Treats for a diabetic cat

[cats' staff]

Hi all,
Smudge was recently diagnosed as diabetic. We have her on diabetic food recommended by the vet which thankfully she likes and are getting the hang of giving her insulin. We were told not to give her Dreamies which is a bit of a problem as shaking the packet is a good way to get her to come in. Does anyone have any ideas of treats suitable for a diabetic cat?

[Elaine]

Try to avoid treat which contain things like corn syrup, malt flavouring or other sugars such as glucose, dextrose, basically anything ending in "ose" is a sugar lol.
Provided your cat doesn't have kidney issues too, try to find something which lists meat as the main ingredient.

A few treat suggestions may be, green beans? If that would appeal to her, doesn't sound great to me though.
Cheese? Quite high in fat though.

Why not check out zooplus, they have a lot of treats which are just dried meats.......

[cats' staff]

Aha thanks- I've ordered a trial pack of freeze dried meat and fish. We tried dried whitebait but madam turned her nose up.

[Elaine]

How about the odd fresh prawn?

If all else fails there is always Vaseline, it has no nutritional value at all but can help prevent furballs and constipation although too much can hamper vitamin absorption.;)

[cats' staff]

I did share a couple of my prawns with her. It's having a packet to shake which really helps- she can hear treats from a field away so it has always worked to get her home. I'll see how she gets on with the freeze dried stuff. At least she is eating the food! Poor thing has had a tough few weeks but we are getting there.

[Elaine]

Is her prescription diet a dried food? If so, why not put some in a dreamies packet just for shaking purposes:D ;)

[Liz]

My diabetic oldie loves Whiskas kitbits and gets 4 a day with her injections

[angieh]

That's good thinking!

A bit expensive perhaps but a friend on another forum has a dehumidifier and dries meat such as liver or chicken for her dogs. No added anything.

[cats' staff]

Is her prescription diet a dried food? If so, why not put some in a dreamies packet just for shaking purposes:D ;)

Hi no it's canned- I think the dehydrated/freeze dried meat sounds like the way to go but if she hates them I'll try the kitbits. It wouldn't hurt her to not have treats but they always have and it would be good to find an alternative- the other two are being denied them atm as we can't open the packet quietly enough!

[Feliss]

What about thrive? http://www.thrivepetfoods.com/cats/treats
Or chickin wing tips? http://www.naturalinstinct.com/wing-tips/ -these guys are great, I get my raw from here.

[cats' staff]

The vet tried her on some Thrive- she was not impressed! The order for freeze dried treats is on its way so I'll let you know how they go down. Many thanks for all the suggestions !

[Feliss]

Good luck! Hope they go down well :D

[angieh]

Good luck and virtual cuddles for wee Smudge.

[cats' staff]

Yay- success! Cosmo Snackies are definitely a hit with madam- all 4 flavours. The tubes rattle too so that noise is already getting her attention. I managed to inject her on my own tonight with very little fuss as she was on the bed so I put a treat in front of her nose and did it while she was inspecting it. We are getting there!

[angieh]

Good news! Well done.

[Elaine]

Great news and well done on the injections xxx

[cats' staff]

Thanks for the suggestion Elaine- I'm impressed with Zooplus!

[cats' staff]

Great- having got a system going the vet today (a different one from the last one we saw) wants to change the feeding regime so we feed her smaller amounts of wet food and leave a weighed mount of dried food out for her to graze on as and when. Which would be fine if we only had one cat! He just didn't seem to listen when we explained that the only way we could know exactly who had eaten what was to watch them eat and as we do have to work and can't therefore watch cats eat all day this isn't possible! Labelling abowl 'Smudge' isn't going to stop Tolly eating it.

Sigh- how important is the exact amount of food?

[angieh]

Some vets can't listen ........... and some just don't.

Could this help? I think it's a fairly new idea
http://www.microchipfoodbowl.com/solo.html

[alexgirl73]

I would just ignore the vet tbh. If the system you have is working, then stick with it x

[cats' staff]

Thanks both- I've asked to speak to the vet we have usually seen to get a bit if advice. We could space the meals a bit more when we are at home but some days we are both out by 7:30 and one of us will get home at 4. I need to know if consistency is important or spreading meals when we can will work.
In the meantime - Tolly has already managed to nick some of Smudge's grub!