kg body wt/day". That's about 7 calories from protein per pound body weight per day. If a cat isn't a good eater and consumes, say, 20 calories per pound per day, then 7/20 = 35% of calories can safely be from protein. It must be high quality protein, which means meat, fish, milk, and eggs, and not grain or soy.

I am under the assumption that you have been feeding mostly dry foods. Many use a vegetable based protein instead of animal and that is part of the problem.. Your cat needs protein as it is a carnivore and cutting down on it will lead to other health issues and may cause faster degeneration.
You want to cut down on fat and phosphorous (no fish allowed now) The best way to do this is with a raw diet which you can make yourself or buy . (making yourself is better) link provided at the bottom
If you are unwilling to do that then something like the non fish flavors of merrick with NO grains are good alternatives.
You also will want to look into phosphorous binders. Something like aluminum hydroxide

You also either want to talk to the vet about having injectable pepcid ac on hand or you can buy it in pill form (ac not plain pepcid) and give 1/4 tab for stomach upset which happens alot in crf cats due to acid in the stomach.
I hope this stuff helps, here are many links for you
Making cat food
http://www.catinfo.org/makingcatfood.htm
other links
http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_chronic_renal_failure.html
http://www.felinecrf.org/
http://www.felinecrf.com/
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/Feline-CRF-Support/

Answer 2

i personally like IAMS, so does all 6 of my cats. I know PETCO runs sales on that food. so its not overly expensive. about 26-30 for a 20 pound bag. some pet stores may have samples for you to try and see what your cat likes. Science diet is also a good one. I used this on my kitty that was in renal failure also.

Answer 3

Because she has renal kidney disease she needs to have a prescription diet. I would just ask the vet for alternative brands.

Answer 4

Science Diet makes a K/D for cats.

You can mix a couple of dry K/Ds in and sometimes the crunchy change makes a difference.

My friends cat has the same thing. The doctor suggested that she add a teaspoon of tuna to a can of wet and mix it well, just give her a little at a time.

IAMS cat food for renal problems in between may help too.

I have 2 schnauzers with bladder stones and they are each on K/D and C/D. When one got sick recently I gave him just chicken and rice. The vet approved 100%. Once he got his smell and appetite he went back to his normal food.

Good Luck. Hope she feels better.

Water is the most important thing.

Answer 5

if you are in Canada.. NUTRAM is much better than hills and lower price (because its made in Canada).. they dont use some of the crappy ingredients Hills use, and have lower Magnesium...

if in USA I dont know... you would have to compare magnesium content on foods in pet stores.. some good US brands are Wellness, Felidae but I dont know which is better for kidney problems...

NO FISH.. NO milk... feed small amount of canned and add water to it..

-good lord not IAMS- as one person suggested.. this is even worse quality.. and Science Diet is Hills.. still crappy food by any name - over priced becuase they PAID for vet endorsement.. not quality ingredients.

Answer 6

I'm having the same problem with my dog.She's got kidney failure and she hates the K/D dog food.She's 14 and not doing very well,so I'm letting her eat what she wants.If it shortens her life,so be it.At least she'll die having eaten what she liked.If your kitty isn't wanting to eat,then her kidneys may be getting worse as well.I would just feed her what she likes,let her enjoy her last days.

Answer 7

she just might not want to eat it because its a lot healthier than other foods....my dogs were like that at first but then after a couple days of just picking at it they started to like it ......they love it now! just try a different brand though...not from like wal mart or somethin like that but from the vet...........................whoever suggested science diet....hills is science diet!....and IAMS thats horrible that like eating the McDonalds of foods.