Nutritionally decent cheaper alternative to Hillls Science Plan Light for housecat?

alisonmeyers

Hi all,

We have a housecat that has been fed on Hills Science Plan Adult Light for the last few months now that she's 1.5 years old (normally this type of large bag as it's cheapest per kg). She has wet food twice a day as a small treat, but the dry Hills Science is the real food that keeps her full.

The problem is that even though we buy the biggest bag at Pets at Home I'm trying to cut down on the cost of everything for household budgeting purposes (internet delivery costs wipe out online options and we don't go through enough to buy several bags at once).

Since I've managed to chop the human food bill down massively, the next one on the list to consider is cheaper alternatives to Hills Science.

- She loves Hills Science, but not really been fed any other dry food significantly before
- She's an indoor cat, so would need a relatively light protein food
- She prefers smaller chunk dry food and treats (very picky!)
- I'm eager to make sure that a cheaper alternative is just as good nutritionally and will make further sacrifices such as going veggie more often if it means my only nutritionally-ok option is to stick with Science Plan

... so... what housecat alternatives are out there?

I remember a sales assistant once telling me at the till that they had a promo on their brand of cat food "which scientists have done tests on and it's identical to the Hills Science dry food", but being a store rep I didn't trust his bias enough to try non-Hills Science stuff and said I'd check into it another time.

So.. can any fellow cat owner give me some Hills Science options suitable for a very healthy housecat? Especially ones where I might be able to assess the nutritional value and compare them both, if anyone has any advice on that aspect! I certainly don't want to give e.g. urinary problems for the sake of saving a few quid at the checkout, I'd rather do without myself. But then I don't really know if Hills Science is any good from a nutritional POV anyway, if I'm being honest - I just have the marketing to go on!

I can get to Pets at Home, smaller independant shops, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, Waitrose, Costco, all the main stores very easily.

jessicamb

I use Applaws or the same product but cheaper/unbranded Encore dry food (sold in larger Sainsburys). It has an 80% meat content which was the best I could find on the market. For the feeding dose my cat is largely in doors and I use the lowest amount on the feeding scale for her weight bracket and that seems just the right amount.

McKneff

Stop with the treats, cats dont look on them as treats, its just extra food to her. Humans know what treats are, cats dont.

If she is getting wet food twice a day and this Hills stuff, she really doesnt need more.

rising_from_the_ashes

Hi, mine get Royal Canin light http://www.royalcanin.co.uk/my_pet/cat_products/feline_care_nutrition/light.aspx

It's def cheaper buying big bags - a 2kg bag costs around £17 but recently got a 10kg one for £38 (delivered) when it's RRP is around £55.

Takes a bit of trawling around to see who's got offers on at the time you want to get it.

alisonmeyers

Many thanks for the quick responses! I've never heard of the Sainsbury's brand mentioned, I'll add it to my list of potentials - thank you!

Also McKneff: just to clarify - "wet food twice a day as a small treat" was what I said in the OP. No actual treats - the wet food is the thing that we used for bonding from a kitten, plus later we were advised that an all-dry food diet was bad and we'd been doing the right thing anyway (due to the water / kidney issues that can come with it). So it started as a "here's your wet food as a treat" thing, and turned into a "well I'm glad we're feeding her wet food pouches after heard about these kidney horror stories"

We don't give the kitten treats other than that; unless a tin of unsalted tuna once every 3 or 4 months and the occasional bit of white boiled fish every Sunday can be called that...

Griizelda

The Tesco Nutricat (advanced nutrition) is half price at the moment. I've bought 1kg bags for £2.99. My cats are currently eating the chicken variety (their diet is mostly wet, so this is their top up) and they all love it. To be fair, I did trial the kitten variety (when my cat was still a kitten obviously!) and that also met with success.

Stitchlover1

what about go cat for indoor cats ? Thats what I use and usually on offer in asda £4 for the big bag,. All three of my indoor house cats are fed on this as well as wet food :-) x

bethie

Hi -

Check out these links.

http://www.petforums.co.uk/cat-health-nutrition/116753-z-dry-food-cats.html

http://www.petforums.co.uk/cat-health-nutrition/112132-z-wet-food-cats.html


VERY comprehensive.

I currently mix up the food I feed my cats, but Fish4Cats and Bozita isn't too bad. (both are indoor as well).



At the moment ACANA cat food is 20% off at Zooplus due to close expiry.. and I've stocked up!

alisonmeyers

bethie those are wonderful links - many many thanks! Very comprehensive, and UK focused too. What a wonderful job those posters have done in compiling the data! I'm going to add a few to my shortlist from there too, and buy the smallest bags to see if she'll eat some of them. GoCat Househat stuff looks surprisingly ok for the price - Whiskas and IAMS don't fare too well on those charts when you read their ingredients, which is interesting - I'm going to write them off because of that, having been tempted.

Very glad I posted about this now! Thanks all

cjmumto2

I use Burns Pet Nutrtion and whilst it looks expensive they eat very little. 60grams a day and I also give half a pouch of wet food to ring the changes. It is nutrionally pure and will keep your cat trim if you dont over feed.

rita-rabbit

cjmumto2 wrote: »

I use Burns Pet Nutrtion and whilst it looks expensive they eat very little. 60grams a day and I also give half a pouch of wet food to ring the changes. It is nutrionally pure and will keep your cat trim if you dont over feed.

for a while - the Tomcat developed a urinary problem so I now feed 50/50 dried/wet

Burns dried
wet: whichever is going cheap @ zooplus:
Animonda carni
Smilla
Bozita
or Feline Fayre @ Asda - tinned wet is far cheaper than pouches by the way