Best dried food for a cat??

Freddie_Snowbits

Hope it goes well with the dried food. Our tiger, whom Freda rescued, was livid when he escaped the cat home, absolutely wild, but took some time to settle down.

We have only used dried in the last few years and always had lots of water down for him, though for the main he uses the bath, toilet, bird table and puddles for his drinking. As for the cost, neighbours barfain buckets sometimes supplement his diet on bin day.

As for cost, Freda would not be without him.

h007

I can recommend james well beloved dry food - my 2 fussy mogs love it

Both of them are rescues and both are very fussy. I do try to leave the food down to make them eat it but I do throw it away after a few hours cos it goes nasty and smells the flat out!!
I wonder if rescue cats are fussy because at the shelter they feed a mix of foods depending on what is donated to them?

spike7451

beks wrote: »

Thanks for the reply and yes, to an extent I do agree with you and i dont think you sound harsh. Another of our cats was on a low sodium and phosporous diet so I know the importance of getting them to eat it.

HOWEVER, our moglet (and her sister) were like this when we got them from the sanctuary and they were only just over a year old then. It does not matter how long I leave the food down for, she just will not eat it (I take it up after 12 hours of lying untouched though - I cannot force her to eat it. I have fed the same thing week after week after week in the hope she will get desparate and eat it but it does not work. She does not look like she is starving (at all) but I do wonder how she is not wasting away as her food isn't touched. I wouldnt see her as a 'spoilt' cat, she is a loved cat who I am doing my best to feed with something I feel is suitable and that she likes. I have persevered for 4 years and nothing has changed, she is no worse but no better - personally I think that is long enough to keep trying!!

And since this is MSE, this isnt to mention the huge cost of giving mountains of food to a cat which is just not eaten. I would be happy to spend the money on her if she ate it, but it all goes to waste which makes me feel guilty for not giving it away in the first place!!!

The reason I am heading for dried is because she has not yet turned her nose up at any dried food (unless I mix it with wet lol!!). I know it has its downfalls (according to many) but after trying so many different wet foods and raw foods with no luck, I feel backed into the corner. In terms of the meat or fish content, what is the percentage to aim for? Presumably over 30% which I think is what is in Iams etc?

Daisy is exactly the same,I can leave food out for her for hours & she wont eat it,she may lick the jelly off but not often.It's taken months of trying different brands to find the one she wants & will eat.

Claire_Bear

spike7451 wrote: »

Well,Daisy cat has twigged onto a new scam to fool me!!
I put out her pouch for her to eat,so she'll eat a bit then next time I go into the kitchen,she'll wail 'Feeedddd meeee!" as the moglets (I like that term!) do.
So I get a fork & turn the food over for her in the dish.
NOW she'll look at the dish & wail until I've stirred her food for her & THEN she'll tuck in!!

I wish Pepsi was this gullible, I've tried that trick with her when she gives me the 'I'm starving' pathetic wail and there's a dish full of food down. I put the dish on the countertop, take a new pouch out of the cupboard, pretend to open in and pour it into the dish when all I've done is stirred the old food around and put it back. She runs over, sniffs it, then gives me a look as if to say 'yeah right, how stupid do you think I am?' and goes back to wailing for food :rotfl:

caela_2

Pet food is such a difficult thing to get right. It can be so hard deciding as well, as a lot of labelling is misleading. For instance, GoKat's meat content is largely or entirely made up of 'animal derivatives'- basically, not meat but veins, fur, bones, ears, snouts... you get the idea. These are necessarily bad for your cat if eaten in conjunction with meat, but as the sole 'meat' content, it's not good. Therefore, it's so important to skip all the blurb and bull they print on the packet, the pretty colours, images of healthy cats and nutrition and professional-looking foil finish and get straight to the ingredients- this is the only thing that matters. You want to see high meat content, low cereal content and additives like taurine and calcium. You want to avoid animal derivatives, cereals and artificial additives. Even some natural additives, such as grapes, can be very bad for digestion.

The best dry pet food I have found so far is Joe and Jill's. It's VERY affordable and the ingredients are well thought out, especially since it was designed by a vet. If you visit their websie, you can see the logic behind this pet food and see why it is better than ones such as IAMS, which front like they're healthy but are actually pretty crap. Just visit http://www.petskitchen.co.uk/.

