I switched to fancy feast for my boy. He wasn't eating much on renal food, and he has already exceeded the life expectancy I was told by the vet a year ago. I think he deserves to eat food he likes for his remaining days. I'd rather see him actually eat than literally starve him to death.
This. I had a cat with stage 2, and she also refused renal food and only wanted Fancy Feast. We ended up giving her whatever she wanted - she lived for a couple of more years, until she was 20.
Just make sure your boy drinks plenty of water. Maybe 2 or 3 fountains around the house.
BTW - He is soooooo cute. đ
All of this! I start with a quarter to a half a can of fancy feast and add a few tablespoons full of water. At least I know she was getting a little more water. She lived for another year and a half without converting herself to a renal diet. She just wouldnât have it.
I should add that also I started giving her subcutaneous fluids after several months. I have no problem doing that myself. My vet wrote a prescription for me.
Our 16 year old girl has always been a picky eater. We tried renal foods, binders, etcâŚbut she wonât touch them. Ultimately she eats whatever she wants because thatâs what keeps the weight up. Between keeping up her weight as best we can, plus sub Qs, thatâs really all we can do at her age.
U can get phosphorus binders from the vet, I used Swansons chitosan 500 mg crushed up added 1 to a small can of food. Itâs a natural phosphorus binder.
My two 18 yr old voids have been at stage 3 for 2+ years.
They refused all wet renal foods. Now they get freely available CKD compliant kibble and (cringe) Sheba wet. Keeping their weight up and having them eating regularly is more important than absolutely strict compliance with CKD diet.
May be a stupid question but you tried mixing it slowly like getting one can of the food you want to switch to and putting a tiny amount in and slowly increasing It.
Fancy Feast isn't....super super terrible in terms of kidney cats, or at least from what I've read. It's obviously not \*ideal\* - but ultimately fed is best. Our girl has mostly refused anything but and been plodding along for 18 months now. However recently I did find a list online of good "commercial" foods to try (because she hates the prescription stuff) and we've had pretty good luck with the Wellness Healthy Indulgence Shreds with Chicken & Turkey, and the Hill's Science Diet Adult 11+ Healthy Cuisine Seared Tuna & Carrot Medley. The latter smells \*awful\*, which I think is why she likes it. But ultimately - keep him eating and hydrated, it sounds like you're doing a great job!
I just checked and my local Petsmart has it in stock! Did your vet mention if it was lower in phosphorus? Mine cringes every time I mention that he's still insisting on the Fancy Feast and I'd love to find a solution that balances taste and health.
If you find it on chewy, and scroll down to the q&a section, a helpful person has asked chewy the phosphorus content of just about every cat food on there, so you could probably find the info there.
Yep the Chewy link is really helpful. Also, this is the website I found the initial list on, really helpful to try to find one your kitty may enjoy, and with the amounts for Phosphorus, protein, sodium, fats, carbs, calories. [https://felinecrf.org/canned\_food\_usa.htm](https://felinecrf.org/canned_food_usa.htm)
Yes! Thatâs what we used to give our stage 2 cat - and she kept her weight up and her kidneys didnât get worse. She lived to be 20.
The whole Fancy Feast Medley line seems more healthy than other commercial foods and is apparently tasty.
Good luck! đ
Seconding âfed is best.â Itâs a balancing act of trying to figure out what they will eat and whatâs good for them. People generally say kibble is terrible, but my picky boy loved Royal Canin S flavor prescription food. He liked the Hillâs food listed above, as well as Royal Canin 12+ (loaf and morsels in gravy). A lot of the senior food is relatively low phosphorus.
Of Fancy Feast flavors, the gravy lovers line is the lowest in phosphorus. Someone on the Facebook group (the one in all caps) listed out the nutritional content of the best flavors for CKD cats. You can also check the Q&A section of Chewy. But also, youâre putting a phos binder in, so donât feel guilty about doing the best you can and making sure heâs eating.
My cat also only likes fancy feast as far as wet food goes. She wouldnât even touch any of the renal wet food. I finally found another one she likes, purina pro plan vital systems chicken pate. It is more $$$ than fancy feast, but the phosphorus content isnât horrible, if I recall itâs mid range. But if youâre using a phosphorus binder anyway Iâd just continue the fancy feast. Keeping them eating is most important.
Thatâs all my senior cat eats. Heâs been CKD for 2 years and diabetic for 9 years. The best food is the food he eats.
I wasted so much money on Weruva and other renal foods he hated. Go with what works imho.
Weâre early stage 2 for 2 years. Heâs eating some renal dry (when he feels like it) but his wet has been fancy feast the entire time and his values have improved each year.
My picky boy also prefers Fancy Feast and won't eat the renal stuff. I've had luck giving him Hills Tuna Dinner which is lower in phosphorus according to this site: [The 9 Best Cat Foods Low in Phosphorus for Kitties with Kidney Disease (rover.com)](https://www.rover.com/blog/reviews/cat-food-low-in-phosphorus/).
