? For any OTJ cats and others, what is the carb % you average around for wet food?

[Riyah]

Hey all!

Lily has been going through a period of not wanting to eat her usual food but gobbles down the Fancy Feast I keep around for emergencies. She's off of insulin but has CKD so I keep her on low phosphorus wet food (Weruva flavors with carbs around 5%).

I've trialed pretty much every 5% carb food on the Diabetic CKD Foods List everyone uses but I'm thinking I need to try out some other now. The ones I'm looking at are around 7-8%. I know that's not a huge jump but I still feel a little anxious. Are any of your cats on 'higher' carbs and okay? The flavors I'm looking at are Weruva Goody Two Stews (8.5% ME carbs), Stir It Up (7.2%), Shine Bright (7.1%), Live n Love (7.5%), and Meowiss Bueller (6.9%).

I know the answer is to try them and test her BG but curious for others thoughts! We're going to the vet anyways on Friday about the lower appetite as well.

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

In general, I'm guessing the average carbs are around 5%. There are some members who go way lower and others up to around 7 - 8%. In a large part, it depends on how carb sensitive Lily is. I would also give any food change more than a day or two to assess how she responds. Some cats have GI issues with a change in food and if she's feeling a bit off, it may have an impact on her numbers.

Also, has she been losing weight? She is now an older lady and that may be affecting her appetite especially if she's less active. Obviously, you're doing the right thing by getting her checked out but I'd be more concerned if she was losing weight.

Depending on her labs related to the CKD, a phosphorus binder may also be a consideration. With a binder, you can feed her pretty much anything she likes and not have to worry about whether the food is low in phosphorus.

 

[Riyah]

In general, I'm guessing the average carbs are around 5%. There are some members who go way lower and others up to around 7 - 8%. In a large part, it depends on how carb sensitive Lily is. I would also give any food change more than a day or two to assess how she responds. Some cats have GI issues with a change in food and if she's feeling a bit off, it may have an impact on her numbers.

Also, has she been losing weight? She is now an older lady and that may be affecting her appetite especially if she's less active. Obviously, you're doing the right thing by getting her checked out but I'd be more concerned if she was losing weight.

Depending on her labs related to the CKD, a phosphorus binder may also be a consideration. With a binder, you can feed her pretty much anything she likes and not have to worry about whether the food is low in phosphorus.

Yes I do have to go slower with new foods because sometimes she'll get constipated.

No weight loss as of right now which surprised me since she isn't eating as much. Calories-wise, she's actually eating around the recommended amount according to our vet. He wanted her to have around 180 calories a day but she was always much hungrier than that, so she was getting closer to 210-230 a day. I'm just curious about why it suddenly changed.

And for phosphorus levels, so far on her bloodwork, she's never been high in phosphorus. Her other values like SDMA, Bun, Creatinine, USG etc point towards CKD but the phosphorus levels so far have been very average. We'll see how they come back after tomorrow though.