Cat Food Help?

chirpychick

Our cat is 6 years old, he is overweight (though is on a diet and has lost weight this year!) He has allergies/sensitivities to certain foods - though despite tests we don't know exactly what causes the problem (inflammation on his face).
So we have been feeding him hypo-allergenic food.
Could anyone recommend a food that is "cheap"?

I came on here before about a year ago now and got great advice for dog food which has saved us a ton of money and the dogs are a healthy happy weight, with perfect glossy fur and the Vet is very happy with them, so thought you may be able to help me out now with the cat please.

The cat food must cost us twice what it costs us to feed 3 dogs who also have skin sensitivities!! :eek:

His health is the most important to me though so I don't want to give him something bad for him, just desperately need to see if I can save some money.

spookylukey

Do you feed him wet or dry at the moment? If he has any dry then JamesWellbeloved is hypoallergenic and is currently on offer at £17 for a 4kg bag at Pets at Home - it's a 'while stocks last' offer and they don't have many of the varieties left online but may be worth looking in store (a 2kg sack is £15 by comparison). You could buy one of the small 225g bags at the same time to try him on and if he doesn't get on with it take the 4kg bag back!

Bozita is a good wet food option as it's grain free and has a high meat content, I get mine from Zooplus but there are various other places that sell it - mainly online. One carton is approximately equivalent to 4 pouches of regular cat food and costs about £1.

spike7451

For wet food Butchers Classic is good,Daisy normally wolfs it down until she decides to go off it in favor of something else & for dry,the only one she'll eat is Purina One chicken.

Butchers is about £2.85 for 6 tins & P.One is about £4 for an 800gram bag.

Fire_Fox

What specific food are you using or have tried in the past? Are there or have there been any digestive issues?

Have you considered a raw diet? You can control what meat (bones, offal, skin) goes into the food, it can be very cheap if you base it around frozen Value chicken portions. Cooked and raw proteins are recognised differently by the immune system so an animal can easily be sensitive to one form but not another. Most dry foods contain numerous ingredients, any one of which could be the culprit.

Cats can be more expensive to feed with a decent quality commercial food, they are obligate carnivores (must eat meat) and this is a more expensive ingredient than cereal sweepings and vegetables which dogs cope better with. Obesity can contribute to systemic inflammation and inappropriate immune response, you *may* find as the weight normalises so do the sensitivities. Most grains/ cereals/ carbs are pro-inflammatory incidentally, have you tried eliminating these?

chirpychick

Fire_Fox wrote: »

What specific food are you using or have tried in the past? Are there or have there been any digestive issues?

Have you considered a raw diet? You can control what meat (bones, offal, skin) goes into the food, it can be very cheap if you base it around frozen Value chicken portions. Cooked and raw proteins are recognised differently by the immune system so an animal can easily be sensitive to one form but not another. Most dry foods contain numerous ingredients, any one of which could be the culprit.

Cats can be more expensive to feed with a decent quality commercial food, they are obligate carnivores (must eat meat) and this is a more expensive ingredient than cereal sweepings and vegetables which dogs cope better with. Obesity can contribute to systemic inflammation and inappropriate immune response, you *may* find as the weight normalises so do the sensitivities. Most grains/ cereals/ carbs are pro-inflammatory incidentally, have you tried eliminating these?

He is currently on James Wellbeloved - the problem with it is that it is not satisfying his hunger - even though he is on the right amount he is always begging and meowing for food and his new trick - opening doors!!

We tried him on Royal Canin thats a definite no go, his inflammation comes up terribly.

He was on Arden Grange for a long while and that is fine, it is just a bit expensive - I will go back to it if we need to.

His inflammation is something him and his brother (sadly no longer with us) started off with as kittens, they had lots of tests and treatments but nothing was determined as the culprit we just know that house mites/dust mite type things were ruled out and that it was definitely a food reaction. And it is only in the last 2 years he has become overweight (since the loss of his brother).

He absolutely wont touch any kind of meat or fish except once a year he gets a bit of tuna which he wolfs down.

I can't recall ever trying him on wet food to be honest but given his reaction to proper meat and fish I'm not sure if he would take to it.

Fire_Fox

JWB is rubbish value only marginally better than the supermarket stuff IMO, it's mostly grains and low meat. Which versions of each food, there are several within the range, have you analysed the ingredients? There are high meat content/ cereal free dry but (stating the bleedin' obvious!) you really could do with having some idea what the cause is before you spend a fortune. If the issue is an allergy then it's usually to a protein - that can be a meat, fish, eggs, or the gluten in cereals like wheat. The Royal Canin Sensible contains loads of different protein sources which is some kind of madness. :eek:

Applaws and Porta 21 Sensible are both sensitive cereal free dry foods based on chicken and eggs. The portion sizes of both are much smaller than JWB so the bag lasts much longer, but it should satisfy due to the high protein/ fat content. It's carbs that peak and trough the blood sugar causing cravings, are implicated in weight gain and inflammation. Applaws is regularly on offer at Pets at Home and online retailers.

Do switch slowly over a few weeks to allow the gut flora and digestive enzymes the chance to adapt to the change in macronutrient content. Much as I highly rate the wet foods already mentioned by other posters (Bozita, Classic) most contain a mix of different animal proteins - they would work if the issue is gluten or vegetable protein, and many are egg free too.

The problem is the cheaper you go the more cereals and different protein sources they add which is exactly what you don't want with an unknown sensitivity. High quality dry foods are very expensive, as are single or novel protein source wet foods. Raw is honestly the cheapest I know of. Have you tried raw meat? They won't all take to it, but many will who wouldn't eat cooked human meat.

chirpychick

I haven't ever tried raw meat no, will give it a go for sure.

The Arden Grange Salmon is the one that is fine for him.

The James Wellbeloved one is the fish & rice light

I will look into it all more now, thank you for your help!

picklepick

When you say he has inflammation on his face, it around his chin or other parts?

Deep_In_Debt

I came across this food in a pet shop recently and did try it with my cats who seem to enjoy it...

http://www.vetuk.co.uk/cat-food-meowing-heads-c-62_1028

~Chameleon~

What sort of dish are you using to feed him? Plastic dishes can cause the sort of inflammation you're describing. Switch to stainless steel

spike7451

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

What sort of dish are you using to feed him? Plastic dishes can cause the sort of inflammation you're describing. Switch to stainless steel

They cause Feline Acne;

http://www.cat-world.com.au/feline-acne