My dream has always been to find canned cat foods that had no more than 10% of calories from carbohydrates in it. That was a dream I shared with all health-conscious cat lovers, who recognize that the cat is an obligate carnivore and should eat a meat diet — ideally one with only about 10% of the calories coming from carbohydrates. However, even in the premium foods it was frustrating to find a canned cat food that held itself to this same ideal. The reason for this is that pet foods do not usually have carbohydrate information on the label — but mainly because creating a very low carb recipe would be more costly to produce: if you don’t have grains and carbohydrates from other sources, you need to replace them with meat, chicken or fish. We know from our own diets and grocery bills that protein is much more expensive.
Many moons ago I created a list of “Cat Crazy Approved Foods” on my website, which was a printable list of canned cat foods that strive to keep the carbohydrate content low — however, it was never entirely clear just how low that percentage was. So I kept on dreaming of a company that would create a super low carb food, which would keep all kitties healthy but would be especially beneficial for pre-diabetic and diabetic cats. Little did I know that Halo’s own wonderful veterinary expert, board certified internist Dr Donna Spector — who is my co-host on The Expert Vet on the Radio Pet Lady Network on Wednesday nights was having the same dream! The difference was that she was in a position to make the dream come true! She actually inspired the new Halo Spot’s Pate Grain-free canned food, which have beautiful protein-based recipes. The first ingredients in the ground whitefish pate version are ocean whitefish, chicken liver, chicken and fish broth; the chicken pate has chicken, chicken broth and chicken liver as a foundation. But what I only learned myself this week on The Expert Vet is that these two new pates actually cut my dream in half! Dr. Donna gives her expert advice to Cheryl about managing the health crisis of her pre-diabetic cat, Laci on Wednesday night at 8:30 PM ET, 5:30 PM PT (or listen to the podcast afterward). Here is the “spoiler;”Dr. Donna’s dream was for Halo to create a cat food with even less than 10% carbs — and, lo and behold, both those new pates come in at an astounding 5% carbohydrate content! This news is such a cause for celebration for all the pussycats suffering from diabetes and for all those “pet foodies” (as Dr. Donna calls all of us who are focused on pet nutrition) who have shared our hope.
Halo Spot’s Pate Grain Free Cat Foods are a dream come true. I cannot even believe they are not tooting their own horn and meowing from the rooftops: “Only 5% carbs! Come and get it!”