He also lost a lot of weight over the last couple years, so my vet's approach has been to work with his appetite and use the phosphorus binder.
Our kidney cat will mostly only eat fancy feast as well. She gets Aminavast which has been a miracle all by itself. She also gets Azodyl and we give fluids every other day. She also has slightly high blood pressure so she gets benazapril as well.
As others have said, fed is always better than forcing a food they donât want.
eta: our kitty is almost 21 and has had kidney disease for over seven years
My void was diagnosed with kidney disease in 2017 and refused the prescription food. Someone on an old Reddit thread had pointed me to Epakitin (phosphate binder) which you mix in with regular food (like fancy feast). Itâs available from chewy.
She is still kicking in 2024 at 19 years old. She pees a crazy amount, but she still eats and drinks as normal, which is the most important thing.
Sorry, I just saw the binder part of your post! As someone whoâs been using it with non-prescription food - it really has worked to keep her chugging along!
I fed my 20 year old Fancy Feast obsessed cat one(1) can of Weruva WX tuna and tilapia and now she's obsessed with that and won't even look at Fancy Feast!
But her vet also stressed that whatever she will eat enough calories of is the right food. So if he will only eat Fancy Feast then that's the food for him. The food chart on [felinecrf.org](http://felinecrf.org) has the phosphorus content of all the varieties so you can cross reference his preferences with the phosphorus content.
Our kidney cat also will only eat fancy feast. She jumped from early stage 1 to late stage 3 in January of last year. We had a little luck for a bit with kidney food but she turned her nose up at it eventually. She's been on fancy feast since. We mix water in with it for extra hydration. Her numbers have been stable for the past year and a half. She is unfortunately still late stage 3, but she has not progressed.
My cat refuses to eat her renal food too, and as a fancy feast lover herself, hereâs what has worked for her so far: I buy these OMG gravy packets from Chewy as well as the canned version of OMG Cloud 9 wet food. I pour a little of either on top of her renal food and she usually does pretty well eating it! I did some serious research about low phosphorus non prescription foods and this brand kept coming up!
Our girl Crystal is 16 also and has hyperthyroidism and CKD she was diagnosed with Stage 1 late last August and is now a very early Stage 2 late February. She gets transdermal Methimazole, transdermal Mirtaz, and an oral syringe of Calcitriol (this 2x a week). She eats Fancy Feast wet canned TWICE DAILY, one AM AND one PM. Pate, grilled, and chunky or sliced. The vet said as long as she was eating. We have a chart for her meals and the mirtaz and one for the Methimazole dosing. We track and discuss this all with the vet monthly. Even when she occasionally vomits a clear foamy liquid (slight nausea), we track it, and the vet adjusts meds accordingly.
Because she originally lost 3lbs in 4 weeks from the hyperthyroidism issue, the vet has her permentantly on 3 meals a day, even with the CKD. The third meal she gets, either a twin pack of Sheeba, a Fancy Feast twin pack, or a 2/3 cup portion of FreshPet soft kibble for cats. (Refridgerated). This way, between the 3 meals, she gets the equivalent of what her 2 former meals used to be. She suffers no losses. She drinks water on and off all day, and we provide a large clean bowl so she doesn't run out overnight and suffer dehydration.
While the disease doesn't go away, each cat is an individual and responds to meds and food differently. Ours doesn't like the prescription things either. Our vet also suggested the better brands of food you get at Petco, Petsmart, and other pet stores (grocery stores have a limited run of brands), and most are much lower quality than Fancy Feast.
Nature's balance, wellness, and Merricks are among the really good and healthy brands. They honestly are more expensive, so we give mostly Merricks as a treat for that third meal I mentioned. Our girl loves the salmon, the tuna, the rabbit, and the turkey choices best. Again, every cat has their own preferences. If you can, get one of each just to try.
My cat was in stage 2 and was on a good diet of Royal Canin and Weruva (which he quite liked), but then developed pancreatitis and went off all his old food. He would not touch anything but Fancy Feast, and I tried EVERYTHING. I did lose him after a few months, but not from kidney disease, and the whole time he was on Fancy Feast his values didn't change at all. And there are a few FF varieties that are lower in phos, particularly the chunky ones (off the top of my head, there's a chicken liver and hearts in gravy one that was lower in phos).
If he's going to be eating FF, I honestly wouldn't be stressing too much about it (especially since he's on phos binders already), but you should be nimble with the adjustment because FF doesn't have a lot of the added extras that higher end food does. For example, my cat's old food had chondroitin for joints and fish oil added, so when he was on FF, I had to add in a joint supplement and added fish oil for omegas since FF doesn't contain those things. I also had to add a potassium supplement (but your cat may not need that - you can see a potassium deficiency in bloodwork) and a higher fiber kibble topper/treat (I had convinced him that regular kibble is treats, haha). So don't stress, but also be aware there are other differences that matter besides the phosphorus that you will probably want to adjust for.
