How many carbs do cats need?

I just figured out how to calculate the carbs on my cats food but I'm wondering what percent of carbs is too high? Their wet food was about 5% carbs in wet matter and 20 something in dry matter. On the catinfo.org website she says to stay under 10% carbs.. Is that wet matter or dry matter?? I'm fairly new at this! I don't want to be feeding them too many carbs as they are carnivores after all

If I remember right, AAFCO doesn't make a recommendation for a minimum value. There are many cat foods with no carbs at all. 

She's talking about canned food, and she says to ignore the "dry matter" when calculating. 

"The "guaranteed analysis" numbers that you find on a can of food for protein, fat, and water (moisture) are listed as "minimums" and "maximums" which, by definition, are inaccurate.  Plus, the labels never list the carbohydrate amount which is very frustrating because we are trying to stay under 10% carbohydrate calories."

"A good example of the above issue is a food like canned Wellness. At first glance, this food may be dismissed as inappropriate for a carnivore because it contains several high carbohydrate ingredients in the form of fruits and vegetables, including potatoes which are very high in starch (carbohydrate). However, the low carbohydrate level (3-5%) tells us that the amount of fruits and vegetables is very low.   "

Again, we would like to stay under 10% of calories coming from carbohydrates.

Grains and potatoes should be absent from a cat's diet but, unfortunately, they are cheap so they are included in many commercial cat foods. Think 'profit margin'. Grains/potatoes are cheaper than meat."

By-products are always a controversial subject but it makes much more sense to feed animal-based by-products to a cat than it does to feed grains or potatoes.  Therefore, do not shy away from the more economical foods like Friskies or 9-Lives if you cannot afford the more expensive canned foods without by-products.

I would much rather see a cat eating an all-by-product canned food than any dry food.  This is because even the cheaper canned foods have the 'Big Three' covered:

1) high in water

2) usually low in carbohydrates

3) the protein is from animals - not plants

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By-products are not necessarily low quality protein sources. In fact, they can be extremely nutritious. However, there is more variability when quality is being considered when compared to muscle meat. 

Unless your cat needs be on a strict very low carb diet for medical reasons such as diabetes (under 10%), it's ok to feed up to 15% to 20% carbs IMO. Some people stick with very very low carbs for even healthy cats but the selection of food is pretty limited and the canned food is usually either pate or seafood based. If you stick with under 20%, there is a much wider variety of foods to choose from. A compromise is to feed mainly under 10% carbs and occasionally feed a slighlty higher carb food for variety.

Gravy / sauce based foods tend to be on the high side of carbs because of the starches needed for thickening the liquid. Potatos are a common source of carbs that is found in many foods, both dry and canned. Grans like rice add carbs but it may not be very much. Seafood based foods tend to be very low carb or even zero carb but it's not good to feed seafood all the time.

All dry foods have carbs even the ones purported to be carb free. Something needs to hold the pieces of kibble together and that's some kind of starch which is a carb source.

The short answer is:

If you stick to major brand wet foods you can’t go wrong.

If you want a little more background:

Soluble carbohydrates provide an affordable source of calories and play an important role in the composition of most commercial pet foods. While cats are carnivores, when carbohydrates are properly prepared and in reasonable quantities, they appear to be well tolerated by most animals.

But if you’re worried about carbohydrates, avoid dry food which is richer in them than wet food. And in any case you should also avoid generic, B brand or other cheap products.

I tend to agree with Dr. Pierson that while people and dogs can do well on a diet containing a lot of carbs, cats cannot.

"Cats have a physiological decrease in the ability to utilize carbohydrates due to the lack of specific enzymatic pathways that are present in other mammals, and they lack a salivary enzyme called amylase.

Cats have no dietary need for carbohydrates and, more worrisome is the fact that a diet that is high in carbohydrates can be detrimental to their health as is explained below.

In the wild, your cat would be eating a high protein, high-moisture, meat/organ-based diet, with a moderate level of fat and with only  approximately 1-2 percent of her diet consisting of carbohydrates. The average dry food contains 35-50 percent carbohydrate calories.  Some of the cheaper dry foods contain even higher levels. 

This is NOT the diet that Mother Nature intended for your cat to eat. 

With this in mind, it is as illogical to feed a carnivore a steady diet of meat-flavored cereals as it would be to feed meat to a vegetarian like a horse or a cow, right?  So why are we continuing to feed our carnivores like herbivores? Why are we feeding such a species-inappropriate diet?  The answers are simple.  Grains/potatoes are cheap.  Dry food is convenient.  Affordability and convenience sells. 

However, is a carbohydrate-laden, plant-based, water-depleted dry food the best diet for our cats?  Absolutely not."