Wet food carbo hydrates

[liewil]

Just a general remark on the food carbohydrate contents. I often read this sentence here : "typically pate style without gravy, chunks, slices, etc are lower in carb". Well, don't count on that. For example, for normal 400g Whiskas cans over here (Belgium), using the "analytical components" on the label, "Terrine Kip" = Pate Chicken has 14,59% ch, and "Gelei Konijn en gevogelte" = chunks rabbit & poultry in jelly has 4,12%. Big difference ! Maybe it's because paté is more "old fashioned" food, so cheaper, that they put less meat in it ?

I shop for cat food using the calculator on my iPhone nowadays, it's the only way, because I can find no general rule, even within one brand and type, a different flavour can have double or half the carbo hydrates.

I calculate like this :

100 - (water + protein + fat + ash + fiber) = carbo hydrates wet (ie. the part they are not obliged to mention)
100 - water = dry matter
carbo hydrates / dry matter = real % carbo hydrates

It's probably only a "worst case" estimate, but it gives an idea.

 

[Julia & Bandit (GA)]

The problem with using the numbers on the labels to calculate carb levels is that they are minimum and maximums--so they can't give you any sort of accurate count. In order to get an accurate carb count, you would have to contact the manufacturer for the as-fed or dry weight values.

A better way to look for low carb food is to read the ingredients. If there is no wheat, corn, soy, rice or sugars in the food, meat is the first ingredient, and any vegetables (such as potatoes or peas, especially if they are starches) are low on the ingredients list, then the food is likely low carb.

You're absolutely right that there are some low-carb chunky foods out there--I know here in the US we have some because I've gotten them before. However, usually the chunky foods here have gravy, which tends to contain starches that are high in carbs, which is why we tell newbies to avoid them.

 

[liewil]

Came across this on wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diabetes_in_cats

"You can use the cat food calculator found at http://www.scheyderweb.com/cats/catfood.html to determine the carbohydrates and calories in any cat food, though numbers in American brands are given as minimums and maximums rather than actual estimates, and may be very inaccurate. If in the US, try these commercial food contents lists which are kept up-to-date with actual manufacturer's as-fed content amounts. Numbers in most other countries are "as fed" rather than "guaranteed" values. "As fed" values are generally more accurate and you can use them directly in the calculator.".

European numbers should be more reliable.