8 Out Of 10 Cats prefer....

Kamaya

Well, this post has been prompted by the actions of one of our cats.

As with a vast majority of the population, we're trying to save money, so we're cutting back on our grocery shop. We always buy cat biscuits as the are generally better value for money than wet food. If we're budgeting on food, then so are our pets.

Earlier this week, we purchased Tesco 'Crunchies' for our 3 cats. We chose Duck, Rabbit & Chicken. By doing so, we saved £1.70 (£1.19 for kilo, compared to £2.89 for 950g of Go-cat). That one small change once a week would save us £88.40 over a year.

The result? Two of them turned their nose up at it instantly, and the other ate a tiny amount before walking away.

This morning, I noticed that one of the cats had brought home a gift. A mauled sachet of Pedigree Chum Dog Food from a neighbours rubbish bag. That's right, our cat actually preferred the couple of days old near empty sachet of dog food to Tesco's own brand cat food.

I want to know from fellow cat owners how their pets have responded to supermarket own brand cat biscuits in particular.

So far we've tried....
Tesco Crunchies - Well, they detest them. Every possible variety of them.
Asda Tiger - Very hit & miss. They'd appear to like it at first, but then give up on it quickly & turn their nose up at some bowls of it.
Morrisons - Think it's the same manufacturer as Asda, very hit & miss.
Fatima (Home Bargains) - Big mistake. Clear that they absolutely hate this.
Coshida (Lidl) - One cat half enjoyed it, the other 2 not keen.

As for premium brands, they're keen on most of the Go-cat & Whiskas varieties, and from sale/trial packs of Iams etc they really enjoy.

So, basically I've got 2 questions...
1. What non-premium or store own brand foods do your cats enjoy? Just so I can try our cats with them.
2. Do any of your cats actually enjoy any of the own brand foods? Find it hard to believe that considering all 3 of my cats hate Tesco cat food that many others enjoy them?

Cheers!

:beer:

nickyhutch

Ours don't mind the Tesco own brand at all. Mind you, they've never been "spolied" with Go Cat and the like! They aren't keen on Asda own brand, and are happy with Morrisons.

Their favourite are Dreamies, but they're a very occasional treat, just for us to laugh at them going mad for them, really.

FatVonD

Ours are quite fussy (will only eat Felix GAIL, won't touch Whiskas) but they LOVE the Claude dried food from Tesco @ 99p per box.

blackandwhitebunny

Cat's read price labels:D Four of our five eat either felix or whiskas, we normally get the senior versions they've had some purina 1 this week as it was on special at sainsbugs and they liked that. They don't eat own brand anything! Our youngest little girl eats sheba only:eek: They all used to eat go-cat biscuits but they seem to have changed the recipe about a year ago, they now eat royal canin with the odd bag of iams.
We've long ago had to accept that cats don't do moneysaving I find we save money by finding a good offer and stocking up, I try to have at least a month's supply in at any time, that way we can wait for the right price.

rufydoofyM

We have 2 cats now (Sadly we lost Rufus last year) Both our 9yr and 19yr cats will only eat Whiskers crunchies and Felix agail pouches. I have tried to feed them other cheaper brands when trying to economise but it always turns into a false economy because they won't eat it and I end up throwing it, giving it away or keeping it for emergencies. I try and stock up on crunchies when the 2kg bags are £3 and the pouches are £3 a box. I try to have 2 months supply as back up in case theres no offers anywhere. We have tried almost all brands of food and treats and whiskers treats are the only ones they will eat. So the up shot is we economise but the cats don't ! Still they give us so much love and laughs that they might be spoilt but they are worth it. :j

she_who_can_not_cook

my has felix pouches Do you think there is some type of drug in them that makes the cat just not want anything else.. when i have given my old man aldi stuff he just licks the gravy .

haycorns

The vet suggested Hills Oral to help with their teeth, but its very expensive, so I mix it with Iams.

Can you try mixing your own label with their usual brand and gradually swap them over?

[Deleted User]

We mix the tesco own brand with a premium dry food (whichever brand is on offer), and they like this - we mix 50/50. So we save a few pennies, and they get fed food they'll like and will eat. Cheaper food is a false economy if it ends up in the bin.

They used to like the tesco one on it's own, but for some reason have become increasingly fussy!

turtlemoose

My fussy [STRIKE]dictator[/STRIKE] cat is a whiskas girl, particularly the oh so meaty etc ranges, she'll occasionally accept the more expensive Felix too. However this meant £30 a month on cat food, when our food budget (2 adults, 1 child) is only £150 for the month, the cat had no choice but to cut back. I tried loads, eventually finding she likes aldi own brand - but specifically the tins, and in gravy (not jelly). She goes mad for it and rubs her face against the cupboard trying to get it!

I think you just have to keep trying until they accept one!

FatVonD

Domino9 wrote: »

Cheaper food is a false economy!

Tell me about it, I only discovered they didn't like Whiskas after the Tesco £3.45 for a box of 48 glitch and I'd bought 10 boxes. Oh, how the little critters laughed :rotfl:

They eventually relented and ate only the pink and red packs (and then only if we'd run out of Felix and it was that or dried food only) so eventually we broke open all the boxes and donated all the other colours to a friend's cat!

Kamaya

Some very interesting posts, but one common theme - it appears that rather than us having pet cats, it seems in all of our cases the cats own our houses & just allow us to live there too!

We'll persist in our search to find a budget cat food that they like. We've tried mixing premium with budget, and it hasn't fooled them!

Thanks for your comments!