Cat ckd food and a rant

[GranolaLouise]

My cat was not feeling well again, so I am back to the vet and she suggests that perhaps it is time to officially go Prescription Diet, even though her levels were just a little high over the normal range..so......

Let's talk prescription foods again.
I have tried Royal Canin renal wet..
I have tried Hill's k/d wet
I have tried it alone..she sniffs and walks away.
I have tried a teeny bit hidden UNDER her regular wet food she LOVES.....she takes one sniff and walks away, not even wanting to eat around the edges where there is no renal food!
I have even washed the dish properly and put in a fresh serving of her regular food and she just looks at it like I am trying to trick her again.
I have tried toppers of baby food,crushed treats and chicken broth,and lickables....no go.
She has 'prescription food radar' and can sniff it out from 5 feet away.,,,won't even taste it even if she is very hungry..
But if i give her 2 crunchy treats like Blue Wilderness she gobbles them almost w/o chewing she is so hungry.
Now I have ordered Hill's dry to see if she will eat that either solo or mixed with some Hills regular dry I have.

But my rant and question is this:
Seeing that just about every ckd cat owner's posts I have read about on the internet has almost an impossible time getting their cat to eat prescription foods, why don't they sell their food in variety packs rather than 24 can packs costing $50 or more...just to be tossed out every time a can is opened?
Is it marketing? Are they just getting Vets to push it for incentives?

I have just about wasted hundreds of $$$ from renal Prescription foods!
WHAT IS WITH THESE BIG COMPANIES LIKE HILL'S AND ROYAL CANIN ? I feel I am being taken advantage of....BIG TIME.

Thanks for listening to my frustrations.

 

[Mighty Orange]

Answer: $$$$$
Ask yourself this.
Why is there even a cat food that requires a prescription from a vet to get it? No drugs in the food.
Answer: $$$$$

 

[Mighty Orange]

With my cat, I just went back to feeding her the food she was comfortable with. To me, it was more important that she eats. I went through the same crazy stuff you are describing. Buying anything I could get to see if she would eat it. Good luck with your feline friend.
I did have some luck with phosphate binders. I finally let my baby go after realizing I was doing it more for myself than for her well-being.
StackPath Please read this article. Did you see if she would eat boiled chicken?

 

[lisahe]

My cat was not feeling well again, so I am back to the vet and she suggests that perhaps it is time to officially go Prescription Diet, even though her levels were just a little high over the normal range..so......

Let's talk prescription foods again.
I have tried Royal Canin renal wet..
I have tried Hill's k/d wet
I have tried it alone..she sniffs and walks away.
I have tried a teeny bit hidden UNDER her regular wet food she LOVES.....she takes one sniff and walks away, not even wanting to eat around the edges where there is no renal food!
I have even washed the dish properly and put in a fresh serving of her regular food and she just looks at it like I am trying to trick her again.
I have tried toppers of baby food,crushed treats and chicken broth,and lickables....no go.
She has 'prescription food radar' and can sniff it out from 5 feet away.,,,won't even taste it even if she is very hungry..
But if i give her 2 crunchy treats like Blue Wilderness she gobbles them almost w/o chewing she is so hungry.
Now I have ordered Hill's dry to see if she will eat that either solo or mixed with some Hills regular dry I have.

But my rant and question is this:
Seeing that just about every ckd cat owner's posts I have read about on the internet has almost an impossible time getting their cat to eat prescription foods, why don't they sell their food in variety packs rather than 24 can packs costing $50 or more...just to be tossed out every time a can is opened?
Is it marketing? Are they just getting Vets to push it for incentives?

I have just about wasted hundreds of $$$ from renal Prescription foods!
WHAT IS WITH THESE BIG COMPANIES LIKE HILL'S AND ROYAL CANIN ? I feel I am being taken advantage of....BIG TIME.

Thanks for listening to my frustrations.

It's hard to trick a cat into eating food!

I don't remember specifics from your previous thread about your cat's kidney numbers but lots of cats with slightly elevated numbers do really well with low phosphorous foods and lots of fluids. That's just a reminder that there are multiple schools of thought on feeding kidney cats. It can be hard to remember things like that when a vet is focused on prescription food, something that sometimes seems to become a maddening obsession.

My favorite site to (re)read when we had a kidney cat was catinfo.org because Dr. Pierson advocates feeding protein and dislikes prescription food.

