Question on calculating carb percentages

Hello!

For the past couple weeks I have been looking into pate' food options that are of higher quality than Purina DM. I have visited a couple of boutique pet food stores that cater in raw/freeze-dried/holistic type foods and have come away feeling more educated and more confused at the same time.

Anyway, the clerk (as adorable as he is in those thick-rimmed glasses) keeps talking about the benefits of certain freeze-dried foods such as Ziwipeak and Feline Natural. I am reluctant to start a raw food diet because I don't wish to change too much in Moby's life since so much has changed already. He finally started to enjoy his Luv-a-little Halo treats and that's the success of the century for us.

I have read Dr. Pierson's feline diet article front to back and pored over her cat food list. I went through each food and wrote down the ones I think Moby would eat and that also fall under the new low carb needs, taking into consideration of what I can find on a regular basis where I live. However, I really would like to look into and research more options of the foods that aren't on her list.

I have relied on the % of carbs as calories data point to help me make this decisions. Just reading through these forums, I have been guided and helped so much by this! I guess my main thrust of my question is if I find all the food nutritional info such as crude fat, crude fiber, etc, can I calculate this percentage from the information on the can? Or does that take an additional phone call to the company in question. If it is not calculable from available information, is there a way to deduce from the info on the can with an estimate?

Example: if crude protein is of X% and crude fiber is of Y%, and there's no vegetables/starches in the ingredients list, it is thereby deductible this food is low carb?

Am I making any sense? I just want to ensure my cat is getting a high quality food that is low carb and meets all of his crazy standards so he'll actually eat it! (pate' only, poultry based foods) If I am and someone has a thought, I would love to hear it.

Sidenote: we did try a can of Weruva's Frick-A-Zee and even though he licked it dry, he did actually try eating a little of it. He's just a pate' addict, I guess.

 

For an idea of the carb % you can use the carb calculator http://www.scheyderweb.com/cats/catfood.html

But it is not the "as fed" % and the only way to get that is by contacting the manufacturer, which is what is on the food chart. If there's certain brands that arent on there you can always see if it's on Tanya's chart http://www.felinecrf.org/canned_food_usa.htm

Ziwipeak is good, but can be expensive. My cats really liked it but feeding 3 cats that would be too much monthly for me. Right now I'm feeding holistic select pates....the chicken, the turkey & the lamb w/ chicken. Also if you do find one you like check out chewy.com if your not familiar with them. They're the cheapest I've found for most food.

 

Hi Marciegee,

Curiously, carbs are not always listed on the can even if they are contained in the cat food. They are sometimes 'invisible'....
If you grab a can of cat food and tot up the percentages listed in the 'guaranteed analysis' (or 'typical analysis' in Europe) you may well find that amounts of protein, fat, ash, fiber and moisture come to less than 100%. The remainder is generally the percentage of carbs in the can.

But for diabetics what we really want to know is not the percentage of carbs in the can, but the percentage of calories from carbohydrates.
Protein, fat and carbs have differing calorie values. So it's necessary to do a little calculation to work out what the calorie value of the food is, and how many calories come from each element of the food.
The little Sheyderweb calculator that Samantha linked to above is super-duper for doing this.
And as long as there are close to 100 calories in 100g of food this calculation is all that you need to do. (Because, if there are 100 cals per 100g of food, and 4 of those calories come from carbs, then the percentage of calories from carbs will be 4%)
If however, there's significantly more (or less) than 100 calories per 100g of food you can do this extra calculation: You divide the number of calories from carbs by the total calories per 100g, and then multiply that by 100. And that will give you the percentage of calories from carbs.

Also, as Samantha said above, the percentages listed on the can may - or may not - be what is actually in the can at any given time...
If you're in Europe you're lucky, because the values are 'typical analysis' and should be a fairly accurate representation of what is in the tin.
If you're in the US the values will be 'guaranteed analysis' (minimum and maximum values) and there is more scope for variability here. That's why (if you really want to know what is in the tin at any given time) it's necessary to contact the manufacturer for the current 'as fed' values.

I do hope this helps and hasn't just confused you!

Eliz

 

Yes, unfortunately Dr. Lisa's list is 2 years old and there are a lot of new foods on the market AND some manufactures have changed formulas. In the US w/ some Guaranteed Analysis in max and some in min it is really impossible to get a good estimate of the carbs. Manufacturers are required to test food regularly, I think twice a year. These results are the As Fed numbers you can get from the companies. Some companies will post these on their websites, so check there first.

I've checked out a number of new foods and done the calculation Dr. Lisa describes. (I set up a spreadsheet to do all the work for me. ) The ones I've found that are low carb and low phosphorus (Tess is early CKD) are listed on a tab in Tess's SS. I didn't put them on if it didn't at least come close on both requirements, but i may have the data on my master list. You can contact me to see if there is a specific food you are interested in.

One caution on using the Tanya's food list. It is all in Dry Matter percentages. You need to do several more calculation to convert that into the metabolized energy format we use for comparison.

 

Hi. My cat was in remission for a yr. in a half but now she is on insulin again, I fine the lowest cat food carb content is The brand BFF.only 4 % . I also feed her raw salmon. Good luck,

 

Try this calculator for estimates.

 

I wonder if you tried blending different foods you want to trial (and possibly add a little water), it might give the food a paté-like consistency. Hand-held blenders are great for that sort of stuff.