dry matter or metabolizable energy

[msserena]

Yes I am one of those people that have my own cat food list, have performed numerous calculations to convert food & now I say, what do I do with this info?

Dr Pierson's list contains ME & Tanya's list contains DM. Which one's better? I can't get any clear info. Does it even matter? I wonder if I should just focus on DM since most companies will give numbers this way & it's easy to calculate if not.

One of my cats creatinine level was a little elevated so I am going down a notch in phosphorous compared to what they're eating now. Will recheck in 6 mo & we'll see if changing the food will make any difference.

Thanks

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

I always look at DM, have no idea what ME even is other than what you wrote in your thread title.

As far as lowering the phos, sounds like a good idea to try to get that creatinine down. Hope it works. I've had three kidney cats and don't want to go through that again

 

[BlackCatOp]

I personally like metabolized energy for comparing phosphorus levels. Two foods can have the same phosphorus amount based on dry matter but if their calorie count is significantly different then the food with the lower calorie content will actually provide more phosphorus per day to your cat as your cat needs a certain amount of calories.

For example:

Food A
DM PHOS: 0.79%
ASFed Calories: 736
As Fed Phos: 0.15%
Mg Phos/100cal: (0.15/736)*1000000= 203mg of phos/ 100 cal
Thus feed cat 200 calories per day then cat consumed 406 mg of phosphorus per day

Food B
DM PHOS: 0.79%
ASFed Calories: 841
As Fed Phos: 0.15%
Mg phos/100cal: (0.15/841)*1000000 = 178mg of phos/100cal

In this case does the 20mg matter? Probably not but I feel it’s much easier to compare based on calorie content (ME) vs percentages of dry matter.
Hope that helps

 

[msserena]

I personally like metabolized energy for comparing phosphorus levels. Two foods can have the same phosphorus amount based on dry matter but if their calorie count is significantly different then the food with the lower calorie content will actually provide more phosphorus per day to your cat as your cat needs a certain amount of calories.

For example:

Food A
DM PHOS: 0.79%
ASFed Calories: 736
As Fed Phos: 0.15%
Mg Phos/100cal: (0.15/736)*1000000= 203mg of phos/ 100 cal
Thus feed cat 200 calories per day then cat consumed 406 mg of phosphorus per day

Food B
DM PHOS: 0.79%
ASFed Calories: 841
As Fed Phos: 0.15%
Mg phos/100cal: (0.15/841)*1000000 = 178mg of phos/100cal

In this case does the 20mg matter? Probably not but I feel it’s much easier to compare based on calorie content (ME) vs percentages of dry matter.
Hope that helps

For now, I think I'm not going to focus on that little bit of difference. I barely understand the whole ME thing, I would say it's definitely more advanced. I've even brought it up to vets & they'll look at me like I'm from another planet. I still have a copy of Dr Pierson's list when it had all the DM numbers so I think I will just stick with DM for now. Thanks so much for your input.

 

[msserena]

I always look at DM, have no idea what ME even is other than what you wrote in your thread title.

As far as lowering the phos, sounds like a good idea to try to get that creatinine down. Hope it works. I've had three kidney cats and don't want to go through that again

Yes the girl in the picture was my 17 yr old that went through it. I now have 3 & can't even imagine doing all that stuff again, it was way too much for me! I donated all the dry food I have. I've also gotten rid of all the canned that was over 1% phos. We'll see in 6 mo if my efforts have paid off.

Honestly, the one that had elevated levels, she was on gabapentin daily for like a week & a half. Was also on onsior. Was on a vet diet, RC Satiety Support & that has high phosphorous. And that's when the 2 blood draws happened, in between all of this. So I'm really hoping the meds & the bad food didn't damage her kidneys. I was actually thinking of going to a cat only place to get a blood draw like in a few weeks, just to know.