Whats the cheapest way to feed my cat?

spike7451 · 13 January 2010 at 7:29PM

binz_81 wrote: »

My kitten is 6 months old and i feed him a pouch of felix or whiskas kitten split into 2 meals a day with a couple of spoonfuls of ownbrand dry kitten.

I hadnt realised til today how little meat was in them after reading this thread and checking the labels.

Problem is i have about 4 1/2 boxes of the pouches left and cant afford to waste them.

His poos are really big, smelly and sometimes soft. Could this be down to his diet?
Do i have to wait til hes an adult/1 year before i change his diet to raw or adult food with more meat content?

Whiska's did that to Orbit until they 'improved' them then they made him sick.Try Pets@Home Purely range,about the same cost as Whiska's but a higher meat content by far.
http://www.petsathome.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Search?freeText=purely&x=0&y=0&storeId=10551&catalogId=10601&langId=-1

Kitten(£4.59 a box)
http://www.petsathome.com/shop/purely-complete-kitten-food-pouches-with-chicken-85gm-12-pack-14729

Purely Complete Kitten Food Pouches with Chicken 85gm 12 Pack are totally natural, seriously healthy and a distinctively delicious selection of feline dishes.

Each recipe of Purely Complete Kitten Food Pouches with Chicken are specially prepared for the development of your kitten into a healthy adult cat; choose from Chicken with beef, lamb, liver or duck which we have kittified for their gorgeous little mouths.

Purrrfect!

Made with no artificial colours or preservatives, our Purely Complete Kitten Food Pouches with Chicken contains no bulking ingredients; so no eggs, no dairy and no soya.

Just at least 50% chicken and natural healthy goodness packed into our pouches.

Purely Complete Kitten Food Pouches with Chicken are:

Hypoallergenic - specially formulated and wheat-gluten free, because kittens can suffer from allergies and intolerances too!

Infused with added vitamins and minerals to keep your kitten in tip top condition.

Ingredient(s):

Chicken with Beef: Chicken (min. 50%), Beef (min. 4%), Sunflower Oil, Vitamin and Mineral Supplements, Tapioca Starch. Chicken with Lamb: Chicken (min. 50%), Lamb (min. 4%), Sunflower Oil, Vitamin and Mineral Supplements, Tapioca Starch. Chicken with Liver: Chicken (min. 50%), Liver (min. 4%), Sunflower Oil, Vitamin and Mineral Supplements, Tapioca Starch. Chicken with Duck: Chicken (min. 50%), Duck (min. 4%), Sunflower Oil, Vitamin and Mineral Supplements, Tapioca Starch.

Typical Analysis:

Moisture 84.5%, Protein 9.5%, Oils and Fats 2.5%, Fibre 1.0%, Ash 2.5%, Vitamin A 2200 iu/kg, Vitamin D3 250 iu/kg, Vitamin E (as α-tocopherol) 50 iu/kg. Copper (as cupric sulphate) 1mg/kg. Vitamin levels guaranteed until best before date printed with batch number in panel.

Whiska's kitten (mixed £3.50 a box)

Ingredient(s):

with Duck: Meat and Animal Derivatives (min. 4% Duck), Oils and Fats,Cereals,Derivatives of Vegetable Origin, Minerals. with Poultry: Meat and Animal Derivatives (min. 4% Poultry), Oils and Fats,Cereals,Derivatives of Vegetable Origin, Minerals. with Lamb: Meat and Animal Derivatives (min. 4% Lamb), Oils and Fats,Cereals,Derivatives of Vegetable Origin, Minerals. with Rabbit: Meat and Animal Derivatives (min. 4% Rabbit), Oils and Fats,Cereals,Derivatives of Vegetable Origin, Minerals.

Typical Analysis:

Moisture 80%, Protein 9%, Oils and Fats 7.5%, Fibre 0.3%, Ash 2.5%, Vitamin D3 240iu/kg, Vitamin E 20mg/kg, Vitamin levels guaranteed until best before date. Total Copper as Copper Sulphate 1.8mg/kg, With colourants (permitted EC additives).

rita-rabbit · 13 January 2010 at 7:40PM

There are providers of better kitten foods (personally I think dry is better than wet but that's your choice) check out Burns, James Wellbeloved, Royal Canine & others. The price is kept down by bulk buying in advance online. However I noticed that Pets at Home Stores were doing special deals last month (not too sure about now). I wouldn't waste the lower quality kitten food that you have as cats do not like drastic change to food & throwing away food is wrong (unless it makes a pet sick & then you could offer it to someone/charity where the animals are not as fussy/sensitive).

Sequeena · 13 January 2010 at 7:44PM

There's lots of other foods, I would avoid JWB as since it's been taken over by Mars the quality has gone down significantly and Royal Canin looks great but it's full of fillers.

Fire_Fox · 13 January 2010 at 7:51PM

binz_81 wrote: »

My kitten is 6 months old and i feed him a pouch of felix or whiskas kitten split into 2 meals a day with a couple of spoonfuls of ownbrand dry kitten.

