? canned foods

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Lisa and Gato

Lisa and Gato

Member Since 2016
what are the best canned foods? and when looking at a label what do I look at to make sure it is right for my diabetic cat?

I look at labels and I can't see anything that says carbs or percentage of carbs, mostly I see crude protein
 
Lisa and Gato said:
what are the best canned foods? and when looking at a label what do I look at to make sure it is right for my diabetic cat?

I look at labels and I can't see anything that says carbs or percentage of carbs, mostly I see crude protein
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Lisa what I do to get an estimate is subtract the percentages on the labels from 100 and what is left is an approximate carb count. Then I look up the food online and see if I can find the real numbers on the company's website. I also take Dr. Lisa's chart with me when I go food shopping. My local pet shop people are wonderful and will look up something for me online when I am there if I need them to. It's a Small, specialty shop. I try to avoid ingredients that have a lot of starch and grain or cereal in them. Not easy to find good quality food for cats these days.
 
Shoeskitty said:
Lisa what I do to get an estimate is subtract the percentages on the labels from 100 and what is left is an approximate carb count. Then I look up the food online and see if I can find the real numbers on the company's website. I also take Dr. Lisa's chart with me when I go food shopping. My local pet shop people are wonderful and will look up something for me online when I am there if I need them to. It's a Small, specialty shop. I try to avoid ingredients that have a lot of starch and grain or cereal in them. Not easy to find good quality food for cats these days.
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ok thank you
 
Quick formula is 100-(protein+fat+ash+moisture)= carbs. However, most give a mixture of minimum and maximum values so it is not always reliable. Fancy Feast Classis and Little Friskies Classic Pate (with the exception of Mixed Grill) are all under 10% carbs and inexpensive. Here is a handy chart for you: http://www.catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf.
You can also email companies and get the info you need.
 
You won't find carbs listed on the cans, sadly. You can use a carb calculator, like this one:

http://scheyderweb.com/cats/catfood.html

or do your own calculations:

  1. Add Guaranteed Analysis Protein% + Fat% + Fiber% + Moisture% + Ash% = Total Guaranteed Analysis % (TGA%)
    (ex: Protein 11% + Fat 2% + Fiber 1.5% + Moisture 78% + Ash 2.5% = 95% (TGA%))
  2. Subtract: 100% - TGA% = Carbohydrate %
    (ex: 100% - 95% = 5%)
  3. Subtract: 100% - Moisture % = Dry Matter Divisor (DMD)
    (ex: 100% - 78% = 22 (DMD))
  4. Carbohydrate % divided by DMD = Actual (dry matter) carbs %
    (ex: 5 / 22 = .227 which is 22.7% actual dry matter carbs)
but it's easiest to use Dr. Pierson's list:

http://www.catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf

Here is another good list:

http://www.catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf

Yes, I have them all bookmarked on my computer for quick access, lol! :)
 
Squalliesmom said:
You won't find carbs listed on the cans, sadly. You can use a carb calculator, like this one:

http://scheyderweb.com/cats/catfood.html

or do your own calculations:

  1. Add Guaranteed Analysis Protein% + Fat% + Fiber% + Moisture% + Ash% = Total Guaranteed Analysis % (TGA%)
    (ex: Protein 11% + Fat 2% + Fiber 1.5% + Moisture 78% + Ash 2.5% = 95% (TGA%))
  2. Subtract: 100% - TGA% = Carbohydrate %
    (ex: 100% - 95% = 5%)
  3. Subtract: 100% - Moisture % = Dry Matter Divisor (DMD)
    (ex: 100% - 78% = 22 (DMD))
  4. Carbohydrate % divided by DMD = Actual (dry matter) carbs %
    (ex: 5 / 22 = .227 which is 22.7% actual dry matter carbs)
but it's easiest to use Dr. Pierson's list:

http://www.catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf

Here is another good list:

http://www.catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPublic9-22-12.pdf

Yes, I have them all bookmarked on my computer for quick access, lol! :)
Click to expand...
thanks that is a lot.. on Dr Lisa's list I didn't see the friskies it says friskies special and didn't know what that was
 
I tend to look at the ingredients first. If I see the word gluten, or potato or tapioca or other carb-y sounding ingredient's I research further. If it isn't there I figure it's all good. With rice I research but I avoid anything that specifically mentions rice or another non-meat in the product name, like Chicken and rice flavor.
 
Lisa and Gato said:
I look at labels and I can't see anything that says carbs or percentage of carbs, mostly I see crude protein
Click to expand...
Hi Lisa, as others have said, the carb content isn't usually listed on the label, so it's necessary to work it out.

Adding the percentages for protein, fat, ash, fibre and moisture, and deducting those from 100 will give you the approximate percentage of carbohydrate by weight.
And dividing the carb % by the total dry matter % (ie. total of the 'as fed' percentages minus the moisture %) will give you the dry matter carb content.
But that is not the same thing as the 'percentage of calories' from carbs, which Dr Pierson considers to be a more useful comparison figure.
(Incidentally, the Dr Hodgkins forums seem to compare foods using just the dry matter carb content.)

But the dry matter carb content, whilst useful, doesn't tell you the whole story. It probably would do if protein, fat, and carbs all had the same calorific value, but they don't... With protein and carbs you multiply the 'as fed' values by 3.5 to get the calories per 100g, but with fat you have to multiply by 8.5. The amount of fat in a food can have quite a significant bearing on the 'percentage of calories' from carbs.

To get the 'percentage of calories' from carbs you can start out by using the nifty little Sheyderweb calculator linked to above in Squalliesmom's post, and then grab a calculator and do this: You divide the 'calories from carbs' per 100g by the 'total calories per 100g', and then multiply by 100. Bingo! :)

Eliz
 
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