Cheap catfood dilemma

purplelotus

I second (or is it 3rd now?!) the poster who said move their water away from their food, they definitely prefer it then. Our cat is fed on the side in the utility room and her water bowl is under a plant by the back door in the kitchen, I reckon she thinks she's cleverly found a puddle.

missbargain

I do the same as you, two pouches a day of premium cat food plus a measured dry Science Hill in the middle of the day. My cat won't touch Whiskas or Felix, and didn't fair too well with supermarket brand foods. The part of the problem is that my cat only loves food in gravy, he hates jelly, so about 70% of cat food is out of question.
Some pouches are dreadfully expensive, as some of the pouches cost 75p each.

The worst thing is that, if I buy a value pack, he will scoff down some flavours, and not touch some others. So I got the arrangement with my neighbour who has two cats: to reduce waste, she gives me the flavours her
cats wont eat, and I give her the pouches my cat wont eat.
As for the premium food, after I saw how some cheaper foods look and smell (and his poo after that, eouwwww), I simply cannot give him that c...p. Perhaps feed him wet in the morning and dry in the evening, that would work out cheaper, as you can buy quality dry bulk food online at great discount which will last you forever.
Or, feed him 1 pouch of premium food and 1 pouch of supermarket food a day, that would offset the cost somewhat.
And think of all the vet bill you are saving by feeding your cat premium foods, and the pleasure your cat obviously gets out of it

jenhug

have a look at burns pet food, good quality, feed less than cheaper brands that are all water and fillers.

Notsosharp

My cats get fed whatevers on offer but its usually dry food. I just cannot afford the more expensive brands of dry stuff so it is usually just Tescos/Morrisons own brand.

At the moment they are being fed dry cat food which was on special offer at Pets at Home, £2 for two kilogram bags. Thankfully they are used to this and not fussy so they will eat pretty much anything thats put in front of them. I did used to feed them the wet stuff but someone said that their vet had said that was like feeding them MacDonalds every day (even Whiskas and Sheba). Plus I found the wet food kinda messy.

It sounds horrid but if my cats won't eat something I take it away and try again later, after a day they usually eat it anyway. Obviously I wouldn't let them starve but I won't pander to their whims either. I was also told that chicken wings are OK to feed cats, they are 10p each down at the local butchers. They are both thriving happy cats btw, Billy is big about 13lbs but hes not fat, just big!

They will still scrounge though, the other day I caught George eating baked beans out of the tin and Billy goes mad for greek yoghuart!

rita-rabbit

Notsosharp wrote: »

Most dry food is better for cats than wet (except if cat has medical condition). Can't totally vouch for it but Aldies & Liddles dry is likely to be good quality too.:beer:

I did used to feed them the wet stuff but someone said that their vet had said that was like feeding them MacDonalds every day (even Whiskas and Sheba).

sounds about right - I heard the Dental Nurse @ Celia Hammond say exactly that.:T

It sounds horrid but if my cats won't eat something I take it away and try again later, after a day they usually eat it anyway.

would agree with this too Mr Burns recommends feeding in that way - also about not varying diet 2 much - alot of choice seemingly produces brat-tummied cats!:D

jaycat62

Hi,

I'm looking to change my cat from whiskas to an own brand wet food, he can't have dried as he's had a problem with crystals, and I was advised to take him off dried food.

My dilemma is which one to change to? Bot tesco and morrisons have 82% and 83% moisture, but then so does whiskas. Also protein is higher in morrisons at 9%. Vitamins all seem to be the same between brands.

Not sure what else to look for! He's very picky, with a sensitive tummy too, so i would slowly change him over.

Anyone use morrisons or tescos for their cats, he's 9 btw so i want to make sure he is getting all the vitamins etc he needs. Wondered if whiskas also make other supermarket brand catfood too.

Thanks for reading,

Jenny_Wren_3

Kumari wrote: »

Hmmm - the dry food/kidney problem link is one that I hadn't thought about. I always put out a fresh bowl of water for my cat but I swear I have never, ever seen him drink out of it in the 2.5 years I've had him - worrying (though I have spotted him drinking out of dirty puddles - why?!) :mad:

My 2 are fed only on high quality dry food. They always have a bowl of water by their food but like yours prefer puddles, toilet water (daren't use rim block cleaners etc!), water out of the pond etc! They drink a lot more than you would think going by whats left in the bowl.

naturally_2

I don't know how much it costs, but you might like to try researching the Bones and Raw Food Diet - if you can get friendly with a local butcher and get chicken carcasses cheap or free, that would help, and its supposed to be very healthy for both cats and dogs. Raw bones aren't such a risk as cooked, as its the cooked ones which splinter.

ALL tinned/pouched cat and dog food contains cereals - when have you ever seen "proper" meat that looks like the chunks in cat food, apart from at your local kebab house?! its much like the mechanically reclaimed chicken nuggets Jamie Oliver has often gone on about. Cats and dogs weren't ever meant to eat cereals - these got added into their diets in the WWII when it made it cheaper and more readily available to feed your pet. Having said that I know most pets survive perfectly happily on tinned and dried food so swings and roundabouts.

I also think the argument that cheap cat and dog food is therefore nastly isn't necessarily true - its probably just that the more expensive ones have more additives and flavourings that mean your cat will choose that over bog standard :rolleyes:

naturally_2

Jenny_Wren wrote: »

My 2 are fed only on high quality dry food. They always have a bowl of water by their food but like yours prefer puddles, toilet water (daren't use rim block cleaners etc!), water out of the pond etc! They drink a lot more than you would think going by whats left in the bowl.

Just wanted to add on this point that animals seem to be a lot more sensitive to the chlorine and additives in our tap water, so what is fresh to us is not as appealing as fresh rainwater for example to them. I'd suggest buying a bottle of cheap mineral water (e.g. Tesco 2l for 20p or whatever it is) just to see if this is why your cats don't drink much from the bowl. If this helps, maybe a more MSE way would be to use a water butt?

Milford_Cubicle

If it helps any, I've just switched my kitten to Pets at Home own 'natural' brand (in a brown 'cardboard' box) which was £4.50 for 2kg. It's 40% chicken and she seems to like it