Early kidney issues

[terestrife]

Writing this post to see if anyone in the forum has a cat eating cooked homemade food with kidney issues. The doctor calls it a kidney deficiency. Im questioning if I should change anything. The vet said not to, but then he said I should think about lowering phosphorus (even though her phosphorus levels are perfect at this point.) I don't know if I should switch anything in her diet. I currently use 5 lbs of skinless boneless chicken thighs and 5 lbs of skin on chicken thighs. And I use the powder Know better pet food. Just trying to get advice from other pet parents that home make food. If you go to the thread below you can see her test results.

related thread: Does my cat have CKD?

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi-
As you may have guessed, it's not so much the food or how it's made per se but what the final mineral et al nutrient content is and how much of a load it puts on the kidneys as they function, for example sodium.

You could double check with Know Better to find out how much phosphorus and sodium is in their mix.

However, I'm wondering if there might be something here;

Tips To Increase Your Cat’s Water Intake – TheCatSite Articles

If you aren't already familiar with felinecrf.org you may wish to take a look, or there is a Facebook group for kidney kitties

 

[Box of Rain]

The difficulty is that Know Better, quite understandably, formulates their pre-mix to deliver a "balanced" calcium to phosphorus ratio (theirs is 1.3 to 1). With 288 mg calcium and 221 mg per 120 gram (chicken-inclusive) portion.

There is no way to lower the phosphorus (mainly from powdered egg yolks) w/o lowering everything else.

The alternative would be to go DIY, using organs, a calcium source, and taurine to create a formula that's intentionally "imbalanced" for phosphorus (for a general cat population) but serves to deliver what a vet advises.

Our by calculating a "mix" of DIY and pre-mix to achieve the same ends.

I wonder if liability or regulatory issues would prevent a company from developing a low-phosphorus pre-mix aimed at CKD cats? Seems like there would be a market.

Bill

 

[Box of Rain]

Hi-
As you may have guessed, it's not so much the food or how it's made per se but what the final mineral et al nutrient content is and how much of a load it puts on the kidneys as they function, for example sodium.

You could double check with Know Better to find out how much phosphorus and sodium is in their mix.

However, I'm wondering if there might be something here;

Tips To Increase Your Cat’s Water Intake – TheCatSite Articles

If you aren't already familiar with felinecrf.org you may wish to take a look, or there is a Facebook group for kidney kitties

They list 84 mg of Sodium per 120 gram batch that includes customer-added lean chicken, but their ingredient list doesn't include any direct addition of sodium/salt, so it is a little hard to know if they are assuming most of the sodium is coming from the chicken (or not).

Probably a good question to ask them directly.

The phosphorus is 221 mg per 120 gram (chicken-inclusive) portion.

Bill

 

[terestrife]

I meant to post here instead of my other post.

I attached the response I got from the company. Seems they use a similar chicken that I use with similar sodium.

I could try doing my own mix, just worried of causing other issues in my cats since I am not actually an expert in cat nutrition. LOL Thats why i chose to use the premixes.

Edit:

The Best Homemade Cat Food Recipes For Kidney Disease in 2022 - All About Cats

i ran into this website. Not sure how i feel about giving my cats rice, pumpkin and butter.

edit 2: thanks for the link of water intake for cats. They eat only wet food (plus a few pieces of freeze dried chicken.) I automatically started adding 1/4 cup to Kitty's breakfast and dinner about a year ago just to help her feel full. She has an abnormal love of food.

Her food is already watered down so I think shes getting enough water.

 

[Furballsmom]

started adding 1/4 cup to Kitty's breakfast and dinner about a year ago just

That's quite a bit. Something I really like, since Poppycat loves it beyond all other things, is the baby food soup recipe in the water article. Even if your cat is getting moisture in the food, kidney kitties need a lot of water, plus it's a terrific little treat.

 

[terestrife]

Hello,
I will try the baby food soup recipe. Sounds like a good idea. Kitty doesnt really drink water the way that Elsa does.

I am still doing research to figure out what i should change. I haven't found any cat food powders formulated for cats with kidney issues. I might need to figure out my own recipe. Which makes me nervous. I keep seeing recipes online with rice. Not sure how i feel about feeding Kitty rice. Since rice is a carb, cant that lead her to develop potential issues with diabetes?

 

[Furballsmom]

I don't know, but could you replace the rice with something?