In my first post of this year I told you about my diabetes and our rituals mom and I have. An other aspect of getting the diabetes under control was food. One thing I can tell you I ate amounts of food you could not believe, mom filled up my dry food and a few hours later it was empty. If mom left a bag with food open I was stealing food. A place with food was not save for me! That had to change in the future.
Not only the amount of food had to change, the food itself had to change. Not only did my mom left the VET with insulin, needles but she had new food with her special for diabetic cats. She had a bag of dry food and tins with wet food.
Now, as a cat or cat owner you can guess what happens next… me decided that I didn’t like it, now mom was standing there with her insulin and a cat that refused to eat the food.
Moms plan: Back to the old food and adding a small amount of the new food and every day more and more new food until all was new food. My plan: “Eating the old food, leaving the new food behind” I’m smarter then you mom.
Mom was getting desperate with me. Research on the internet got us to a Dutch site that is specialized in “diabetic cats”. Mom found there answers on food questions and diabetes. They advised her to give me “grain free” food, food with no or a minimum of carbohydrates. They have more proteins and fat. Mom found it logic because humans with diabetes need also less carbohydrates. She ordered it online and a miracle happened… I liked the food! They had also very tasty wet food, so a double win.
My mom learned also that she have to feed me this way: 2 big meals a day when I get my insulin and a smaller meal after four hours when the insulin is working at its best. The effect was impressive, insulin dropped after 2 months from 5 units to 3.5 units. Mom liked that a lot because how less insulin how smaller the chance to get a to low sugar level. The pré-insulin level was lower, that was good news. My fur got shinier, I started to look better.
The above made her thinking what if she could cut all the carbohydrates out of my food? What would happen then? She found the answer in “BARF”. “BARF” stands for “Bones and Raw Food”. That means I had to learn to eat raw meat, bones, liver and other strange stuff. Mom learned her lesson well about me and new food. She took it slowly, first she changed the small meal in the afternoon. She learned to eat me chicken, liver, beef, chicken stomach (I love these), quail legs (Bones part), turkey.
OMC, first I wasn’t enthusiastic but I learned to love the meat, special when lamb was served for me. Mom got my also exotic meat like kangaroo, deer and once I got reindeer. All that meat has to be saved somewhere, so it started with one slide in the freezer, then a second slide and now I have the whole freezer. If my mom is lucky I allow her a slide in the summer to put some ice-cream in it.
Not only did I learn to eat raw food, my mom had also a bad influence on Silvertje my nephew. She learned him to eat raw. Now he only wants to eat raw meat, he refuses any kind of dry or wet food.
Now 3 cats are eating raw meat here. The results are amazing: my sugar level dropped more, my pré-insulin number is now under the levels where it can damage the kidneys. Everyone is amazed how shiny my fur is. The same goes for Amy (my sister) and Silvertje. I have to go less to the VET. So all good things. Mom did good to change the food. I hope you have questions about “BARF” after reading this article. If you have feel free to post them in the comments, we will answer them but mom and I will write article about BARF where we will go into the details.
Now I have to leave you it’s time for my exercise to keep me healthy.
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See you next time,
Billy The Time Cat
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Great that you got such fabulous results! I’ve heart so much good things about this kind of food, maybe we should try it again (the first time we failed, because I refused to eat raw meat :o)
Tell your mom or dad to take it slowly, small in between treats of raw meat until you get used to eat them. They should try also different kind of meats.
What a positive outcome, you have a good mom taking care of you!
Thanks! Mom and I are a winning team. I’m winning and she is the team 😉
Haha, outwitting mom. But she’s smart. 😀 (I feel badly about cats that are so obese they cannot scratch themselves. Makes me cry.) 🙁
Yes, sometimes she is smarter then me but that makes us best friends <3
Mom and I dislike also obese cats, mom is watching now my weight closely. A lot of cat owners are not listening to their vet when they are told that their cat is obese and like humans we can become very sick from to much weight.
Oh my, a black cat and a TARDIS! Twice the awesomeness! So glad to hear that he’s doing well on his new diet and that the diabetes is being managed now. 🙂
🙂 thank you
Thank you, mom find me also awesome can you believe that?
Yes, we are on the winning side, diabetes on the losing side!
Fantastic! 😉
who looks pretty on a purple pillow?
Me <3
What a great Mom you have to try and try until something worked. I am going to forward this to someone I know whose kitty is also diabetic.
If they have any questions about diabetes and food, they can always contact me.
Great to see you, Billy the Time Cat! Glad to hear you’re doing so well on your new diet. Maybe you and my brother Steve can work out together on Skype? Anyway, one of the old ladies in my house, Violet, has the diabetes and eats a grain-free diet (she’s almost 19 and was diagnosed back when she 13). Her insulin needs have diminished to almost nothing.
I’ll have to tell my moms about BARF. Of course, they already complain about having to clean up too much of that as it is, though.
If I can help anyone I will gladly help, we don’t do Skype but mom is a lot on the laptop so she answers with 24 hours.
Yes, that can happen that the insulin is almost goes to nothing.
BARF is good and it’s not messy 😉
Good for you! Keep going at this pace and you will no longer need your insulin. 🙂
Unfortunate I will have to keep the insulin, my pancreas and those pesky Islands refuse to do their work but less is better!
<3
Looking good, Billy!
🙂
Thanks blushing <3
What a lovely boy! Glad he’s doing better!?
Thank you ! 😀
Well, of course!?
Thanks “blushes”!
*((trills))*?
I had a diabetic cat once, and I know how difficult it is to control what the cat eats in a multiple-cat household.
Yes, that can be a problem but if you give your cats grain-free food, the damage will be lower when you give them food filled up with grains.
Also learning cats to eat on regular time is a good thing. You can watch what your cats eat.
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Pingback: The Food in my bowl! | Billy the Time Travel cat
Thanks Billy 🙂
Thanks for the learning fun visit.
What a beautiful kitty! And he is so lucky to have a human who is so easy and willing to be trained. 🙂
Yes, I’m one lucky black cat!