Wet food in canada - frustrated

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Karrie and Maverick

Karrie and Maverick

Very Active Member
I've been reading non stop for about a week now. It seems the only fancy feast products available in Canada (without the yellow label) from the diabetes friendly options listed are:
Turkey & Giblets Feast
Tender Liver & Chicken Feast™
Savoury Salmon Feast™

What do you guys in Canada feed your diabetic cats? In our case what ever food he eats is the best food. He had a feeding tube for 10 weeks in 2008 in order to recover from feline hepatic lipidosis.

From what I've read its best not to feed fish too much or too much organ meat. Wellness wet foods seem really high in fat (all ranging around the 60% mark).

Thanks.
Karrie
Maverick 13.5yr old Main Coon Mix, newly confirmed diabetic (managed pre-diabetes since Jan 2010)
Along with Asthma, and arthritis.
 
I have also found chunky chicken, and chunky turkey...they have rejigged their labels. As well, you should just learn to read the labels that do not have wheat gluten or other various starches. Petsmart have their own brands, as does athe PResident's choice brand foods. Many of them are made by the same people anyhow.
Years ago we almost lost Thomas to liver disease, so I too, pretty much let him eat whatever he will eat that day. He likes to give up on food, then he restarts them a few weeks later, but he often has two or so bowls on the go.
Dana
 
Superstore and Walmart have many different brands that are similar to FF and do not contain grains and have muscle meat first before byproducts. Just read labels, don't worry so much about whether they are on Janet's charts or not.

Where in Canada are you? I'm in Alberta

Jen
 
Hi Karrie
Yes it is not fun getting food here in Canada. None of the FF beef flavours can cross the
border and fish is not the best to feed often, There is also the ocean whitefish.
(I road trip to platssburgh and bring some back, shhh)

There is the classic FF chicken a well.
Walmart special kitty isn't bad either, some of the friskies and presidents choice has
some as well. Read the ingredients and no gravy.
It has been a while since I looke into the presidents choice but the special kitty is on the
food list.
I am also trying a raw diet, natures variety which are frozen.
Where in Canada are you?
I am in Montreal and we have a lot of members in Ontario.
Oh and my Max has had fatty liver twice, once with the tube so I understand that
pain as well.

food list
 
In Canada, we actually have a good selection of grocery store brands that are low carb. Compliments (Sobeys/IGA) and President's Choice (SuperStore, LobLaws) foods are good choices. One big bonus is that the PC and Our Compliments cost less than FF, and several of them have better ingredients! There are some flavours that are low carb- like duck - which FF doesn't even carry. And we get the low carb Friskies pates (Chef's Dinner, Turkey and Giblets, Chicken Dinner, etc.). And Compliments still carries several beef cat foods (both the 85g cans and the larger ones).

Not all PC brands or OC brands are carb-free, but most are pretty low. (Anything under about 7% is my own personal guideline). Check labels - a lot of the "gravy" ones from PC are gravies made from added water, not corn starch.

My guys like the PC and the Our Compliments just as much as Fancy Feast. Janet has added a section of PC foods to her international food list if you want to check it out. The OC ones aren't on yet because we can't get the "as fed" analysis of the food. Also, WalMart makes a small tin (85g, same as FF) called "Special Kitty" and LOTS of those are also low carb, and cheaper. Janet also has quite a few of those listed. Just make sure you are checking her non-US charts.

The high end canned foods (Felidae, Evo, Wellness, etc.) are usually available at dedicated pet stores.

If you find foods that are not in Janet's list, the next best thing is to label read- avoid obvious grains (wheat, rice, corn) and other carbs (potatoes, peas) and things called "food starch"... which I assume is cornstarch, but the "starch" part says "stay away" to a sugarcat. Excessive fruits and veggies will also increase the carb count.

You should still be able to find half a dozen good flavours that your cat likes.
 
Thank you for all the replies! I have a lot more options now.

He is currently eating PC Turkey and Giblets wet food and was the only wet food he would eat after we switched him to wet food earlier this year. So this post was really helpful. Thank you everybody!!!!

I think with his big spike in appetite with the recent diabetes confirmation he is getting sick of how much of this food he is eating. His appetite has dropped remarkably in the past two days. Not sure if this is part of having the high blood sugar he has right now. Tuesday he starts insulin.

Karrie and Maverick.
 
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