Renal diet in a multicat household

[Brazilagogo]

I have three cats who are 12, 15, and 18 years old. The 18 year old has been diagnosed with kidney disease and has to go on a renal diet. However, she’s always been a grazer and the boys are interested in her new food. Will it do them any harm to eat it or should I be taking it away when she’s left it unattended?

I had the same issue when Boycat got CKD, he was on the renal food and of course Girlcat didn't need it. They shared everything - swapped bowls all the time, both were grazers etc. Boycat was only on it for a few months, but in that time Girlcat got absolutely circular, put on nearly a kilo in about 3 months. After he had to be PTS and she went back on her normal food, the weight came most of the way off & now she's sharing with Tobias who needs lightweight food she's back to her normal svelte self.

That’s something to watch out for then. I’m more concerned that it might harm them than make them little chunkies 😸

The amount of weight Girlcat piled on in such a short amount of time, it would have been pretty bad for her health in the long run.

The differences in renal food are mainly the balance of the different elements e.g. low phosphorus and protein, added supplements like Omega 3. But as cats with CKD tend to lose interest in food, they also make them much tastier and higher energy per gram. In theory cats will tend to fill up on renal food before eating their own as it's supposed to be tastier - with mine, they both loved the renal dry but wouldn't touch the wet.

More than short term cats without renal disease need a decent amount of "normal" food as they will miss out on the things that they need, and feeding mostly renal food to a normal cat is warned against.

I'd check with your vet, and just be careful in the interim.

Not at all. They can all eat it. The only problem being is that the renal types of food, the wet pouches especially, are quite expensive for the cats who don't need it. After that it's keeping the cat with renal issues away from the other stuff!

I didn't notice our nonrenal cat putting on weight but unfortunately she got cancer soon after so who knows.

Microchip feeding bowls aren’t cheap, but they do ensure each cat only gets their own food - I’ve had them for years and they work very well

We had a similar issue. The vet assured us that l the renal diet wouldn’t do the cat who didn’t need it any harm (but obviously it is more expensive).

The cat who needed it died a couple of years ago but we are still feeding the renal diet food to his brother because he preferred it and stopped eating “normal” food.

Thanks for sharing your experiences. I don’t think there will be any issue with the boys not eating their “normal” food - they are just seeing the renal stuff as an interesting new extra. I’ll keep an eye on their waistlines though.

I might wait for the sales and see about buying a microchip feeder but that’s a good shout.

We got microchip cat feeders for our three and this worked really well. One of them took a little while to get the hang of his, but he got there in the end! There were a couple of intermediate settings to train him up. It was useful as we could see that all the cats were eating well, including the one on renal food. He loved the Hills and Purina dried food.

Definitely get microchip feeders. You will need one for each cat so it is a bit pricey but it will save money in the long run and they work really well. One of mine is on anti struvite food and the other cats wolf it down given have a chance!

I lock Cat One in a seperate room for 10 minutes to eat his million dollar food.