9/16 OT - Blue Wilderness carb content

[Kathy and Kitty]

Wanted to get some quick input...

I saw Blue Buffalo's "Blue Wildnerness" brand in PetSmart. It's 95% Duck, or 95% Chicken. Label says "high protein, low carb."

I've been having major food issues with Kitty, so I thought, "Forget that it's $1.40 for 3 oz." "Try it."

He liked it so much I was afraid it was higher carb than I should feed. I called the company, and they said that the "as fed" value for ALL of the cat Wilderness products is 0.5%.

That's really good, right? But he likes it! What's wrong with this picture??

Here's the website: http://bluebuffalo.com/products/cats/wi ... duck.shtml

BTW, it has flaxseed for Omega 3. My vet said this isn't the best source of Omega 3 for a kitty. It also has potatoes.

 

[Pat+Raja+Shadow (GA)]

I have read that Flaxseed is not utilized properly in cats at all...and yet so many brands contain that...
Evo 95% has herring oil...so much better but mine don't like it unless mixed with something else....sigh.
I have wondered about Blue Wilderness myself...so many new brands on the market that are not on Binky's List.
Probably doesn't have too much potato in it (at least it's not rice but still...)
I hesitate to try anything different myself...but maybe someone else will have input...

 

[Kathy and Kitty]

Thanks, Pat.

I have tried EVERYTHING but raw, which is not an option. Kitty rejects Evo 95%, Wellness, Sophisticat... the only thing he will eat is FF, and now he won't eat that unless I sprinkle with chicken dust, and then re-sprinkle when he has licked that topping off.

I just want him to like his food, and eat higher quality too, if possible.

He ate this Duck Blue Wilderness so happily, I was afraid I had just fed him high carb. That's why I called the company.

My vet just recommended Omega 3, and he said of all the sources, flaxseed was the least attractive. He didn't say it was harmful, for what that's worth. :roll:

I like that Taurine is not the last ingredient named. That should mean that there's more of it than in some other foods.

I cross-posted in Community. Maybe there will be other input.

 

[Pat+Raja+Shadow (GA)]

I have to do the SAME thing with chicken dust for my two. DRIVES me crazy.. :lol:
I mix a little raw (chicken with Feline Future powder)Wellness chicken (NOT turkey or any other flavor!!) and a little Evo 95% chicken/turkey (but they are not fond of that at all I think.)
I recently tried Nature's Logic chicken and my boy won't eat it. Raja seemed to like it. Then I tried the rabbit and she upchucked but that might have been due to a hairball. Shadow wouldn't go near it.
Thank goodness for the chicken dust...
I use Prime Bites..what about you?

 

[Kathy and Kitty]

Have not heard of Prime Bites. What is it?

Honestly, I am starting to lose track of the names, with all the "By Natures" and "Nature's Logic". I think I need a catfood spreadsheet!! :lol:

And we are having hairball issues too. Makes it hard to tell whether it's the food or the hair Kitty is trying to get rid of.

I also was starting to worry that so much chicken dust might be over-salting him. The vet said last week that Kitty was a teeny bit dehydrated. He didn't think it was anything to worry about, since there had been hairball upchucks. But I worry anyway. :mrgreen:

 

[Ann & Tess GA]

I tried a SS, even that gets confusing! Prime Bites are the freeze dried chicken from Petsmart (drooler treats section). There is no salt added. do you add water to the canned food?

I ran the Guaranteed Analysis numbers through the excel SS calculator and came up w/ negative numbers for carbs! And fat is pretty high.

• Duck: Protein~33.7% Fat~68.3% Carb-2.0%
  Chicken: Protein~34.2% Fat~69.2% Carb~ -3.4%

Actual As Fed numbers would be more accurate as the GA use max. and min.

I've looked at it too but didn't buy it because of not knowing the carbs.

 

[Kathy and Kitty]

Ann, thank you!

Janet & Binky's charts gives the % kcal from protein as 26 for Evo 95% Duck, fat as 70, carbs of 4. The chicken+turkey is 29 protein, 71 fat, 0 carbs.

If I'm reading correctly, Blue Wilderness is a little higher in protein, a little lower in fat, and lower in carbs.

I don't know whether such a high protein count is a problem.

What interests me is that Kitty has barfed after eating both Evo and Wellness. I knew they were higher fat, and I figured that was why. Jill has said the fat content can bother some cats.

It has also been discussed here that cats don't metabolize fat as we do, and that the higher fat content is not a problem for otherwise healthy cats. Lots of kitties here eat the Evo and Wellness.

I am buying Prime Bites right away! I've been feeding Liv-A-Littles, and they do have salt. I emailed the company to ask specifics, but they never answered.

 

[Kathy and Kitty]

Re: 9/16 OT - and what about the calories?

Ann, maybe you know this one too...

The 3 oz can of the chicken flavor says:

Calorie Content (ME calculated, as fed): 1546 kcal/kg, 132 kcal/can. The Duck is 111 per can.

FF chicken is 93.6/ can, according to Janet & Binky's chart. Evo 95% chicken+turkey is about 114 for 3 oz, if I calculate correctly.

The chicken is a significantly higher amount, right? Or am I missing some significance in the "kcal" part? Not sure why Duck is lower cal than the Chicken.

 

[Jaye and Chester]

I've been buying the Blue Wilderness Chicken and Turkey varieties for Chester. He didn't like either the duck or (I believe) the salmon. It is more expensive, but if I don't end up tossing it, it's worth the price. We finally found a somewhat (10 miles) close store that sells EVO and he likes that as well...for now.

I like the the Blue Wilderness is in the smaller cans. Even though more expensive, Chester (who is not a big cat...we call him our little Napoleon) likes his food fresh. Rarely will eat rewarmed food and with the bigger cans that's what I'm usually stuck with. My other cats aren't big wet food eaters, although I'm trying to convert them.

 

[Ann & Tess GA]

Calories only come from Protein, Fat and Carbohydrates. Some where in one of Dr. Lisa's articles it gives the number of kcal per gram of each, I think it is 4 kcal/gram of protein, 9 kcal/gram of fat and 4 kcal/gram of carbohydrates. You need to check , my brain is fried right now. So 300 grams of a food with a higher % of protein and lower % of fat would have fewer kcal.

The numbers in J &B's list shoe the Metabolized energy (ME) results, protein, fat and carb add up to 100%. These numbers are the same as kcal/100 grams of weight.