Kitten food

hampshirebabe

This is the basics one, http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/groceries/index.jsp?bmUID=1341776396290, pretty much the same ingredients as the felix tin ones, just less protein percentage even though its about the same meat content. The other sainsburys ones are 8 or 9% protein. How can you tell how much rubbish is in any cat food unless you prepare it from fresh meat yourself though, the list of ingredients is so vague on just about any brand. They pretty much all (except the really expensive ones) include sugar of some sort.
As I've already said most of my kittens diet is hills science plan dry kitten food, but lots and lots of people, on here anyway, say its much better to give your cats a mix of wet and dry, I dont think a few cans of a highish protein cheaper cat food, mixed with a few cans of more expensive kitten food over the course of a week is really going to do them any harm.

hampshirebabe

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

You're agreeing a high protein is important for kittens - yet the SM own brand version is only 2% protein (and the basics range you're proposing feeding doesn't even state the ingredients or protein) which is not high enough for kittens still growing and considerably less than kitten foods.

The thing that confused me was getting a higher meat content and a higher protein content mixed up. 40% meat content seems quite average, but 2% protein is quite low.

NewKittenHelp

hampshirebabe wrote: »

I'm not disagreeing with you, but as someone said on another thread earlier, 'kitten' food is a relatively new marketing thing. Most of the tins of adult cat food have feeding guidelines for kittens too, and some of the kitten food has a lot less protein than lots of the cat food. I cant believe they would really eat that much more cheaper food than the more expensive, in relation to the price difference, they wouldn't eat 10 times more sainsburys than Encore, and a few extra poo's in the litter tray wouldn't cost that much more either.
I know lots of people spend huge amounts more on their own food when they can buy the same thing without a label for much less, and cats can be incredibly fussy, but when it just comes down to value for money, a high protein content is important. After researching lots of cat/kitten foods, I cant see the need to spend that much more, and as is so often the case, spending more, esp. on packets labeled 'kitten food', by no means means you will get a better product.

I think you're becoming fixated on one brand that costs far more than another, without any real benefits.

When I got my kitten from the rescue, she was being fed on whatever they received in donations - at the time that was a large bowl of supermarket value dry food and two pouches of Whiskas a day. Cost of that was maybe £1.20 a day. She wasn't looking in the best shape and she was using her litter tray and awful lot.

I feed her on Applaws dry kitten food and their wet complementary tins as well as fresh fish and meat. The difference is staggering. Within a week her coat was gleaming and she's grown so much. Her energy levels have improved vastly and she's a much happier cat. Her litter tray is used, but nothing compared to what it was and the smell is virtually nonexistent now!

Her food is costing me just under £1.50 a day now, and she eats, in volume anyway, a lot less than she did. But she's growing really well, she's stronger and she has way more energy and life about her than she did when she was surviving on the other food. The benefits of that extra 30p a day are huge. It's even less when you consider that she's using less litter and she's healthier so less likely to get ill from eating wasteful food.

Finally 'kitten food' may well be reasonably new, but it's not just a marketing gimmick as some claim. We all recognize that a growing infant will need different food to that of an adult cat, and the same for older cats, and indoor vs outdoor cats. Science moves on, we understand more, and cats become healthier because of it.

Everyone might know someone who had a cat who lived for 20 years on Whiskas or other sub-standard food and never got ill, but how many people know cats that died young from kidney/liver diseases, all linked to diet. I can't imagine many owners would be willing to admit that their choices and lack of education contributed to their cat's illness and death.

NewKittenHelp

hampshirebabe wrote: »

The thing that confused me was getting a higher meat content and a higher protein content mixed up. 40% meat content seems quite average, but 2% protein is quite low.

Don't forget to assess the quality of that protein/meat. I can't imagine a value supermarket brand has high quality meat. At the very least the meat should be fit for human consumption.

NewKittenHelp

hampshirebabe wrote: »

This is the basics one, http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/groceries/index.jsp?bmUID=1341776396290, pretty much the same ingredients as the felix tin ones, just less protein percentage even though its about the same meat content. The other sainsburys ones are 8 or 9% protein. How can you tell how much rubbish is in any cat food unless you prepare it from fresh meat yourself though, the list of ingredients is so vague on just about any brand. They pretty much all (except the really expensive ones) include sugar of some sort.
As I've already said most of my kittens diet is hills science plan dry kitten food, but lots and lots of people, on here anyway, say its much better to give your cats a mix of wet and dry, I dont think a few cans of a highish protein cheaper cat food, mixed with a few cans of more expensive kitten food over the course of a week is really going to do them any harm.

It might not do them any harm but it won't do them any good either. I don't eat cheap, low-quality food, so why should my cat?

Please don't think I'm just having a pop at you, but I get the impression that you've not really done much research and instead have decided that one expensive brand is indicative of the rest of them. You seem to have already made up your mind and won't even look for information that will change it.

