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Just getting familiar with this forum and hoping to get some friendly advice to help our sweet kitty Elba.
She gradually ate less over 10 days - sometimes cats don't eat, but we hold her everyday and could tell she was losing weight, so took her into the vet. They ran tests and said she has a slight infection so gave her an antibiotic injection, and sub Q for fluids. Tests showed signs of ckd, her kidney function is high but phosphorus levels elevated (we give her 1.1ml of aluminum hydroxide gel orally daily). It's been 4 days since her antibiotic shot and she seems to feel a bit better, but mostly wants to sleep. She's so weak the wind nearly blows her over. I'm looking for a liquid, paste, or pate food that is easy on the kidneys, yet good nutrition. I read that kibble dry food is difficult for kidneys to process, and tends to be high phosphorus, so we've eliminated that for now. Has anyone given baby food to their ckd kitty? I wonder if there is some baby food that is not high in calcium & phosphorus.
To feed her we've been giving her the canned ckd pate by Hill's science - I wouldn't say she likes it but we give it to her mixed & diluted w water in a syringe and at least she's getting some food. Elba was pretty healthy, except for a respiratory allergy/condition she occasionally gets about once a year, or less that is like a bad cold for humans. She responds well to her medicine for that.
We learned that Mirtazapine topical solution rubbed on her ears would increase appetite - but the vets are completely out, guess I'll look on Amazon or Chewy for that.
Does anyone have suggestions for nutrition & helping ckd kitties gain weight? I really appreciate it.
I love my cat, she's the best one I've ever had - she talks (you know), she responds, she comes when you call her, she stretches on the floor when I do floor exercises, she greets me every morning, she likes belly rubs and likes to brush her own self. And she grooms our other cat. She barely talks now but we have hope she'll live a few years because before this episode she was so healthy and attentive.
plain meat (stage 1) baby food can be used to help encourage a cat to eat. It's not balanced but can be used sparingly, or as a sole food for a few days.
It must be plain meat and water in the food, nothing else.
You can make your own version by simmering a chicken thigh in a little water, then taking the meat off the bone and either shredding it into the broth or running it through a food processor if she prefers it more mashed.
You can hand feed slivers of this meat too.
Absolutely no kibble. Any canned food will be okay for her, avoid fishy foods.
I am Breeder and I breed Bengal's cats. When my kittens 4 weeks old I always start feed them with Gerber baby food and they really like it and I never had issue with their poop it was good and solid. After one week by introducing Gerber baby food I start grind Royal Canine dry food and start adding this grind food to Gerber baby food. After 6 weeks old I start just give them grind food and slowly eliminate from Gerber baby food.
Last edited by VTsnowbird; 05-21-2022 at 11:37 AM..
Reason: not allowed to promote your own business.
I am Breeder from and I breed Bengal's cats. When my kittens 4 weeks old I always start feed them with Gerber baby food and they really like it and I never had issue with their poop it was good and solid. After one week by introducing Gerber baby food I start grind Royal Canine dry food and start adding this grind food to Gerber baby food. After 6 weeks old I start just give them grind food and slowly eliminate from Gerber baby food.
Good grief..I would never buy a kitten from you, they must be terribly malnourished. Force weening at 4 weeks onto unbalanced baby food, then fed kibble?
Good grief..I would never buy a kitten from you, they must be terribly malnourished. Force weening at 4 weeks onto unbalanced baby food, then fed kibble?
What are you talking about did you read my message? I give my kittens Garber food only for 1 week because with Gerber food its easy to add grind Royal Canine dry food and remember in 4 weeks old they still milk their mom and once kittens start use to it to smell and taste of dry food I remove Gerber food with is at 5-6 weeks old so most on my kittens on Gerber food only for one week and then they eat dry and raw food from pet deli store. I am in breeding business for 10 years and I am in Breeders community for long time and they all doing start with baby food for one week because when they 4 weeks old mom does not have enough milk especially when mom have 6-7 kittens and we need start teach kittens to eat dry and can food. At 4 weeks old kittens does not want eat can food because of big smell and Garber food does not have as much as smell like can food. If you never breed before that you don't know what are talking about
Just getting familiar with this forum and hoping to get some friendly advice to help our sweet kitty Elba.
