There's a great website that was written by a vet that has a keen interest in Feline Nutrition called
"Feeding your cat--Know the basics of feline nutrition" that has a lot of great information on what cats should eat.
Specifically, I'd start with the
page on Diabetes
W/D is 25% carbs (that's for the canned)....the dry is even higher. Just like human diabetics need to restrict the carbs, so do our sugarcats. They need food that's less than 10% carbs.
Look at the Ingredients....the first ingredient is water....you can get that a lot cheaper in any other canned food .....then they have an ingredient they called "powdered cellulose"....that's a fancy word for sawdust!!!! There's absolutely nothing in it that's any better than foods you can get at your local store!
Water, Pork Liver, Pork By-Products, Powdered Cellulose, Chicken, Corn Starch, Soybean Oil, Guar Gum, Locust Bean Gum, Calcium Carbonate, Calcium Sulfate, Choline Chloride, Potassium Chloride, DL-Methionine, Chicken Liver Flavor, Carrageenan, minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Manganese Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Calcium Iodate), Taurine, vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, Ascorbic Acid (source of Vitamin C), Niacin Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement, Biotin, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid), Sodium Tripolyphosphate, L-Carnitine, Beta-Carotene.
Compare that to a can of Fancy Feast Liver and Chicken...the first ingredient is a protein!! Cats are obligate carnivores....they only process protein.
Liver, Meat Broth, Meat By-Products, Chicken, Artificial and Natural Flavors, Tricalcium Phosphate, Guar Gum, Potassium Chloride, Salt, Magnesium Sulfate, Taurine, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin E Supplement, Zinc Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, Niacin, Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin A Supplement, Copper Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (Source of Vitamin K Activity), Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin Supplement, Vitamin B-12 Supplement, Biotin, Folic Acid, Vitamin D-3 Supplement, Potassium Iodide
The sad truth is that vets get little or no education on nutrition when they're in school....and once they're in practice, the only "education" they get is from the "Prescription" food salesmen with their fancy charts and graphs.....and the fact that selling their foods also makes a profit for the vet doesn't hurt either!! But the "prescription" food industry has absolutely no scientific data to show their foods do anything to cure or prevent disease. It's a fake term made up by the pet food industry. There's even been a class action lawsuit filed against the "Prescription" pet food manufactures, basically for false advertising.
Trust me.....there have been thousands of people on this message board and they've all gotten this same message.....that the prescription foods are totally unnecessary and a waste of money.....and in most cases, can prevent your cat from doing as well as they can!! Feeding a high carb food to a diabetic is like a human diabetic eating potato chips all day and wondering why their blood glucose is still high!
We all truly understand how hard it is to take a leap of faith and listen to a bunch of crazy cat ladies on the internet, especially when so many vets tell you to stay off the internet and don't listen to anything you read, but the facts are here.....cats that are fed a species appropriate low carb diet do much better and have a much greater chance at remission.
