Diabetic Cat Food Guide

Cats are obligate carnivores and are not designed by nature to consume a high carbohydrate diet. It is terribly illogical to feed any cat dry kibble, but especially one with diabetes. The rationale also applies to any of the prescription dry diabetes diets such as Purina DM and Hill's Science Diet w/d and m/d.

Feline diabetes is one of the most common endocrine diseases to plague our pets. In the vast majority of cases, it is directly linked to a diet based on commercially prepared dry, high carbohydrate food. Diet is the cornerstone for health in all cats, but in diabetic cats the right food can mean the difference between life and death. Owners of diabetic cats are advised to put their cats on a low or no carb/ high protein "Catkins" plan, in order to stabilize the cat's blood sugar. All dry foods are too high in carbohydrates to safely feed a diabetic cat. Many commercial canned foods are too high, as well. For that reason, pet owners are learning how to make their own.

All cats need a nutritious diet to thrive.  For diabetic cats,the diet that you feed them is even more important.

Nutritional Requirements for Diabetic Cat

Cats have a distinct digestive system that allows them to function on a diet of consisting of nothing more than fat and protein. While most mammals get their glucose from the breakdown of carbohydrates, cats are able to derive glucose from the amino acids found the fats and proteins. Cat foods with a high content of grains or vegetables are unhealthy. These ingredients may represent part of a well-balanced human diet, but they have no place in the feline world, particularly for a cat that is already debilitated by diabetes.

As a general guideline, the main ingredient in your diabetic cat's food should be cooked, slightly cooked, or raw meat and meat by products. Combine this well chopped meat with water, eggs, wild salmon oil (for essential fatty acids), powdered vitamin E, Vitamin B complex, taurine powder, and iodized salt. This is will provide your cat with a reasonable facsimile the natural, unprocessed food they evolved to digest. Many diabetic cats seem to recognize meat as their natural diet and will attack it with zest.

You should work closely with your vet to develop a proper diabetic cat food diet and feeding schedule for your cat.  If you have free fed your cat in the past, you might want to develop a schedule so that you can make sure that your cat eats the right amount of food at the right time.  Be careful if you decide to change the cat's food.  Make any changes gradual.  If the cat doesn't like the new food and eats less, the consequences can be dire.  

That doesn't mean that you should give up if your cat dislikes the new, healthier food (diabetic cat food).  Many cats will adjust to food changes as long as the change is gradual enough.  Be sure that the cat is eating enough food during this period.  Don't think that the cat will eat if she is hungry enough.

For all cats, but especially diabetic ones, you want to feed wet food.  Since a cat is an obligate carnivore, she needs meat, not grains to survive.  In the wild, the cat's diet would be around 2-5% carbohydrates.  Looking at commercial dry food, the percentage of carbohydrates is around 25%.  

With a low carbohydrate diet it is possible to reduce the insulin needs of your cat.  In some cases the diabetes even goes into remission.  You will need to monitor your cat's blood glucose level throughout this process and work closely with your vet.  You can use a glucometer on your cat, just as you would for a human diabetic.

Feeding a diabetic cat a high carbohydrate diet is analogous to pouring gasoline on a fire and wondering why you can't put the fire out.

Many cats that are in a diabetic state no longer need any insulin when they are finally fed an appropriate low carbohydrate diet.

If the diabetes has been a long-standing condition brought about by years of feeding a high carbohydrate diet, or another disease process, these cats may always need some insulin but the amount necessary to maintain proper blood glucose levels is nearly always significantly reduced once the patient is on a low carbohydrate diet.

Just because a food is canned, does not mean that it is nutritious.  There are other factors to consider.  One of the most important ones is the source of the meat.  Cheaper canned foods will rely on meat byproducts instead of muscle meat.  The ideal food contains no meat byproducts.  If there are byproducts in the food, it should not be listed as the primary ingredient.

Another thing to look for in choosing food for your diabetic cat is the amount of grains in the canned food.  Although wet food traditionally has less grains than canned food, some food still contains grains that are not good for cats.  You can choose grain free food.  If you do choose a food that contains grains, make sure that it is wheat, soy, and corn free.

Also, high fiber diets run counter to a cat's natural diet and recent research has shown that high fiber diets, unlike what is observed in a diabetic dog or human, are not beneficial for a diabetic cat.

Foods to avoid if you have cat with diabetes

Some of the foods we consider healthy will make a cat sick and can even cause its death. When preparing food for your diabetic cat, avoid the following ingredients: Raisins, onions, garlic, chocolate, artificial sweetener, grapes, fat substitutes, egg shells, mushrooms, macadamia nuts, avocados, persimmons, alcohol, pork or dog foods.

Make sparing use of milk and dairy products (even though they love them), fat trimmings, tuna (high mercury levels), raw fish and liver.

Liver and other organ meats can be very high in Vitamin A. If you use too much, you cat could end up with toxic levels in their bloodstream. It's good for them, but only in small amounts.

Caring for a cat that has diabetes can seem overwhelming. Removing the high level of carbohydrates from their diet and feeding them high protein food will make the disease much easier to cope with and can even reverse the process. By understand your cat's nutritional requirements and digestive process, you can easily create healthy, inexpensive food for your diabetic cat.