Is there a low-protein cat food that isn't prescription?

[sophistacavy]

Hey there everybody.

I was wondering if any of you know of a specialty cat food that is purposely made to be especially low protein, but isn't a prescription cat food.

My 9 year old ragdoll cat, Charlie was diagnosed with kidney disease (CRF), and he does have the typical waxing and waning appetite, but right not he we are rotating him between the Royal Canin Veterinary Diet pouched cat food for kidney disease, and the Hill's Prescription Diet canned cat food for kidney disease.

However, these two brands are of course low-to-no quality brands, and I'm unsure as to if their quality increases in their prescription foods versus their regular foods? I would think not...

It also needs to be calorically dense because of his reduced appetite. He needs to maintain his weight, and he could actually stand to gain 2 pounds.

We cannot try homamade with him or raw, because it is too late to try to introduce those types of foods to him because he has the kidney disease, and has never eaten homemade or raw.

Thanks in advance!!

[JD In Van]

I have a much older cat who's diabetic and has very weak kidneys at 16. She's on a completely grain free diet as well as this reduces the need for insulin. We too found that the stuff the doctor gave us was poor quality. You can tell by looking at the ingrediants. Does it contain a lot of wheat/corn/barley? If yes then it's probably not what you want. Cat's digestive tracts don't deal well with grains. It's just filler.

Little Big Cat They have a section on the protien issues and what the pros and cons of limiting it are.

In my case we felt it was more important to get my cat to a healthy weight first. Even missing one meal was terribly detrimental to her health at that point. We gave her all her favorite high fatty wet foods (we cut out dry almost immediately) until she put on a pound. Then we switched her over to a combination of grain free wet foods and some homade foods once she had the body fat on her to survive a couple days of uncertain feeding.

Has your cat been tested for diabeties as well? As they go together. Introducing insulin for my cat helped hugely in getting her appetite back.