Best Feline Friend by Weruva ?

[Munchkin's Reagan]

Hello All,
Does anyone have any information on this food? I looked at Janet and Binky's spreadsheet, but didn't see anything. It's marketed as a option for diabetic cats at our pet store. I really like the quality, from what I can see. It's made in a human facility and grain free. It doesn't list a carb value, but does say crude protein min 12%.

I'm just beginning to look at labels and trying to understand.

Thanks in advance,
Reagan, Munckin, & Pebbles

 

[Lisa and Merlyn (GA)]

It's grain free but I have never seen a non fish flavor. They are all tuna based

 

[squeem3]

http://www.bestfriendsfoods.com/

It's all seafood based. Yes, it's grain-free and most seafood canned foods in jelly/aspic are low in carbs but they're not good to feed all the time to a cat. Some cats get addicted to eating seafood and will not eat anything else. Some types of fish, like tuna, may contain mercury.

The regular Weruva canned foods are supposedly low in carbs. You can download the guaranteed nutritional analysis for the food here: http://weruva.com/downloads/Weruva-Nutrition-Guaranteed-Cat.pdf The guaranteed analysis isn't very helpful to know exactly how many carbs or protein or whatever is in the food :?

There's a line of non-fish varieties as well as a line of seafood varieties. Stay away from the ones that contain rice. The Weruva FAQs has a question about whether the food is suitable for diabetics: http://www.weruva.com/tid-bits-detail.php?My-cat-has-diabetes-can-I-feed-Weruva-5I would stick with the 4 varieties mentioned at the end of the answer, if they don't affect your cat's bgs at all.

Weruva also makes the less expensive Soulistic brand which is sold at Petco. The food is similar to the regular Weruva. However, the non-fish varieties are in gravy :-Q Tapioca starch is used for the gravy. Some diabetics may be ok with tapioca starch, others are will see a spike in bg levels.

 

[sanrun]

None of my cats cared for Weruva, I bought it because Jeter has runny poo issues and thought it might be better for him. I don't have any diabetic cats now, I used to feed Cecil the Wellness in pouches it is grain free and has gravy. He liked it better than the solid Wellness food, that isn't a hit in my house either! They like Fancy Feast.

Sandy - Dottie, Jeter & Tilly

 

[Munchkin's Reagan]

Her diet mostly consists of Friskies currently, but I was looking for a better alternative for when she's hungry later in her cycle. Thanks for the info.

 

[Pumbaa]

I had emailed Weruva about their canned cat foods to update the Hobo's Guide to Nutritional Values in Cat Food, and here was the reply:

Thank you for your EMAIL, and for your interest in Weruva. While I am happy to hear you have decided to switch to wet food for your kitties and that you agree with our feeding philosophy, I am sorry to hear about the issues with your kitty.


Diabetes is caused by the body’s inability to produce the requisite insulin that can properly balance blood sugar levels. Carbohydrates are made of sugars. Carbohydrates are primarily found in dry kibble foods, as dry kibble cannot be made without carbohydrates . . . so we do not manufacture one nor do we recommend feeding one.

Calories for people and pets come from 3 places: protein, fat and carbohydrates. Cats are “obligate carnivores” which means they must eat meat. The calories in meat are protein and fat based with little to zero carbs. Protein and fat are the proper fuel for cats, and carbohydrates are not metabolically necessary. Our formulas were built with this in mind.

Concerning carbs, we are grain-free and we do not add any fillers. The only carbs in our food are what is added to the thickeners for the recipes with gravy or aspic. We thicken the gravy formulas with potato starch and we thicken the aspic with vegetable gums. The thickener, whether it is potato starch or vegetable gums, is just a tiny amount, about 1%. The recipes that have veggies in them are slightly higher in carbs; they would be between 2-3%. Though potato starch is listed third in the list of ingredients, what follows are vitamins and minerals, which are all miniscule amounts.

Yes, the "average analysis" does equate to "as fed". There is some variation from batch to batch as well as some standard deviations in the actual analysis. Yet for the most part, our inclusion of ingredients is quite consistent. As mentioned, the carbohydrate source comes from potato starch in our gravy formulas, and at about 1% inclusion, the carb percentage from the starch is only about 1%. In the aspic formulas, it is similar.

Please see attached for more information on our formulas.

I hope this is helpful. Please let me know if I can answer further questions for you. I certainly hope your kitties do well on the new diet. Oh, I must tell you that I have had folks tell me they have tried our food, ha ha ! : )

They sent a SS that includes the BFF varieties. I'll try to upload it and attach it to this post.

Suze

 

[Pumbaa]

I am now inputting the Weruva information into the Hobo's Guide to Nutritional Values, and have to tell you that this stuff isn't as low carb as they would like us to believe.

I just emailed them again, for some clarification, as their estimated as-fed values do not match the as-fed values I get when I subtract protein, fat, fiber, as and moisture from 100%.

What I questioned was that their as-fed values are averages based on several batches, while other manufacturers simply test one batch and give the as-fed values for that particular batch, even though other batches might have different as-fed values.

I think I'd rather know the as-fed values based on averages, rather than being given the best as-fed values that they found. At least with the averages, Weruva is acknowledging that there are differences in the numbers they report and what we might be feeding our cats.

This is nasty when we are trying to control the carb contents of our FD cat's diets!

Suze