Young Again Pet Food - Opinion?

Stumbled across this site, wondered what others think? It's not cheap, but if it lasts as estimated, it's really not bad. It is low carb and carb free dry foods. Don't know how to put a link on here, but it's youngagainpetfood.com

Thought others might want to weigh in with their opinions.




Debbie and Lucian and the other fur babies

 

problem is that it is still dry so at least 1 below still applies... and thats important for preventing renal kidney issues.

 

Use the search feature for this forum and search for young again. You will find a previous topic on that brand of dry food. I tried it it and it it was OK.

 

I think my babies are really missing some crunch, was more thinking along the line of a few pieces a couple times a day, more of a treat, but that would probably just make them want dry. And I see what you're saying about lack of water, too.
I read that with a higher protein, meat diet, they don't eat as much, because they are more satisfied with less volume. Mine have been on canned since Friday and they aren't eating but about half as much today, as opposed to Friday, maybe a little more. Just trying to figure them out.

Thanks!

 

Young Again dry food has been discussed several times recently. The general consensus seems to be that no dry food is good period.

There are some people here who do feed a few pieces of dry food as a treat only, such as EVO. You'll have to check your diabetic cat to see if bgs are affected. Some cats are really carb sensitive and a few piees of a low carb dry food can spike bg levels.

If your cats are happy eating dry food, they really don't need any dry. For "crunch", try a low carb treat instead. Have you seen the list of treats? http://felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=9172 One hard crunchy low carb treat are the Poultry Crispies sold only at OnlyNaturalPet.com You acn also try these: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3261 1902 24650&pcatid=24650

 

I have had very good (preliminary) success with Young Again Zero Carb as an interim food, though would echo the other posters that wet food is best for a number of health reasons and should be the ultimate goal (as it is mine). My cat is a dry food addict of the first order. I transitioned her after diagnosis from Hills Science Diet dry to Evo Grain Free Turkey & Chicken dry (marked "lowest carbohydrates"). Her blood glucose remained high on the Evo dry, around the mid-200's, even though (up to about a month ago) she was receiving 4.5 units of Lantus twice a day. Hardly a success.

Mid December, I transitioned her to the Young Again Zero Carb and within a few weeks my cat's blood glucose had dropped into the greens and blues (estimating 50ish to 150ish on average) while receiving very little Lantus. Today (after a little more than a month on Young Again Zero Carb), her high BG was 111 and her low was 48 on 2 drops of Lantus. That is a remarkable improvement in a little over a month.

Her coat is beautiful and shiny and she is full of energy. That's the good news. Now for the bad news: Let me say again that there are very serious health reasons, outside of diabetes and blood glucose, that you want your cat on wet food for the long haul (kidney disease, cystitis, urethral blockage, bladder/kidney stones) so please understand that I am not recommending anyone switch to this who is already feeding wet food. Here is an excellent article by Dr. Lisa Pierson on why: http://www.catinfo.org/#Kidney_Failure .

That said, I do believe the Young Again Zero Carb could prove a useful interim tool for those cats resistant to eating wet food when initially diagnosed. It may enable you to get the BGs down faster than feeding other dry, if you cannot transition your cat to wet food immediately. Based on my experience, I would recommend Young Again Zero Carb over Evo dry. The Young Again seems very different in the way it is metabolized, though I am not sure I understand why.

A word of caution though, if your cat is already eating another low carb dry and you transition to Young Again Zero Carb you might experience a very rapid decline in BG (similar to what you would get if you switched to a low carb wet food), so you MUST be prepared to test and decrease your insulin dose immediately so you do not harm your cat. My cat went from needing 4.5 units to needing almost nothing over a twelve day period, with several BG dips into the 40's along the way. So please be careful!

As a side note, I have since talked to the founder of Young Again, and he tells me that their other varieties (like the 50/22 variety) will not produce the same results as the Zero Carb variety and will result in your cat's BGs remaining high. And a final note, the Zero Carb did produce loose and smelly stools initially in my cat but was remedied by giving probiotics.

I will continue to transition my cat to wet food even though the Young Again is producing some positive interim results for her. We have tried many suggestions (literally hundreds) including those outlined by Dr. Pierson in her terrific article on "transitioning dry food addicts": http://www.catinfo.org/. I consider this a marathon not a sprint for us, and feel confident that we will get to where we need to go with the wet food – hopefully sooner rather than later. In the meantime the Young Again has helped us control BG and reduce insulin dose, for which I am most grateful.

 

I am about to crack open my first bag of YAZC. Due to a number of factors, transitioning to wet food is not working well with my family of six. We feed Chester plenty of canned food, but he still wants to sneak into everyone else's dry food. We got a bag of the YA 50/22 from a friend, and it's been pretty popular around our house. The cats really don't seem to be eating as much of it and we're going through it more slowly than we did "regular" dry food - but nobody is bugging us because they're hungry. Everyone seems to be fine with it. We know Chester gets into it, but I'm more comfortable with the carb load of YA (5%+) vs. Iams (30%+). We are going to try the Zero Carb next. I still want to keep Chester on wet food, and eventually get everyone else transitioned over, but I also want a dry food "solution" that agrees with everyone in the family.

From my limited experience with the brand, It may be a reasonable interim option when an all canned diet isn't yet possible.

 

Thank you for the insight!

I am transitioning 3 cats to wet food 100%, they always had it for breakfast, but had dry 'at will'. Not transitioning, I pulled up the dry on Saturday, period!

I found a site, don't remember where, but the 9Lives Plus Care that I have fed for 18 years, has 40% carbs!! OMG, no wonder Lucian is diabetic and I lost one to renal failure.

That's breaks my heart, that I lost one to improper diet, when I didn't know better. :cry:

Thank you all! I may order a small bag just to have, but that's a lot of $$, it will be a while before I do, IF I do.

 

It was probably Binky's dry food chart: http://binkyspage.tripod.com/dryfood.html

Don't feel bad about the 9 Lives. Nearly everyone here fed dry food for years. It wasn't until the cat was diagnosed with diabetes that the bean found his or her way to FDMB and learned about proper diet and how bad dry food really is.

 

Due to the way dry foods are manufactured, even lower carb ones, they still present problems with regulation and remission because they are still higher glycemic because of highly processed starches used as binding agents. I would avoid it since your cats are eating canned. Maybe feed the canned more frequently in smaller portions?

 

I bought a bag of this to test out (per my other topic I started). My cats (1 diabetic 1 non) won't touch it. I wish I could get my $50 back.

They lived 100% on dry before the one was diagnosed. Switched to mainly fancy feast classic since then. The diabetic cat LOVED dry food and it was tough to transition him but now after a year, he seems to have no interest in dry food at all or anything other then Fancy Feast and real meat. I do on the rare occasion give him some cooked chicken or beef with no seasonings and he will devour it