Bring your calculator when shopping for a diabetic dog food

Look for high protein

Most pet food companies will prominently feature the proteins and provide the percentage on the nutrition label. Protein-rich foods work well for diabetic dogs, and there are a lot of options in the market that meet the criteria. So far so good.

Low fat is a high priority

What you don’t want are fatty dog foods. For diabetic dogs, fats can trigger resistance to insulin, which can make regulating your dog’s blood glucose levels challenging over time. And they can contribute to pancreatitis, which can be painful for your dog and lead to veterinary treatment. 

We learned that a maximum of 10% fat was recommended. So why do so many foods list the minimum fat? This is not helpful information because, as a consumer with a diabetic pet, I don’t know if the fat exceeds what Parker should be eating. So we look for foods that list maximum fat.

Why are companies secretive about carbs?

Rounding out the threesome of important ingredients is carbohydrates. The amount of carbs in a diabetic dog’s food is very important. They are broken down into glucose, and that can cause blood sugar spikes that are difficult to manage.

We learned this the hard way. We were feeding Parker an expensive prescription diet dry food. We didn’t know how carb rich it was because the carbs were not listed on the nutrition label. The food was 65% carbs when we should have been giving him one with a max of 35% carbs.

We set out to find a new food that met all the nutrition requirements to manage Parker’s diabetes.

It was harder than we thought.

Based on our in-store research across national chains and small independents, most pet foods in this part of the world don’t provide the percentage of carbohydrates anywhere on the packaging.

How to calculate carbohydrates

When you are looking at nutrition labels, if the carbs are not listed, add up the percentages of all the other ingredients and subtract that total from 100. This should give you the percent of carbs. 

Complex carbohydrates are better than simple carbs for diabetics. Complex carbs digest more slowly and are less likely to cause spikes in blood glucose levels compared to simple carbs like white rice.

We looked for foods that had complex carbs like:

• Whole grains: Barley, brown rice, oats, and quinoa. 
• Vegetables: Sweet potatoes, pumpkin, and green leafy vegetables. 
• Legumes: Beans, lentils, and peas. 

When it comes to carbs, it's a good idea to read the ingredients. When it comes to managing diabetes, there are good carbs and not-so-good ones.

It all adds up

It seems that most low-fat dog foods have chicken as the main protein. Parker, like many dogs, doesn’t digest chicken well, so this removed a lot of options from the potential list. We found a lamb and quinoa dry food that met all the criteria and was a hit. It was more expensive that other foods but we realized that we would feed him less per meal than other brands, so the math actually worked out.

Thank goodness we had our calculator.