Have you ever wondered why the Carbohydrate content is not listed on your Cat Food bag? Do you think you are feeding your cats a healthy diet? Did you know that cats don't need sugar and have a hard time processing it? Have you ever wondered why you hear about pet diabetes now more than in the past? Due to the demand of grain free diets the pet food industry started using potatoes, tapioca, glutens to hold their kibble together. Well they are all carbohydrates! Cats develop type II diabetes mellitus; therefore, feeding a low-carbohydrate, high protein diet is essential.
How to Calculate the Carbohydrate Content in Your Cat Food
Basically the bulk of all cat food consists of 4 major nutrients:
PROTEINS
FATS
CARBOHYDRATES
MOISTURE (WATER)
and in addition ASH. Ash is the non-combustible mineral residue that's left over after burning away all the protein, fats and carbohydrates. Ash content usually measures about 5-8% of each finished product. When calculating figure 8% as the benchmark for this variable.
Together, the protein, fat, ash, carbohydrate and water content must account for roughly 100% of the total pre-cooking weight of any cat food.
Subtract the reported protein, fat, water and 8% Ash percentages from the 100% total. the result will be a fairly good idea of the carbohydrate content in the cat food. (Ignore fiber content - fiber is actually a carbohydrate so it's percentage is automatically included in your carbohydrate calculations) Example: 100% - 20% protein - 10% fat - 10% moisture - 8% ash = 52% carbohydrates.
Dry Matter Conversion
To make meaningful comparisons of nutrient levels between a dry and wet product, they should be expressed on the same moisture basis.
The percentage of dry matter of a product is = to 100% minus the percentage of moisture guaranteed on the label.
To convert nutrient guarantee to a dry matter basis, the percent guarantee should be divided by the percentage of the dry matter, then multiplied by 100.
Example: A canned food guarantees 8% crude protein and 75% moisture (or 25% dry matter), while a dry food contains 27% crude protein and 10% moisture (or 90% dry matter). Which has more protein? The dry or the canned? Calculating the dry matter protein of both, the canned contains 32% crude protein on a dry matter basis (8/25 x 100 = 32), while the dry has only 30% on a dry matter basis (27/90 x 100 = 30). Although it looks like the dry has a lot more protein, when the water is counted out, the canned actually has more.
Provided by Green Dog Promotions LLC
Thank you Mark!
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The Calculated Carbohydrate Content of
Grain Free CAT Kibble
Grain Free CAT Kibble
- Taste of the Wild - Canyon River - 34%
- Taste of the Wild - Rocky Mountain Feline - 24%
- Wysong Epigen (all varieties) - 9%
- Wysong Archetype - 9 %
- Wysong UnCanny Beef & Egg - 15%
- Wellness Core Indoor Formula - 31%
- Wellness Core Original - 20%
- Wellness Core Turkey & Duck - 27%
- Blue Buffalo Freedom Indoor Recipe - 39%
- Blue Buffalo Basics Turkey/Potato - 42%
- Blue Buffalo Multi Cat Health Turkey - 36%
- Blue Buffalo Wilderness Chicken - 26%
- Blue Buffalo Wilderness Salmon - 26%
- Blue Buffalo Longevity Mature - 44%
- Blue Buffalo Longevity Adult - 37%
- Royal Canin Indoor Adult 27 - 47%
- Royal Canin Adult Fit 32 - 40%
- Royal Canin Selective 40 - 31%
- Natura Innova Dry - 28%
- Natura California Chicken/Brown Rice 32%
- Natura California Herring/Sweet Potato - 43%
- Natura California Natural Chicken - 26%
- Natures Variety Instinct Chicken - 12%
- Natures Variety Instinct Rabbit - 22%
- Natures Variety Prairie Chick Meal/BrRice 30%
- Natures Variety Prairie Salmon/Br Rice - 30%
- Hills Science Diet Optimal Care Original - 38%
- Hills Science Diet ideal Balance Chick/Pot - 34%
- Natural Balance Ultra - 36%
- Natural Balance Alpha Chick/Turkey/Duck 36%
- Wysong Nurture w/ Free Range Pheasant - 30%
- Stella & Chewy's Chick Chick Chicken - 19%
- Stella & Chewy's Yummy Lickin Salmon/Chick 19%
- Stella & Chewy's Heavenly Herring/Tuna 17%
- Honest Kitchen Grace (meat is cooked) - 16.5%
- Honest Kitchen Prowl (meat is cooked) - 24.3%
- Grandma Lucy's Artesian Chicken/Fish - 34%
- Sojos Turkey Complete - 45%
PREVENTION
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The basis of Prevention is good nutrition. Researchers have found that cooked starches, which are a major component of processed pet foods, remain longer in the mouth, increasing the amount of the cariogenic bacteria can feed on them.