Low cost low carb??? How do you do it?

It has been almost a month since my old man Lee was diagnosed with diabetes and it has been nerve wracking and worrisome getting his numbers down to a tolerable level. When we got to the vet he was in the 500's and stayed there for weeks, I fed him the Purina DM that the vet recommended and his dosage just kept going up and up until I discovered this website. The first positive change we made was dumping the dry food for the low carb cans. Almost overnight his numbers dropped! I was amazed. I went to the vet and they told me that it would not make that big a difference but looking at his chart you can tell it has. It is looking like his diabetes might be diet controlled, which is thrilling to me.

Now I am thinking what the crummy Meow Mix might be doing to the rest of my multicat household. Lee is the oldest at 16 but I have 8 cats! Now I am worried about the others health and the issues that may be caused by dry food. I know that keeping them healthy is a lot more cost effective in the long run than trips to the vet but how can I make it more affordable for me now?

Any tips?

Dheck out Binky's Page

Friskies Turkey and Giblets Pate in the larg cans (12.5-13 oz) is an example of a low carb, reasonable quality food you can use when you've got an entire pride to feed.

Transition slowly to reduce chances of upset stomach by mixing or putting down a little bit more each time and decreasing the dry a little bit each time.

And if you've a freezer and are game to make your own raw or cooked food, look for sales on meats, and stock up. Cat Info has a recipe, plus tips on transitioning and info on feline nutrition.

Some brands of foods are available in large 12 or 13 oz can sizes which is ideal for feeding multiple cats. Wellness comes in 12.5 oz cans and there are several grain-free varieties. Nature's Variety Instinct for dogs can be fed to cats (they use the exact same formula for both) because it comes in a 13.2 oz can. Some pet stores will sell cases of food and give you a discount on it.

i feed my cat the large cans of wellness turkey and wellness chicken (13oz cans) its takes close to 2 days for her to go thru a can, when i had patches in the mix i went thru a can every day or day and a half. it runs me $25/mo for the wellness for her, i noticed she ate alot more on a lower end brand like friskies or even the fancy feast. molly isnt diabetic, patches was. the ingredients also can determine how much they eat as she seems to fill up more on the wellness

call around for pricing, i get a discount at a mom/pop natural pet store for buying a case and discounts for certain amts spent.

hope this helps :smile:

Yep, for me it's all about the 13 oz cans of Friskies. I've found five different kinds, I think.

I put my fat civvie on this diet too and she's lost weight! So it's been good for both my cats.

I know some folks feed the Walmart Special Kitty pates as well. I believe these also come in the 12- or 13-oz cans and are pretty cheap.

I really think the large can is the key. It will never be as cheap as dry, but I get Wellness for the same per-ounce price as Fancy Feast just because it comes in big cans.

It is funny how we learn what is best to feed our diabetic cat and then we look at our other cats and go whoa! they are cats too! I also have many cats who live in two different areas, one with dogs .... and one without

In the house with the dogs lives the diabetic cat Payne, who is doing great! When we changed her food we also changed the food for the two civvies who live with her. The three of them are very competitive! and when we learned how good it is to add water to the canned food, the game was on! Since cats don't like to drink much water, mixing it in with the food is really good for them.

I am up to 2 cans of water to one can of food :mrgreen: I use a platter that has a large surface area which helps the food and water mix better. I also use warm water. They eat Fancy Feast pates, no fish. We wait for sales and then buy cases and cases and .....

With the cats downstairs I have not done so well. They won't eat together so the competition factor is gone and I can only get about 2/3 of a can of water to 1 can food. BUT one of my babies has blocked kidneys and was given a short amount of time because he is half feral and I can't stuff pills in him or give him SQ fluids. Well, a year and a half later being on low carb with lots of water, he is thriving! Eyes are clear, has retained his weight and doesn't upchuck any more. WHY did we ever think dry was good for them?
Nancy and Payne

We have four cats, and are now feeding FF and Friskie's classic pate. It's been two months, and Puma is off insulin, and they are all looking so much healthier than on dry food. Glossy fur, bright eyes, happy energy.
FF and Friskies sometimes go on sale locally, and we stock up when they do. If you have a warehouse club available, it might be worth checking to see if they have good prices. Sometimes they have free trial memberships. My standard approach is Amazon subscribe and save, which is available for both of these. This gives you an extra 5% off when you set up for them to ship regularly and you can cancel or skip shipments without penalty. It saves driving and carrying cases, and it's cheaper than my local prices.

Best wishes to you and your lucky 8 cats!
Jane
Puma's mom

Do you have a Sam's Club, Costco or BJs near you. I have 8 cats and feed them Friskies canned. I have found their prices are better than the stores, except they usually do not carry the large cans.

13 oz cans are more economical for large families, there are a few low cost (under $1 per can) options, such as Grreat Choice (Petsmart's brand), Special Kitty (Walmart's brand), and some Friskies varieties. 9lives is cheap and comes in 5.5oz cans.

Boy, they tucked into the yummy yummy canned food last night! Going to the grocery and reading the canned lables after reading (most) of the catinfo site was extremely educational. I was surprised to see how many of them had starchy additives or rice. We ended up with our favorite canned 9 Lives until we can do a bit more research and find a sale or something.

How about coupons? Do any of the good brands provide coupons by mail or on their websites? What have you found? We are too far from a Costco or Sam's to make it worth the join up fee and the gas to get there.