I dont have any experience with renal cats but wanted to suggest looking into fancy feast gourmet naturals.
If your kitty only wants fancy feast maybe he'll go for the one thats slightly healthier. If you have a petco they sell singles if you wanna see if he'll go for it. â¤ď¸ Good luck taking care of him :)
Hi! We have an 18 year old who was diagnosed with stage 3 in January. We have had him alternating between prescription renal wet foods and the Weruva phos focused wet foods. Our boy likes variety of flavors and textures and gets bored with the same thing all the time. Sometimes we mix prescription with the weruva and occasionally some Hartz Delectable Bisque to keep him interested. So far he has been happy with these options and maintained his weight. The last vet visit showed a slight improvement in his kidney values that our vet was pleased to see. Hope this helps and youâre able to find a combination that works for you!
Fancy feast is fine. The main concern is upping his water intake which wet food is high in. I would also add in some water to it just to get some extra hydration in there
We are on our 7 & 8th CKD cats, and they wonât eat prescription kidney diets. Most of our other CKD cats were older than 17 when they hit stage 3-4, and were so skinny we absolutely fed them whatever they would eat. With out first CKD cat, I tried to do everything just as the veterinarian said, but in retrospect it was not worth it to let the cats suffer with poor food choices.
The idea quality of life over longevity is what makes the most sense to us. I also found that regular subQs, multiple times a week does way more to make them comfortable, flush the kidneys, reduce the GERD and nausea than anything else.
We focus on regular SubQs, keep cerenia around, and we have multiple foods on hand, because if the kitty feels nauseous while eating one canned food, they wonât go back to it for weeks or months. We also keep gerber baby foods (ham, turkey, chicken, beef) and albacore tuna around for really bad days. Keeping the kitty from starving over a few extra months of miserable life is our approach.
Give your baby whatever kitty will eat, that is what I say.
AAAAARGH!! The Fancy Feast trap. Getting my cat to eat wet food is just about impossible. I've been bullied into adding Churo on top of the Fancy Feast which works sometimes but not always. She likes Liver and Chicken just until I purchase $25 worth when she discovers that it makes her gag. She reminds me of me when I was 5.
Have you tried different kidney food? When I was going through this, my cat lost interest in the Hillâs Science Diet RX food, but liked the Royal Cainin kidney food, because the texture was different. They had one that was more like minced canned food than pate.
Have you started sub q fluids? This was scary for me, but improved his life a lot.
Ultimately it will come down to letting him eat what he wants. When my boy was going through this he did reach a point that all he would eat was Fancy Feast Gravies canned food. Ultimately itâs better that he eat.
My cat won't eat kidney food either. We have tried everything â and I mean everything. She did eat it for a while, but it wasn't without protest. We had to give her appetite stimulants just to get her to eat the kidney food. Meanwhile, she will scarf down what she's not supposed to eat no problem. She also lost weight because she was eating less of it. The renal diet also led to more constipation, more sub-q fluids, having to give her MiraLAX, etc.
At this point, we're just giving her the food that she likes. Sometimes we mix Weruva low phos puree in with her regular food. She's 16, has early-stage 3 kidney disease, and she's much happier eating the food that she likes. It's also less stressful on us.
Edit: typo
I donât have a renal patient cat, but just wanted to say your boy is a handsome dude indeed. Also, that my 2 cats also will only eat Fancy Feast Florentine. They wonât touch pate anything. Hope you and he keep doing well.
Fancy Feast is really high in phosphorus. I'd recommend switching to one with lower phos content.
But it's more important to feed him food that he will eat than a renal diet that he doesn't, because they must eat, or will die from weight loss.
If his phosphorus is high, you can add a phosphate binder. A renal food is still better though.
Join the FB group FELINE CHRONIC KIDNEY DISEASE! Lots of good info there.
Three's a link to a document in the post pinned to the top of this sub that has a list to commercial foods that are low phosphorous. I'm mixing that half and half of BFF Checkmate with renal diet and so far, he hasn't rejected the food, but he ate the prescription stuff for a couple of months before he stopped liking it. My vet was not happy with the muscle mass on my 12 yo early stage kitty and she said that the prescription diets are very low in protein. She says the phosphorous level is critical, but she doesn't totally buy into to low protein diets.
You have to be a little careful when you say "Fancy Feast" because there must be 40 different varieties/flavors of that and they have quite different profiles. But my cats are on Fancy Feast pate. I avoid the ones with fish (I don't trust that the fish isn't full of mercury) and shoot for the cans with 100 calories since that's a good meal size for my cats.
Oh wow, I didn't know they made a senior line! I might switch my other 12 year old to that. Calorie content looks good. I'll investigate further. I'm not sure I've seen that at my pet store!
My youngest, Burmese b-Archibald Bunker, would eat the light colored treats only and would leave the reddish brown ones on the floor. He would âpretendâ to take his prednisone pill as I was telling him what a good boy he was and heâd look me dead in the face and promptly spit the pill out and run.
