Cat food options

DebtHater

Amazing....... just reading the thread links you gave Rev, its shocking.

And how on earth do the manufacturers make a pea look like a pea, but its only 4% actual pea content? Crazy.

I feel quite guilty now, no wonder the cats have been turning their noses up at this rubbish.

Rev

DebtHater wrote: »

So what are the main benefits for you to feed your cats a grain-free diet?

I noted that the pets forum links you provided also made reference to topping up a dry diet with raw meat, would you suggest any raw meats that cats like best, or will they just like whatever we give?

Basically, cats don't need grain, they have zero need for it. It's a filler, so a food with none in is better. It's pointless in their diet. You don't have to have a grain free food, there's plenty of good foods that do have grain in. But when feeding a cat, the higher the meat content the better.

My cats wont bloomin touch raw meat, I've tried chicken wings, minced chicken, minced lamb, prawns and a million other things but they wont touch it.

Rev

DebtHater wrote: »

Amazing....... just reading the thread links you gave Rev, its shocking.

And how on earth do the manufacturers make a pea look like a pea, but its only 4% actual pea content? Crazy.

I feel quite guilty now, no wonder the cats have been turning their noses up at this rubbish.

I know, it's terrible isn't it. It's probably the main reason I protest better foods for cats (obviously the benefit to cats is first). But I can not stand spending hard earned cash on food that is basically crap. It's like going the shop and buying steak for tea, spending extra on the name because you think it's good, only to get home at eat it and find it's only 4% meat and animal derivatives, the rest is crap made to look like meat. We'd not put up with it, yet we do when it comes to dog and cat food.

Don't feel guilty, we all have been there, you don't know until you look into it. Not like the manufactures will tell you 'our foods actually quite crap' is it.

dreamyd

We feed our garden tiger on a combination of IAMS (when it is on a BOGOF or similiar) and the Aldi version, plus a treat stick or a small piece of whatever meat DH has in his sandwiches. She had been abandoned at Blue Cross at six months as a 'pregnant teenager'. We got her once her kittens were weaned, and although she was a bit on the skinny side, she soon filled out. She had been used to a dryish diet at the shelter, and that is what we continued to feed her because she liked it. She does not seem to like wet food, other than to lick every single scrap of jelly from the bowl and to leave the brownish pellety bits behind.
I guess that she gets about 50-75g of dry food per day, along with access to a number of water bowls around the house. She gets her treat if she comes back inside before DH goes off to work, and sometimes late at night as a bribe for coming back in.
The vet says that she is in fine form, and has a particularly lush coat (she is a DSH dark tortie).
At a guess, we spend about £12-15 per month. As DH says , she is cheap to run.

DebtHater

dreamyd wrote: »

The vet says that she is in fine form, and has a particularly lush coat (she is a DSH dark tortie).
At a guess, we spend about £12-15 per month. As DH says , she is cheap to run.

I have one black female and a tabby female, both have amazing coats, so they obviously have been doing OK on the food they have been on.

Will have to give some of the other brands a go that have the higher meat content, no point wasting money on food that the snobs turn their noses up at! Hehe its quite funny to watch it, the look on their faces when they sniff it and realise its Felix....... :rotfl:

TomsMom

Rev wrote: »

Rule of thumb, if you can buy it in a super market, it's pants. There are exceptions (asda's toplife is 90% meat, feline fayre, hilife - all have good meat content) - the more meat in it, the less you feed.

You've just got me all excited. I'm just changing my dog over to raw, tried to get the cat on it but she's having none of it! So I'm looking for an alternative to the crappy Whiskas she's on. I've just completed an online Asda order for delivery on Monday. Saw your post and went back to add some Toplife. Oh no! The only Toplife they've got online is puppy milk or kitten milk, no cat food .

I'm really stuck to get decent cat food, we only have Co-op and Spar where I live and we rarely get out to any other supermarket, hence Asda online when I get offered free delivery .

Off to look for a free delivery code for Pets@Home to try their Purely range.

DebtHater

TomsMom wrote: »

I'm really stuck to get decent cat food, we only have Co-op and Spar where I live and we rarely get out to any other supermarket, hence Asda online when I get offered free delivery .

Off to look for a free delivery code for Pets@Home to try their Purely range.

After looking at Rev's posts, I'm going to trial the Purely. I wont be doing an order with Pets@Home straight away, I want to get a small bag first to try them on it.

If you use a cashback site that might cover the cost of P@H delivery, or spend the £29 to get free delivery.

Rev

TomsMom wrote: »

You've just got me all excited. I'm just changing my dog over to raw, tried to get the cat on it but she's having none of it! So I'm looking for an alternative to the crappy Whiskas she's on. I've just completed an online Asda order for delivery on Monday. Saw your post and went back to add some Toplife. Oh no! The only Toplife they've got online is puppy milk or kitten milk, no cat food .

I'm really stuck to get decent cat food, we only have Co-op and Spar where I live and we rarely get out to any other supermarket, hence Asda online when I get offered free delivery .

Off to look for a free delivery code for Pets@Home to try their Purely range.

Toplife is bozita rebranded for asda, you can order a few bozita cartons from a load of online shops.

TomsMom

Rev wrote: »

If you're looking to save cash. Change to a decent food.

Rule of thumb, if you can buy it in a super market, it's pants. There are exceptions (asda's toplife is 90% meat, feline fayre, hilife - all have good meat content) - the more meat in it, the less you feed.

I couldn't get Toplife with my Asda online order so I ordered the Feline Fayre in the 3 flavours they have on offer at the moment (4 pouches for £1). It arrived on Monday and we're well impressed, the cat polished it off no problem. Still have 3 boxes of Whiskas to use up but will stock up with Feline Fayre on my next Asda order.

Many thanks for the recommendation Rev.

EHL123

Our two cats thrive on Orijen 80:20 dry food which IMO is the best dry food you can buy. We flirted with Applaws for a while because it's easier to get hold of and meat % is almost the same, but they prefer the Orijen and it actually works out slightly cheaper for me because I buy it in bulk from Berriewood Wholesale along with my dog food. A 7kg bag costs me £36.31 and that lasts 70 days for my two, so it costs me 26p per cat per day. At night they share a blue pouch of Feline Fayre which costs 25p (or maybe a tin of tuna/sardines/pilchards if I've bought some on offer), or will have some of the fish/meat we're having ourselves that night, prawns being the favourite. They also get the odd free mouse/bird in summer, but they catch that themselves so it's free! So my food bill is only about £20 a month for the two cats. The dogs are another story, we've got two hungry labs so they cost us about £80 a month to feed (Orijen plus a bit of fish/meat/offal to top it off every night). Still, that's only £3.30 a day to feed two cats and two big dogs - wish I could feed my husband for that price!

Rev my cats won't touch raw meat either - they just stand and look at me as if to say "you're kidding right? Fry it, woman, now!" Course a nice manky mouse is no problem to eat au natural :rotfl: