Food for thought... literally?

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Sarah Smith

Sarah Smith

Member Since 2016
I was hoping for some feedback on a game plan I've been developing for a shift in diet at my house. Cooter keeps getting into the dry food once or twice a day, keeping his numbers way up. Getting rid of the free feeding some dry is not an option (right now anyway). The dry food I am using is Nutro max, WAY up in carbs (close to or over 30%). I am going to swap my crew over to Wellness Core, which seems to be 11% and start feeding everyone a little wet in the mornings and evenings, possibly after I get home from work as well. I am scared of stopping the dry altogether due to age, and the real possibility of fatty liver in 2 of my crew if they stop eating, we've been through it before. My youngest is 9 and oldest is 15, most of you know how it can be a delicate balance with seniors... u change something and the world crashes down.... Any feedback is appreciated!
 
Sarah, 3 even better dry foods for diabetics are Evo Chicken, Wysong Epigen 90 and Young Again Zero Carb (internet only). All are less then 10%, YA is what I keep out for mine with 2 civvies plus the sugar boy and it is about 5%. It's pricey at fist glance but they eat less of it then higher carb kibble. Mine go through maybe 2 cups a week and I'm over estimating that.
 
Thanks Jane, I actually decided against the wellness for now, and picked up a bag of natures variety instinct, it is supposed to be 8%? Needed something i can get local to get him started on the down swing.. going to be doing some in depth pricing and comparisons online tonight to come up with a longer term solution...hes been in the black on the spreadsheet too long (switching to prozinc is helping) and Im getting nervous of ketones, nueropathy, and long term issues..
 
This is what Natures Variety sent me. If you decide to keep feeding it, request coupons on their website.
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Thanks Sharon :) Was looking at a bunch of comparisons earlier online, and every one is different you know, confusing to say the least. I'll go with the number they sent you, its still in my wheelhouse carb wise to get his numbers down :) Has anyone ordered from Chewys here, are they decent to deal with? Notice they have the instinct $8 cheaper then petsmart, and $10 if i do the autoship... and it was on sale at petsmart today...
 
I bought some Natures Variety at Petsmart today too. I looked at every bag of dry in the store trying to find something a bit cheaper but still low carb for my kibble addicted civies. NV was the best they had. Chewys is great I've ordered from them many times. There is another low carb dry called Waggers that @Carol & Murphy use. You may want to check that out.
 
Sharon which kind did you get? I noticed I actually picked up the raw boost one, with pieces of raw food in it....emailed NV for the carb info, guess I'll wait to open the bag till I hear back from them.
 
I get that kind too. I emailed them and was told carbs are the same because the only difference is the raw bits. Here is a copy of that email
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Thank you so much Sharon :) i can start the diet change tomorow as planned then, mix a little new with the old.... betting they will leave the nutro in the bowl when they taste this one lol
 
BJM said:
OK, those numbers, unless specified as dry matter basis, are not the percent of calories from carbohydrates, but the percent of weight.

Plug those numbers into this calculator, then calculate the percentages from the calories that are given.
Click to expand...

Thanks BJ. When I contacted Natures Variety, I asked for calories from carbs in their Instinct kibble. They supplied me with the above chart (post #4). Did I ask correctly? I'm still figuring out carb counts, dry matter vs as fed...:confused: and how to use the calculator. I am highly math challenged!
 
I'm confused as well.... they emailed me back yesterday with this info about the instinct raw boost..... why do they make this stuff so difficult to figure out?!?
 

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Sarah Smith said:
I'm confused as well.... they emailed me back yesterday with this info about the instinct raw boost..... why do they make this stuff so difficult to figure out?!?
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Sarah, the data in your post above looks like the dry matter percentages by weight, because they all add up to 100 (as they should do). (However, actually the one in the middle adds up to 101, so I think there's an error in that one...)

