Need Cat To Gain Weight With Kidney Disease

[Wilbur's Servant]

I am planning on getting a cat mid-May who has stage one kidney disease and is consequently underweight, as well as he is only a year old and is a giant breed that continues to grow until they're five. He currently weighs 11 lbs but should be 14 lbs. Apparently giant breeds need more food than regular cats to begin with, as well as he needs to gain weight and he is still growing. We were planning on feeding him 40 kcal per pound he currently is as the usual recommended is 20-25 kcal, but we really don't know if this is enough or too much, or if there is any consequence of too rapid of weight gain. There are a lot of resources for making your cat lose weight, but nothing for how to make them gain weight. We are planning on feeding him a calorically dense kidney support diet. Any and all suggestions are appreciated. We are familiar with Tanya's site for kidney disease and have already read through most of it and used that to come up with our food plan. He is expected to be at most 25 lbs as an adult if that matters, but around the 20 lbs mark.

 

[kittyluv387]

I don't believe there's a consequence for gaining weight rapidly as long as he needs it. Dr. Elsey's chicken is a good one. If you do homemade raw with eggshell calcium instead of bone you'll achieve desired results too. A raw recipe with moderate to high fat plus eggshell calcium will give you calories and lower phosphorus.

 

[Wilbur's Servant]

I don't believe there's a consequence for gaining weight rapidly as long as he needs it. Dr. Elsey's chicken is a good one. If you do homemade raw with eggshell calcium instead of bone you'll achieve desired results too. A raw recipe with moderate to high fat plus eggshell calcium will give you calories and lower phosphorus.

We looked at Dr. Elsey's and it is too high in phosphorus, but we did look at other dry foods that are nutritionally sound as it's not feasible to always let him have raw food and since he's trying to gain weight, we plan on letting him free feed. Young Again Pet Food Zero Mature Health was recommended on Tanya's site as it has zero carbs and only .5% phosphorus. The other bulk of his diet would be made up of Darwin's Intelligent Design Kidney Support which is a raw food. We are not open to making our own kidney support food as it's not reasonable and we don't want to mess up.

 

[kittyluv387]

That's fair it's a big ordeal to make your own cat food, not gonna lie. But I can tell you from experience cats can most definitely gain weight on it. Even with scheduled feedings.

Another tip that I have is Omega 3s (fish oil) Kidney disease is an inflammatory disease and fish oil is anti-inflammatory. It helps kidney cats live longer. Dr. Pierson recommended 300mg of combined epa and dha for each of my cats but she said up to 600mg is safe.

 

[kittyluv387]

Here's the interview of Dr. Pierson about kidney disease.

 

[Wilbur's Servant]

Here's the interview of Dr. Pierson about kidney disease.

Yeah, we already found a raw food to feed, and we have no pet stores and we don't have that much faith in our ability to make our own raw food. Thank you for the video, and I will look into the Omega 3.

 

[kittyluv387]

Alnutrin with eggshell is a bit of a shortcut if you're ever interested in making your own. You just need some thighs and a bit of liver for the recipe.

A Guide To A Balanced, Homemade Cat Food - Alnutrin Supplements

I emailed them about keeping the skin on thighs and they said I can leave the skin on half the thighs. Anymore skin and I'd go below the minimum phosphorus recommended by AAFCO.

I know you don't want to make your own. Just wanted to let you know there are some simpler methods out there.

 

[Wilbur's Servant]

Alnutrin with eggshell is a bit of a shortcut if you're ever interested in making your own. You just need some thighs and a bit of liver for the recipe.

A Guide To A Balanced, Homemade Cat Food - Alnutrin Supplements

I emailed them about keeping the skin on thighs and they said I can leave the skin on half the thighs. Anymore skin and I'd go below the minimum recommended by AAFCO.

I know you don't want to make your own. Just wanted to let you know there are some simpler methods out there.

Thank you! Are there are pros of making your own cat food that would outweigh both my chance of screwing up the raw food and that Darwin's has the best kidney support diet I've found thus far?

 

[kittyluv387]

I wish they included the phosphorus content on a % basis too. But I'm assuming they are using a properly low amount. Their kidney line does look more promising than their regular raw cat food. It looks fine upon a first glance. It would be good to remember you can make your cat food in case there's a recall. Darwin has had recalls in the past I think and if it were to happen in the future it would be a good back up plan.

 

[Wilbur's Servant]

I wish they included the phosphorus content on a % basis too. But I'm assuming they are using a properly low amount. Their kidney line does look more promising than their regular raw cat food. It looks fine upon a first glance. It would be good to remember you can make your cat food in case there's a recall. Darwin has had recalls in the past I think and if it were to happen in the future it would be a good back up plan.

That makes sense, they do include the phosphorous on a % basis in their pdf and it's .5%, also I guess the bigger question is how many calories per lb or per day he should be getting, as we really have no plans for making our own food, although we have purchased omega 3 fish oil to add to his food once we get him.

 

[white shadow]

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Hi Wilbur's Servant.

Because cats generally don't appreciate the taste of fish oil, and because you wouldn't want the new food to be off-putting to him, perhaps consider introducing the oil with only a drop and, over time, slowly increase the amount up to the desired dosage.

Hope that will help!
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