I'm compiling a spreadsheet containing all the foods my cats eat and am listing/calculating the nutrients in each one (yes, I know it's a bit anal!) and could do with some help. I know how to calculate dry matter analysis, but I've a few questions I'm hoping someone can help with.
1. Calories. According to felinecrf.org, a healthy cat needs approx. 30-35 calories per pound of weight per day. Would you agree with that?
To calculate the calories, I understand that it's just a case of doing the maths and working it out based on the protein, fat and carb content of the food with protein containing 4 calories per gram, carbs containing 4 calories per gram and fat containing 9 calories per gram. So if 100g of a food (as fed) has 9g protein, 4g fat and 3.5g carbs, that would work out at 86 calories per 100g?
2. Carbohydrates. Generally not listed, so to work out the calories I have to calculate the carbs first. I read that the protein + fat + fibre + moisture + carbs =100% so if I have all the others I can work out the carbs. I'm a bit confused about the fibre as I thought fibre was a constituent of carbs? What if I don't have the fibre? Can I still work it out as an estimate since fibre isn't usually very high?
3. What is the ideal ratio of protein:fat:carbs for a cat?
Think that's all for now! I mainly started doing this a while ago to calculate the phosphorus content of foods where possible. Jaffa does not have crf but his values are towards the high end of normal and as he's 10 I wanted to keep an eye on the phosphorus content of the foods I'm feeding him so that I can limit anything high in phosphorus to occasional feeding. But I thought it would be fun
to also calculate the protein, fat, carbs etc in the different foods and to work out the calories as I feed a variety of foods.
1. Calories. According to felinecrf.org, a healthy cat needs approx. 30-35 calories per pound of weight per day. Would you agree with that?
To calculate the calories, I understand that it's just a case of doing the maths and working it out based on the protein, fat and carb content of the food with protein containing 4 calories per gram, carbs containing 4 calories per gram and fat containing 9 calories per gram. So if 100g of a food (as fed) has 9g protein, 4g fat and 3.5g carbs, that would work out at 86 calories per 100g?
2. Carbohydrates. Generally not listed, so to work out the calories I have to calculate the carbs first. I read that the protein + fat + fibre + moisture + carbs =100% so if I have all the others I can work out the carbs. I'm a bit confused about the fibre as I thought fibre was a constituent of carbs? What if I don't have the fibre? Can I still work it out as an estimate since fibre isn't usually very high?
3. What is the ideal ratio of protein:fat:carbs for a cat?
Think that's all for now! I mainly started doing this a while ago to calculate the phosphorus content of foods where possible. Jaffa does not have crf but his values are towards the high end of normal and as he's 10 I wanted to keep an eye on the phosphorus content of the foods I'm feeding him so that I can limit anything high in phosphorus to occasional feeding. But I thought it would be fun