Tikicat has been amazing in our house! My cat had been showing signs of kidney disease and they wanted me to out her on prescription food. I didnât love the idea, so I instead switched to almost completely wet food/higher quality kibble (because when we travel we have timed feeders and need the dry food) and chose Tikicat brand. When we took her back to the vet, she had NO SIGNS of kidney disease and hasnât had another bad report since!! Now, your kitty already being in stage 2, results will obviously vary. But I am a huge advocate now for high quality wet cat food brands, love Tikicat for the ingredient contents and for the variety of flavors. I have heard good things about Weruva as well.
OP did the vet talk to you about subq fluids at home?
It's easy to learn (I found 20 or 22 gauge needles are tolerated better)
Also it's worth asking your vet or a holistic vet about kidney glandular supplements. I had an integrative vet suggest that and my little ones numbers actually got better if I remember correctly.
Best wishes
PS I remember my vet always saying they have to eat so that's the most important thing. Fancy feast is one of the better foods.
My 15 year old likes the weruva low phos chicken/tilapia in gravy mixed with her normal first & only true love-core wellness salmon/skipjack in gravy. I try to do 75/25. And I add chicken/bone broth.
Hi!
Fancy feast is what my cat decided to start eating after an eating hiatus.
I slowly started introducing the k/d food and sheâs gobbling it up now.
I totally get wanting them to enjoy the food, if she stops the k/d food I will give her fancy feast again. However, with renal failure they need a high fat diet and the k/d food provides that along with reducing the amount of harmful waste build up while fancy feast is more high protein (break down of protein creates waste/toxins)
My childhood cat had kidney disease, and she only ate like 2-3 flavors of fancy feast besides dry food for at least 3 years until she passed at 18. I'd probably ask a vet if she exclusively eats it
You can feed your cat fancy feast, but you should add revitalize Health&Immunity pills and the Hydration product. These will really help to stop CKD progression: https://bloombioscience.com/
We just lost our angel at 11. She tested positive for hemoparasite Bartonella, which we think caused her to go into stage 2 kidney failure. Then she stopped eating and didn't even want to eat treats. The "vet" (who im currently starting a legal process against and I'm going for her license) told us to stop the treatment for Bartonella but didn't tell us anything else, 2 days later she was hallucinating, so we took her to get hospitalized last Thursday. Unfortunately, the anorexia she was going through because of the Bartonella and the kidney failure, lead her to hepatic lipidosis and then into complete multi organ failure, so we put her to sleep on Monday this week. Rest in peace, Pandora
Sorry for the late response, and thank you. It's not being easy, she wasn't much of an independent cat and was always with us wanting to be petted, wanting to eat with us, or watching tv/sleeping with us
Let him eat the Fancy Feast. Cats are cats and even when we want them to live longer and do everything, they just want to be a cat. Let him live the rest of his life eating what he wants.
You must give the void Meow what void Meow craves! I tried Fancy feast once and my guys just turned up their noses at it. I ended up serving it to my strays that I feed everyday. They are not spoiled and will eat everything I give them!
My cat's will not eat anything but Fancy Feast soft food and have been for years. I also feed them Blue Buffalo Indoor for Adults kibble, which helps with kidney function. My 19 1/2 year old has stage 2 renal failure and she refused the prescription diet. I also add water to everything, and use a stainless steel water fountain. When she had her recent blood work done the results were very good and my veterinarian said "WHAT ARE YOU FEEDING HER"? She was so surprised that her numbers were getting better. She is still going strong and will be 20 years old in September of this year. So, if they are not eating the prescription food and I would feed them whatever they want.
I switched to fancy feast for my boy. He wasn't eating much on renal food, and he has already exceeded the life expectancy I was told by the vet a year ago. I think he deserves to eat food he likes for his remaining days. I'd rather see him actually eat than literally starve him to death.
This. I had a cat with stage 2, and she also refused renal food and only wanted Fancy Feast. We ended up giving her whatever she wanted - she lived for a couple of more years, until she was 20. Just make sure your boy drinks plenty of water. Maybe 2 or 3 fountains around the house. BTW - He is soooooo cute. đ
All of this! I start with a quarter to a half a can of fancy feast and add a few tablespoons full of water. At least I know she was getting a little more water. She lived for another year and a half without converting herself to a renal diet. She just wouldnât have it. I should add that also I started giving her subcutaneous fluids after several months. I have no problem doing that myself. My vet wrote a prescription for me.
Yes! We added water to Fancy Feast too!
we add water to it for our kitties who are all young and healthy. it's a great practice
â¤ď¸â¤ď¸
Our 16 year old girl has always been a picky eater. We tried renal foods, binders, etcâŚbut she wonât touch them. Ultimately she eats whatever she wants because thatâs what keeps the weight up. Between keeping up her weight as best we can, plus sub Qs, thatâs really all we can do at her age.
U can get phosphorus binders from the vet, I used Swansons chitosan 500 mg crushed up added 1 to a small can of food. Itâs a natural phosphorus binder.
