Cosma in jelly main food - experience

[Marina & Chico]

Dear all,

Our cat was newly diagnosed with diabetes and we are in a bit of agony of all new things we have to do, to follow, changes in our beloved cat.

Lately Chico has very often diarrhea and thanks to @Gill & George we realized we should pay more attention to this symptom.

@Gill & George recommended us to try some probiotics, which we definitely will, nonetheless it will take a while until we will be able to get ahold of it.

In meanwhile we have read that he might be intolerant to the food he is receiving, which would make sense, because the diarrhea started around the time when we switched to Purina ProPLan DM and got worse last few days when it is the only food he receives. We want to go back to our old food - Cosma chicken in jelly, it is pure meat, <1% carbs. Nonetheless it is considered to be supplementary wet cat food. Do you have any experience with Cosma as the main food for cats? What would be the dosing? Are there any limitations for diabetic cats? should we ensure diversity in his diet with other supplements?

https://www.zoohit.cz/shop/kocky/konzervy/cosma/konzervy/211190

Thank you very much for your help,
Marina, Denis & Chico

 

[tiffmaxee]

There’s no need to feed DM and it very likely is the reason for the diarrhea. I am not familiar with the food you are feeding and can’t read the ingredients but if 1% carbs it’s fine. You will need some higher carb food for the time she drops too low . Also some cats do better on slightly higher low carb food. Welcome to the FDMB.

 

[Marina & Chico]

There’s no need to feed DM and it very likely is the reason for the diarrhea. I am not familiar with the food you are feeding and can’t read the ingredients but if 1% carbs it’s fine. You will need some higher carb food for the time she drops too low . Also some cats do better on slightly higher low carb food. Welcome to the FDMB.

Thank you for the advice, what wet food higher in carbs do your give your cats?

 

[Critter Mom]

Hi Marina,

Cosma chicken in jelly, it is pure meat, <1% carbs. Nonetheless it is considered to be supplementary wet cat food.

As the description suggests, this food is not suitable for a cat's main diet (as sold). It's intended to be fed in addition to a nutritionally complete food. From the listing on Zooplus:

Feeding Recommendation:
Cosma Original in Jelly is a supplementary wet cat food.
Serve 1-1.5 cans at room temperature per day, spread over at least two meals alongside a complete food.​

I don't know whether or not it would be feasible to add supplements to the Cosma Original product to make it a nutritionally complete food. I'm going to tag a couple of members who know a lot about food supplements to see whether they'd be able to help you:

@Bron and Sheba (GA)
@Marje and Gracie

Ladies, here is the nutritional profile of the Cosma food in question (again, from the Zooplus listing):

Chicken Breast in Jelly (Supplementary):
Chicken breast (47.6%), rice (1.0%), potassium chloride, water (50.4%)
Analytical constituents: Protein 14%, fat 0.8%, ash 1.0%, fibre 0.1%, moisture 83%

Analytical constituents

protein 14.0 %
fat 0.8 %
fibre 0.1 %
ash 1.0 %
moisture 83.0 %

[% kcals from carbs (calculated): 6.45%]
​

Mogs
.

 

[tiffmaxee]

I don’t think you are in the United States so I’m not sure which foods you have available. My girls are fed a raw diet. Max, who was my diabetic cat, was fed various varieties of fancy feast and other canned food. I haven’t shopped for other than raw in 4 years. What country are you living in? We can tag some people from there to give you food suggestions.

 

[Critter Mom]

Marina, FYI the Cosma Chicken in jelly food has 6.45% kilocalories from carbs and that's the value you need to work with when choosing diabetic-suitable foods.

Here's a really handy online calculator to help you check whether any food you're considering for Chico is suitable carb-wise:

Metabolisable Energy (% kcals) Calculator

All you need to do is plug in the analytical constituent %s into the calculator and it will give you the % kcals (ME %) from carbs.


Mogs
.

 

[Marina & Chico]

Marina, FYI the Cosma Chicken in jelly food has 6.45% kilocalories from carbs and that's the value you need to work with when choosing diabetic-suitable foods.

Here's a really handy online calculator to help you check whether any food you're considering for Chico is suitable carb-wise:

Metabolisable Energy (% kcals) Calculator

All you need to do is plug in the analytical constituent %s into the calculator and it will give you the % kcals from carbs.


Mogs
.

Thanks, we were just doing that now and finally we understood it is the % calories from carbs is what we should look at.

 

[Marina & Chico]

I don’t think you are in the United States so I’m not sure which foods you have available. My girls are fed a raw diet. Max, who was my diabetic cat, was fed various varieties of fancy feast and other canned food. I haven’t shopped for other than raw in 4 years. What country are you living in? We can tag some people from there to give you food suggestions.

We are in Czech republic. What do you mean when you say raw diet? Do you feed them raw meat?

 

[Gill & George]

Do you feed them raw meat?

Yes, a significant proportion of our members feed a raw diet.


Have you come across Dr Lisa's Feline Nutrition page? If not let me introduce you https://catinfo.org/
she details how to feed a raw diet, supplements etc and also covers all things nutritional, you can learn how to read the ingredients on the comercial cat food. She is a member on this board and has worked hard to supply all the nutritional info charts (mostly it is US products) and kindly lets us use them.

Another option for us here in europe is to feed raw human grade food, and add a supplement to make it complete, the only one I know of is Felini complete, again available in the German Zooplus store, and in the Czech store, I've linked it for you.