Anyway...and assuming those are the dry matter percentages....
When I put those figures through my carb calculator the Chicken comes out as 7.3% calories from carbs; the Duck & Turkey comes out as 9.9% calories from carbs; and the Rabbit (the one with the error) could be between 8.4% to 9.1% calories from carbs.

I hope this helps...

Eliz
 
Thank you Elizabeth... I'm usually pretty good with math, I just cant get my head wrapped around this for some reason!
 
1. Work out the dry matter protein, fat, and carb values. (Maybe use the web calculator?)

2. Work out the number of kilocalories provided by each nutrient. (Protein, carbs - 3.5 kcal/g; fat - 8.5 kcal/g).

3. Add up the results to get the value for total kilocalories.

Then:

Let Kc = kilocalories from carbs.

Let Kt = total kilocalories.

Let Pc = Percentage of carbs from carbohydrates.

Pc = Kc / Kt x 100.


Now where's my apple? ;)


Mogs
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Boy, Mogs, that is a ton of work
I mostly use Epigen 90 now (at least that is what Murphy has decided he will eat at the present time - could change at any moment) it has zero starch and I'm decreasing his insulin while he is eating it
He won't eat it at present, but I want to plug Waggers - it's a starch free semi-moist food (so it has a ton more moisture than dry kibble) with carb ~ 10% I think
 
I contacted NV for the as fed carbs in the Ultimate Protein and their answer was 15.1%. If the Ultimate Protein is 95% protein and 5% fruits, veggies etc. and regular kibble and Raw Boost are 83% protein and 17% fruit, veggie etc. then the carbs as fed would have to be higher in the regular kibble and Raw Boost. I don't think the numbers provided above are as fed.
 
Yes you want as fed values. Not sure how they are calculating though with all the different numbers they have provided!?:confused:
 
That's why I'm going to try to call and talk to someone in person. I feed the kibble to my civies, so I'm not too worried about it(From the ingredients list, I think it's one of the better kibbles out there) but I'd like to know for sure what the carb count is. Anything else I should ask about?
 
Nothing else I can think of. The problem with these companies is that they probably don't get questioned on this stuff very often so I am always a little skeptical and do my own calculations. Using the Scheyder calculator, the Ultimate Protein comes out to 17% carbs so I'm not sure how the company came up with 15%. I checked the NV Chicken Kibble on Scheyder too and it came out exactly the same... at 17%. The difference in protein/fat between the two formulas according to the GA is negligible but they made it sound significant in the note they sent you (95% vs 83% protein from meat). I'm thinking the Ultimate Protein is just overpriced marketing hype but it's the lowest carb kibble my girl will eat so I'm stuck. :blackeye:
 
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MrWorfMen's Mom said:
Using the Scheyder calculator, the Ultimate Protein comes out to 17% carbs so I'm not sure how the company came up with 15%.
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Linda, did you do last bit of the calculation that Mogs wrote above?
The Sheyderweb calculator gives the total calories of the food per 100g, and the number of calories from each nutrient per 100g.

To work out the 'percentage of calories' from carbs you grab a calculator and do this: Divide the 'calories from carbs per 100g' by the 'total calories per 100g' and then multiply by 100.

Incidentally, I think the Sheyderweb uses 8.6 or 8.7 as the multiplier for fat (it used to, not sure if it still does) rather than the usual 8.5. But that only makes a teeny weeny difference.

Eliz
 
Elizabeth and Bertie said:
To work out the 'percentage of calories' from carbs you grab a calculator and do this: Divide the 'calories from carbs per 100g' by the 'total calories per 100g' and then multiply by 100.
Click to expand...
Oh now I know Menace has me totally sleep deprived having recently taken up diving as her sport of choice! :) I thought there was some other calculation I had done previously that had elicited the 15% but I totally blanked on it last night! When I did the extra step, NV UltProt calculates to 14.5% so th ecompany info is correct. Thanks for refreshing my failing memory Eliz! :D
 
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