 

[FeebysOwner]

I don't know if you've visited Tanya's web site, but there is a section with listings of lower phosphorus foods (Tanya's Comprehensive Guide to Feline Chronic Kidney Disease- Canned Food Data USA (felinecrf.org)). And another section that talks about the various phosphorus binders you might want to try if you have foods that are higher in phosphorus but that your cat will eat. (Tanya's Comprehensive Guide to Feline Chronic Kidney Disease - The Importance of Phosphorus Control (felinecrf.org)). One of those binders is referenced in a post above. There is a ton of great information/education on this web site as well. So, if you have not looked at it, I highly recommend you start to spend some time going through it.

I am feeding Feeby what she will eat, and none of them are low in phosphorus, so I intermittently give her a phosphorus binder. She has blood work to be done soon, and if her creatinine and phosphorus are higher than they were 6 months ago, I will be giving her a binder daily. It is just not worth trying to force a cat to eat those renal foods if they don't like them or don't enjoy eating because of them.

 

[GranolaLouise]

I don't know if you've visited Tanya's web site, but there is a section with listings of lower phosphorus foods (Tanya's Comprehensive Guide to Feline Chronic Kidney Disease- Canned Food Data USA (felinecrf.org)). And another section that talks about the various phosphorus binders you might want to try if you have foods that are higher in phosphorus but that your cat will eat. (Tanya's Comprehensive Guide to Feline Chronic Kidney Disease - The Importance of Phosphorus Control (felinecrf.org)). One of those binders is referenced in a post above. There is a ton of great information/education on this web site as well. So, if you have not looked at it, I highly recommend you start to spend some time going through it.

I am feeding Feeby what she will eat, and none of them are low in phosphorus, so I intermittently give her a phosphorus binder. She has blood work to be done soon, and if her creatinine and phosphorus are higher than they were 6 months ago, I will be giving her a binder daily. It is just not worth trying to force a cat to eat those renal foods if they don't like them or don't enjoy eating because of them.

I registered for the Tanya site, but it seems like it is taking a long time for approval.
I did get the $40 'bible' from Amazon , but am so mentally worn out I don;t have the presence of mind to get into it other than reading some of the charts. First thing I tried to find was how to transition, but I didn't see much on the topic.
I had to chuckle at a UK article on the web on transitioning..place one bowl of the renal food next to a bowl of regular food for several days and the cat will know that it is food to be eaten....and voila"...there ya go..Bob's Your Uncle.
(yeh, right)

 

[FeebysOwner]

I registered for the Tanya site, but it seems like it is taking a long time for approval.

You don't have to register to access Tanya's web site, so perhaps you are referring to the associated io forum ([email protected])? This forum does want you to have a reasonable level of knowledge from Tanya's web site in order to be better able to communicate with them with questions you may have.

I will forewarn you that Tanya's site is huge and very loaded with details, so a lot of people seem to find it overwhelming. But you can take a section at a time - starting with the areas of greatest interest to you; and, then you will find it draws you to look at other sections as you go.

The food listing showing phosphorus levels on Tanya's web site may be part of the 'bible' you bought - that I don't know. But if you access the link I gave you before, you can copy & paste the list into Excel and save it to your computer. Once that is done, you can sort the list in any order you desire to make it easier for you to use. (I realize that some of the foods may not be available in the UK.) The phosphorus level is listed in terms of dry matter basis, which is not how most companies list their nutrients ('guaranteed analysis' which is an entirely different representation) - and most don't even list phosphorus at all. The only way to get the true values for foods not on the list is to contact the affiliated company and ask for the dry matter basis values. I've done that with a few and they were relatively responsive.

Lastly, a lot of folks use a bit different approach for transitioning - add a small amount of the 'new' food to the 'old' food and gradually increase the new and decrease the old. However, I am not sure when it comes to most of these renal foods that this approach will reap any better results.

 

[Furballsmom]

I noticed last time I was at felinecrf, that although the food page has an update date of November 2022, I don't think Evangers low phos food is listed and Weruva WX was not there either.

Weruva WX (non prescription) is their variety that has extremely low phosphorus but all the other necessary nutrients are there in the food.

Also, for those other readers and lurkers who need this additional information, Weruva has stopped using carrageenan and their brands are one of the few that keep the iodine at aafco minimum which is 0.6 mg/kg.

 

[maggie101]

My ibd cat eats weruva and churu or tiki sticks
Weruva steak frites is very low in phosphorus. Most of their food is. Weruva has a lot of shredded chicken which she loves. I am waiting for weruva wx to come in single cans before trying it

 

[lisahe]

My ibd cat eats weruva and churu or tiki sticks
Weruva steak frites is very low in phosphorus. Most of their food is. Weruva has a lot of shredded chicken which she loves. I am waiting for weruva to come in single cans before trying it

Weruva foods can be great for kidney cats... ours (who'd been a Fancy Feast fish addict for years) loved it, particularly Steak Frites!

