Wellness grain free varieties

[Caitlyn and Molly]

So I am trying to get my girls off FF, and was looking at Binky's list last night for other canned varieties that would be okay, and was suprised to see Wellness on there, and pretty low carb at that. I would have thougt Wellness wouldn't be okay for cats with FD, because most of the canned varieties have fruits and vegetables in them. So, are the Wellness canned grain free formulas really safe for diabetic kitties?

 

[Vicky & Gandalf (GA) & Murrlin]

Absolutely! Fruits & vegetables don't contribute carbohydrates the way grains do. As long as a food is grain free, which Wellness is, it's fine for diabetic cats.

 

[Karen & Angus(GA)]

Absolutely!

I agree. Wellness grain free canned varieties do contain fruits and vegetables, but a very small amount. They do contribute a small amount of carbs.

Fruits & vegetables don't contribute carbohydrates the way grains do. As long as a food is grain free, which Wellness is, it's fine for diabetic cats.

I disagree that grain free means fine for diabetic cats. Many companies replaced the grains with potato, sweet potato, squash, peas, tapioca, and/or other high carbohydrate vegetables. For example, Natural Balance Venison & Green Pea Formula (grain free) gets about 25% of calories from carbs. Way too high for a diabetic.

 

[Vicky & Gandalf (GA) & Murrlin]

Absolutely!

I agree. Wellness grain free canned varieties do contain fruits and vegetables, but a very small amount. They do contribute a small amount of carbs.

Fruits & vegetables don't contribute carbohydrates the way grains do. As long as a food is grain free, which Wellness is, it's fine for diabetic cats.

I disagree that grain free means fine for diabetic cats. Many companies replaced the grains with potato, sweet potato, squash, peas, tapioca, and/or other high carbohydrate vegetables. For example, Natural Balance Venison & Green Pea Formula (grain free) gets about 25% of calories from carbs. Way too high for a diabetic.

Is that from dry matter analysis? When I plug the values listed on their website in to the calculator for guaranteed analysis http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/catformulas/NB_CatCanned.html#Venison I get 7% from carbs.

According to the current label on cans of Wellness Turkey I recently purchased and this calculator http://www.scheyderweb.com/cats/catfood.html it's about 4% of calories from carbohydrates. Wellness includes sweet potato and squash and zucchini. That matches what Binky's chart has.

So what's correct? Dry Matter analysis has always been what we go by. I can't find Natural Balance on any of the dry matter charts.

 

[Caitlyn and Molly]

Absolutely!

I disagree that grain free means fine for diabetic cats. Many companies replaced the grains with potato, sweet potato, squash, peas, tapioca, and/or other high carbohydrate vegetables. For example, Natural Balance Venison & Green Pea Formula (grain free) gets about 25% of calories from carbs. Way too high for a diabetic.

That's why I would have thought Wellness grain free wouldn't be okay for diabetics, because they have sweet potatoes, carrots, squash and zuchinni.

So they are okay, even having such starchy vegetables? The 4% carbs the Beef and Chicken is listed as having just seems too low to me.

 

[Karen & Angus(GA)]

Is that from dry matter analysis? When I plug the values listed on their website in to the calculator for guaranteed analysis http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/catformulas/NB_CatCanned.html#Venison I get 7% from carbs.

So what's correct? Dry Matter analysis has always been what we go by. I can't find Natural Balance on any of the dry matter charts.

Yes. That 7% is by weight. Janet & Binky's chart is % of calories. The 7% dry weight equates to 24.9% by calories. You need to plug the dry weight values into this spreadsheet Janet's FAQ (scroll down to second question and click on Excel link) to get the % calories. I also wrote to Natural Balance and got the as fed values when the vet recommended vension cat food to use for an IBD food trial. I did not use NB because the carb count was too high and food smells very strongly of pea.

 

[Karen & Angus(GA)]

That's why I would have thought Wellness grain free wouldn't be okay for diabetics, because they have sweet potatoes, carrots, squash and zuchinni.

So they are okay, even having such starchy vegetables? The 4% carbs the Beef and Chicken is listed as having just seems too low to me.

Yes. Wellness has most of their as fed values on their website. Using those values and Janet's spreadsheet, I just calculated 4.2% calories from carbs for the Beef & Chicken. Those vegetables do contain carbs, but they are less than 2% of the dry matter where as the NB food is 7%. So, grain-free is an excellent start, but you cannot determine carb count from the ingredient list alone unless there are NO carb containing ingredients listed.

 

[Caitlyn and Molly]

I know grain free alone doesn't make a food okay When I first switched my cats to wet, some of the grain free formulas of the brands I wanted to use (all high quality brands, Go!, Addiction, ect.) were all too high in carbs because of all the potatoes, ect. they contained. I didn't use that spred sheet though, just the quick formula using the guarenteed analysis, so maybe they'd be okay after all.

I'll buy a small can in a few of the grain free varieties to see if my girls like them.

Thanks guys!