Cats with kidney disease often feel better when fed the appropriate TCVM Food Therapy diet.
Is your cat excessively hungry or thirsty all the time?
Does your cat suffer from hives and skin rashes or feel hot when touched?
Does your cat have red, watery eyes and/or a dry coat?
Is your cat restless at night, seeking cool places?
If you answered yes to many of the above questions, your cat may suffer from Yin deficiency.
Cooling diets balance Yin deficient cats, bringing them into energetic harmony.
What Is Yin Deficiency in a Cat with Kidney Disease?
Yin and Yang are Chinese terms used to describe the opposites in the world. Yin is the cool, the night, the female, the passive, the moon, etc. Yang is the opposite.
The classic signs of Yin deficiency in a cat are:
- Bright red tongue
- Cool seeking
- Excessive thirst
- Dry skin
- Warm to the touch
- Restless at night
The Yin component of the Yin/Yang Theory is cooling. Yin is the moistening and cooling agent of the body. The above-described symptoms occur in Yin deficiencies. Symptoms occur due to a lack of cooling and moisture factors. Yin deficiency is the most common deficiency diagnosed in geriatric cats.
Energetically Cooling Foods for Cats With Kidney Disease
Use Eastern Food Therapy to cool an energetically hot cat. You should feed a cat cooling or neutral foods to treat Yin deficiency.
A nutritionally balanced diet for cats in the early stages of renal failure contains:
- 80-90% protein (meats)
- 10-20% grains, fruits, and vegetables
- A minimum of 2% fat
- Avoid salt, bones, dairy
In late-stage renal failure, increase fat content to decrease the protein level of the diet. You may need to increase carbs to help accomplish an overall lower protein level.
Consult with a TCVM veterinarian for the best advice for your cat’s late-stage renal failure diet. Your vet will tweak the diet to your cat’s individual needs. And, remember to avoid salt, bones, and dairy.
Use the list of foods below to create endless delicious recipe combinations for your furry friend!
Just mix up the ingredients as needed to create a food that your cat loves.
You can easily track protein, carbohydrate and fat ratios in an online food log like the ones found on Fitbit and Livestrong websites.
You also need to add a taurine supplement to each batch of cat food you make.
For cats, taurine is an essential amino acid.
Taurine is critical for normal digestion, heart muscle function, normal vision, and to maintain a healthy immune system.
Energetically Cooling Food Choices for Cats With Kidney Disease
Create your own recipe combining the foods below. Make sure to use more cooling foods than neutral foods. For example, if you use a neutral protein, make sure the carbohydrates and fats you use are cool or cold.
It’s best to stick to all cooling food items, but you may add one neutral item per bach for convenience.
And remember, avoid salt, bones, and dairy!
Meats/Protein Source
- Carp (neutral)
- Clam
- Cod
- Crab
- Duck
- Eggs (neutral)
- Goose (neutral)
- Herring (neutral)
- Kidney, pork (neutral)
- Liver, beef (neutral)
- Liver, sheep
- Mackerel (neutral)
- Oyster (neutral)
- Pigeon (neutral)
- Pork (neutral)
- Quail (neutral)
- Rabbit
- Sardine (neutral)
- Tofu
- Turkey
- Tuna (neutral)
- Whitefish (neutral)
Vegetables/Fruits
- Alfalfa
- Amaranth
- Artichoke (neutral)
- Asparagus (neutral)
- Banana
- Broccoli
- Cabbage (neutral)
- Carrot (neutral)
- Cauliflower (neutral)
- Celery
- Corn (neutral)
- Cucumber
- Dandelion leaf
- Eggplant
- Lettuce
- Mushroom, button
- Pear
- Potato (neutral)
- Spinach
- Summer squash
- Strawberry
- Swiss chard
- Tomato
- Watermelon
- Yam (neutral)
Grains/Beans/Starch
- Barley
- Barley sprouts
- Black beans (neutral)
- Black sesame seeds (neutral)
- Broad beans (neutral)
- Brown rice
- Buckwheat
- Green beans (neutral)
- Green peas (neutral)
- Kidney bean (neutral)
- Millet
- Mung bean
- Peanuts (neutral)
- Red beans (neutral)
- Sesame seeds
- String beans (neutral)
- Soybeans (neutral)
- Wheat
- Wheat bran
- Wheat flour
- White rice (neutral)
Fats
- Black sesame oil
- Flaxseed oil
- Peanut oil (neutral)
- Sesame oil
- Soybean oil
Sample Energetically Cooling Cat Food Recipe for Cats With Kidney Disease
3 pounds meat/dairy (see “meat/protein source” section above)
1 egg
1/3 pound vegetables/fruit (see “vegetable” list above)
1 teaspoon olive oil or flaxseed oil
1/8 pound white potatoes or grains/beans (cooked weight)
1/8 pound brown rice or grains/beans (cooked weight)
Directions:
Debone and chop meat and vegetables.
Place all ingredients in crockpot layering:
- Slow cooking root vegetables on bottom
- Meat in the middle
- Fast cooking items on top
- Top with 1 cup water
- Cook on low for 4 hours.
In addition, add the following to your pet’s diet:
- One cat multivitamin dose per day
- Calcium supplement 50mg/kg of body weight (22mg/lb of body weight) per day. Some other good choices for calcium are eggshell powder or bone meal.
- Taurine between 250mg and 500mg per cat per day
Feeding Schedule for Cats With Kidney Disease
Feed 2-2.5% body weight per day. (You may increase to 3.5% of body weight per day if your cat is losing weight.)
Monitor your cat’s weight. If an undesirable weight loss occurs, please contact your veterinarian immediately so you can make an adjustment in your cat’s feeding/diet plan.
If your cat is picky, you may want to run the food through the blender prior to feeding.
When cooked this way, the vegetable pulp mixes with cooked meat juices to create a nutritious broth.
Often, cats will lap up the broth more readily than eat small vegetable chunks.
As you can see, cooking for your cat isn’t really difficult, and can be a rewarding experience for both you and your cat!
Please consult with your veterinarian and use personal judgment when cooking at home for your cat.
Even though pet food recalls and the poor quality of some pet foods are a concern, many veterinarians voice concerns over homemade diets.
Some vets feel that when fed exclusively, homemade diets may result in vitamin/mineral deficiencies that can adversely affect a pet’s health.
If you choose to feed your cat a homemade diet, you must understand and meet your cat’s needs to stay healthy.
Please share our recipe with your veterinarian. Your veterinarian can advise you on supplements for your pet’s individual situation.
Monitor your cat’s health by observing his/her temperament, skin, coat and waste. If you notice anything strange, contact your veterinarian immediately.
Powerful Tools for Cat Kidney Disease Challenges
There are several quick and easy changes you can make at home to help your give your cat an edge on easing kidney disease and renal failure challenges.
- Learn more about cat renal failure.
- Ask your vet about Epakitin. Epakitin is a chitosan-based supplement that helps with the filtering your cat’s kidneys can no longer do.
- Home cook for your pet. Go to our slow-cooker recipe page and try one of our cat food recipes for kidney disease or renal failure. Make sure to run it by your holistic vet first!
- Learn more about TCVM Herbal Remedies. Chinese medicine offers many amazing natural solutions for cat renal failure. Some good examples are:
