Looking for a new grain free dry food for Josie

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eccentricfuzzyme

eccentricfuzzyme

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Josie has been having a lot of pooping problems since she got diagnosed, and it was suggested it may be her food, evo grain free dry food.

i am looking at other grain free dry foods available and affordable to me, and have included some links below.
If you have any input other than "switch to wet", please share it.
Or if you have any other brands you know to be available in Ottawa Canada, please suggest those too.

http://www.petvalu.com/in-our-store/products/cat/food/dry/grain-chicken


http://www.petvalu.com/in-our-store/products/cat/food/dry/wellness®-core-fish-fowl


http://www.petvalu.com/in-our-store/products/cat/food/dry/go-natural-chicken-turkey-duck-dry-formula


http://www.petvalu.com/in-our-store/products/cat/food/dry/natures-variety-instinct-chicken
 
or what about "Taste of the wild" or "california natural"? they have grain free types, but i cant find any pricing info for local sources.
 
The other food-knowledgable people can answer about your links better than I can, but since you're in Canada, is this worth a look? It's made in Canada, so I'd think you'd be able to find it stores somewhere near you: http://orijen.ca/products/cat_kitten

I used this at one point when Grey decided she didn't want the EVO dry anymore. Grey was diet controlled (not on insulin), and her BG numbers fluctuated only a little at first when I changed foods. That was probably because she went from a few days of not eating to "OMG FOOD!" in one sitting (she was a grazer). In any case, her BG normalized very quickly and at that point still did not need insulin.

So sorry you've been having such a hard time with the litterbox, I can certainly sympathize with you there! I went from Grey who could poop in a nearby litterbox while I was eating with no problem, to getting 3 new cats that all but ran me out of the house. Two of the three seem to have stabilized, but the other one I'm having a fecal sample evaluated to try to get to the bottom of this. Maybe a fecal would help nail down what's going on with yours?

Hope you find something that fits your crew!

Suzanne
 
wellness core and natures variety are good choices,

also check out natures logic

of course removing dry food completely would be best for your cat
 
Blue Buffalo Wilderness is grain free. Stay away from the duck it's high in fat which can rise BG #'s....I learned from that.
Before Grain by Merrick is also grain free. The beef got Baxter OTJ for 3 weeks. I found out he was allegric to the beef or a ingredient in it.

Hopefully, those will help. Keep in mind to increase the odds of your cat going into remission & not needing insulin....keep the carbs low & protein high. Lows carbs, high protein can be found in canned food or raw diet. Dry cat food is like feeding a human diabetic Twinkes & Ding Dongs for meals & washing it down with soda.

Good Luck!
Jenn & Baxter
 
I have heard good things about the Go! but haven't actually tried it. My cat vomits from everything under the sun, but we really liked the food profile of the taste of the wild and it was affordably priced also. If you call them they will send you sample packs of all the flavors they have.
 
Saima did well poop-wise on the Go! Senior formula (she had soft stools on some types of Blue Buffalo and on Halo dry food) and really liked the food, but my guess is it's probably high in carbs. I can't remember whether Amazon shipping is exorbitant to Canada, but here in the U.S. we could get a good price on the large bags of that food through Amazon, and shipping was free b/c it was over $25.00.

I've heard the Nature's Variety (I think it's that one) is good because it's freeze-dried? I could be wrong though. I always wanted to try Saima on it, but all varieties had chicken, which we thought she was allergic to.
 
eccentricfuzzyme said:
or what about "Taste of the wild" or "california natural"? they have grain free types, but i cant find any pricing info for local sources.
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I called Taste of the Wild and got the carb values for this dry food (my non-diabetic was still eating it for a short time before I ditched all the dry), and it's 23% carbs, which is too high for a diabetic. The Blue Wilderness grain free is about the same.

If it must be a dry food, Wellness Core is the only other food I know of that is low enough in carbs, and I know you've heard this like a broken record, but you might want to re-evaluate feeding canned food. Am I remembering right that the smell was the problem, and you thought it would attract bugs? Maybe just as a test you could get a can, and put it in the fridge for a day or so before you open it. When it's cold, there's no smell at all. And if you only feed enough that the cat will eat at each sitting and wash the dish afterwards, it wouldn't attract bugs anymore than your own meals do.

Even grain free dry foods can work against you when you're trying to regulate because they need to use a starch as a binder to keep the food together, which tends to cause higher blood sugar in a lot of cats. Bandit cannot tolerate carbs from any of the low carb dry foods, and they cause high blood sugar even when a canned food with the same carb value won't effect his blood sugar at all.
 
saimasmom said:
I've heard the Nature's Variety (I think it's that one) is good because it's freeze-dried?
Click to expand...

Nature's Variety makes a freeze dried raw food but it is only meant as treats/supplemental meal. http://www.naturesvariety.com/InstinctRaw/FD/cat/all There are several other varieties besides chicken.

Stella and Chewy's makes a freeze dried raw cat food that is 100% nutritionally complete, http://www.stellaandchewys.com/cat-products.php You can rehdyrate the food in water, maybe make it kind of canned food like in texture, to ensure that your cat is getting plenty of water.
 
i have three cats all used to free feeding dry food. when they get wet food, they scarf and barf. it is gone in a minute flat, then they puke it up most times, and then are hungry all day.
 
eccentricfuzzyme said:
i have three cats all used to free feeding dry food. when they get wet food, they scarf and barf. it is gone in a minute flat, then they puke it up most times, and then are hungry all day.
Click to expand...