What is the recommended portion size? I would imagine it would feel just the same as if I went on a low carb diet after living on cornbread for years. For a while I would gorge on the meat to satisfy the hunger for the carbs (sugar) but eventually the meat alone would satisfy. It is amazing to think that we are doing to our selves the same thing we have done to our furkids, feeding ourselves cheap and easy just like opening that bag of Meow Mix.

Hummm, now I am considering low carb for my entire family......tee hee!

It works out to about an ounce of canned food per pound weight; if you can seggregate to feed, you can measure, otherwise free-feeding seems to work well.

We're using Wellness Turkey and Wellness Chicken for a total of 15 cats (my 9, his 1, and the 5 up for adoption ... really!) I think we go through about 6 of the 12.5 oz cans per meal and feed roughly twice a day. Yes, I'm keeping my vendors in business, but after having Spitzer, I wouldn't go back to dry ever! As the kittens get bigger, I may start mixing in the Friskies Turkey to reduce some of the cost. I just wanted to optimize their initial development. My 9 do eat less of the Wellness than they did of the Friskies. Also, the regular Friskies was reformulated Fall 2011 and it gave some of my cats diarrhea badly, so I use the Special Diet formulation when I mix it with Wellness.

Walmart's Special Kitty and Petsmart's Grreat Choice pates in the large 13 oz cans are the most economical foods I've seen. It's less than a dollar a can I believe. You can get a can cover in the dog food section for keeping the big cans in the fridge. Friskies pates aren't bad but I tend to recommend the other foods over the Friskies because the Friskies contains a small amount of rice (which makes me nervous with a diabetic), and the other foods are cheaper. You can also check your local grocery store generic brand pate and see what they're like. Just make sure you're reading the label and that it doesn't contain wheat, corn, soy, rice, or other starches.

We too have multiple cats as well as multiple goggies which used to all eat mostly dry food with a morning and evening offering of canned food. Since KT's dx over a year ago, I now feed everyone mostly canned with a small 'snack' bowl of dry out for a few minutes morning and evening. Many times it's now ignored. I do have one NuisanceKitty that just will not (maybe CANNOT) eat soft food but he's got a malformed mouth. He seems to be able to pop the hard food up into his mouth but can't figure out soft...I CAN get him to drink the 'sauce' if I add lots of water to soft. His mouth is down under where most others have 'chin' so he cannot see the bowl when he eats. We have issues with water too - he can't (won't?) drink from a bowl, I pour water into a pan several times a day so he can drink from the stream.

I second the LARGE cans - goes a lot further and actually has almost 3 small can's worth of food in them for less than the price of 2.

BIG HUGS!!! You're doing WONDERFUL so far!!!

tinabetta said:

Boy, they tucked into the yummy yummy canned food last night! Going to the grocery and reading the canned lables after reading (most) of the catinfo site was extremely educational. I was surprised to see how many of them had starchy additives or rice. We ended up with our favorite canned 9 Lives until we can do a bit more research and find a sale or something.

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Have you seen the food charts/lists?

Binky's canned food charts
Pet Food Nutritional Values list
Hobo's Guide To Nutritional Values
Dr. Lynne's Wet Food list
List of low carb gluten free Fancy Feast

On Binky's charts, stick with foods that have a number 10 or less in the carbs colum. On the Pet Food Nutritional Values Chart and Hobo's Guide, look at the %kcal from carbs column and choose foods that have a number 10 or less.

How about coupons? Do any of the good brands provide coupons by mail or on their websites? What have you found?

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Big name brands like Fancy Feast and Friskies often have coupons in the Sunday newspaper. You can also look for big name pet food coupons at web sites like http://www.coupons.com/

Higher end brands tend to offer coupons. You can contact customer service and ask. Or check the web site. Wellness has a free membership program that sends news and coupons and offers to your email. Sometimes there's a Wellness ad on Catster.com that is something like Buy 1 get 1 free. You can request a free coupon at Nature's Variety. Only the Instinct line is grain-free and diabetic-friendly. Be sure to put a check mark in the box that asks if you want to receive coupons in the future.

Sometimes pet food reps will have a table at the local independent pet store to give away samples, coupons, and promote the brand. Check your local pet stores.

What is the recommended portion size?

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Unregulated diabetics are always hungry so they should be give multiple small meals throughout the day. A programmable timed feeder works best for this but I'm not sure how well it works in a multi-cat household. An ounce size is average but some diabetics may need more.

The non-diabetics will probably be ok with an ounce of food per serving but some may need more or less. One of my civies is fine with 1 oz of food twice a day while the other one needs 1 oz three times a day.

What is the recommended portion size?

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It depends on the food. We really need to think in terms of calories, not volume. Depending on activity level most cats need between 20 to 30 calories per pound per day. Most of the grocery store brands have 32 or less calories per ounce, Wellness has about 40, so they need less and tend to eat less of the higher quality food.

I too get the 12.5 oz cans. If you order online from someplace like Wag.com or Chewey.com, you can get a case for about $28 and free shipping if you spend over $49. They both have a 15% discount on a first order if you sign up for auto ship, which you can then cancel at any time. Petfood Direct give a discount on every auto ship order, but I'm not sure about shipping. wellness also have coupons by email when you sign up on their site.

Since I only have one cat, I divide the big can into meal sized portion, freeze them and take the next day's meal out every night and put in the fridge.

My two cats (who weigh about 10.5 lbs each) eat about 7-8 oz apiece of the Wellness (i.e. I split 1.25 cans into two dishes each night, refrigerate one dish for morning, and put out the other dish for their dinner. They share the food.) I think this is maybe more than a lot of cats eat, considering the high calories in the Wellness. They are young and active, though.