If you cat is super fusy, try feeding them fresh meat or tinned fish. I have yet to see a cat turn down a piece of chicken, ham or tuna lol. This is also a very healthy way of feeding cats (apart from using ham lol) and I would look into fresh food diets as they're very popular. Cats can't make their own taurine and need to get it from fresh meat. Pet foods can lack in this, so check. They will also need calcium if you feed fresh food, as in the wild, cats would eat whole small animals, such as birds or mice. This means ingesting bones, which provide the calcium content they require. Obviously, you can't feed your cat bones, so if you feed a fresh food diet, calcium can be added as milk or cheese or as a supplement (ask a vet). It can also be obtained from whole fish, such as tinned (washed) pilchards, sardines, salmon, etc. But make sure to get it in spring water, or if in brine or sunflower oil, wash it in a sieve properly first. Sardines can be very salty, but pilchards are ok when washed.

Hope this has helped. I think I'm feeding my cat somewhere between fresh food, little amounts of dry buscuit and some dairy and treats (the old lick of ice cream, tsk tsk). You can also get some pretty good wet food called 'purley scrummy' from pets at home, which are all natural and very simple ingredients (http://www.petsathome.com/shop/purely-scrummy-yummy-fishy-complete-cat-food-125gm-18872). They have added taurine and high meat content, although they're probably more expensive than cooking up some minced beef yourself. Remember, cats are obligate carnivores and many cheap pet foods, even the expensive ones, just fill up on cereals, something cats gain no nutritional value from.

caela_2

spike7451 wrote: »

Well,Daisy cat has twigged onto a new scam to fool me!!
I put out her pouch for her to eat,so she'll eat a bit then next time I go into the kitchen,she'll wail 'Feeedddd meeee!" as the moglets (I like that term!) do.
So I get a fork & turn the food over for her in the dish.
NOW she'll look at the dish & wail until I've stirred her food for her & THEN she'll tuck in!!

FUNNY!! Mine does that! What is their problem lol? It's got to the point that once, he wouldn't eat his food until literally spoon-fed grr! I drew the line...

~Chameleon~

As you've mentioned she has anal problems she will need a diet containing plenty of fibre, therefore you need to be very careful about feeding her some of the high meat content ones that some people have mentioned in this thread.

Cats fed on such a concentrated diet usually produce smaller faeces and less often, therefore the anal glands are not getting emptied sufficiently and will become impacted. You need a food which will bulk the faeces out to help with this problem.

I would personally recommend either of these two foods by Royal Canin which are specifically designed for fussy eaters...

Exigent 33 Aromatic Attraction

Exigent 35/30 Savour Sensation

beks

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

As you've mentioned she has anal problems she will need a diet containing plenty of fibre, therefore you need to be very careful about feeding her some of the high meat content ones that some people have mentioned in this thread.

Cats fed on such a concentrated diet usually produce smaller faeces and less often, therefore the anal glands are not getting emptied sufficiently and will become impacted. You need a food which will bulk the faeces out to help with this problem.

I would personally recommend either of these two foods by Royal Canin which are specifically designed for fussy eaters...

Exigent 33 Aromatic Attraction

Exigent 35/30 Savour Sensation

Thank you! I did ask the vet about diet because of the anal gland problems but they just said to feed wet food. We now have to take her regularly to have her glands emptied, she has been on numerous antibiotics due to being impacted and infected aswell. Its always Cefalexin which is so difficult to give her as it seems to smell of orange. They are talking about doing an exploratory examination if it happens again but they wont consider removing them .

My feelings are though that because she always ignores the wet food and goes to the biscuits straightaway - she is more or less fed on a dry diet already but unfortunately not a complete one, hence I was thinking that if we moved to a decent, complete one then it may actually improve her problem. The ones you have suggested look great Chameleon, I will look into them and hopefully give them a try. Thank you so much.

~Chameleon~

You're very welcome and I hope everything turns out well. By the way, the anal glands can and in my opinion should be removed if it's affecting her as much as you say. It's a relatively simple procedure. If they don't settle down on a different diet it would be worth seeing a different vet

rita-rabbit

Have you tried hand feeding dried food? The Tom didn't really take to dried food until I did this. I recommend Burns (I know others prefer Origen & others but Burns is good & cheap & complete!)

Have you tried Feline Fayre? This is not complete though so you will need to supplement - with maybe raw?

Both of the above are v good value & quality