Hills v Aldi premium cat food

Fire_Fox

Buttonmoons wrote: »

I feed my cats Whiskas/Felix/whatever is on offer, because I can't afford to be paying through the nose for wet meat, half of my food is value!

They get Hills Science Indoor neutered cat biscuits, which is also mixed with go cat/whiskas whatever to make it go further. I'd rather feed them just dry but the older one will not tolerate that, If I don't feed her the wet meat she just follows me around screaming, chewing plastic and being evil.

I can't afford to pay Almo Nature or Applaws prices either.

Bozita from Zooplus is over 90% meat and the same sort of price as the brand names you mention - about £2.40 per kilo. The small tins of Pets at Home Purely (50% meat) at £2.75 per kilo; large tins of Feline Fayre (70% fish) are about £1.50 a kilo in Asda, a box of pouches of Feline Fayre in Home Bargains is £2.60 a kilo.

If you'd rather feed just dry then Jollyes Lifestage own brand is 26% meat and £2 per kilo - far better quality than Whiskas or Go Cat for about the same price. Pets at Home Purely own brand is 40% meat and £3.40 per kilo, but you will feed much less so it will last longer. Hills Science you are paying for the marketing, once you dilute it with branded stuff you mention you'd get better value with the brands I've suggested. HTH.

Paradigm

Fire_Fox wrote: »

You've now narrowed down my comments on veg AND grains to just vegetables.

Apologies but I was just generalising.

The point I'm trying to make is why stick the stuff in there when a cat doesn't need it?

As you have said, in the case of cereals, it's cheap & used basically as a bulking agent.

Mechanically recovered meat, which is cheap but not ideal, is surely better than cereals/veg in a cats diet?

Fire_Fox

Paradigm wrote: »

Apologies but I was just generalising.

The point I'm trying to make is why stick the stuff in there when a cat doesn't need it? As you have said, in the case of cereals, it's cheap & used basically as a bulking agent. Mechanically recovered meat, which is cheap but not ideal, is surely better than cereals/veg in a cats diet?

Mechanically recovered meat is expensive as it can be used for human food (sausages/ burgers/ nuggets); the cereals they use are the leftovers from human food production so they are practically free. IMHO nothing is wrong with mechanically recovered meat, ditto offal and bonemeal: they are high in protein and low in fat. I just don't want my cat to eat 'derivatives' because that is so rubbish they are not allowed to call it meat!

The cheapest tinned Bozita contains:
Bozita with Chicken
Lungs, chicken (at least 4%), gullet, kidney, liver, sodium chloride, calcium carbonate
Bozita with Salmon
Lungs, chicken, gullet, salmon (at least 4%), kidney, liver, sodium chloride, calcium carbonate
Bozita with Beef
Lungs, chicken, gullet, beef (at least 4%), kidney, liver, sodium chloride, calcium carbonate
Bozita with Prawns
Lungs, chicken, gullet, prawns (at least 4%), kidney, liver, sodium chloride, calcium carbonate.

It sounds gross, but actually I would feed that to my cat as it's natural and nutritious.

Buttonmoons

Fire_Fox wrote: »

I can't afford to pay Almo Nature or Applaws prices either.

Bozita from Zooplus is over 90% meat and the same sort of price as the brand names you mention - about £2.40 per kilo. The small tins of Pets at Home Purely (50% meat) at £2.75 per kilo; large tins of Feline Fayre (70% fish) are about £1.50 a kilo in Asda, a box of pouches of Feline Fayre in Home Bargains is £2.60 a kilo.

If you'd rather feed just dry then Jollyes Lifestage own brand is 26% meat and £2 per kilo - far better quality than Whiskas or Go Cat for about the same price. Pets at Home Purely own brand is 40% meat and £3.40 per kilo, but you will feed much less so it will last longer. Hills Science you are paying for the marketing, once you dilute it with branded stuff you mention you'd get better value with the brands I've suggested. HTH.

I'll check out the Bozita, the older one wouldn't go without meat!

I buy the hills because my vets told me that it has greens in it to stop them getting ill because they don't go outside, and also it helps prevent urinary infections? The little one loves it, and the older one reluctantly eats it, gives them really nice glossy coats.

But I will consider getting jolleyes or whatever it's called to eek the hills out further, where do I get that from?

They do get lumps of raw mince once a week, the kitten would eat it cooked, the older one would not. She's soooo fussy. Raw is better for them anyways!

Fire_Fox

Buttonmoons wrote: »

I'll check out the Bozita, the older one wouldn't go without meat!

