I know first post is anti dry food

But I have 2 other non diabetic kitties, work full time, have 3 horses and am old on top of that. So my choice is to have dry food out. There is no keeping my diabetic Gretchen out of the dry, she is not eating much since I let her have as much canned as she will eat in her 2 feeding times each.
My question is, how do you know the carb content? Not one of the bags I have looked at, which is many, have the carbs or sugars listed. Right now the food I’m using is Taste of the Wild Canyon River.
Any dry food that is specially made for diabetics (young again, etc) is just way too out of reach financially! I’ve looked at the list on front page of this and the least expensive one I see is Natura Evo...and that is even $55 for just 15lbs! I can’t do this!
None of the foods that are in my price range are listed, I don’t want to go down to a grain filled grocery brand.
I think I need a diabetic cat break...feeling overwhelmed.

 

The last expensive is probably epigen 90.... It's about 8.5% carb. Dr elsley's is not too expensive and 5%. Young Again is expensive but it lasts along time. An 8lb bag lasts me a couple months and I have 4 that eat it. (I feed fancy feast on addition. )

 

Thank you again!!! When I am patient free here at work I’ll look these up!
Is there a way to tell on a bag how many carbs are in it?

 

No you have to get the as fed values by contacting manufacturers. Dr elsley's and Young Again has their values on their site. I've found others on comparison charts.

 

@JanetNJ how much do you feed your cats that you can make it last a couple months? I have 2 cats (both around 13 lbs) and trying to figure out how to feed them enough without going broke.

 

different cats eat different amounts. Some of my cats (I have 6) eat two cans of fancy feast classic per day (one morning and one evening)... Some eat a little less then that. and then have young again and epigen 90 out. I would leave the young again out for everyone but one of my girls is allergic to the ya and gets the runs for 2 weeks if she eats just a few kibble of it. When my Zimmy was alive he only liked wet and was about 16-17 lbs and would eat about 4 - 5 fancy feast cans a day. All of them are grazers. I put the cans out in the morning. Whatever is still there by dinner (almost always some left) we offer to the outside colony (most spoiled strays ever,... We care for six outside in addition to our six inside). Then we put out the dinner cans (in the morning the outsiders get the leftovers in addition to their own food).

 

Let me make a correction in what I said above... The 8 lb bag lasts me about 6 -7 weeks. (Checked my order history.) Then they also eat about a 6 lb bag of the epigen 90 per month.... But remember I'm feeding 6. And this is in addition to wet.

 

I can add, for the YA Zero Mature; My one cat has been eating it for three weeks as of yesterday. We are still on the first 4lb bag, maybe another week left. They have a calculator on their website to figure out how much food cats of different weights should/will eat and suggest for my 17 lb cat 3.3lbs per month. I'm not sure how accurate that is, but it might be pretty close and we are only putting out the YA at this time. It is expensive, but the cost spreads out over time.

 

use this:
http://www.scheyderweb.com/cats/catfood.html

add 3 to ash/mineral part if not listed on bag. this calculator will give you a round about carb % that is not the Fed value but, close enough to me.

 

Yikes I didn’t see ash and there’s a couple minerals so not even adding those my Taste of Wild came out 43% carbs! I have another female 9, that is overweight and acting hungry all the time. No other symptoms but I plan on running her blood when monitor comes. I really can’t afford the young again or the Dr something but wow. Why do they do this!!! I was giving Gretchen some supplement for kidneys before I found out she was diabetic...got to looking closer at ingredients and sugar was number 2 on the list!!! Makes me so mad!
Every dry food I’ve looked at that is low carb is expensive so I’m really contemplating overspending and getting the young again.

 

With my already crammed schedule wet feeding all 3 just won’t work... having to separate them, etc.
I feel like it’s the pet food industry’s fault that diabetes is so prevailent these days!!!

 

I know this is a dumb question...but my 3 go through a 20lb bag of ToW every 2 weeks or so. Would I notice a huge decrease in consumption with the YA?

 

when we were using young again zero formula, we went through one pound a day with 9 of our 10 cats eating it and 2 of those 9 ate some wet food too. and this was with free-feeding and some of them overeating it.. it is high protein & fat so they need less since their tummies get full with less food. you do want to slowly transistion them though, i made the mistake of not doing so with YA and ended up with months of loose foul smelling stools with one of my girls still having digestive issues ever since.

 

Thank you! Been saying that a lot here I am ordering for sure. Especially after seeing Gretchen nibbling on what equals a sugary breakfast cereal
Now if I can just quit giving fur shots (grr) and my monitor should arrive today,,,uh oh a whole new frustration lol

 

Whooo hoooo just ordered Young Again and I nailed the shot this am MEOW!!!!

 

Yes

 

Thanks everyone. My samples of YA are in the mail, hoping Dr. Elsey gets back to me too.