How much should my cat with kidney disease eat?

[khursh]

My cat has been diagnosed with the early stages of kidney disease.

I've done reading and it's suggested she eat a ( small ) can of cat food with renal cat food mixed in. The problem is, my cat won't eat dry food. She usually eats the wet food but leaves the dry food alone. To temp her while giving her more fluid, I mixed a packet of "broth" treat ( the ones suggested by Tanya's Comprehensive Guide to Feline Chronic Kidney Disease - Persuading Your Cat to Eat ). She'll eat this for a while and then stop randomly. When she gets to the point where she's not eating the entire can of cat food, I use a small amount of mirtazapine ( half the prescribed amount ) to get her to eat again. It works, but only for a week at a time. Am I overfeeding my cat? Before I took her to the vet, she was super skinny. Now since she's been eating her new food, she's put on a bit of weight. Not to the point of obesity, but a lot more than she had before.

If you have a cat with kidney disease, how much do you feed your cat?

I will be calling my vet and checking in with her about my concerns about my cat's eating habits.

 

[CyberTiger]

Can you work out how many calories you used to feed your cat? And how many calories you're currently feeding her?

The vet can likely help figure out if she's overweight or not. Else, you can look up a body condition scale image and try to use that to gauge your cat's weight level.

So if you can figure out where her body condition is at and it's too high, then get those calorie numbers and her current weight. Then you can start figuring out how much you should be feeding her from there.

(Though the thing to keep in mind is that a cat shouldn't lose more than 2% of body weight a week, else it's too fast and a risk to their health.)

 

[FeebysOwner]

A cat with kidney disease doesn't have a different set of rules about how much they should eat than a cat without kidney disease. So, maybe I am misunderstanding your question. A cat that was skinny before and is now carrying more weight, but not to the point of obesity is probably just fine where they are at. Kidney disease will contribute to some weight loss on its own over time, so most of these cats will likely never need to be put on a diet. A simple rule of thumb is 20-25 calories per pound of body weight. So, a 10-pound cat probably would do well eating 200-250 calories per day. An 8 pound cat, 160 - 200. These are rough numbers, as every cat is different. So, weekly weighing's will tell you if the calories are too high or too low, and then after a month's worth of weigh ins you can 'tweak' the amount of food accordingly.

There also is no need for a cat to eat dry food, especially if they don't like it. There are many canned foods out there that are either labeled 'renal' or contain low phosphorus amounts that can be tried in lieu of dry food at all.

I have found with my cat that she does not need the 'standard daily dose' of Mirataz, but if I stretch out the time between half doses too long it does have negative impacts on her. If you are waiting until your cat is refusing to eat or drops the amount of what she will eat, you are probably waiting too long in between doses. I am not sure what you mean that "it only works for a week at a time", so am not sure how to address that.

 

[Babypaws]

Find a food that has Low phosphorus, keep away from dry food and make sure she’s drinking..

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

I've had three kidney cats, and in my opinion, you cannot feed them too much. Mine were never able to gain weight back after they lost it, even though they ate several meals per day. My last kidney cat ate at least nine times in each 24 hour period, always wet food, since they need lots of hydrating.

 

[emocatowner]

A bit of chub is good on a cat with CKD, it gives more leeway for when they're not feeling well and can't eat. Not to the point of becoming obese, that can lead to other problems, but slightly overweight is fine.

The best way to figure it out is to grab a baby scale and weigh him daily, look for trends, and adjust based on those. With my old dude, I used to just give him a few treats on there every day, was a fun part of our routine.

I'm a bit confused about what you're feeding, though. There is both wet and dry renal food, and ideally you should give her those if possible, if she's at all willing to eat them. It is often a good idea to give both wet and dry to cats with CKD, since the dry food is more calorie dense, and will help keep the weight on. With my dude, I gave him 30g of dry food a day, and as much wet food as he was willing to eat, spread out over as many feedings as possible during the day. But if she is willing to eat wet renal food, and eats enough of it to keep weight on, that should be fine too.

 

[khursh]

Phoebe ( my cat ) is on Royal Canin wet food. I also have a bag of their dried food. She eats the wet food with no problems but sticks her nose up entirely at the dry food. I have used Tanya's guide to look up low-phosphorus broth-type foods to mix with it. Sometimes it gets her to eat the dry food ( because the kibble absorbs it ) but often times she'll lick up the broth and leave the food behind. The only time I've seen her actually eat dry food is when I've given her mirtazapine ( which I've noticed tends to make her hungry for a few days after giving it to her ). I'm hesitant to give her mirtazapine regularly unless my vet suggests it. I've tried giving her chicken broth and Phoebe refuses to eat her dry food. In fairness, I made the broth using a cornish game hen, so I am wondering if I used regular chicken would I get a different response? I will be getting a small blender to grind up her dry food and then mix it with the broth to encourage her to eat it. Hopefully, that works as I know the dry food is equally important to her diet. Hopefully, this helps clear some of the questions up.

 

[emocatowner]

Which kind of Royal Canin wet and dry? Is it Royal Canin Renal? Royal Canin Early Renal? Or just Royal Canin Adult/Senior?

 

[khursh]

Royal Canin renal support. I've tried the flavors
Royal Canin Veterinary Diet Adult Renal Support T Thin Slices in Gravy Canned Cat Food and
Royal Canin Veterinary Diet Adult Renal Support D Thin Slices in Gravy.
she seems to eat them them without issues.

For dry food, it's Royal Canin Veterinary Diet Adult Renal Support A.

 

[emocatowner]

That sounds perfect!

My old dude used to love kibble, even the renal one. I gave him Hill's k/d Chicken.
After a while, he stopped wanting kibble and was losing weight, so I switched him to Hill's k/d Tuna. He loved it!
When he stopped wanting that, he got Specific Renal Support and he loved it for a while.
When he stopped wanting any renal kibble, and was losing weight with just wet food, he got Hill's Senior and ate that for a while.

I hope you find something your gal likes too!