 

[GranolaLouise]

Lastly, a lot of folks use a bit different approach for transitioning - add a small amount of the 'new' food to the 'old' food and gradually increase the new and decrease the old. However, I am not sure when it comes to most of these renal foods that this approach will reap any better results.

I tried that with the wet and several varieties using the Hill's. She can sniff 1/4 tsp out even if it under the other food. It is as if she feels her food is poisoned or bad and will not even go near it after a sniff.
As a last resort, tomorrow I am going to start mixing dry with renal dry and see what happens. Anything after that she probably will be allowed to eat whatever she wants because it is costing me more for her food and vet bills than I pay for mine..really! I cannot afford to carry on like this on a monthly pension.

 

[Furballsmom]

she probably will be allowed to eat whatever she wants

Weruva foods can be great for kidney cats.

The weruva foods, including the weruva WX which doesn't require a prescription, aren't that expensive, and your cat may like them.

 

[GranolaLouise]

I was just in the process of checking out the Weruva Wx fos focused.
Another company that only sells it in quantity! I am waiting for a reply from the company (2 towns over from me) to see if they have any sample single cans I could buy.
It is robbery, I tell ya!
My cat vomits fish, so there are only 2 that my cat can tolerate..the Chicken Pate
and the Chicken in Gravy. So again I have to go to Chewy and buy a 12 can case of the chick and gravy, and a 12 can case of chicken pate just to test out 2 cans and toss out 1 case? That's another $50 "Just to see if she'll eat it."

Also, the label says it is a 'supplement"....does that mean it is meant to be eaten along with regular food on and off?
I have enough cat food brands in this house to feed her if there is an apocalypse! Problem is, she won't eat it!

 

[Furballsmom]

does that mean it is meant to be eaten along with regular food on and off?

No. They had to put that on the label because the phosphorus level is below what is recommended by the AAFCO, but all the other nutrients meet the requirements.

 

[GranolaLouise]

What I would like to know is the ingredient that turns cats off. It is definitely the smell alone with my cat. She takes 1 whiff and then walks away like she smells poison in her dish.
For lunch I put a brand new Fancy Feast in her dish,one she never had before.She gave it a sniff and attacked the food like it was the best food she ever tasted!.
What is the ingredient that they can smell that is so repugnant in all those Prescription kd foods?

 

[Furballsmom]

It's more what's missing, maybe. Purina, which makes Fancy Feast utilizes animal digest, and it works to attract cats. Purina's Forti Flora (labelled as aprobiotic) does also I believe but I don't know if it's the same, because it doesn't seem to work as well.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Kind of along the lines of something 'missing' as noted above, I think it is more likely that they have very little smell - which can be just as off-putting, if not more so, than a strong smell. After all, they are more or less 'bland' by design.

We are not going to appreciate the taste of most (or any, maybe) cat foods, but I suppose we ought to be tasting them all just for a human comparison's sake. I have done it with all of Feeby's meds, so wonder why I haven't done so with her foods.

 

[GranolaLouise]

Kind of along the lines of something 'missing' as noted above, I think it is more likely that they have very little smell - which can be just as off-putting, if not more so, than a strong smell. After all, they are more or less 'bland' by design.

We are not going to appreciate the taste of most (or any, maybe) cat foods, but I suppose we ought to be tasting them all just for a human comparison's sake. I have done it with all of Feeby's meds, so wonder why I haven't done so with her foods.

I think that the Hills' chicken stew with vegetables has a very strong 'stewy' aroma.Perhaps it is too strong. I have wondered a lot this week if the hill company even try these out on various test cats before marketing.

 

[FeebysOwner]

That food you mentioned does have pork liver and chicken liver flavor; both probably could be pungent. I have looked again and again at these prescription foods and just can't see why they are any better than any other canned food. It would be interesting to see if Hill's would offer why they are supposed to 'work so well' and what they have for proof!!!

 

[maggie101]

What I would like to know is the ingredient that turns cats off. It is definitely the smell alone with my cat. She takes 1 whiff and then walks away like she smells poison in her dish.
For lunch I put a brand new Fancy Feast in her dish,one she never had before.She gave it a sniff and attacked the food like it was the best food she ever tasted!.
What is the ingredient that they can smell that is so repugnant in all those Prescription kd foods?

My cat peaches does not like fish that's in many prescription foods. Also rabbit. Takes a sniff then walks away. She loves ff.. do you have a small petstore? They will have single cans