adult cat food v. kitten food

ian103

Fire Fox has recommeded Bozita before, can you buy it in a shop? it would be good to try it before having a full tray.

We're concerned about some of the cheap foods, we brought a bag of tesco complete dry nutricat, they love it but after feeding with it they are really hyper. The kittens are also getting picky which we are going to stop - they prefer whiskas / felix and turn their noses up at Aldi food.

Perhaps I'm just feeling guilty at how much we spend on the cats compared to the dogs. They get tesco dry food or Aldi dry food. This costs us less than £3/week for the 2 dogs plus treats.

We are currently spending approx £6/week on the 2 kittens (and this is increasing as they are eating more as they grow)

Murtle

Of course you will spend more money on cats, you are the cats slaves.

:-)

ian103

I know what you mean, I'm sat here with Scruff having a fuss, and shes getting annoyed each time I stop stroking her. She's rapidly becoming a lap cat, Dylan only has a fuss on his terms

spike7451

ian103 wrote: »

Fire Fox has recommeded Bozita before, can you buy it in a shop? it would be good to try it before having a full tray.

We're concerned about some of the cheap foods, we brought a bag of tesco complete dry nutricat, they love it but after feeding with it they are really hyper. The kittens are also getting picky which we are going to stop - they prefer whiskas / felix and turn their noses up at Aldi food.

Perhaps I'm just feeling guilty at how much we spend on the cats compared to the dogs. They get tesco dry food or Aldi dry food. This costs us less than £3/week for the 2 dogs plus treats.

We are currently spending approx £6/week on the 2 kittens (and this is increasing as they are eating more as they grow)

A lot of the dry food (Brekkies,Go Kat ect) contains a lot of addatives & colourings so the cats get a sort of sugar rush,same as us humans do if we eat a McDonalds meal,and this stuff is bad for them.
One of the girls I work with in ASSISI Animal Sanctuary told me about a dog that was fed on these cheap dried foods & died & when they did an autopsy,they found all this junk food had clogged up the poor pup just like a high fat diet does to us.ASSISI therfore wont feed anything like this to the animals & feed Pro Plan.
I feed Daisy Purina One or Feline Fayre dry.

Fire_Fox

ian103 wrote: »

Fire Fox has recommeded Bozita before, can you buy it in a shop? it would be good to try it before having a full tray.

We're concerned about some of the cheap foods, we brought a bag of tesco complete dry nutricat, they love it but after feeding with it they are really hyper. The kittens are also getting picky which we are going to stop - they prefer whiskas / felix and turn their noses up at Aldi food.

Perhaps I'm just feeling guilty at how much we spend on the cats compared to the dogs. They get tesco dry food or Aldi dry food. This costs us less than £3/week for the 2 dogs plus treats.

We are currently spending approx £6/week on the 2 kittens (and this is increasing as they are eating more as they grow)

Lulu has Butchers Classic which is regularly on offer in all the supermarkets, grain free and additive free. If you have an Asda, Toplife chicken dinner is similar to Bozita and was on rollback last time I shopped. I've not known of many cats who refuse Bozita it is generally enthusiastically received, and they can be bought singly as a trial.

Felines are obligate carnivores - they must eat meat, no nutritional requirement for carbs - whereas canines are better adapted/ evolved to an omnivorous diet. Animal protein is more expensive so unfortunately their different metabolisms mean cats will be more expensive to feed than dogs, weight for weight.

Having said that IMO check the ingredients of the foods you use for the dogs - you may find they are meat flavoured corn flakes so very low quality nutrition. If you switch to a higher quality food the feed rate is lower so it doesn't always cost as much more as you think. Hopefully you save in dental care, general vets bills and stress of having a sick pet over the lifetime of the pet. Both dogs and cats can have raw meaty bones and raw offal which can work out very cheaply.

ian103

I'm going to pick up some butchers choice tomorrow when I go shopping, I'll order some bozita when I reorder the hills from zooplus.

With the dogs, the old boy gets pretty much what he wants, he's nearly 17 and the food we give him seems to agree with him, the aldi tinned dog meat was just to tempt him - a little be spread over the food - eats the lot so good result. Even started to go for a short walk again but on his own (we think he got depressed when he stopped going for a walk as we regulary walk too far for him)

The other dog was a rescue collie, she'd had at least 3 previous owners, and been ill-treated (we don't know how / what - she was very very nervous, would run off and hide - initially told she was a ladies dog, but she ignored me for about 3 days and then latched on and ignored OH for weeks)
She wouldn't eat, previous owners fed her on gravy bones and cheese. Even now shes a fussy eater, we need to swap the make / flavour of food frequently and it has to have different coloured bits in it or she leaves it (bakers/aldi/tesco), but shes now happy, healthy, enegetic and now very sociable so we are pleased.

NewKittenHelp

ian103 wrote: »

I'm going to pick up some butchers choice tomorrow when I go shopping, I'll order some bozita when I reorder the hills from zooplus.

With the dogs, the old boy gets pretty much what he wants, he's nearly 17 and the food we give him seems to agree with him, the aldi tinned dog meat was just to tempt him - a little be spread over the food - eats the lot so good result. Even started to go for a short walk again but on his own (we think he got depressed when he stopped going for a walk as we regulary walk too far for him)

The other dog was a rescue collie, she'd had at least 3 previous owners, and been ill-treated (we don't know how / what - she was very very nervous, would run off and hide - initially told she was a ladies dog, but she ignored me for about 3 days and then latched on and ignored OH for weeks)
She wouldn't eat, previous owners fed her on gravy bones and cheese. Even now shes a fussy eater, we need to swap the make / flavour of food frequently and it has to have different coloured bits in it or she leaves it (bakers/aldi/tesco), but shes now happy, healthy, enegetic and now very sociable so we are pleased.

Rather than the Hills, why not go for a grain-free dry food such as Applaws, Acana or Orijen? Less waste.

ian103

simple answer is thats what we were told they we eating when we had them, i'll have a look at the others.

Beckyy

Have a look at the ingredients - most big brand pet foods aren't great quality and are a false economy. A better quality food won't need to be fed as much

ian103

have now brought the butchers cat food - gave them a quarter of a tin - boy did it look a lot compared to a pouch (maybe too much) after swapping bowls the kittens tucked in - most went, they're now fast asleep in their beds.

Also treated the dogs to butchers - on offer in sainsburys aswell.