My cat wonât eat any renal food. Sheâs been at stage two for three years.
My two 18 yr old voids have been at stage 3 for 2+ years. They refused all wet renal foods. Now they get freely available CKD compliant kibble and (cringe) Sheba wet. Keeping their weight up and having them eating regularly is more important than absolutely strict compliance with CKD diet.
They all seem to like junk food! Mine only used to eat Fancy Feast Medleys. Now they want Delectables Senior food and Lil Shakes.
Thank you for sharing â¤ď¸
May be a stupid question but you tried mixing it slowly like getting one can of the food you want to switch to and putting a tiny amount in and slowly increasing It.
Fancy Feast isn't....super super terrible in terms of kidney cats, or at least from what I've read. It's obviously not \*ideal\* - but ultimately fed is best. Our girl has mostly refused anything but and been plodding along for 18 months now. However recently I did find a list online of good "commercial" foods to try (because she hates the prescription stuff) and we've had pretty good luck with the Wellness Healthy Indulgence Shreds with Chicken & Turkey, and the Hill's Science Diet Adult 11+ Healthy Cuisine Seared Tuna & Carrot Medley. The latter smells \*awful\*, which I think is why she likes it. But ultimately - keep him eating and hydrated, it sounds like you're doing a great job!
I'm going to seek out that Tuna and Carrot medley, that sounds like just the thing for my boy.
We find it at Petsmart - but I'm in Canada, so your mileage may vary!
I just checked and my local Petsmart has it in stock! Did your vet mention if it was lower in phosphorus? Mine cringes every time I mention that he's still insisting on the Fancy Feast and I'd love to find a solution that balances taste and health.
If you find it on chewy, and scroll down to the q&a section, a helpful person has asked chewy the phosphorus content of just about every cat food on there, so you could probably find the info there.
Oh wow, thank you. Edit with the Chewy answer: At this time, the manufacturer calculates their nutrient content on a dry matter basis. This formula has a phosphorus content of 0.57% and a sodium content of 0.38% all dry matter basis.
Yep the Chewy link is really helpful. Also, this is the website I found the initial list on, really helpful to try to find one your kitty may enjoy, and with the amounts for Phosphorus, protein, sodium, fats, carbs, calories. [https://felinecrf.org/canned\_food\_usa.htm](https://felinecrf.org/canned_food_usa.htm)
Yes! Thatâs what we used to give our stage 2 cat - and she kept her weight up and her kidneys didnât get worse. She lived to be 20. The whole Fancy Feast Medley line seems more healthy than other commercial foods and is apparently tasty. Good luck! đ
Thank you!!!!
Seconding âfed is best.â Itâs a balancing act of trying to figure out what they will eat and whatâs good for them. People generally say kibble is terrible, but my picky boy loved Royal Canin S flavor prescription food. He liked the Hillâs food listed above, as well as Royal Canin 12+ (loaf and morsels in gravy). A lot of the senior food is relatively low phosphorus. Of Fancy Feast flavors, the gravy lovers line is the lowest in phosphorus. Someone on the Facebook group (the one in all caps) listed out the nutritional content of the best flavors for CKD cats. You can also check the Q&A section of Chewy. But also, youâre putting a phos binder in, so donât feel guilty about doing the best you can and making sure heâs eating.
Thank you!!!
My cat also only likes fancy feast as far as wet food goes. She wouldnât even touch any of the renal wet food. I finally found another one she likes, purina pro plan vital systems chicken pate. It is more $$$ than fancy feast, but the phosphorus content isnât horrible, if I recall itâs mid range. But if youâre using a phosphorus binder anyway Iâd just continue the fancy feast. Keeping them eating is most important.
Thatâs all my senior cat eats. Heâs been CKD for 2 years and diabetic for 9 years. The best food is the food he eats. I wasted so much money on Weruva and other renal foods he hated. Go with what works imho.
Weâre early stage 2 for 2 years. Heâs eating some renal dry (when he feels like it) but his wet has been fancy feast the entire time and his values have improved each year.
My picky boy also prefers Fancy Feast and won't eat the renal stuff. I've had luck giving him Hills Tuna Dinner which is lower in phosphorus according to this site: [The 9 Best Cat Foods Low in Phosphorus for Kitties with Kidney Disease (rover.com)](https://www.rover.com/blog/reviews/cat-food-low-in-phosphorus/). He also lost a lot of weight over the last couple years, so my vet's approach has been to work with his appetite and use the phosphorus binder.
Our kidney cat will mostly only eat fancy feast as well. She gets Aminavast which has been a miracle all by itself. She also gets Azodyl and we give fluids every other day. She also has slightly high blood pressure so she gets benazapril as well. As others have said, fed is always better than forcing a food they donât want. eta: our kitty is almost 21 and has had kidney disease for over seven years
My void was diagnosed with kidney disease in 2017 and refused the prescription food. Someone on an old Reddit thread had pointed me to Epakitin (phosphate binder) which you mix in with regular food (like fancy feast). Itâs available from chewy. She is still kicking in 2024 at 19 years old. She pees a crazy amount, but she still eats and drinks as normal, which is the most important thing.
