Stopped eating dry food

tucker1

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Nov 11, 2013
Messages
1
Purraise
10
My 13 year old cat has acute renal failure followed by pancreatitis. To try getting him to eat again I feed him any wet/dry food he would eat. He preferred a cheap off brand wet food with gravy. Now he won't eat any dry food. He has only ever eaten dry food. How do I get him back to dry food? He needs to eat a kidney diet and he won't eat the wet food available on this diet. Shows a little interest in the dry food. What do I do?
 

vball91

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Jan 14, 2013
Messages
3,853
Purraise
252
Location
CO, USA
Are you familiar with this site which is the best compilation I know of on all things related to CKD cats? http://www.felinecrf.org/diet_and_nutrition.htm I linked to the nutrition page, but it has a lot of info on other aspects of kidney disease in cats which you may find helpful. Low appetite is a problem with kidney disease, and there are tips and tricks to coax them to eat. However, the site does stress that it is very important to get them to eat, whatever it is. Wet food is actually better than dry. I would try to see if you can find low phosphorus wet foods that he will eat.
 

barbh

TCS Member
Adult Cat
Joined
Oct 28, 2013
Messages
207
Purraise
26
Location
Michigan
It is more important that he eats something at this time. With cats with kidney problems wet food is actually better for them since it ensures that they are getting much needed water which is very important. Other than the diet food is there anything else the vet was doing? How was his bloodwork numbers, especially how was his phosphorus, bun and creatin numbers looking? Did the vet believe him to have lasting damage to his kidneys? I am sorry that your boy is going through this, my 13 year old boy was diagnoised with ckd a few months back and other than wanting to change his diet that particular vet did not provide me with much information. I would recommend checking out Tanya's comprehensive guide to feline ckd http://felinecrf.org/index.htm. I have found this site to be very helpful and jamed packed with infotmation. Two areas in particular that may be of help to you is the section on actute kidney injury and also the food data tables. The food data tables will allow you to look at foods that are available and choose one that will work for your kitty. Although most vets say that low protien is needed it is debatable and thought that in early stages of ckd that a higher protien of the right kind of protien is better in the early stages. What is needed for any cat with ckd is food with low phosphorus levels definitly want to stay below 1% and try to be as close to what is found in the prescription diets. When phosphorus levels become elevated the cat will not start feeling well. You can also look into using a phosphorus binder in the regular food, aluminum hydroxide tends to be the popular choice. There is also a wealth of information on Tanya's site about phosphorus binders.

For eating does he eat his wet food freely or just a little bit. When Riley was diagnoised with ckd I was having to mix water into his food and warm it up. Then to encourage him to eat I would have to hold the bowl for him. Hoping for the best, definitly check Tanya's site and than talk to your vet about options for treating. Also many people have cats that tend to turn up their nose to the kidney prescription diet, tends not to seem very palatiable to cats.
 

lilin

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
Jun 24, 2013
Messages
507
Purraise
213
Location
Minneapolis
My 13 year old cat has acute renal failure followed by pancreatitis. To try getting him to eat again I feed him any wet/dry food he would eat. He preferred a cheap off brand wet food with gravy. Now he won't eat any dry food. He has only ever eaten dry food. How do I get him back to dry food? He needs to eat a kidney diet and he won't eat the wet food available on this diet. Shows a little interest in the dry food. What do I do?
It is better he eat wet food -- ANY wet food -- than dry food. Because cats have low thirst drives, they will usually be dehydrated on a dry food diet, which is going to be hard on his kidneys.

See if you can make his prescription wet food more appealing by mixing it with the wet food what he likes. As suggested above, also look into wet foods that have low phosphorous levels. This will be infinitely better than any dry food, even prescription.
 

mewlittle

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Oct 20, 2012
Messages
1,633
Purraise
127
Location
usa
If your cat has kidney issues he should not eat dry at all that should be avoided only feed him wet

If he don't like wet buy allot of different brands to try on him and if he eats a certain brand buy that mostly try to get different flavors also
 
Top