I think the cornstarch may well be the culprit for the tummy upset. Though it also has Cassia gum(thickening agent) in it, just researching that interestingly the eu are banning it's use in pet food, but it's currently in the transition phase, a quick glance it seems it may also cause GI problems.

 

[Critter Mom]

Hi again, Marina.

When food hunting for Chico, and based on the fact that the Cosma chicken supplementary food agrees with his system, I'd suggest initially looking for nutritionally complete foods where chicken is the sole protein source and the ingredient list is limited (and doesn't contain questionable ingredients like carrageenan).

Here's a nutritionally complete food that is very simple, suitable for a diabetic, and with very similar ingredients to the Cosma in Jelly (and a single source of protein):

Integra Protect Sensitive - Pure Chicken Variety (info from Zooplus listing)

Pure Chicken:
Chicken (63%), calcium carbonate, rapeseed oil (0.4%), sodium chloride.
Additives:
Nutritional additives:
Vitamin D3 (200 IU/kg), iodine [as calcium iodate, anhydrous] (0.1mg/kg), copper (1mg/kg), manganese (1.4mg/kg), zinc [as zinc oxides] (11.4mg/kg).​

[% kcals from carbs (calculated): 4.2%]​

I've not used this particular product myself but I do feed the Integra Protect Renal product to my civvie, Lúnasa (has stage III renal insufficiency). She has a very sensitive digestive system and it's the first time in years I've found a wet food that she can eat without GI disturbance (h/t Gill!). The foods are patés, and the quality is good. They're also not strong-smelling. (With Saoirse and Lúnasa, I've found that their digestive systems did better with foods that don't have a strong aroma.) What I also like about the Integra range is that they tend to keep their formulations really simple: just ingredients the cat actually needs, no mucking about with the food, unlike so many other products that include all manner of unnecessary stuff that has more to do with marketing products to humans than being of nutritional benefit to felines.

I think it might be worth your considering getting a small quantity of the above food to see whether it might agree with Chico. (Introduce very slowly, mixed with the food that currently agrees with him.)

I had a look at the Integra Protect Diabetes food but it contains beef as well as chicken. Beef can disagree with some cats (and spike their BG in some cases) so for that reason I'd suggest the Sensitive pure chicken product might be better to trial for Chico, at least initially.

I have used Kattovit Sensitive chicken variety in the past. Again, it's a low carb option with limited ingredients but it's a bit richer than the Integra (it seems to have a higher proportion of liver in it, though not as much as the Purina DM canned.)

Catz Finefood and Granatapet Symphonie are really good quality but they're much richer than the foods mentioned above. Much as I would wish to have fed those products, my cats' digestive tracts had other ideas. Ultimately, the right food is the one that provides all the nutrients and actually agrees with the cat.

I hope some of the above is helpful to you.


Mogs
.

 

[Marina & Chico]

I am still trying to recover from the fact that we have fed Chico all his life dry food as his main dish because it was "healthier", from the fact that after being diagnosed our vet gave us 2 options to feed him: 1 dry food which turned out to have 20% carbs and 2. Purina DM which looking at it and reading more about it is an awful food. It is incredible how deep it is ingrained in us to believe that if it says "diabetic" it should be good for diabetics.... I am so upset that we could have protected our little cat from diabetes only by simply feeding him wet food instead of dry...

Thank you all again for the time you are taking to share all these resources and information

 

[SashaV]

I am still trying to recover from the fact that we have fed Chico all his life dry food as his main dish because it was "healthier", from the fact that after being diagnosed our vet gave us 2 options to feed him: 1 dry food which turned out to have 20% carbs and 2. Purina DM which looking at it and reading more about it is an awful food. It is incredible how deep it is ingrained in us to believe that if it says "diabetic" it should be good for diabetics.... I am so upset that we could have protected our little cat from diabetes only by simply feeding him wet food instead of dry...

Thank you all again for the time you are taking to share all these resources and information

You're definitely not the only one, I think we've all been there.
Are you up to feeding raw?
If so, I can help google some brands tomorrow to see if they're available where you are. Unless you want to grind meat yourself of course

 

[Gill & George]

I am still trying to recover from the fact that we have fed Chico all his life dry food as his main dish because it was "healthier", from the fact that after being diagnosed our vet gave us 2 options to feed him: 1 dry food which turned out to have 20% carbs and 2. Purina DM which looking at it and reading more about it is an awful food. It is incredible how deep it is ingrained in us to believe that if it says "diabetic" it should be good for diabetics.... I am so upset that we could have protected our little cat from diabetes only by simply feeding him wet food instead of dry...

Thank you all again for the time you are taking to share all these resources and information

We've all been there. I had George on hills metabolic dry for weight loss, I discovered, after his diagnosis, that it's super high in carbs and super high in carbs and full of rubbish ingredients, I'm certain it contributed in no small amount to his diabetes, and what was worse he didn't loose weight on it and ws miserable.

Most of us have felt that guilt.

And you can and will turn it around for chico, and we are all here to help you help him. Most of us find we go through a very steep learning curve with FD, insulin use, nutrition. Hang in there

 

[Marina & Chico]

You're definitely not the only one, I think we've all been there.
Are you up to feeding raw?
If so, I can help google some brands tomorrow to see if they're available where you are. Unless you want to grind meat yourself of course

i still didn't get to the raw food option, but i will gladly look into it. Thanks