Bandit did the same thing. What I did was feed smaller amounts more frequently--no more than 1.5 oz (half a small can or a quarter of a large can) at a time and mix some water in to slow him down. I feed Bandit 4 times a day--that's the magic number where he's not hungry all the time. Also, once they realize the wet food is not just a treat and is there to stay, they don't wolf it down so quickly. You can also freeze it and leave it out or use an autofeeder if you aren't there to feed.

At the very least, you can keep feeding the non-diabetics the dry, but stop the free feeding so Josie can't get into it (do meal times just like you would do for canned), and feed Josie the canned food only. This is the first and most important step in transitioning to canned. Will your cats beg for food at first until they get used to scheduled feedings? Probably for a week or so. But they'll get used to it, and I think it's less of a temporary inconvenience than dealing with Josie's poo issues. Also, her numbers might see some improvement on the canned since it'll be lower carb. You might be able to get her regulated...

One thing that helps, too, is getting each cat their own dish and feeding them each in their own spot away from each other (like different ends of the kitchen or in different rooms) at the same times every day. That way they don't compete for the food and don't try to mow it down so fast. Also, once they're trained to go to their spots, it's easier to set auto feeders if need be--they'll each run to their own spot for food when the feeder releases it.
 
i am away for hours and hours at a time fairly regularily, i dont think it is fair to make cats used to eating whenever they are hungry wait that long. i cant zip home to feed them every few hours.
i am a caregiver to a human that lives cross town, and i go there most days.

my local petstore carried the "before grain" stuff. how do you get the %s for it?
 
eccentricfuzzyme said:
i am away for hours and hours at a time fairly regularily, i dont think it is fair to make cats used to eating whenever they are hungry wait that long. i cant zip home to feed them every few hours.
i am a caregiver to a human that lives cross town, and i go there most days.
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The cats will adjust, believe me. They can wait to eat while you're gone if they have to and they will be absolutely fine! Cats don't eat whenever they want in the wild. In fact, they sometimes go for days without eating between meals. This is a great quote from Dr. Lisa:

Cats do not need food available at all times. It really is okay for them to experience a hunger pain! That said, it was very hard for me to listen to my cats begging for food even though I was strong in my conviction that I was heading them in the best direction for optimal health. It truly was a stressful time for me and them. Actually, I think it was harder on me!

This is where many people fail and just give in and fill up the dry food bowl. There were a few times when I had to call my 'sponsor' and was instructed to "just leave the house if you can't take looking into those eyes!" I left the house. Those pitiful little cries of "I have not had food for two WHOLE hours!" were hard to take. But, lo and behold, they were just fine when I returned. Not one cat had died from hunger.
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Well she and i will just have to agree to disagree. i do think it is cruel to make a cat who has lived 11 years one way suddenly adjust to spending 10+ hours between meals.
 
Or like I mentioned, you can leave out frozen portions of food or use auto feeders while you are away if you're really concerned that they have access to food.

It's definitely not going to hurt your other cats, nor is it cruel to have them eat at scheduled feeding times. It can, however, hurt Josie to keep eating dry food with her diabetes. I know it seems like it's going to be a big pain in the butt to change, but it really isn't as stressful as you think it's going to be. In fact, I prefer the meal times now to when I free fed--I love to watch Bandit purr and prance around the house at meal time, giving me lots of love before dinner!
 
EVO/Innova Cat and Kitten, Wellness Core, and Natures Variety Instinct are the 3 that are on the charts for low enough carbs to be diabetic appropriate I believe. We've tried both Wellness Core and Innova for our other cats and they've decided the Innova is the one they want. I mix Wellness Core and the Innova and they ate both for a while, but now just pick around the Wellness.

All of the lower carb/grain free dry foods will be higher in fat, that's just what is going to happen when they remove the carbs. Since it is dry in addition to high fat, it may be harder on the stomach. If you try switching her to one that is not as carb friendly, maybe try to mix half-n-half with a lower carb to reduce the impact for her.
 
it is the evo/innova she is on now.
the core one i think is more expensive than i can afford, but i will check in store to be sure.
 
eccentricfuzzyme said:
my local petstore carried the "before grain" stuff. how do you get the %s for it?
Click to expand...

The dry Before Grain? To get %s, you first need to call the company and ask for "as fed values". Then with those numbers you can calculate out the exact nutritional content using the info here: http://binkyspage.tripod.com/foodfaq.html There's a downloadable Excel spreadsheet there that will do the math for you once you input the as fed numbers.
 
I am have crossed a bunch of foods off the list, and have only 2 more that I cant find the %s for...
orijen and Go! Natural. Anyone have data on them?
 
i have narrowed it between orijen, go natural, wellness core, and natures variety instinct.
i will have to go in store this weekend and see which one i can afford.
 
Just a thought, and sorry if it has already been mentioned: since you are already adding water to the dry food per your signature, what if you add only a little canned and increase the canned over time? I'm not trying to drive you crazy about dry vs. wet food, and I personally have had to make the best of a current situation! Just trying to help think of a solution.

Also, I add water to my cats' canned...would doing the same for yours slow them down?

None of my cats have FD, but I've dealt with it and sympathize with when you can feed/give shots. I was working 13-16 hour shifts and it was HARD to work around. Best of luck to you and yours!

Suzanne
 
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