I buy the hills because my vets told me that it has greens in it to stop them getting ill because they don't go outside, and also it helps prevent urinary infections? The little one loves it, and the older one reluctantly eats it, gives them really nice glossy coats.

But I will consider getting jolleyes or whatever it's called to eek the hills out further, where do I get that from?

They do get lumps of raw mince once a week, the kitten would eat it cooked, the older one would not. She's soooo fussy. Raw is better for them anyways!

Jollyes is a pet chain, much like Pets at Home:
http://www.jollyes.co.uk/

I haven't tried the Bozita yet, but definitely going to ASAP as it is recommended a lot on Purrs forums and the price is very good. If your cats need greens you can some oat seeds or a kit and grow some cat grass indoors (soooo easy). Grass stops hairballs in cats that have problems with this, are yours longhair or do they groom too much?

Vets recommend Hills because they get limited nutrition training at vet school, then Hills sponsor what they learn as CPD (continuing professional development), and Hills also sponsor most of the pet diet clubs that vets offer. This costs Hills a small fortune, but of course then the vets recommend Hills .... very shady practice IMO. :mad:

If you compare the ingredients and price of Hills to other brands it just isn't the best value as you get a lot of cheap fillers - maize and wheat. And if you are diluting with Whiskas and Go Cat you are adding yet more fillers - really it's like a bowl of corn flakes! :eek:

A lot of the decent brands of dry foods have cranberry extract which is supposed to stop urine infections (it works on humans ). Urine infections and blockages due to crystals in cats are thought to be caused by two things
1. Dehydration - most cats are not good drinkers and dry foods are not ideal
2. Alkaline foods - meat is acidic, plant foods are alkaline. Feed too much of the cheap fillers (wheat, maize) and the urine will be too alkaline.

Sorry if this all sounds preachy, I work in healthcare so I am very passionate! But I am also hardcore MSE and I can't afford to buy the expensive stuff either - hence why I am a geek and read the ingredients. Well done for feeding some raw - you are way ahead of me there.

my_gorgeous_ellie-belle

OK, have to admit i haven't read through as there are 3 pages BUT i am going based on the assumtion cat food is similar to dog food in this resepct. As many have said just compare the levels of the ingredients and you should be able to tell if they are near enough equal.

People do often end up with overweight pets (dogs in my experience) when on a dry diet because they cannot comprehend that you just feed a tiny fraction of what you would wet food. It swells massively so it may look like you are feeding them next to nothing but they are getting a good fill.

I even found this when changing over from Bakers dry (when i realised how bad it really was) to JWB dry food. Now with two dogs we would have gone through two bags of Bakers 3kg a week due to all of the fillers and not much of the good stuff (and used to result in 3 big poos a day, eurgh). With James WellBeloved one 2kg bag does a week fine and saves money.

You could try JWB for your cat, as i find Hills is exceptionally expensive for my dogs - but only if it is cheaper than the Aldi premium as that is probably fine if the ingredient levels are near enough equal.

Also on JWB my westie no longer has skin problems which has saved money on special shampoos for her as well as halting her irritation. VetUK generally has the best price i find, not sure if the same applies for cat food but they are prompt in delivery too and i buy monthly to save on postage

As some others have rightly said though some fresh veggies and cooked meat at least once a week is good (i do cooked because mine get impatient and i don't like it if they have some fresh meat, almost as if hunting instinct has kicked in, mine are house dogs with a young child about so BARF is off my list but only for that reason - you probably won't have such a concern with a cat though as it's generally ok if they go out and hunt a bird or mouse, i wouldn't be too impressed with my dogs doing it but our old cat used to bring us 'gifts' which in a weird way i thought was quite loving after dry heaving whilst removing them, lol, i just wished he'd eaten them instead)

my_gorgeous_ellie-belle

Ok, lol, now i have read through the three pages.

I was just going to ask that as per my last post, do you realise that with GoCat/Felix/Whiskas dry versions you are advised to feed much bigger portions than you are of the more premium bags? This is becuase they have to eat tons more to get the nutrients from the comercial stuff. I notice so many people are saying they find it cheaper on the big brands which i too thought till i tried it out.

It actually works out the same value or cheaper to switch to a 'premium' brand (that doesn't include Hills as it is pricey anyway) like JWB and Arden Grange - it doesn't seem like it at first but you soon realise the difference after a few weeks of feeding the new diet that you buy the bags less often as they last so much longer with the new smaller feeding portions. Usually end up seeing a calmer and healthier attitude from the animal too, my dogs calmed down big time. I found out that the bakers with its pretty coloured biscuits were actually like feeding my dog cornflakes laced with skittles (the sweets) every meal = we used to have fairly hyperactive dogs, now they still play and bound about but are much more chilled out and attentive than they were before.

