Simple Diet Tips to Manage Diabetes Mellitus in Cats
With the right efforts and care of pet owners, cats diagnosed with diabetes can live long with good and healthy lives. Professional veterinary diagnosis, regulated insulin injections, oral administration of medicines, and diet modifications can help cats afflicted with diabetes mellitus, sometimes even reverse the condition. In consultation with the veterinarian, design a set of dietary patterns and regulations customized specially to suit your diabetic cat. Keep in mind your cat’s age, gender, the severity of diabetes, the presence of other comorbid illnesses, and your economic constraints in mind before embarking on this treatment plan. Listed here are a few diet tips that might help stabilize your cat’s erratic blood-glucose levels. Try them after speaking with the veterinarian.
If you are one of the millions of cat owners who associates a chubby cat with a healthy one, think again. Your cat might be overweight. And as he gets older, obesity can cause many health complications, as it does in humans. Type 2 diabetes or diabetes mellitus is one of the conditions your cat is likely to develop because of obesity.
Control Obesity
To control obesity overfeeding must be stopped at once, and a gentle and safe weight reduction goal must be set. This is the primary step in managing diabetes in your cat.
Diet control
Instead of free-feeding your cat, switch to giving him smaller portions of food multiple times a day.
Club feed times with the administration of insulin injections to enable your cat to maintain his blood sugar steadily without any sharp fluctuations.
Substitute food items
Substitute regular dry kibble food that is rich in carbohydrates, fillers, preservatives, and artificial additives, with protein-rich raw meat that is most suitable for all cats, especially for your diabetic one.
Readymade foods for cats
You could choose to feed your diabetic cat any of the following readymade foods too:
- Freeze-dried food like Stella and Chewy’s Freeze-dried Raw Dinner Morsels for Cats that come in six different flavors, chicken, duck, rabbit, turkey, salmon, and chicken, and salmon and cod are even suitable for cats with intolerances. Made grain-free and gluten-free with wild-caught and farm-raised animals, these freeze-dried products contain 98% meat, organ, and bone.
- Canned food like Purina Veterinary Diets DM Dietetic Management for Cats is ideal for diabetic cats because it provides complete and balanced nutrition in the form of high protein concentration, and low carbohydrates.
- Prescription foods like Hill’s Glucose Weight Management Chicken Flavor Dry Cat Food have better texture than most commercial dry cat foods are easy to digest for cats with digestive issues and help stout cats lose weight.
- Dehydrated food like the one from Honest Kitchen, The Human Grade Dehydrated Grain Free Chicken Cat Food, is made from free-ranging chicken that is dehydrated to lock in nutrients. It is easier to digest this protein and moisture-rich food that is all-natural too.
Other alternative brands
- Feline Glycobalance Morsels In Gravy from Royal Canin: This veterinarian-approved formula helps maintain blood glucose levels at an optimum level in diabetic cats. The natural cereals in this gravy food release energy slowly, and in the process decreases hyperglycemia. It helps your cat lose weight and also strengthens its urinary tract.
- Blue Buffalo Wilderness High Protein Grain-Free, Natural Adult Dry Cat Food : Made with real meat in duck, rabbit, quail, and turkey flavors, the 40% high-quality crude protein in this food ideally meets the nutritional requirement of your diabetic cat.