Most delicious renal diet food

[Thedogswhiskers]

My 18 yr old cat has just been diagnosed with stage II renal disease and therefore a renal diet. Royal canin wet food sachets seem to be acceptable but the renal select dry food not so much. She is already skinny- does anyone have a cat in the same boat and found food they will eat?

My cat enjoyed the Purina renal food for quite a while (she’s now got very fussy in her old age and I don’t know from one day to the next what she will fancy).

A previous cat of mine also had RC Wet - but ONLY the chicken variety.
She had some renal biscuits but they were backup and again she only liked RC ones, as I found out to my literal cost at first!

@Dorisslurkingfriend
ah, thank you. Are the kibbles quite small? Her current one is large and flavourless which is odd. Flavourless doesn’t inspire one to eat surely

I guess it’s no bad thing moving to wet diet only? I always think crunchy things good for their teeth

You can get medication to stimulate their appetite too. There's an ear gel which was very effective for my cat.

I wouldn't worry about her teeth at this stage either. Deal with the bigger problem if getting enough food in.

The RC biscuits (if that's what you were asking about) were quite small, triangular pyramid shaped IIRC. They had a smell to them.

Not renal but we feed Purina RX urinary and they seem to really like it more than any other prescription food.

Elton liked Concept for Life dry renal food from Zooplus and could sometimes be tempted by the RC renal pate stuff .

The renal diets are low protein so palatability is an issue for all of them. Our clients seemed to get on better with Royal Canin renal of the prescription diets we tried. You need to know your cat’s phosphorus level and be trying to keep it within the range for the IRIS guidelines (from memory it’s <1.6 for stage 2 renal failure which is the lower half of the ‘normal range) The gel for appetite stimulation mentioned upthread is Mirtaz and can be helpful, and the other option is a senior diet with an added phosphate binder e.g. ipakitine or pronefra.

Oh yes I can second the phosphate binder - it helped us a lot with allowing Elton to eat the normal food he preferred.

Did you ever find a decent renal food for your cat, @Thedogswhiskers ? I’m having the same issue. Stage 2 CKD and a cat who has never been particularly food-driven anyway. It feels like the start of an expensive nightmare.

Another vote here for Ipakitine.

@ConstantlyFuriosa
Yes! Partial success anyway. I bought a renal taster pack from https://www.vetsend.co.uk/kidney-diet-taster-pack-cats and most of the food was acceptable. But still no luck with dry food in the mornings. She just won’t hear of any renal biscuits. And won’t eat wet food in the morning either so was losing even more weight. So have resorted to having usual dry food and renal wet food with renal Kattovit treats from Amazon and she’s now mostly happy again.

Oh, I’m pleased you’re having some success. I’ve ordered one of those taster packs and had some of those kattovit treats delivered today from good old zooplus. The reviews were amazing so I was really hopeful! She took one sniff and walked away. And I bought about 8 boxes of 6 on the strength of the reviews.

she’s used to the dreamies yoghurty treats, though, which I give her regularly after her meds, so I guess it was always going to be tough to change that. I shall persevere.

I only had the diagnosis last week, so it’s very early days. She did eat a bit of royal canin renal with chicken wet food earlier today, but it smells so bad I can’t leave any laying around as it stinks the house out. So I’ve got the remainder triple bagged and under a bowl in the kitchen. Must buy an airtight container specially. I’m actually quite shocked at just how much the renal food smells.

Did you have to do a slow transition to get her to eat renal wet food?

@ConstantlyFuriosa I must say the Royal Canin wet food has been the least favourite so far. Sorry to hear about turning nose up
at Kattovit! Especially at that volume. I tried
mixing her meds in it initially which turned it into poison but have stopped that practice now and she’s come round.

Latest trial is this which has been well received And can be bought in small volumes . I didn’t introduce wet food slowly, just got on with it. She always used to be a dry food fan but that has switched now and as I say, no luck with any renal dry food. But yes, all renal food smells very strong!

Hiya @Thedogswhiskers what is the latest thing you’ve tried?

So, already knowing my girl was super fussy and not at all food-driven I bought a selection of renal stuff from zooplus. The kattovit is still not being well received. She looks at it like I’m trying to feed her something unimaginable.

