Granatapet: someone uses this food? What do you think?

[Delia]

Hi everyone,
I'm looking for a good food for my little Cleo. Now she eats Purina DM, that I choose for the low carbs content, but I would like to change because it is expensive and doesn't seem too good.

Catinfo.org says:

Purina DM canned is sufficiently low in carbohydrates (~7%) but it is expensive and it is predominantly liver which should not make up the bulk of a cat's diet. There is absolutely no reason to spend money on this product.

I live in Italy, so I've read the thread Canned cat food for EUROPEANS and INTERNATIONAL buyers and I've found that Granatapet seems to be a good food. Do you know this brand? Your cats like it? If you have any suggestions, please give them to me. If you know other good brands available in Italy, please let me know.
I think I will buy on this site: http://www.zooplus.it/shop/gatti/cibo_gatti_scatolette, but if you know other site with deliver in Italy, it's ok for me.
Thank you

Delia

 

[Elizabeth and Bertie]

Hi Delia,

Granatapet is an excellent food for diabetic cats, high quality and low carb. There are quite a few others you can get from Zooplus.it too, including: Catz Finefood (but not the one with rabbit, it's too high carb) and Grau 'grain-free' cat food (mine especially like the kitten food!). These are premium foods though and are quite pricey if you have a few cats to feed.... Macs grain free varieties are good quality and quite a bit cheaper, and Bozita is a good budget option.

Here's the link to the UK food data list which includes the carb content info on many of these foods. Just scroll through the second column and you'll recognise some brands that are available from the Italian Zooplus site. Then go a couple of columns along to see the carb content of the food. Ideally we're looking for less than 10% of calories from carbohydrates.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Aq4WIfRfL3G1dDd2dkNtMnNoMDZYaDVxTGtSd1dmWmc#gid=0

Do take care when switching to a lower carb food. It could lower Cleo's blood glucose and mean that she may need less insulin.

Eliz

 

[Critter Mom]

Hi Delia,

I agree with you about the Purina DM. It's not that low-carb, and it contains all manner of ingredients that are not species-appropriate to cats.

Granatapet is superb quality cat food. I've trialled umpteen foods for Saoirse (because of pancreatitis) and Granatapet's Symphonie range in particular is the best EU-available food I've seen - by a country mile. The Symphonie range is organic and therefore GMO-free.

All the Granatapet wet foods are grain-free, don't have any daft ingredients that cats don't need (although one could argue that the pomegranate extract isn't necessary). Unfortunately for Saoirse, the Granatapet canned foods all contain salmon oil and it's one of her pancreatitis triggers. I'm really disappointed because if it agreed with her, I would choose to feed her exclusively on Granatapet Foods.

Kattovit Sensitive Chicken is also suitable for diabetics and has slightly higher carbs than the Granatapet range, although the quality of ingredients isn't quite as good (and you may need to add a teensy bit of soluble fibre to it). It's a fairly bland food.

Katz Finefood pouches are also good quality, but relatively rich. Smilla Adult canned foods are low carb, but very rich.

I currently feed Saoirse Smilla Kitten Food with Chicken is a very high protein, grain-free, low carb, meat 'n' jelly style food. It's relatively bland and therefore quite easy to digest. It's not as good quality as the Granatapet, but it is species appropriate.

Bozita Tetrapaks are FD-friendly, and qood value.

In the UK, zooplus offer small trial packs of different foods (e.g. 6 small tins / 6 pouches) so that you can try different foods to see which ones your cat likes to eat before buying larger quantities. It might be worth checking whether their Italian website offers similar.

Let us know if you need any more help, especially if there are any foods you'd like to know more about. If I've tried them (or researched them), I'll do my best to answer any questions I can.

 

[Delia]

Thank you to both, the informations that you gave me are very useful.

Elizabeth, how do you think I should switch to new food? Should I lower the insulin's dose when I change food or only if she goes too low?
Áine, I didn't understand a thing: salmon oil can cause pancreatitis? Isn't it healthy? Sorry if I made silly questions, but I thought for years that I was giving to Cleo the best food (dry food Royal Canin) and since few months I've just found out that dry food probably caused Cleo's diabetes.

I've another question: do you give treats to your kittens? What do you give them?

 

[Critter Mom]

Hi Delia.

No questions are silly.

Royal Canin dry veterinary diets are most likely what caused Saoirse's problems as well. She was prescribed them, and I thought I was feeding her what was good for her. I was so wrong.

First up, salmon oil doesn't cause pancreatitis, it's just one of the things that disagrees with Saoirse in particular, and upsets her digestive system (it makes her nauseated). It's a common supplement (rich in omega fatty acids) and most cats are, I think, fine with it.

I give Saoirse Cosma Snackie freeze-dried chicken treats. They're also available from Zooplus. She loves them. I also blitz up some of the Snackies in a food processor and sprinkle a little bit of the powdered treats onto her food if her appetite's a bit sluggish. The same trick can help if Cleo needs a bit of tempting while getting used to her new food.

If you're switching from an all-dry diet over to the wet diet, firstly you'll need to monitor Cleo's BG very closely during the transition (e.g. on a weekend) to keep her safe because the blood glucose levels can drop very significantly and very quickly during the diet change. The diet change needs to be done over a period of days to help avoid tummy upsets. Here's a link to Dr Lisa Pierson's article on feline diabetes from her catinfo.org website. She discusses the importance of home testing during diet change in the article.

When you get the new food for Cleo, I suggest posting a new thread on Feline Health prior to starting the diet change and asking for experienced members to have a look at Cleo's spreadsheet numbers and how to proceed with insulin dosage during the changeover.

 

[BJM]

Change the food about 20-25% different food a day to reduce the chances of GI upsets - vomiting, diarrhea, inappetance.
The change may drop the glucose 100-200 mg/dL and may drop the insulin dose 1-2 units. It varies with the cat. Since Cleo is running high, snagging a mid-cycle test, day or night, would let you see how the change was affecting the glucose levels.