Cheap but good cat food?

gettingready

I have been observing my lot with dry - they do NOT crunch, they just swallow...

paddypaws101

Would anyone here consider cleaning their own teeth by eating a packet of corn chips for breakfast?
No....so why do we fall for the myth that dry food cleans cat's teeth??
( and yes, I did fall for it for years! )

SadBunny

rita-rabbit wrote: »

Has anyone actually managed to regularly brush their cats teeth?
I apply Logic toothpaste along their gumlines for their teeth.

Logic Oral Hygiene Gel Pet Toothpaste was £5.46 last week - £6.18 today from VetUK.
His lordship actually likes it - Phew!
It seems to be working - a while back the vet said he might need a dental in a year or so; but last week they said his teeth are fine.

(The first time I did attach the applicator = mess + waste.)
I tried putting it on his paw with partial success - flicked it everywhere.
Better when I put it on a spatula for him to lick.
He now licks it from a toothbrush; and I am hoping to eventually ... :rotfl:who am I kidding?
Why don't they manufacture a really long toothbrush?

We had good results with ProDen Plaque Off if he ate his food.
Had to be careful to disguise it; and have stopped now we are sneaking arthriaid onto his dish - so very glad we found the logic gel.

We do also feed Royal Canin Oral Sensitive 30.
Not sure about the "mechanical brushing effect" but I think it's far better than other dry foods: "special shape and texture of the kibble encouraging intensive chewing action with active agents to reduce plaque build-up."
He also enjoys his Royal Canin Maine Coon 31 : "size and cubic shape of the kibble is especially adapted to the large jaw of Maine Coon cats and encourages intensive chewing."

We feed his dry food using a Slimcat - I think this makes him chew each piece more than if it was in a dish.
(After the success of the Slimcat I was tempted by the Trixie Activity Board but even with £10 reduction it is just too expensive.)

He hasn't had a raw chicken drumstick/wing for a while; and he hasn't gone a-hunting since we moved - so he's not getting much raw these days.
I wasn't keen on the hunting, but I should go back to the raw meaty bones.

jessicamb

Beckyy wrote: »

My cats are fed Applaws dry food, supplemented with applaws wet. BUT Sainsburys do a wet food called 'Encore' which s n tins and essentially the same as Applaws (made at the same places, looks the same, same ingredients etc.).

I buy my Applaws in big 7.5kg bags (pet supermarket online are good). I recently got some amazon vouchers from online surverys so used them to buy Applaws on amazon - free.

I feed meals - I dont free feed or let my cats graze. I would recommend it.

The larger Sainsburys have Encore dry food too - its the same 80% meat as Applaws but a lot cheaper.

mikstik

Hi.

I would seriously think about which food you give your cats.

All the usual known brands are now owned by two American companies ( Colgate Palmolive and Pedigree Masterfoods Mars Group who apparently do horrendous tests on animals( a contradiction in terms) and after seeing the film about Iams on the 'Peta' website I have re-thought all my pet food buying...

SadBunny

gettingready wrote: »

I have been observing my lot with dry - they do NOT crunch, they just swallow...

I watched my boy with Royal Canin Maine Coon.
He crunched it 4½ times on one side of his mouth - picked up another piece, and crunched that 4½ times on the other side.
He carried on crunching in the same way, on alternate sides, until he had finished.

When he was fed smaller kibble, he used to just swallow it - and he wanted more.

purplepardalis

It's not the crunching that means dry food is good for teeth. It's more the case that the popular cat foods have sugars in them that rots teeth. My 7 year old moggy has had mainly dry food in his life. It has made him fatter but his teeth are near perfect for his age. A small amount of yellowing but he has a healthy mouth and white teeth.

paddypaws101

purplepardalis wrote: »

It's not the crunching that means dry food is good for teeth. It's more the case that the popular cat foods have sugars in them that rots teeth. My 7 year old moggy has had mainly dry food in his life. It has made him fatter but his teeth are near perfect for his age. A small amount of yellowing but he has a healthy mouth and white teeth.

A very good point pp, and the reason that a lot of people are seeking out better quality wet foods such as Bozita or Animonda which do not contain grains or sugars. Better still, I can recommend Natural Instincts raw cat food....all meat as nature intended!
http://www.mobilepetfoods.co.uk/product.php/2029/25

gettingready

wow - if I had just one cat.....

expensive when one has to feed 6 of them....

1 pack for 1 cat for 3 days so 2 packs for 6 cats per day (more less) so 62 packs per month... over £100 ....

looks good though, sighhhh

Fire_Fox

OnAndUp wrote: »

Just had a look at that the ingredients only seem to be 4% meat or fish per variety surely that's no better than Whiskas & Felix?

http://www.pet-supermarket.co.uk/products-Classic-Adult-Cat-Food-Cans-24-X-400G_NC3582.htm

Click on "ingredients tab".

You are not only looking at the meat content you are looking at whether the protein is animal-based or plant-based, and the amount of cheap fillers (grains and jelly) used. For an obligate carnivore like a cat offal, connective tissue and bone marrow are as or more nutritious than chicken breast. Conversely plant proteins are less bioavailable - the cat cannot utilise them as efficiently as animal protein. On the moneysaving side, why pay Felix or Whiskas prices for 4% meat when you could pay Classic prices? Pate style foods often contain fewer grains and less jelly, so the feed rate is lower.

lozzybeast wrote: »

As a veterinary nurse, i find this comment very offensive and completely clueless! I am fairly certain that any vet will be more clued up on this subject than someone who hasn't studied veterinary science at university for 5 years.

You are devaluing the rest of your posts with this statement. Anyone who has worked in healthcare - human for twenty years in my case - has met plenty of rubbish doctors/ dentists/ veterinarians/ pharmacists (delete as appropriate). I can assure you that I know more about healthy eating than the average GP, despite my primary qualifications neither being dietetics nor nutrition science. Specialists exist because five + years training focusses on creating Jack of all trades vets and medics.

MrsE wrote: »

You can't compare Go-Cat to Royal Canin. Go-Cat is like an Iceland ready meal, Royal Canin is quality food.
If a cat has a water fountain, they will drink plenty, animals prefer to drink running water (nature tells them too).

RC is quality food based on what? Quality food for a feline is bioavailable protein and a carbohydrate content close to that which they evolved to process; Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats is the definitive text. I don't trust any company that includes grains in a food for an obligate carnivore AND won't admit how much.

purplepardalis wrote: »

It's not the crunching that means dry food is good for teeth. It's more the case that the popular cat foods have sugars in them that rots teeth. My 7 year old moggy has had mainly dry food in his life. It has made him fatter but his teeth are near perfect for his age. A small amount of yellowing but he has a healthy mouth and white teeth.

It's not only sugars that feed plaque bacteria, carbs in general do ask your dentist. The average dry food contains far more carbs in the form of grains than the average wet food contains sugar. One cat's dental record is evidence for nothing, except perhaps that your cat is a good hunter or efficient at using his tongue to clean his teeth or has stronger than average teeth naturally. The yellowing is probably tartar, you may find raw bones removes this. There really are no longitudinal studies proving that dry food is good for our pets teeth.