Sheba cat food and calculating carbs

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Elizabeth Maloney

Member Since 2015
Was at Walmart tonight and their Friskies selection was pretty picked over in the pate section, so I picked up a case of the Sheba Premium pate in natural juices. I used the carb calculations that I found online, and they seem really low carb, like 3-4%, but when I did a search for Sheba food on here, it seemed like everyone said their cats BG skyrocketed on Sheba. Is there a reason for this?
The carb calculations I found were to add up the protein, fat, fiber, moisture and ash, then subtract that number from 100, and then divide that number by .25. Is that correct?
 
We fed Sheba Pate [all flavors] (until Gizmo got tired of it) with no noticeable effect on his BG.
 
Heffernan gets the chicken & turkey Sheba and does well on them. I added them in to our rotation. I do notice he has softer stools after those feedings.
 
Sheba Chicken & Liver, Sheba Chicken & Tuna, Sheba Turkey Entrée and Sheba Chicken Entrée are all 6.82% dry carbs and 1.50% wet carbs. Sheba Salmon Entrée is 3.64% dry carbs and .80% wet carbs. All are in Pate form.
 
Elizabeth Maloney said:
The carb calculations I found were to add up the protein, fat, fiber, moisture and ash, then subtract that number from 100, and then divide that number by .25. Is that correct?
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Nope, that's not correct. But I do so wish it was that simple. ;)

We're looking for the percentage of calories from carbs.
And in order to do that we need to know the total calories per 100g, and how many of those calories are from carbs. Fortunately, the online calculator that BJ linked to above will work all that bit out for you. :)

Then, to get 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. Voila!

Note: If there are close to 100 total calories per 100g of food then it isn't necessary to do this calculation, as the calories from carbs per 100g will be the same as the percentage of calories from carbs.

However...
US labelling shows minimum/maximum amounts for protein, fat and moisture, and these may not be the actual amounts that are in the can at any given time. In order to get the current 'as fed' amounts it is necessary to contact the manufacturer (or sometimes the manufacturer's website will show the current amounts.) Without the current figures from the manufacturer any calculation is going to be a 'guesstimate'...


Eliz
 
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Hmmm. I was playing around with the carb calculator that was linked here and then doing the calculations that I found online, and was coming up with almost the same exact amount of carbs using each calculation.
 
If they're trying to meet the US pet food standards, they should be similar.
 
Elizabeth Maloney said:
Hmmm. I was playing around with the carb calculator that was linked here and then doing the calculations that I found online, and was coming up with almost the same exact amount of carbs using each calculation.
Click to expand...
Hi Elizabeth,

Can you clarify? (Sorry if I'm being a bit dim... :rolleyes:)
Are you saying the Scheyderweb calculator got the same results as the method you wrote in your first post here?
Elizabeth Maloney said:
The carb calculations I found were to add up the protein, fat, fiber, moisture and ash, then subtract that number from 100, and then divide that number by .25. Is that correct?
Click to expand...

Eliz
 
The Sheba Pates are all fine to feed--Bandit ate them for a while with no effect on his BG. Just make sure they are the pates and not the cuts--the cans look identical.

I obtained the as-fed values and figured out the carb/protein/Fat/phosphorus percentages several years ago, but I can't seem to find what I did with that data. I guess I didn't post it here. I know that the protein/fat/carb values were similar to Fancy Feast pates, with lower phosphorus levels than Fancy Feast. And all the foods were surprisingly similar in numbers--I have a feeling that the recipe for each "flavor" is pretty identical.
 
Good to know Julia; I was wondering why Sheba is not included on Dr. Lisa's list (think it was she said she never heard back from them?)... I was extremely frustrated to find just tonight, that one of my local grocery stores is now discontinuing Friskies Special diet foods, the turkey/giblets and others, plus the price of Fancy Feast and Friskies have gone up since last time I bought some. I don't suppose you remember how much better the phosphorus levels were w/ Sheba vs. FF? I was going to try and stay w/ the Fancy Feast Turkey and Giblets which is one of the lower phosphorus recipes, but if Sheba is even better, and for now, a little cheaper, it would help.
 
Gosh, it was some time ago, and I don't quite recall. I think they must have been somewhere between 250-300 mg/100kcal, because I remember thinking "Well, not great, but not terrible either," and 300 was my personal cut-off for what I would feed in terms of phos levels for Bandit's secondary foods at the time (I was mostly feeding Merrick's, but I liked the Sheba because it was easy to freeze for the auto feeder).

I wouldn't recommend it for a cat with kidney issues or a geriatric cat--you really want something with a higher quality protein source for those cats. But for younger/middle age cats with no issues other than diabetes? Sure.
 
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