Diet for cat with kidney problems

SallyDucati

Hi there,

Hoping someone has some suggestions, any very gratefully received.

I have a cat who is not quite 2 years old and has just been diagnosed with kidney problems. I have some renal food for him but he’s not interested. I’ve tried warming it a bit but no deal. He’s not eating much at the moment (other than a bit of tuna - I needed to get something in him!). He’s also not interested in boiled fish, ate a bit of chicken but that’s not good either.

Does any one know of any homemade foods that are good for cats with renal problems?

UKTigerlily

SallyDucati wrote: »

Hi there,

Hoping someone has some suggestions, any very gratefully received.

I have a cat who is not quite 2 years old and has just been diagnosed with kidney problems. I have some renal food for him but he’s not interested. I’ve tried warming it a bit but no deal. He’s not eating much at the moment (other than a bit of tuna - I needed to get something in him!). He’s also not interested in boiled fish, ate a bit of chicken but that’s not good either.

Does any one know of any homemade foods that are good for cats with renal problems?

I just fed a high meat content wet cat food to my 18yr old with CKD, she did absolutely fine and rather wet than dry with kidney problems. I'd avoid Tuna, as it isn't good for cats anyway. There's no reason they can't have cat food, mine also hated the prescription diet food

SallyDucati

UKTigerlily wrote: »

I just fed a high meat content wet cat food to my 18yr old with CKD, she did absolutely fine and rather wet than dry with kidney problems. I'd avoid Tuna, as it isn't good for cats anyway. There's no reason they can't have cat food, mine also hated the prescription diet food

Thanks, I’m having difficulty getting him to eat anything at the moment which is a worry hence the tuna. I’ll have to check all the cat food meat content %!

Fire_Fox

You may need to try a number of different renal foods. Your veterinarian should be able to advise without costly repeat consultations, for example by e-mail or telephone.

Please do not randomly try DIY or homemade diets. Cats have very specific nutritional needs.

donnac2558

My cat who is 16 and lucky the vet caught her kidney problems early two years ago. She point blank refused to eat the kidney food, I end up giving 4 boxes to a cat charity.


My vets advise was a balance, feed a good quality high protein food which is the new thinking as mentioned by another poster. Before it was thought protein was bad for the kidneys. As well as the prescription Semintra I was told use Kaminox which you can buy from Amazon or Pet Supermarket.

SallyDucati

donnac2558 wrote: »

My cat who is 16 and lucky the vet caught her kidney problems early two years ago. She point blank refused to eat the kidney food, I end up giving 4 boxes to a cat charity.


My vets advise was a balance, feed a good quality high protein food which is the new thinking as mentioned by another poster. Before it was thought protein was bad for the kidneys. As well as the prescription Semintra I was told use Kaminox which you can buy from Amazon or Pet Supermarket.

Thanks. My vet hasn’t mentioned either of those two supplements yet, I’ll ask about them.

Green_hopeful

I had a young cat with kidney failure and like you I tried the kidney foods which he didn’t like. My current cat has had kidney problems for quite a while and I just give her slightly more expensive conventional food. She quite likes some of the soups. I think you have to tempt them with nice (to them) flavours.

es5595

I had a cat with renal failure. This is the most comprehensive site there is, be prepared for a lot of background reading!

https://www.felinecrf.org/

All the best.

11Carrie11

My cat has the same problems with health problems! And my cat doesn't want to eat the renal food:((

jenny-wren

Our cat was diagnosed with kidney disease around 19 months ago and we tried and failed with so many renal foods. Hills, Royal Canin and numerous renal foods from Zooplus ... all were greeted with an 'Uuugh, I'm not eating those'.

The two renal foods that she will eat are Purina NF pouches and Specific FKD foil trays. The Purina is soft chunks in gravy. It smells so much nicer than the other foods we tried (and two flavours are available - chicken and salmon). The Specific FKD is a pate type food. I order them in bulk from either Pet Supermarket or Petwell. Dry food isn't so much of a problem, she will eat lots of different brands. The dry food that we found was best for her was Kattovit (from Zooplus). The pieces are much smaller then other brands (she only has 6 teeth!). Bizarrely she's not fussed on the Kattovit wet food. Whilst dry food is not a good option for cats with kidney disease, ours is also diabetic so we don't like to leave her without food if we're out.

The trick is to introduce a new food gradually over a few weeks (mixing increasing quanitities in with the usual food). It took about 6 months for us from diagnosis to getting her onto a completely renal diet. Don't be disheartened if you get a 'yummy' reaction to a food the first time you give it and then the next time it's a 'eww, no thanks'. Persistence pays off!

no1catman

Our previous cat had CRF - readings were off the scale. While it would be ideal if the cat would eat the speciality foods (especially considering the cost), reality is the most important thing is that they eat.
If I was making a sandwich she always liked to gage a piece of cooked meat, so with her condition - sometimes all she would go for was cooked meat slices - chicken or her favourite - liver sausage!

From her low point what perked her up a bit, was fish fingers (seriously), microwaved a couple cut the breadcrumbs up, mash them up a bit and put it in front of her - where ever she was. After awhile she began trying wet food - added hot water to make warm soup (helped with her fluid intake.
Asked the Vet - how will we know? So when about nine months later she couldn't jump on to a bed (muscle wastage in the legs), we knew it was time - well she was by then twenty-and-a-half.