Dry foods (Boreal vs Science Diet)

I have debated switching my civvies over to Boreal brand food after seeing how well Rhubarb has done on the canned. Yes I know they should be eating wet, but that is a slow process. So the next best bet is the lowest carb decent quality dry food that I can get easily in Canada. I also hope that changing their food will stop them from the morning vomits. They rarely vomit food- just bile. Neither has had any tests that indicated anything wrong and don't show any discomfort, so I'm guessing food based issues.

They are currently eating Science Diet Optimal Care
I was thinking of changing them to Boreal Original Chicken Grain Free

Does anyone have any input regarding this?

 

I don't know about Science Diet Optimal Care but given the ingredients list on the website, it's very high in carbs. The Boreal dry food was somewhere 39%between 30% - 39% carbs when I wrote them for As fed values a couple of years ago (I'd have to go back to my notes.) I was hoping it might work for Menace since they advertised the food as being low glycemic but I was sorely disappointed. It's possible they have changed their recipe but I'd check before taking any chances of Rhubarb digging in for a snack. If you are absolutely sure Rhubarb will never get into the dry food, that may not be a problem but assuming it could happen, you might want to look at Nature's Variety Instinct Ultimate Protein (14%) or Nature's Variety Instinct Original (15%), Go Fit and Trim (14%). These are lowest carb dry foods available in Canada. Still not great, but certainly better than 30+%.

 

I didn't realize we had some better options for low carb. That's great
The Boreal rep emailed me with their as-fed and dry matter values, with carbs around 28-31% for fish trio, and 30-34% for original chicken. Their "proper cat" chicken dry food however was 38-42%!
I'll have to upload the pdf when I get a chance.
So far, Rhubarb has shown no signs of having the ability to jump up to the height needed to reach the civvies food. I hope she regains the ability, although it will mean getting a microchip feeder so she stays out of the dry stuff.

 

Menace was a kibble addict that I had been trying to switch to wet food from when she joined our family at 10 weeks old. Needless to say, this was a big problem when she was diagnosed. It still took about 2 years before I finally caught her pilfering wet food so I spent a considerable amount of time and energy finding the lowest carb dry food I could. I was going to order Young Again from the US but they informed me that our pet food import regulations were changing and they had no idea if they would still be able to ship to Canada after June 2015 or 2016 (memory lapse on yr). Unbelievable red tape the pet food companies had to go through to ship here and I don't think they ship here any more. It would have cost an arm and a leg to have the food shipped here but I was willing to do anything in my desperation and then the gov't got in the way. Pet food is apparently a known security risk!

If you can get the rest of your crew on one of the lower carb foods, probably a safer choice as Rhubarb's ability to jump is likely to improve with time and she may just surprise you one of these days.