He had advanced kidney disease when I started spoiling him, which inhibits eating. The healthiest food I could give him at that point was literally anything he’d eat, and there was just something about frozen white meat chicken nuggets from Costco that he just really liked.
He was on a very low phosphorus diet for years, and it was a constant struggle to get him to eat, even though I found a ton of things that were ok for him outside of the Rx diet food (which he refused to eat for every meal). My vet ended up asking me what I was feeding, because he wasn’t supposed to make it more than a year based on his kidney function labs, and he made it another 8, and was pretty healthy for most of it getting all the way up to a chubby 9 lbs at one point (small cat). He passed last July, and my vet was sad to see him go (he was a charming lover boy who adored strangers). It turns out, Rx kidney food for cats isn’t actually optimal because cats are obligate carnivores and need protein, but low protein is recommended for omnivores with kidney disease and that was just assumed to be true for cats as well, and the Rx foods are low phos and low protein, so cats waste away over time.
I don’t eat nuggets (or a lot of meat) normally, myself, and I usually don’t give my cats people food either, but I appreciate the suggestion all the same if I come across that need again :)
ApathyTree@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
He had advanced kidney disease when I started spoiling him, which inhibits eating. The healthiest food I could give him at that point was literally anything he’d eat, and there was just something about frozen white meat chicken nuggets from Costco that he just really liked.
He was on a very low phosphorus diet for years, and it was a constant struggle to get him to eat, even though I found a ton of things that were ok for him outside of the Rx diet food (which he refused to eat for every meal). My vet ended up asking me what I was feeding, because he wasn’t supposed to make it more than a year based on his kidney function labs, and he made it another 8, and was pretty healthy for most of it getting all the way up to a chubby 9 lbs at one point (small cat). He passed last July, and my vet was sad to see him go (he was a charming lover boy who adored strangers). It turns out, Rx kidney food for cats isn’t actually optimal because cats are obligate carnivores and need protein, but low protein is recommended for omnivores with kidney disease and that was just assumed to be true for cats as well, and the Rx foods are low phos and low protein, so cats waste away over time.
I don’t eat nuggets (or a lot of meat) normally, myself, and I usually don’t give my cats people food either, but I appreciate the suggestion all the same if I come across that need again :)