Best quality dry cat food?

MrsE_2

spookylukey wrote: »

I feed half wet (high quality/high meat content) and half dry (as before), mainly for variety.

Yes dry food is convenient, yes it often works out cheaper but is it really best for a cat to be fed an entirely dry diet that is nothing like the diet they may eat in the wild?

I do/did struggle with that, but all the vets promote dried food as the best
Ted was fed an entirely dried diet & was in fabulous condition (the vet used to remark how muscular he was & what great teeth he had) till his premature death at 7.5 (nothing to do with diet), so it worked for him.

UKTigerlily

I think there is no right or wrong as every Cat is so different, if the Cat is in good condition & healthy & likes it's food that's all that matters!

gymfiend

So many different ones to choose! I requested a sample from James Wellbeloved online - going to see how they like that & keep an eye out for the wet food that was reccomended, they don't have it in my local Pets at Home, just the Whiskas stuff

dizziblonde

I feed the tripod on a mixture. The occasional wet pouch (reverted to giving her these when she was getting over a stomach upset and went on hunger strike for a while - despite the V-E-T giving her a clean bill of health) and a mixture of whatever higher level dry food is on special at the supermarket at the moment - so it tends to be Purina, occasionally Iams (although I have issues feeding her that she does love it) and James Wellbeloved when I get to Pets at Home to pick it up. She went to the vet for the first time in years recently when she had a ikky tummy and he commented on her good condition and general health (apart from missing leg).
I'm too wise to her ways to stockpile one particular food because she'll switch her mind on a whim and refuse to eat it!

sleepymy

dizziblonde wrote: »

I feed the tripod on a mixture. The occasional wet pouch (reverted to giving her these when she was getting over a stomach upset and went on hunger strike for a while - despite the V-E-T giving her a clean bill of health) and a mixture of whatever higher level dry food is on special at the supermarket at the moment - so it tends to be Purina, occasionally Iams (although I have issues feeding her that she does love it) and James Wellbeloved when I get to Pets at Home to pick it up. She went to the vet for the first time in years recently when she had a ikky tummy and he commented on her good condition and general health (apart from missing leg).
I'm too wise to her ways to stockpile one particular food because she'll switch her mind on a whim and refuse to eat it!

You know that switching foods can be a cause of stomach problems don't you.

dizziblonde

In the last five years she's had the one recent stomach issue which the vet said was probably as there was a tonne of them going around (I'm slightly suspicious it might have been brought on by the stress of the recent house move myself). Vet gave her a clean bill of health, despite being surprised as she purred happily and tried to cuddle him while he shoved a thermometer up her rear... there's nowt wrong with that furball, apart from a missing leg and a questionable case of brains between her furry ears.

spookylukey

spookylukey wrote: »

I feed half wet (high quality/high meat content) and half dry (as before), mainly for variety.

Yes dry food is convenient, yes it often works out cheaper but is it really best for a cat to be fed an entirely dry diet that is nothing like the diet they may eat in the wild?

MrsE wrote: »

I do/did struggle with that, but all the vets promote dried food as the best
Ted was fed an entirely dried diet & was in fabulous condition (the vet used to remark how muscular he was & what great teeth he had) till his premature death at 7.5 (nothing to do with diet), so it worked for him.

I'm not saying a dry diet is dangerous or would cause the premature death of an animal being fed it but I really don't think it's 'best'. I'm told that vets get very little nutritional training at University so unless they have a specific interest in feline nutrition they could be years or decades out of date on the latest research. The information they are given and in turn give out to owners often comes from the dry pet food manufacturers representatives themselves - do you know of many vets who DON'T recommend Hills?

I do agree that a high quality dry food is 'better' than a low quality, low meat content (4% Whiskas/Felix etc) wet food but I don't believe that an entirely dry diet is best and I know there are better dried foods available than Hills!

The links I posted in my previous post explain better than I ever could why an entirely dry diet is not natural and is certainly not 'best' - in my opinion I feed my two half high quality wet and half high quality dry - all bases are covered that way!

MrsE_2

sorryusernamesgone wrote: »

After the two who had bladder stones were treated by the vet he recommended they go on Royal Canin Urinary Diet biscuits and nothing else, but it's £40 a sack, and it was impossible to put just 2 of my cats on that diet, so they all ate it, and I was buying a sack every couple of weeks. Couldnt afford that so tried them on half dried half tinned/fresh and they are doing really well.

I feed two cats on Royal Canin & I think its cheaper than tinned/wet.

UKTigerlily

To feed my Cat on James Wellbeloved dry would be £10 a month, the T/D would be £17 ish a month, wet = £30 a month!!!!!!!!! From my experiences wet is more expensive than the premium dry!

MrsE_2

UKTigerlily wrote: »

To feed my Cat on James Wellbeloved dry would be £10 a month, the T/D would be £17 ish a month, wet = £30 a month!!!!!!!!! From my experiences wet is more expensive than the premium dry!

A smallish (2kg) bag of RC (£15.00) lasts about a month (depending on how greedy your cat is), I buy 2 bags a month =£30.00