I hadnt realised til today how little meat was in them after reading this thread and checking the labels.

Problem is i have about 4 1/2 boxes of the pouches left and cant afford to waste them.

His poos are really big, smelly and sometimes soft. Could this be down to his diet?
Do i have to wait til hes an adult/1 year before i change his diet to raw or adult food with more meat content?

This is a moneysaving website so anyone who advises you to throw out food needs shooting!

You shouldn't change a kitten's food too quickly anyway or you may find they get an upset tummy. Noah's doings changed overnight when I took him off Felix wet and JWB dry - from three stinkers to one well formed poop, so yes food could well be the culprit. For Noah I am pretty sure it rice that is the problem so he can't have any of the brands Rita Rabbit suggests or he stinks the flat out!

IMO the own brand kibble is likely to be lower quality that the kitten wet, as the dry is padded out with grains whereas the wet is padded with meat derivatives. As the derivatives come from an animal source and the grains from plants, the kitten will absorb the protein better from the pouches than the kibble. Can you afford a bag of new food now?

My suggestion would be to buy some high meat kibble such as Pets at Home Purely, Applaws, Orijen or Fish4Cats. Then mix in little by little with the own brand until you are eventually on all the high meat stuff: this may take two weeks or more which should take you past payday!

Carry on feeding the Felix/Whiskas you have so that you are only changing one thing at a time. Once you have got the kitten over to high meat kibble successfully OR you have run out of the pouches you can start thinking about switching the wet food.

Edited to add: just noticed you also asked about raw - the earlier you start on a little raw the less fussy the cat should be as they get older. You can start this as soon as they are weaned according to many pedigree breeders, there are videos on YouTube of TINY kittens tackling whole chicken wings:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA2-HhToJ_8
Otherwise you can go for the Food4Cats £10 sample pack which looks remarkably like normal coarse mince (but has offal and bone in). I think with just one kitten you may have quite a bit of waste as it takes Noah (big adult male) two days to eat just one 'sausage'. To be honest I'd stick with raw chicken wings as a treat/ to clean teeth and use up the food that you have in stock.

paddypaws101 · 13 January 2010 at 9:26PM

I believe that Encore from sainsbury's is actually made by Applaws ( I know I will quickly be corrected if I am wrong! ) They had it on special offer recently and the dry advertises itself as 80% chicken.
Worth a look maybe?

Sequeena · 13 January 2010 at 9:42PM

paddypaws101 wrote: »

I believe that Encore from sainsbury's is actually made by Applaws ( I know I will quickly be corrected if I am wrong! ) They had it on special offer recently and the dry advertises itself as 80% chicken.
Worth a look maybe?

No you're right

Lily-Lu · 13 January 2010 at 10:33PM

spike7451 wrote: »

Whiska's did that to Orbit until they 'improved' them then they made him sick.Try Pets@Home Purely range,about the same cost as Whiska's but a higher meat content by far.

I don't actually know the answers to this, but am curious about those lists of ingredients and whether what you've said is right.

It states mim 50% chicken on the Purely, but does that mean chicken 'meat', or any parts of a chicken?......Anyone here privvy to pet food labelling regulations?

Then the whiskas - min 4% x.....I don't think that necessarily means that 4% is the total 'meat' content. I have a feeling it might be something to do with labelling a food as x and having to have a minimum amount of that stated food in there. Does anyone know if this is the case?

Sequeena · 13 January 2010 at 10:55PM

Lily-Lu wrote: »

I don't actually know the answers to this, but am curious about those lists of ingredients and whether what you've said is right.

It states mim 50% chicken on the Purely, but does that mean chicken 'meat', or any parts of a chicken?......Anyone here privvy to pet food labelling regulations?

Then the whiskas - min 4% x.....I don't think that necessarily means that 4% is the total 'meat' content. I have a feeling it might be something to do with labelling a food as x and having to have a minimum amount of that stated food in there. Does anyone know if this is the case?

If it says meat and animal derivatives (which whiskas has) it's the crap left over which they can't use for humans.

Meat meal I believe is meat - though how good the meat is I couldn't tell you.

Claire_Bear · 13 January 2010 at 10:57PM

Hmm, I'm not sure exactly but this is what a normal pack of Whiskas says: Meat and Animal Derivatives (inc. min. 4% Lamb),

And this is what the Oh So... packet says
Fish and Fish Derivatives (including min. 4% Sardine, min. 14% Whole Pieces of Fish)

So I'm assuming that if it's all the rubbishy parts of the chicken it would state animal 'derivatives' but if it was decent pieces of meat it wouldn't say this, it would just say 'chicken 40%' or whatever. I think that in catfood it's always going to be the cheaper parts of meat, it just depends how much there is as opposed to grains and other fillers

spike7451 · 13 January 2010 at 11:16PM

I did a search on the meat used & came up with these:
The first ones from the US FDA:
http://www.fda.gov/animalveterinary/resourcesforyou/ucm047113.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meat_by-product

Whats the cheapest way to feed my cat?

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