You need to compare like with like. You might need 200g of Go Cat per day for a kitten, but you'd only need 50g of Applaws/Orijen/Acana etc etc. Work out your costings by day, not by bag. Even if they work out roughly the same costs-wise, wouldn't you rather have your cat benefit from high quality food that puts less of a strain on their digestive system?

hampshirebabe

I've done a staggeringly huge amount of research and the fact that I'm on here asking for advice shows I'm looking for information on whats best for my kittens. I've looked at a huge array of cat foods, so I dont see how I can be accused of getting fixated on one brand, which of the several I've mentioned do you mean?
I dont eat cheap low quality food myself, but I do eat cheap food thats just not sold by a named brand, my point is how can you tell if a cat food is made with high quality ingredients if all it says is its got such and such an amount of meat in it, meat could be anything, you only have their word for it thats its good quality, and I dont agree that just because something is a sm own brand it must automatically be the worst quality they can find. If you look for protein content that tells you a fair bit, but why is a 14% protein content worth 2 or 3 times more than a 9% protein content?
Its great that your cat is thriving on £45 a month, my 2 cats are thriving on far less than the £90 a month that would cost me, and I'm sure plenty will say if you cant afford a cat dont have one, but I spend about 75p on bizita wet food, which is 90% good quality meat, a day for the 2 of them and I'm not sure how much their good quality dry food is a day, (hills science plan has been recommended by a fair few people on here and elsewhere) but its a lot less than that, I too can buy in bulk when there are savings to be made.
I think you are misreading what I've been writing and assuming I'm assuming lots of things I'm not.

HappyMJ

You can buy sausages with 32% pork in them for 56p or you can buy sausages with 95% pork in them for £8 per kilo. Which is better for you? The 32% pork sauages are sausages they taste like sausages but they are rubbish containing 11% protein, rusk, fat, salt etc... The 95% pork sausages contain so much more real meat and much less fat and filler but it costs more. You need to balance it out and pick one in the middle. The same applies to all pet foods.

NewKittenHelp

hampshirebabe wrote: »

I've done a staggeringly huge amount of research and the fact that I'm on here asking for advice shows I'm looking for information on whats best for my kittens. I've looked at a huge array of cat foods, so I dont see how I can be accused of getting fixated on one brand, which of the several I've mentioned do you mean?
I dont eat cheap low quality food myself, but I do eat cheap food thats just not sold by a named brand, my point is how can you tell if a cat food is made with high quality ingredients if all it says is its got such and such an amount of meat in it, meat could be anything, you only have their word for it thats its good quality, and I dont agree that just because something is a sm own brand it must automatically be the worst quality they can find. If you look for protein content that tells you a fair bit, but why is a 14% protein content worth 2 or 3 times more than a 9% protein content?
Its great that your cat is thriving on £45 a month, my 2 cats are thriving on far less than the £90 a month that would cost me, and I'm sure plenty will say if you cant afford a cat dont have one, but I spend about 75p on bizita wet food, which is 90% good quality meat, a day for the 2 of them and I'm not sure how much their good quality dry food is a day, (hills science plan has been recommended by a fair few people on here and elsewhere) but its a lot less than that, I too can buy in bulk when there are savings to be made.
I think you are misreading what I've been writing and assuming I'm assuming lots of things I'm not.

You can tell by research and reputation, and by asking. There's a reason some brands have amazing reputations (Orijen, Bozita etc etc) and others have terrible ones (Whiskas, Felix etc etc). It's the quality that builds the reputation, not marketing budgets as is the case with the larger, cheaper brands.

If you really want to, you can ask independent specialists about which foods are better, and look up the independent research. You don't have to just take their word for it, though given the advertising laws in this country, you probably should.

I think I must have gone wrong with my calculations because I spent £82 on food, and that got me enough wet to last nearly three months and enough dry to last six. Dry cost me about £7 a month and wet £15. The fresh meat and fish is from what we eat so I probably shouldn't count that, but it doesn't come to enough to to make the difference up.

Can I ask which Bozita you feed? I'm going to move mine over to that eventually but I need her to be bigger or most of the can would go to waste if it doesn't keep.

edit: I know where I've gone wrong. I used PAH prices, when I should have used Zooplus (and discount prices). Duh!

Fridaycat

You are currently feeding Bozita which is a great food: made to strict Swedish standards, good quality meat, great % of meat (in the chunks), no grains as fillers, no artificial additives. Plus - big bonus - your cats seem to like it! You can get good value by buying in bulk on Zooplus, which would work out similar to sm own brand prices.

My answer? If it ain't broke, why fix it?

hampshirebabe

The problem buying bozita from zooplus is they only sell one variety in a pack, so if you want the best bargain you have to buy 54 of one flavour, which seems like a good way to make them go off a food. I have a problem with storage space here, as well as cash flow, it would make my life so much simpler if I could shop once a week, and not have to wait 3 or 4 days for a delivery.
I've found yodel a much better service than parcel force, and we have a mixture of the tetra packs, I think they like all the flavours they've tried, but seem to like raindeer and shrimp the best. I try the tins every now and again, trying to save a few pennies here and there, and they eat it, but dont enjoy it as much.