Food choices

[Vhens2211]

Soooooo of couse the vet pushed Purina DM food on me to feed....

My cat Ozzie was just diagnosed the other week... I have another thread going regarding this and buying a meter if anyone wants some more info on his story.

I did take a case of the wet home with me.

My boys were on high quality food before Blue Wilderness dry and Wellness pouches. I know Ozzie cannot have either, so I have stopped feeding to both.

Someone sent me a link to Janet & Binkys page. I was told to look for foods with carb counts lower than 10. I found the fancy feast and a few of the wellness cans are under 10. I'd reallllllly prefer to not feed fancy feast though, but they both like it. Ozzie likes the chicken and herring wellness, but my kitty Milo hates it!

Are there any other good quality foods I could try that may not be on those lists?

Finding the food transition to be a little difficult, but I think the guys are getting used to there not being any dry left out anymore.

Thanks all

Vivian & Ozzie

 

[squeem3]

Canned foods with 10% carbs or less are best. Both canned food charts have many brands that are low carb, not just Fancy Feast :smile: http://binkyspage.tripod.com/canfood.html

The regular canned Wellness are good. Just look for the ones that have the yellow grain-free triangle on the label. I think there's a few varieties that are not grain-free. Wellness CORE is also good.

If price doesn't matter, you can try the higher end brands like Innova EVO, Nature's Variety Instinct, and Merrick. For something more affordable, pepole here feed Friskies, 9 Lives, Special Kitty, and other brands commonly found in supermarkets and big box stores. There's nothing wrong with Fancy Feast other than it being only available in those teeny cans.

For foods not on the charts, you need to carefully read the ingredient list and look for any source of potential carbs like starches. A food may be labeled as grain-free but may contain an ingredient which causes the carb content to be over the ideal 10%.

You can return the prescription canned food to the vet for a refund.

 

[Julia & Bandit (GA)]

Here's an updated list of the content of some more of the premium foods; https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B8...MzhkYTkxOGM4NThk&sort=name&layout=list&num=50

(There is one small mistake on the chart--note that the protein and fat content of the Merricks Before Grain Turkey were reversed. The values seemed odd to me in comparison to the others, so I called the company to confirm.)

I feed Bandit Merrick's Cowboy Cookout, Surf and Turf, and sometimes Grammy's Pot Pie and Turducken (Those last two don't raise Bandit's blood glucose, but they are a little higher in carbs than the others--8 and 9%, so you would want to make sure your cat can handle that carb load before feeding regularly. Some cats are more sensitive to some types of carbs than others, especially if they need insulin). The Merrick's is higher in protein and lower in fat than most byproduct free foods which is why I prefer them to Wellness or Evo, or even the Merricks Before Grain. I tried several of these foods with Bandit, and while he was ok with them most of the time, occasionally the high fat caused GI problems with Bandit and he didn't want to eat them anymore. I also feed some of the grain free Fancy Feast, also because of the higher protein/lower fat content, even though they do contain some byproducts.

You also want to pay some attention to the phosphorus content, especially if your cat is older. Most are fine, but as an example--the phosphorus content for Nature's Variety venison is 696--WAY more than any cat should be consuming. If it's super high like that, I'd avoid it.

You can also label read--if something is grain free, it's most likely low carb. You want to avoid ingredients like corn, soy, rice, or wheat.