Whats the cheapest way to feed my cat?

MrsE wrote: »

Great prices on the RC, mine are still on kitten food & over a year old:o
I think I will move them to Extergent when I run out of kitten food.
George looks like hes on steroids:eek:

Ironically, my little 2-3kg cats will only eat diet dry food! When I put full fat food in front of them they walk away. I might as well have put down a bowl full of ash. (Which incidentally, is an ingredient of most supermarket brand dry foods...)

Luckily they eat a pouch a day each, too.

The RC prices at the moment are excellent - I just missed a 2 for 1 deal which was annoying. Still, I got a 10kg one for £38 and free delivery which was great! Do you mean Exigent?!

There used to be a brilliant cat food called Nutrience which contained lots of the herbs and grasses cats eat in the wild, but it's from NZ and I can't find a UK stockist. The kibble had such a good shape for eating.

(I didn't eat it.)

KiKi

KiKi wrote: »

Ironically, my little 2-3kg cats will only eat diet dry food! When I put full fat food in front of them they walk away. I might as well have put down a bowl full of ash. (Which incidentally, is an ingredient of most supermarket brand dry foods...)

KiKi

"You will be relieved to hear that ash is not added to pet foods. It is a way of describing the mineral content of pet food. The ash you see listed is part of the guaranteed nutrient analysis: legally the pack must state how much of the food is protein, fat, fibre, water and ash.

Ash is measured by heating the pet food to temperatures of around 550 °C, and burning off all the organic components to leave just the inorganic residue. If the mineral content of pet food sounds high, it is important to remember that our domestic carnivores were designed to eat carcasses that are full of bones containing minerals, and a well-designed pet food will reflect this in its composition.

Kim Russell, Registered pet nutritionist, North Molton, Devon


• This is a misreading of the label on the product. Ash is usually given under "typical analysis" or a similar heading not under the ingredients list. Foods are often described in terms of their nutritional content by carrying out a proximate analysis. This is done because it is much quicker and cheaper than carrying out a detailed analysis of the nutrients ... The mineral content is found by burning off all the organic material in a muffle furnace to obtain the ash.

So ash is not added as an ingredient but is instead an indicator of mineral content. These minerals will be chiefly potassium and phosphorus with smaller amounts of calcium, iron, magnesium, sodium and zinc, and trace amounts of many others. Historically, manufacturers often boosted the mineral content of dog food with bone meal to raise calcium levels but, because of concerns about BSE, they now tend to use fish meal instead.

Ash is not added as an ingredient but is instead an indicator of mineral content. These minerals are chiefly potassium and phosphorous. You might see ash levels of 14 per cent in a dry meal for dogs, but tinned products often have around half this level. The composition of the food will affect the ash content, but the elements are likely to be beneficial or neutral to the dog's health and not noxious or toxic at the concentrations in the product.

Brian Ratcliffe, Professor of human nutrition, The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen"

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18625021.800-ash-for-dash.html

My three eat Whiskas dried and Butchers Classic tinned which they love and has really helped one of my cats who had diahorrea as it has no added cereals or vegetables.

I usually feed my two moggies half a tin of Asda cat food each every day, it has to be the fishy one though..lol. And inbetween meals they get about a cupful of Aldi biscuits between them - either the Senior one or the Special breed one. I can truthfully say that my previous moggies were fed on this diet too and they lived to 18yr and 20yrs without any problems at all. In fact the 20yr old could only eat Aldi senior cat biscuits, the other brands were too rich for her and she would ick them all up afterwards. Aldi ones she kept down and actually put weight on again with them.

The only time my boy cat got a urinary tract problem was when we used the Bob Martin crystals instead of his cheapy litter. He kept going down with cystitis until I figured out the problem and now (fingers crossed) he is back to cheapy cat litter and no problems at all.

They are both thriving on this diet and aren't begging for food all the time either. In fact I haven't managed to get any Aldi cat biscuits over the festive period and unfortunately they are having Go Cat senior and I am actually noticing they are asking for food more. So it is a quick drive to Aldi I think..

Oooh meant to add they are both 9 years old and look so much younger and really glossy coated too.