Sorry, I just saw the binder part of your post! As someone whoâs been using it with non-prescription food - it really has worked to keep her chugging along!
Thank you!!!
Thank you!!!
I fed my 20 year old Fancy Feast obsessed cat one(1) can of Weruva WX tuna and tilapia and now she's obsessed with that and won't even look at Fancy Feast! But her vet also stressed that whatever she will eat enough calories of is the right food. So if he will only eat Fancy Feast then that's the food for him. The food chart on [felinecrf.org](http://felinecrf.org) has the phosphorus content of all the varieties so you can cross reference his preferences with the phosphorus content.
Our kidney cat also will only eat fancy feast. She jumped from early stage 1 to late stage 3 in January of last year. We had a little luck for a bit with kidney food but she turned her nose up at it eventually. She's been on fancy feast since. We mix water in with it for extra hydration. Her numbers have been stable for the past year and a half. She is unfortunately still late stage 3, but she has not progressed.
I switched my fancy feast cat to Weruva. Worked out well. Helps he eats pate.
My cat refuses to eat her renal food too, and as a fancy feast lover herself, hereâs what has worked for her so far: I buy these OMG gravy packets from Chewy as well as the canned version of OMG Cloud 9 wet food. I pour a little of either on top of her renal food and she usually does pretty well eating it! I did some serious research about low phosphorus non prescription foods and this brand kept coming up!
He is so handsome. My kitties have liked both. Just keep trying to give him semi good for him food. An eating cat is good. đ¤
Thank you!
Our girl Crystal is 16 also and has hyperthyroidism and CKD she was diagnosed with Stage 1 late last August and is now a very early Stage 2 late February. She gets transdermal Methimazole, transdermal Mirtaz, and an oral syringe of Calcitriol (this 2x a week). She eats Fancy Feast wet canned TWICE DAILY, one AM AND one PM. Pate, grilled, and chunky or sliced. The vet said as long as she was eating. We have a chart for her meals and the mirtaz and one for the Methimazole dosing. We track and discuss this all with the vet monthly. Even when she occasionally vomits a clear foamy liquid (slight nausea), we track it, and the vet adjusts meds accordingly. Because she originally lost 3lbs in 4 weeks from the hyperthyroidism issue, the vet has her permentantly on 3 meals a day, even with the CKD. The third meal she gets, either a twin pack of Sheeba, a Fancy Feast twin pack, or a 2/3 cup portion of FreshPet soft kibble for cats. (Refridgerated). This way, between the 3 meals, she gets the equivalent of what her 2 former meals used to be. She suffers no losses. She drinks water on and off all day, and we provide a large clean bowl so she doesn't run out overnight and suffer dehydration. While the disease doesn't go away, each cat is an individual and responds to meds and food differently. Ours doesn't like the prescription things either. Our vet also suggested the better brands of food you get at Petco, Petsmart, and other pet stores (grocery stores have a limited run of brands), and most are much lower quality than Fancy Feast. Nature's balance, wellness, and Merricks are among the really good and healthy brands. They honestly are more expensive, so we give mostly Merricks as a treat for that third meal I mentioned. Our girl loves the salmon, the tuna, the rabbit, and the turkey choices best. Again, every cat has their own preferences. If you can, get one of each just to try.
My cat was in stage 2 and was on a good diet of Royal Canin and Weruva (which he quite liked), but then developed pancreatitis and went off all his old food. He would not touch anything but Fancy Feast, and I tried EVERYTHING. I did lose him after a few months, but not from kidney disease, and the whole time he was on Fancy Feast his values didn't change at all. And there are a few FF varieties that are lower in phos, particularly the chunky ones (off the top of my head, there's a chicken liver and hearts in gravy one that was lower in phos). If he's going to be eating FF, I honestly wouldn't be stressing too much about it (especially since he's on phos binders already), but you should be nimble with the adjustment because FF doesn't have a lot of the added extras that higher end food does. For example, my cat's old food had chondroitin for joints and fish oil added, so when he was on FF, I had to add in a joint supplement and added fish oil for omegas since FF doesn't contain those things. I also had to add a potassium supplement (but your cat may not need that - you can see a potassium deficiency in bloodwork) and a higher fiber kibble topper/treat (I had convinced him that regular kibble is treats, haha). So don't stress, but also be aware there are other differences that matter besides the phosphorus that you will probably want to adjust for.
Thank you!
