refusing to eat renal food help!

[deanlogan]

hi, my 7 yr old Scooby has ckd, she had been eating the renal food great, until this last few days. im waiting on a binder to put on ordinary cat food. in the mean time could any one please advice me on the best "ordinary" cat food I could give her? im feeding her felix good as it looks, at the moment. thank you in advance. dean

[MarkB]

There is no guarantee, but some companies like Felix (Purina) claim that the senior versions are lower in Phosphorus than the adult. Tanya's CKD website lists some foods, but I just checked and the links aren't working.

Some of mine with CKD managed for years on senior diets. It shouldn't make much difference if it is only for a few days without binders.

[deanlogan]

thank you mark,i will try that dean

[Crewella]

I did the same as Mark when I had cats that wouldn't eat the renal food and fed them senior pouches, mainly the regular Felix if I remember correctly, with binders as they got older. Recipes change, so it's a good idea to keep an eye on the phosphorus levels on the label. Egg, in any form, is also very good for cats with renal problems, especially egg white, so you could try mixing a little into her food.

I hope she picks up soon.

[bobbys girl]

I give Tommy Felix senior pouches. He will usually eat the dry Renal food, but ours all get James Wellbeloved Senior dry anyway.

He loves gravy and jelly so he gets his medicine in the jelly from Butchers tins. I'd give him Bisto if it meant he had his meds! (only kidding)

[MarkB]

One of the sellers on Amazon lists the phosphorus content of felix standard senior food as 0.2%. There is a formula to work out what that equates to as DMA (Dry matter analysis) if you know the moisture content of a wet food. Most are around 80%, which I think works out to 1% if it was dry food (if that makes sense) - which is on the high side, given that most dry renal food is somewhere around 0.3%, with a few as high as 0.5% - which is the same as some senior foods (ie JWB senior fish)

The bottom line is they need to eat and we have to compromise sometimes. Our Clapton managed for 5 years eating senior food as well as some adult food - like Helen, I started adding binders to each meal.

[Crewella]

I've also seen it said on here that the best food for a cat with renal problems is one it will eat - any food is better than nothing, or than very little because the cat doesn't find it appetising. As Mark says, you sometimes have to find a compromise.