I need a low carbohydrate diet for my cat....any ideas? ?

Question

I want to give them hard food as well as wet....but I don't want to spend a lot of money. Do any of the name brands, like Purina have a low carb version? What about the wet foods, are they mostly low in carbs? I can't tell how to read the labels. What about any homemade cat recipes?

Answer 1

What are you trying to get to? Weight loss? If so ...Once you determine if your cat is overweight, you need to be aware that there is NO such thing as dry "diet" food for cats. Dry foods are filled with carbs that make your cat fat. You can't make a dry food without carbs, so there are no dry diet foods.

The proper amount to feed per cat/per day should be about 5.5 ounces of wet (high quality grain free canned or Raw Meat/Bones/Organ) food.

The calories in that amount of food are sufficient for most "normal" sized cats. Of course a highly energetic cat will need more food to keep it healthy, and a lazy cat will need less food to keep it from getting obese. But 5.5 ounces of wet food per day is a good place to start.

Here is a fantastic site that will help you help your cat lose weight!

www.catinfo.org/feline_obesity.htm

I personally feed a ground Raw Meat, Bones and Organ based diet to my cats and they are incredibly healthy on it. I HIGHLY recommend it. While scary at first, once I got the hang of it and felt comfortable with it it's a snap to prepare.

Cats are obligate carnivores after all and must derive ALL their nutrients from meat based sources. They are unable to absorb them from any other source. Despite thousands of years of domestication they remain strictly carnivorous. True and honest meat eaters and that is what they need most. Protein from meat!

If you are interested in feeding a raw diet some great places to start learning are http://www.catinfo.org/  , http://www.catnutrition.org/  , and http://www.felinefuture.com/nutrition/  .

If you would like to try raw with your cats and don’t want to get all technical about it but want to try a trusted, time tested and balanced raw diet you can order from http://www.felinespride.com/products/cat...  . I purchased this myself when I first started and my cats loved it!

Another premade Raw you can try is Natures Varity. I personally have never used this but know many people that do and it’s pretty easy to find http://www.naturesvariety.com/content.la...

Here's a bunch of websites to help you learn what you need to know.

www.catinfo.org/

www.catnutrition.org/

www.rawfedcats.org/

www.felinespride.com/

www.felinefuture.com/

www.felineinstincts.com/

www.raisingcatsnaturally.com/

www.blakkatz.com/

www.holisticat.com/

http://www.goldcoastragdolls.com/MyOwnCa...

Answer 2

Low carb and dry food shouldn't even be in the same sentence! Why not feed a good grain free wet? Purina is a very low quality food. Try a higher quality diet.

Some good grainless diet's include: Innova EVO, Wellness CORE, Blue Wilderness, Nature's Variety Instinct, Orijen, Fromm Surf & Turf, Now!, and Sold Gold Indigo Moon, Taste of the Wild.

Answer 3

Grocery store brands like Purina aren't grainless, which equals low carb.  You're going to need to start shopping in a pet store.

Most wet foods are naturally lower in carbs than dry foods although of course this varies from brand to brand.

You don't have to spend a ton of money but you are going to pay at least a little more.  How much depends on what brand you choose.  But please remember - this is an EXCELLENT thing you're doing for your cat!  And it's well worth any added expense.

See the What to feed link for suggestions.  Most of the links include store locators so you can find where the foods are sold in your area.

If you go to www.petfooddirect.com and search for a brand you'll get an idea of how much it will cost.

Reading labels:  I don't recall how to determine the amount of carbs in a food.  I believe the What to feed link includes the formula, but oftentimes you have to contact the mfr. to get missing data that isn't listed on the label.  But typically if it's grainless it's going to be reasonably low in carbs.

Dry foods:  If you want to offer some dry foods to help save money or due to a tight schedule, that's ok.  But be sure that it's no more than 1/2 of the cat's daily intake.  But if you're going to offer some because you think it provides any benefits, just know that it doesn't.  It's often less expensive and it is more convenient for us, but it's no healthier.  Just the opposite.  And it doesn't clean the teeth.

If you want a low-carb dry food, see the other link for suggested grainless dry brands.

Answer 4

To make your own cat food at home: http://www.catinfo.org/makingcatfood.htm

Quality Canned Foods With Grains (but no corn, wheat or soy):

http://www.catinfo.org/commercialcannedf...

Answer 5

EVO, Blue Spa and Wellness are the best that you can get for your cat.

Answer 6

Get a canned food that is made primarily with meat. Dry food will always be higher in carbs than canned food. It's really not necessary to feed dry food at all - cats don't need food available all hours of the day.

When you look at the ingredients, make sure the top ingredients are named meats. No generic "meat," no "by-products" - just things like "chicken" or "turkey."

I personally feed my cats Wellness. It's more expensive than cheap dry cat food, but the cats don't eat as much of it and it's healthier.

http://cats.about.com/cs/catfood/a/tipsf...

Answer 7

applaws is almost 100% meat

Answer 8

Wellness formula - it's all I feed my cat. The canned food and make sure it says "grain free" on the label. Some of them aren't grain free. Good luck.

Answer 9

If you are looking to feed your cats "low carb" food, dry food doesn't fall into that category at all. Any product containing any form of grain, contains carbohydrates.

Since cats are obligate carnivores, (defined as animals, which,  by their genetic makeup, must consume the tissue of other animals in order to thrive) meat protein is what they require.

Actually, dry food was invented for the convenience of human caretakers. It is much easier to leave a bowl of dry food out for a cat for "free-feeding" to nibble when it is hungry, rather than to dish out wet foods twice a day. Thus this feed became very popular, Lauded as a good product to help keep teeth clean, in fact, since cats do not chew their food thoroughly, particles of dry food can fester in between teeth and cause gum problems and cavities.:::off my soap box:::

Cats can digest some types of vegetables, which are found in some of the better brands of cat food, such as Evo and Wellness. The average sized cat of good weight needs approximately 5.5 to 6oz of food a day, which is the size of most brands of moist food.

PetCo sells both Wellness and Natural Balance foods. I feed my cats both Wellness, and Natural Balance Venison and Peas diets.  They contain no grain at all. Reading product labels is relatively simple. You look for the first couple of ingedients listed, which informs the reader of the most important ingredients.

There are a wide variety of home recipes for cats available on the internet such as http://artsycatsy.blogspot.com/2007/01/h...

But you have to be sure that the cat is getting all the essential minerals and enzymes that are needed; one of the most important ones is Taurine. Without that, cats can develop heart problems and can go blind.

Hope this helps and good luck with your kitty. You are making a wise choice to limit carbs and to find the best possible food available.

Spending a little more money for good food up front can save a lot of money in the future for potential high cost veterinary bills connected with dietary insufficiencies.

Troublesniffer

Owned by cats for over 40 years

Former breeder of Oriental Shorthairs and Siamese

Free lance writer/blogger for http://www.petside.com