And just 4% meat in whiskers - that is ridiculous IMO - they make you believe it is so healthy and full of 'tasty meaty chunks' (wet food i know, but still - note the misleading wording MEATY not MEAT, clever ey?)

Buttonmoons

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Jollyes is a pet chain, much like Pets at Home:
http://www.jollyes.co.uk/

I haven't tried the Bozita yet, but definitely going to ASAP as it is recommended a lot on Purrs forums and the price is very good. If your cats need greens you can some oat seeds or a kit and grow some cat grass indoors (soooo easy). Grass stops hairballs in cats that have problems with this, are yours longhair or do they groom too much?

Vets recommend Hills because they get limited nutrition training at vet school, then Hills sponsor what they learn as CPD (continuing professional development), and Hills also sponsor most of the pet diet clubs that vets offer. This costs Hills a small fortune, but of course then the vets recommend Hills .... very shady practice IMO. :mad:

If you compare the ingredients and price of Hills to other brands it just isn't the best value as you get a lot of cheap fillers - maize and wheat. And if you are diluting with Whiskas and Go Cat you are adding yet more fillers - really it's like a bowl of corn flakes! :eek:

A lot of the decent brands of dry foods have cranberry extract which is supposed to stop urine infections (it works on humans ). Urine infections and blockages due to crystals in cats are thought to be caused by two things
1. Dehydration - most cats are not good drinkers and dry foods are not ideal
2. Alkaline foods - meat is acidic, plant foods are alkaline. Feed too much of the cheap fillers (wheat, maize) and the urine will be too alkaline.

Sorry if this all sounds preachy, I work in healthcare so I am very passionate! But I am also hardcore MSE and I can't afford to buy the expensive stuff either - hence why I am a geek and read the ingredients. Well done for feeding some raw - you are way ahead of me there.

I thought Hills was good, I certainly noticed a difference when they started eating it.

This is how I feed them normally - 1 packet of wet between them both in the morning/lunch, normally around 10ish. 1 between them both at dinner time, and half is put down before bed. So really they just get over 1 each a day which isn't excessive.

The hills biscuits are left down over night, and I'll bung whatever down in the bowl during the day, normally it's the kitten that eats the biscuits (and everything else) He's not overweight at all, probably cause he spends half the day climbing my walls (literally) he's always been like this, and even though he's been done now, he hasn't changed at all. The older cat is a bit fat, she weighs 4.0kg, which isn't much but she's supposed to be dainty.

They are both short hair, well the older one has thick short hair and the kitten has longer hair but it's not long, he's a wee scruff and hardly cleans himself though, well, until he falls in the bath

He drinks loads of water, he jumps in the bath, waits for me to fill up the cup and then drinks, rarely see the older cat drinking :rolleyes:

I will definatly try the bonzita and I will get those biscuits when the ones Im using run out, maybe it will calm the kitten down, but i somehow doubt it!

Nah not preachy, I know what they get is quite crap, it's just a lot easier to run to asda when you've ran out of food than order it online. And Im terrible for doing that, I ran out of wet meat today and had to give them a load of mince to keep the older one content. Still haven't got wet either so looks like it's more mince for breakfast, or prawns.....hmmm.

my_gorgeous_ellie-belle

My local pet shop sells JWB which is a lifesaver if i have forgot to order on time - if not a tin of tuna or sardines is fine for a night you've missed IMO, my mutleys love those so i'm sure the cats would more.

But at the same time, if i run out on a sunday when the petshop is closed i'll pick up a back of chappie if a cant be bothered to cook something like chicken and rice for them, its the best of the crap stuff if you like. Just like MaccyD's a few times a year - it won't harm them so i don't feel guilty.

Ok, i must admit - equal to the importance for a healthy diet for mine it's picking up the big poos they end up doing when on a crap diet that i can't stand, and three times a day so that is usually enough to stop me from buying the supermarket stuff. But i realise you don't really get that prob with moggies :P

Fire_Fox

You do get poo problems if you have indoor or older cats or if you have cats that prefer to go in a litter tray for some reason! Noah stank out the flat when he was on Felix, no stink since I switched him onto Feline Fayre. Once he gets onto Orijen he will be eating much less so should have less poo too!