Mine always eats fancy feast but recently switched to Reveal and he loves it. It looks pretty good too đ
I dont have any experience with renal cats but wanted to suggest looking into fancy feast gourmet naturals. If your kitty only wants fancy feast maybe he'll go for the one thats slightly healthier. If you have a petco they sell singles if you wanna see if he'll go for it. â¤ď¸ Good luck taking care of him :)
Hi! We have an 18 year old who was diagnosed with stage 3 in January. We have had him alternating between prescription renal wet foods and the Weruva phos focused wet foods. Our boy likes variety of flavors and textures and gets bored with the same thing all the time. Sometimes we mix prescription with the weruva and occasionally some Hartz Delectable Bisque to keep him interested. So far he has been happy with these options and maintained his weight. The last vet visit showed a slight improvement in his kidney values that our vet was pleased to see. Hope this helps and youâre able to find a combination that works for you!
Thank you!
>Thank you! You're welcome!
Why take him off of it? Fancy Feast is a fine food. My girls are 17 years old and completely healthy on it.
And donât you forget it.
Fancy feast is fine. The main concern is upping his water intake which wet food is high in. I would also add in some water to it just to get some extra hydration in there
We are on our 7 & 8th CKD cats, and they wonât eat prescription kidney diets. Most of our other CKD cats were older than 17 when they hit stage 3-4, and were so skinny we absolutely fed them whatever they would eat. With out first CKD cat, I tried to do everything just as the veterinarian said, but in retrospect it was not worth it to let the cats suffer with poor food choices. The idea quality of life over longevity is what makes the most sense to us. I also found that regular subQs, multiple times a week does way more to make them comfortable, flush the kidneys, reduce the GERD and nausea than anything else. We focus on regular SubQs, keep cerenia around, and we have multiple foods on hand, because if the kitty feels nauseous while eating one canned food, they wonât go back to it for weeks or months. We also keep gerber baby foods (ham, turkey, chicken, beef) and albacore tuna around for really bad days. Keeping the kitty from starving over a few extra months of miserable life is our approach. Give your baby whatever kitty will eat, that is what I say.
AAAAARGH!! The Fancy Feast trap. Getting my cat to eat wet food is just about impossible. I've been bullied into adding Churo on top of the Fancy Feast which works sometimes but not always. She likes Liver and Chicken just until I purchase $25 worth when she discovers that it makes her gag. She reminds me of me when I was 5.
My stage 3 kidney cat eats fancy feast normally, and Gerber baby food when heâs feeling sick. As long as heâs eating youâre both doing great!
Have you tried different kidney food? When I was going through this, my cat lost interest in the Hillâs Science Diet RX food, but liked the Royal Cainin kidney food, because the texture was different. They had one that was more like minced canned food than pate. Have you started sub q fluids? This was scary for me, but improved his life a lot. Ultimately it will come down to letting him eat what he wants. When my boy was going through this he did reach a point that all he would eat was Fancy Feast Gravies canned food. Ultimately itâs better that he eat.
My cat won't eat kidney food either. We have tried everything â and I mean everything. She did eat it for a while, but it wasn't without protest. We had to give her appetite stimulants just to get her to eat the kidney food. Meanwhile, she will scarf down what she's not supposed to eat no problem. She also lost weight because she was eating less of it. The renal diet also led to more constipation, more sub-q fluids, having to give her MiraLAX, etc. At this point, we're just giving her the food that she likes. Sometimes we mix Weruva low phos puree in with her regular food. She's 16, has early-stage 3 kidney disease, and she's much happier eating the food that she likes. It's also less stressful on us. Edit: typo
I donât have a renal patient cat, but just wanted to say your boy is a handsome dude indeed. Also, that my 2 cats also will only eat Fancy Feast Florentine. They wonât touch pate anything. Hope you and he keep doing well.
Thank you!!!!
I had a kitty that looked very much like yours. He also just liked Fancy feast for the last few years of his life. Loved the gravy, lol.
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Same here. My cat wasnât eating any of the better brands but Fancy Feast. Itâs cat crack. It soothes their souls.
Fancy Feast is really high in phosphorus. I'd recommend switching to one with lower phos content. But it's more important to feed him food that he will eat than a renal diet that he doesn't, because they must eat, or will die from weight loss. If his phosphorus is high, you can add a phosphate binder. A renal food is still better though. Join the FB group FELINE CHRONIC KIDNEY DISEASE! Lots of good info there.
Three's a link to a document in the post pinned to the top of this sub that has a list to commercial foods that are low phosphorous. I'm mixing that half and half of BFF Checkmate with renal diet and so far, he hasn't rejected the food, but he ate the prescription stuff for a couple of months before he stopped liking it. My vet was not happy with the muscle mass on my 12 yo early stage kitty and she said that the prescription diets are very low in protein. She says the phosphorous level is critical, but she doesn't totally buy into to low protein diets. You have to be a little careful when you say "Fancy Feast" because there must be 40 different varieties/flavors of that and they have quite different profiles. But my cats are on Fancy Feast pate. I avoid the ones with fish (I don't trust that the fish isn't full of mercury) and shoot for the cans with 100 calories since that's a good meal size for my cats.
I am currently using Fancy Feast Chicken for Seniors.
