Keto for dogs and cats

[farmgirl]

Here’s my beautiful boy…

What a beautiful dog.

[Groversaurus]

pulling them from her backside

[Ellie_Baum]

I’ve been doing Keto for about a year now. I’ve just now started getting into the science of it; mostly by listening to 2 keto dudes. I didn’t feel like I needed the science before because I gained a bunch of health benefits within the first week of starting Keto so I felt my experience was enough for me.

But after learning about all this stuff I began to feel extremely guilty for my fur kid (my dog). I didn’t know what was in her food. So I looked it up and was disgusted to see that she was on a high carb diet. Thanks to this thread I found the Evo dog brand and ordered it. I know that it’s good to get dogs used to the new food by mixing it with the old brand so I’m starting with that. My dog does not overeat. I leave dog food in her bowl and she doesn’t touch it until she’s hungry. So I put the mixture in front of her and she picked out all the Evo pieces…So much for mixing it up… I think the low carb diet is fur-kid-approved.

Thanks for recommending Evo

[Chris_W]

Thanks for recommending Evo

I’m not sure it was a ‘recommendation’ per se. I read it as more like, well, here’s the least worst.

I don’t have a pet at the moment, but I can’t think of any reason why I couldn’t feed my dog or cat much the same whole, keto food I eat. I don’t think I’d ever buy prepared dog or cat food. It’s all just marketing hype, IMO.

[Mike_W_Ellwood]

I heard that there is a feline WOE called “catkins”, as a spin off of Atkins.

Our cat has always eaten “wet food”. Although we always put down water for her, I don’t think I’ve ever seen her drink from it. (Although I do see her out in the garden sometimes, sucking on and chewing grass, so maybe she gets water from grass and other plants, as well as from the “wet food”.

Canned cat food in the UK tends to be a bit rubbish, so we always get the somwhat premium brands of food in foil sachets, meat or fish-based (but often these days including some kind of vegetables…).

I’ve tried to tempt her with “real” food, e.g. best quality chicken, cut up small (cooked and raw), but she’s not at all interested. Quite unlike our previous cat who loved all forms of “human” meat. Whenever we had a joint in the oven, at a certain point he’d come into the kitchen and pointedly investigate the outside of the oven. We then knew that it was time to check up on the joint, and inevitably, it was ready to eat (at least for those of us who don’t mind our meat a bit rare… ).

He also rarely appeared to drink water, until towards the end of his long (~19 years) life, when his kidneys started to pack up, poor beggar. I think we got him at a younger age than our current cat (I think he was not far off being a kitten, whereas our current cat was a young (rescued) adult). I suspect that our current cat was already too used to commercial cat food by the time we got him to learn to adapt to “proper” meat, whereas the previous cat had been young enough to adapt to what we offered him.

[MKChitown]

I love this woman Susan Thixton. She’s on a mission for all of us pet owners. This is from her latest blog on Royal Canin.

What Royal Canin Reps are Selling to Vets

[Shortstuff]

My dog is raw fed, meat & bones. I just got him a dehydrator for his birthday so he’s now enjoying dehydrated fish and chicken too.

[MKChitown]

Yes, I have my dog on raw food now too. Do you also feed liver or heart too?

[Shortstuff]

He has all sorts of things - lamb hearts, ox hearts. Goat carcass, venison spines. Chicken / duck feet / wings / necks. He’s not a liver fan but I’m going to try dehydrating some to see how he gets on with that.

I order from this site which is fantastic, for the UK only though - http://www.paleoridgeraw.uk/

[MKChitown]

Very cool. I’m going to start doing that as well. Right now, I’m feeding Primal Pet raw food. But I’m going to switch to a local supplier and just get the meat, bones and offal.

[Rookie]

I’m trying to switch my Brittany mix and elderly cocker spaniel to a raw food diet. I bought natures instinct raw lamb and the raw turkey…my cocker eats anything that doesn’t eat him first, and my Brittany mix is going to starve to death ( he likes his meat warm off the grill, medium rare, with a side of dogswell chicken jerky. Last night he ate a little bit of the thawed lamb, but refused this morning’s offering. I’m curious to see how long he holds out

[OldDoug]

@Shortstuff Great picture, Allie. He looks so happy.

[amargolis]

Hi everyone. I am new to the forum. I just started Keto on August 2nd and it’s going really well. I’ve lost an inch around my chest! Yay! Funny my first post is about my dog, but here goes.

My dog developed pancreatitis a couple months ago before I learned about Keto. The doctor had us put him on a low-fat diet and feed him only boiled chicken breast and rice. We also had to split up his meals into four small meals a day. After two months, which is now, we are to slowly introduce kibble back into his diet.

Now that I’ve learned about Keto it’s making me wonder what to do next. It seems wrong that I was just feeding my dog a 50% rice diet. I have one internet friend whose dog had pancreatitis years ago and they still feed their dog a low-fat diet and with-hold fatty treats. Does anyone here know about pancreatitis and with-holding fat?

[KBG]

We pretty much started our cat on low carb as soon as we saw the benefits ourselves and started questioning the ingredients on the can. We did have a conversation about it with our vet and she mentioned that they will naturally get some carbs because they’ll ingest the stomach contents of their prey. So they aren’t 100% low carb. That seemed to make sense to us but also like us they don’t need all the crap that is in so many foods marketed for them.

[KBG]

[jamestorie]

I have heard that feeding your dog’s rendered (cooked) fat will cause this. From what I’ve heard, raw fat is fine.

[KetoMama2017]

There are some great fb groups regarding whole-prey model species specific feeding for household pets. I hadn’t tried it with my dogs, but have had friends that do it and report EXCELLENT results. One caveat: it is whole prey model feeding, not just meat specific.

[PaulL]

Sorry. This post should have gone in a different thread.

[allyfco]

Just started these two on a raw food Keto diet this week… the slimmer one, Gabe, is 2 years old, and the rounder one, Gia, is almost 10… she eats only 2 cups of food a day and gets regular exercise, yet has maintained her round physique for 3 years now… Anway, we’re transitioning off of the dry food to a raw meat/organ diet and I’m going to be researching whether or not they need any added fat or salt… does anyone know for sure? I had been feeding them Open Farm Human Grade Grain Free Dog food at $90 + a bag, but when I finally read the label, of course it was filled with chick peas and other filler vegetables… I feel so bad I’ve been giving this to them, especially her, when I assumed because it was grain free it was 100% meat all along! They REALLY like the new food, especially Gabe who was always very disappointed in kibble… he LOVES this, cleans the bowl, and sneaks around looking & begging for more.

*I do wonder if I should cook the raw food too, just because they ate it in the wild doesn’t mean they never became sick from it, and they are a long way from wild today

[KBG]

I thought that looked too much like home.… Gorgeous dogs, gorgeous location. Which water body is that? Good luck with the doggie diet, I hope you’ll notice they are feeling better.