She gradually ate less over 10 days - sometimes cats don't eat, but we hold her everyday and could tell she was losing weight, so took her into the vet. They ran tests and said she has a slight infection so gave her an antibiotic injection, and sub Q for fluids. Tests showed signs of ckd, her kidney function is high but phosphorus levels elevated (we give her 1.1ml of aluminum hydroxide gel orally daily). It's been 4 days since her antibiotic shot and she seems to feel a bit better, but mostly wants to sleep. She's so weak the wind nearly blows her over. I'm looking for a liquid, paste, or pate food that is easy on the kidneys, yet good nutrition. I read that kibble dry food is difficult for kidneys to process, and tends to be high phosphorus, so we've eliminated that for now. Has anyone given baby food to their ckd kitty? I wonder if there is some baby food that is not high in calcium & phosphorus.
To feed her we've been giving her the canned ckd pate by Hill's science - I wouldn't say she likes it but we give it to her mixed & diluted w water in a syringe and at least she's getting some food. Elba was pretty healthy, except for a respiratory allergy/condition she occasionally gets about once a year, or less that is like a bad cold for humans. She responds well to her medicine for that.
We learned that Mirtazapine topical solution rubbed on her ears would increase appetite - but the vets are completely out, guess I'll look on Amazon or Chewy for that.
Does anyone have suggestions for nutrition & helping ckd kitties gain weight? I really appreciate it.
I love my cat, she's the best one I've ever had - she talks (you know), she responds, she comes when you call her, she stretches on the floor when I do floor exercises, she greets me every morning, she likes belly rubs and likes to brush her own self. And she grooms our other cat. She barely talks now but we have hope she'll live a few years because before this episode she was so healthy and attentive.
Look forward to your suggestions
Make sure the baby food has no onions, sometimes they disguised as “natural flavor”.
We had good luck with feeding raw ground chicken if your cat accepts it.
The acidity in their stomach allegedly prevents the bacteria if any of making them sick. We didn’t have any problems- the cat was very willing to eat raw ground chicken - lasted a long time.
In spite of controversy at the time - we did feed a high protein diet - as designed by nature.
We did get prescription for fluids and were administering it at home - a bit at a time - freezing the therumo needles # 19 I think - to avoid the pain of a prick in the scruff of the neck - they are the best - smaller outside diameter, the cat wouldn’t even flinch, wouldn’t even wake up. We warmed the fluids to the body temperature to make it more pleasant
For long term raw chicken feeding you suppose to add some minerals, including powdered bones or you could rotate different canned cat food in addition.
Try to feed her warm peoples food - poached chicken breast, poached or soft boil egg? Butter - grass fed? anything that she is willing to try.
Or even cream of wheat - topped with warm liquid heavy cream? Or rice the same way., even some plain soups without any spice? Some cats accept that.
The disease make them nauseous- if you could control that she may be more likely to eat.
Slightly warming of the food makes it more pleasant if she is older and losing her sense of smell.
The key is to make her eat a bit: otherwise the pancreas may give out - happens irreversibly in some cats if they don’t eat in 24 hours.
There are lists of canned food with low phosphate on line - compiled by people in feline ckd community- the manufacturers change the recipes often -so try to find newer posting.
Search for feline ckd
Sending wishes for better health to your kitty
Last edited by L00k4ward; 05-21-2022 at 11:15 AM..
What are you talking about did you read my message? I give my kittens Garber food only for 1 week because with Gerber food its easy to add grind Royal Canine dry food and remember in 4 weeks old they still milk their mom and once kittens start use to it to smell and taste of dry food I remove Gerber food with is at 5-6 weeks old so most on my kittens on Gerber food only for one week and then they eat dry and raw food from pet deli store. I am in breeding business for 10 years and I am in Breeders community for long time and they all doing start with baby food for one week because when they 4 weeks old mom does not have enough milk especially when mom have 6-7 kittens and we need start teach kittens to eat dry and can food. At 4 weeks old kittens does not want eat can food because of big smell and Garber food does not have as much as smell like can food. If you never breed before that you don't know what are talking about
I know about nutrition. I know that many breeders try to cut corners to save money because they want to make a profit. Decent ethical breeders that I know of prefer to let kittens naturally wean, and offer wet and balanced raw, never kibble.
Baby food isn't balanced, especially no calcium. Kibble doesn't balance unbalanced food, nor does mother's milk.
And why one earth would you start them off as kibble addicts, then the people who buy them have all the work of getting them off it.
Anyway this sort of thread drift isn't useful to the OP, so moving on.
OP, you can mix in meat baby food with canned food to make it more appealing for your kitty. I wouldn't feed it exclusively, as it's not nutritionally complete for kitties.
Try grain free pate cat foods (I agree with cats mom in avoiding fish flavors). Warm them a little to make them smellier and more appealing.
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Gerber baby food for kittens is save