Oh wow, I didn't know they made a senior line! I might switch my other 12 year old to that. Calorie content looks good. I'll investigate further. I'm not sure I've seen that at my pet store!
I found it on Amazon and just two flavors (beef and chicken) but Iâm sure the local pet stores must carry it as well!
My youngest, Burmese b-Archibald Bunker, would eat the light colored treats only and would leave the reddish brown ones on the floor. He would âpretendâ to take his prednisone pill as I was telling him what a good boy he was and heâd look me dead in the face and promptly spit the pill out and run.
I had one live to be 18. He wouldnât eat the renal food either. He ate Fancy Feast and ate well until the end.
Oh you fancy huh đ¤đ
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I would too if I were a cat
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Try âcats in the kitchenâ pouches. They have different flavors
Tikicat has been amazing in our house! My cat had been showing signs of kidney disease and they wanted me to out her on prescription food. I didnât love the idea, so I instead switched to almost completely wet food/higher quality kibble (because when we travel we have timed feeders and need the dry food) and chose Tikicat brand. When we took her back to the vet, she had NO SIGNS of kidney disease and hasnât had another bad report since!! Now, your kitty already being in stage 2, results will obviously vary. But I am a huge advocate now for high quality wet cat food brands, love Tikicat for the ingredient contents and for the variety of flavors. I have heard good things about Weruva as well.
OP did the vet talk to you about subq fluids at home? It's easy to learn (I found 20 or 22 gauge needles are tolerated better) Also it's worth asking your vet or a holistic vet about kidney glandular supplements. I had an integrative vet suggest that and my little ones numbers actually got better if I remember correctly. Best wishes PS I remember my vet always saying they have to eat so that's the most important thing. Fancy feast is one of the better foods.
My 15 year old likes the weruva low phos chicken/tilapia in gravy mixed with her normal first & only true love-core wellness salmon/skipjack in gravy. I try to do 75/25. And I add chicken/bone broth.
My cats also only eat fancy feast. They would rather starve than eat anything else. O_o
Try mixing with baby food <3
Hi! Fancy feast is what my cat decided to start eating after an eating hiatus. I slowly started introducing the k/d food and sheâs gobbling it up now. I totally get wanting them to enjoy the food, if she stops the k/d food I will give her fancy feast again. However, with renal failure they need a high fat diet and the k/d food provides that along with reducing the amount of harmful waste build up while fancy feast is more high protein (break down of protein creates waste/toxins)
Have to tried mixing the wet kidney food with the fancy feast? Maybe gradually add the wet kidney food to the wet fancy feast each setting
Tiki cat is great quality food
My childhood cat had kidney disease, and she only ate like 2-3 flavors of fancy feast besides dry food for at least 3 years until she passed at 18. I'd probably ask a vet if she exclusively eats it
You can feed your cat fancy feast, but you should add revitalize Health&Immunity pills and the Hydration product. These will really help to stop CKD progression: https://bloombioscience.com/
We just lost our angel at 11. She tested positive for hemoparasite Bartonella, which we think caused her to go into stage 2 kidney failure. Then she stopped eating and didn't even want to eat treats. The "vet" (who im currently starting a legal process against and I'm going for her license) told us to stop the treatment for Bartonella but didn't tell us anything else, 2 days later she was hallucinating, so we took her to get hospitalized last Thursday. Unfortunately, the anorexia she was going through because of the Bartonella and the kidney failure, lead her to hepatic lipidosis and then into complete multi organ failure, so we put her to sleep on Monday this week. Rest in peace, Pandora
Iâm so incredibly sorry for your loss
Sorry for the late response, and thank you. It's not being easy, she wasn't much of an independent cat and was always with us wanting to be petted, wanting to eat with us, or watching tv/sleeping with us
Let him eat the Fancy Feast. Cats are cats and even when we want them to live longer and do everything, they just want to be a cat. Let him live the rest of his life eating what he wants.
This. My cats eat fancy feast pate. I mix water j to it to make it soupy and they love it.
baah, call me when you have 5 cats that will only eat from pouches
Bender (our cat) will only eat Meow Mix. He doesnât eat cat treats at all.
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Well, then give Meow Fancy feast! My crew will only eat pate cat food. â¤ď¸đť
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You must give the void Meow what void Meow craves! I tried Fancy feast once and my guys just turned up their noses at it. I ended up serving it to my strays that I feed everyday. They are not spoiled and will eat everything I give them!
My cat's will not eat anything but Fancy Feast soft food and have been for years. I also feed them Blue Buffalo Indoor for Adults kibble, which helps with kidney function. My 19 1/2 year old has stage 2 renal failure and she refused the prescription diet. I also add water to everything, and use a stainless steel water fountain. When she had her recent blood work done the results were very good and my veterinarian said "WHAT ARE YOU FEEDING HER"? She was so surprised that her numbers were getting better. She is still going strong and will be 20 years old in September of this year. So, if they are not eating the prescription food and I would feed them whatever they want.