Wellness Calcium & Phos. levels

First off, Chase seems to be doing well right now. He recovered from his last UTI, and so far, no signs of another relapse. He's taken to eating a handful of Nutro Natural Choice Indoor here and there. While I know canned food is best for him, it's put a tiny bit of weight on him (he still needs to gain a lb or so), and he's becoming insanely picky about what he will eat, so.. yeah.

Anyway, to the point. I've started looking into the calcium & phosphorous levels in his foods, trying to get some idea of what I might end up having to cut out. The main thing he eats is Wellness, so I wrote to them asking for the levels, and I thought some of you might be curious as to the reply.

Canned Cat Foods

Chicken 0.36% Calcium

Chicken & Herring 0.46% Calcium

Beef & Chicken 0.31% Calcium

Turkey 0.33% Calcium

Turkey & Salmon 0.50% Calcium

Sardine, Shrimp & Crab 0.51% Calcium

Salmon & Trout 0.44% Calcium

Chicken & Lobster 0.47% Calcium

Kitten 0.45% Calcium


Canned Cat Foods

Chicken 0.31% Phosphorus

Chicken & Herring 0.37% Phosphorus

Beef & Chicken 0.28% Phosphorus

Turkey 0.28% Phosphorus

Turkey & Salmon 0.35% Phosphorus

Sardine, Shrimp & Crab 0.31% Phosphorus

Salmon & Trout 0.33% Phosphorus

Chicken & Lobster 0.33% Phosphorus

Kitten 0.34% Phosphorus

If these are wet foods.. multiple the amounts by 4 for a bal park amount

Chase seems to like the grain-free Wellness with a fish and a normal meat.. but our store hasn't been able to get them in for about a month. He was eating the Beef & Chicken.. but lately he's been not eating a lot of it. Though part of the problem there is they only had it in huge cans, and he doesn't thrill over refrigerated food. Some of the fish only ones seem to have similar or even lower levels than some of the meat and fish ones, though, so maybe I can get him some of those...

How are those calcium and phosphorus levels calculated? If it is "as fed" or "guaranteed analysis" it is nearly impossible to actually know the exact amount of Ca and Phos in the food, because each type of food has a differing amount of water in it. The best way to know exactly how much phosphorus or calcium in the food is by "dry matter analysis" where all of the water is removed from the food and the remaining food is then measured. I have two renal failure kitties, and I am VERY strict about limiting their phosphorus intake. I will post a link where foods are broken down by DMA percentages of protein, phosphorus, sodium and fat. Sorry, I really do not know where to find easily accessable DMA calcium percentages, but perhaps you can get that from the company.

Here is the canned food link: http://webpages.charter.net/katkarma/canfood.htm

The dry food link: http://webpages.charter.net/katkarma/dryfood.htm

I believe the info you got from the company was "as fed" percentages. Here is the difference I came up with from the charts that I referred you to (for Phosphorus.)

Canned Cat Foods

Chicken 0.31% Phosphorus

Chicken & Herring 0.37% Phosphorus DMA 0.91% Phos

Beef & Chicken 0.28% Phosphorus DMA 0.92 % Phos

Turkey 0.28% Phosphorus DMA 0.92% Phos

Turkey & Salmon 0.35% Phosphorus DMA 0.88% Phos

Sardine, Shrimp & Crab 0.31% Phosphorus ?

Salmon & Trout 0.33% Phosphorus ?

Chicken & Lobster 0.33% Phosphorus ?

Kitten 0.34% Phosphorus ?

I couldn't find DMA amounts for the last four. I'm guessing that they might be new flavors that haven't been researched by the person who maintains that particular list. Kitten foods typically have a higher phosphorus content (and I would imagine calcium content too) because kittens need the phosphorus for adequate bone growth. Foods with fish in them typically have higher phosphorus contents than foods that do not contain fish. Hope this helps!

Do you happen to know the preferred levels for a possible UTI prone cat with the DMA? I think I'd heard under 1%, but I could be wrong..

.085 for mag

.09-.1 for phos and ca but .07 ish for CRF cats