Cat Food- the big question, Wet or Dry?

tankgirl1

TrixieB wrote: »

wet all the way - far better for them health wise the higher the meat content the better - at least 40-50% meat, Whiskas/Felix et al only have typically around 4% the McDonalds of the petfood world! - petforum.co.uk has LOADS of advice.

Wet food is mostly water tho - about 80%

I prefer to feed mostly dry food - which can also have a very high meat content - In fact I happen to know that a certain premium brand turned down meat as substandard - which apparently the big M bought :eek: Not that that proves meat content - labels do though

Anyway I digress - IMHO a 70/40 split of dry to wet is about right for a cat.

EG - for mine - dry ad lib 24/7, with a bit of gushy food two or three times a week

TrixieB

tankgirl1 wrote: »

Wet food is mostly water tho - about 80%

Hence me saying a higher quality meat content one.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

This month they are adoring the Royal Canin Maine Coon mix. Thankfully, I won some vouchers I can use in the garden centre's pet section, so this is not currently a financial issue for me, and I am not [crosses fingers and toes] dealing with nearly so many parcels of cat bleurgh as previously - and the bowls are emptied every morning.

At night they have a choice of whatever is cheapest/I can afford to treat them with. They've had Tesco's utter crap happily and they've had posh food. They don't really go for Bozita, Encore or any of the fancy brands, as they seem to see them as an entree and moan for the main course immediately afterwards. If they deign to even try them.


However, they also get bits of raw mince pinged at them when I'm cooking, chopped up raw/cooked kidney or liver (depending on which cat it is), trimmings off meat pieces and occasional bits of fish, cheese, ham and anything else they can blag or hoover up when it's dropped. One cat had a rasher of bacon today. I was not impressed. But she moved like greased lightning. Another one goes mad for biscuit crumbs. Saves DD from cleaning them up, I suppose.


They're naturally opportunistic feeders. So the occasional little thing is not going to do them a mischief.


Oh, I forgot the wild supplementation of the diet.

Moths. Butterflies. Spiders. Craneflies. More spiders. Moths escaping from spiders. Spiders chasing moths. I have seen no evidence of birds or mice, but that might just be plain good luck. And an 8 foot high wall stopping him from carrying his bounty home with him.


And the lawn. Blade by blade. It's going to take the fluffy one a few years, but she is determined to mow the lawn point by point.

sparklysaver

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

Oh, I forgot the wild supplementation of the diet.

Moths. Butterflies. Spiders. Craneflies. More spiders. Moths escaping from spiders. Spiders chasing moths. I have seen no evidence of birds or mice, but that might just be plain good luck. And an 8 foot high wall stopping him from carrying his bounty home with him.

Oh god yes, mine LOVES beasties, except she has a particular talent for waiting until I'm just about to tuck into a meal before appearing right in front of me with a huge spider or moth which she'll proceed to take a good 5 minutes over licking, crunching, spitting back out again, licking some more..... utterly DISGUSTING!! :rotfl:

bluebeary

beebs has chicken and rice purina biscuits for him in a bowl and fresh water throughout the day, he also has one or two pouches of purely tuna variety wet food, both complete foods

when we first got him he had a funny tummy so i used to cook him chicken and rice and we found he liked the purina biscuits of that flavour

ive always tried to make sure the wet food i buy him has high meat content, he used to have feline fayre which was 60% chicken or tuna, he went off the chicken though

but that wasnt a complete food, he dint like the complete food feline fayre so i discovered the pets at home purely range which is a complete food, also 60% meat so thats what he has now

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

sparklysaver wrote: »

Oh god yes, mine LOVES beasties, except she has a particular talent for waiting until I'm just about to tuck into a meal before appearing right in front of me with a huge spider or moth which she'll proceed to take a good 5 minutes over licking, crunching, spitting back out again, licking some more..... utterly DISGUSTING!! :rotfl:

If the smart one gets a moth or cranefly, it's gone before you know it. She bagged herself a hawkmoth the other night - despite my best efforts to get it out of the window (anything bigger than a clothes moth gets rescued here). The Stooooopid one releases most things - but the fluffy one is the real bug hunter. She often comes running in making muffled squeaking noises with either a buzzing sound or a bunch of sorry looking legs sticking out between her teeth.

Sounds lovely, doesn't it?



I do wonder sometimes why they don't introduce bug flavour treats for cats. I'm sure they would be quite popular :cool:

~Chameleon~

My two have a selection of Royal Canin dry food available 24/7 - Ageing 12+, Oral Sensitive & Intense Hairball - then they share a pouch of junk food (Felix or Whiskas) 3-4 times a week They are both in their mid-twenties now, still in good health and have never needed a dental

amszephyr

Mine are currently on Bozita wet (several people swear their cats adore the reindeer flavour but I can't bring myself to buy food made of Rudolph!) and they're currently on Royal Canin dry - although I think we'll migrate over to Acana/Orijen once our current stocks are depleted.

gunsandbanjos

amszephyr wrote: »

Mine are currently on Bozita wet (several people swear their cats adore the reindeer flavour but I can't bring myself to buy food made of Rudolph!) and they're currently on Royal Canin dry - although I think we'll migrate over to Acana/Orijen once our current stocks are depleted.

Neither could i:o

My 2 are on Animonda Carny or Smilla wet food and Orijen dry food.

Was worried my new lady wouldnt like the food as she was already a year when i got her and had probably been fed crap food. But she LOVES it, she was superskinny and a bit beat up looking when i got her but she is blossoming into a beautiful little cat. She's put on a little weight and her fur has massively improved in texture, she felt quite rough when i got her but she's all sleek and smooth now:T

organic_choc

TrixieB wrote: »

wet all the way - far better for them health wise the higher the meat content the better - at least 40-50% meat, Whiskas/Felix et al only have typically around 4% the McDonalds of the petfood world! - petforum.co.uk has LOADS of advice.

The 4% is a bit of a misunderstanding. For a pouch to be called say Salmon flavour, it must have 4% that came from salmon. The total protein content are definitely higher than that. e.g. Felix AGAIL the [FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Verdana][FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Verdana]analytical ingredients are: Moisture 80%, Protein 13%, Fat content 3%, Crude Ash 2.2%, Crude Fibres 0.5%, Linoleic acid (Omega 6 Fatty Acids) 0.2%.

For comparison Carny is 11.5%, [/FONT][/FONT][FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Verdana][FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Verdana]Grau 10.8%, Almo Nature 13%[/FONT][/FONT][FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Verdana][FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Verdana] (complementary), Applaws ~20% (complementary) and Bozita is 10% protein... it seems that the main difference between these premium wet food and cheaper ones like Felix is that they use proper meat (some inclusive of organs) rather than meat meal or derivatives. Also the high protein ones, whether it uses derivatives or not, tend to be complementary food.
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