I had limited success with Royal Canin Renals in beef and chicken flavour. At first the smell enticed her but then it was just a few licks and walk away. And she’s always been a grazer which is fine with food you can leave out for a little while, but with those two mentioned they stank so much I was chucking away more than she ate. And as anyone feeding a renal diet will know this food is bloody expensive.

So today, I gave her some of the Royal Canin early renal food. This probably isn’t quite what she needs as they said she’s stage two. But she’s taken to it extremely well (thus far, but I mustn’t get my hopes up too much until she’s eaten it for at least a few days). And that’s probably because it doesn’t stink so horribly like the others and has a higher protein content - which I know is ‘bad’ but it’s not as bad as feeding plain old gourmet gold or whatever she liked before.

And also these biscuits that look like dreamies but are dry cat food. Integra Protect Renal Yummy Bits. They smell normal and she likes them. They are rock hard, though, and she has few teeth left due to dental issues so I have to break them in half for her.

At least a couple of things showing promise. Still gutted about the Kattovit cream things as I thought they’d be magic!

I agree re the phosphate binder - my orange one is on one of those. He will not, will not touch renal food of any description. He went down to 4 kilos, scruffy fur, every vertebra palpable while I was trying different brands. I ended up giving him poached fresh chicken for breakfast, poached fresh fish for dinner and high quality dry food. We're now 2 years post diagnosis, he's 5 kilos, glossy, has his energy back and is completely himself again. He's only just 4, and for me it's quality of life that matters.

He happily takes his meds in a pill wrap.

My cat decided death was preferable to eating any of the renal cat foods and we really tried them all.

In the end we decided fed is best, and let her enjoy her final years eating whatever she liked.

Mine is on renal smilla dry kibble and Renal Royal Canin Wet.

He used to have lickylix every day along with dreamies as treats, I swapped the dreamies with "Integra Protect Renal Yummy Bits" that I found on zooplus and he loves those - he doesn't even try and take his sisters dreamies now as he's too excited by those. The lickylix got swapped with "Kattovit Special Cream Low Protein" which he also loves. I crush any medication he ever needs into those so it's very handy.

I tried a few other wet/dry brands but those were the only ones he thrived on. He went from skinny and miserable with a ratty coat and stinking of pee back to a healthy cat running around like a kitten after about 3 months of the renal diet so it really is worth trialing everything.

That's so good to hear @pointythings . I know from my experience with Elton how tough it is when they develop CKD at a young age ( Elton was just 3 when he was diagnosed) and I am really happy for you that your beautiful orange boy is doing so well.

@ConstantlyFuriosa
thanks for the integra protect tip as we are just on what dry food Tesco express had in on a morning of desperation to get her eating anything.

wet food success at the moment is - Specific kidney support and beaphar kidney diet chicken. They are both pate-like in trays and she will nearly eat the whole thing! I can also see fat/oil floating on top which I figure is good for her skinny waistline. The sachets with bits and lots of gravy just end up having the gravy eaten and bits left.

one vet we saw said strict renal diet, the other said more important to keep her eating to get condition on so that’s what I’m hoping for. Neither vet mentioned phosphate binders so not sure how that works. No luck getting potassium into her - nasty green stuff which makes her gag so abandoned that.

I had a bit of success with the kattovit cream, hurrah! It’s the smell that puts her off; so after pilling her - she will not eat anything with pills so I have to do it manually - I just put a tiny dollop of the cream on her lips so she has to lick it off. Once she’s tasted it she will go in for a lick or three of it and this has worked a few times. Given I’m manually pilling her it’s so important to know it’s getting washed down.

She’s currently on gabapentin which was prescribed because she got idiopathic cystitis and was in agony. This is how I ended up finding out about the ckd. She also has arthritis, bless her.

Don’t really want her on the gaba long term if possible because it’s excreted solely by the kidneys so am thinking about Solencia injections. Has anyone tried those if their furry companions also had arthritis?

Although one good thing about the gabapentin is I’m pretty sure it helps stimulate her appetite. I just don’t want her doped up all the time if possible.

I’ll have to try those pate ones, @Thedogswhiskers as she’s fond of the texture.