Decent but economical dry food for 6 (!!!!) cats

PollyOnAMission

gettingready wrote: »

Vitali feeding guide|:

http://www.vitalinpetfood.co.uk/mall/productpage.cfm/VitalinCompletePetFood/_VitapurrAll/280882/Vitapurr

say 45g per 2kg of a cat, I have 28kg oc cats (LOL) so 45gx14 to make 28kg cats happy per day so 630 gram per day.

Bag is 15 kg so bag would last 23 days if fed only dry, with wet a bag should last a month easily.

Good price

God to work out the CSJ again ad 1.4kg per day for 5 cats (Fred discounted) sounds an awful lot... Must have mad a mistake somewhere

Looking at the feeding guide for Vitapurr, I'd go on more like 13-15g per cat per day rather than the 22.5g you've used to calculate. This is because the amount per kg of cat seems to decrease as the cat gets heavier; a 2kg cat needs 45g (22.5g per kg), but an 8kg cat needs 100g (12.5g per kg). Your cats are somewhere in the middle.

This takes the price of this one down a lot

rising_from_the_ashes

gettingready wrote: »

perhaps I will look at Vitalin dog food too then...

I've recently bitten the bullet and put Maisie onto their Senior / Lite (as it's the fish one!)

Salmon & Potato (which she's not had before as all the others were with Rice) but - touch wood - her tum's been absolutely fine (probably been on it around 3 weeks now) - I had got a small bag of Burns (fish & rice) to try which she'd been fine on too but the Vitalin's a lot cheaper and it's the same fat level (7.5%) which was the reason I'd gone for Burns (they have a "lean" dog reputation and I need to get weight off Maisie)

I had actually totally forgotten it was Vitalin when I gave the link to the cat food - I got mine for £29.99 for 15kg (delivered)

Maisie's only getting a fraction of the RDA (would be around 380g) and she gets 150g + 50g of Burns Wet (this is the lowest fat I can find) HTH

gettingready

PollyOnAMission - thanks for all the calculations in the longg post

Of course I should take into account heavier cat/not proportional allowance but just wanted to get a quick idea and that is pretty uch enough to compare, sigh....too hot for that today

Looks like Vitalin wins every battle.

Rising - may order some for Zara and see how this works. She is about 5kg overweight at 41kg. Has maisie lost any weight on Vitalin? I was looking at the Salmon Light too as salmon is the only flavour she likes...

rising_from_the_ashes

It's really a bit early to say - I did a very slow swap of the foods as with her having Colitis, I really don't like changing it (but I've been trying to get weight off her for 3 months & only managed 1/2 kg on her old food:o) - so it's really only been since Friday that she's been totally on it & the Burns wet

I'll leave give this a month & then take her for a weigh-in :eek:

The other low fat one I found was Burns - they have a "lean dog" rep as I mentioned and their food is really low fat http://www.petsathome.com/shop/burns-fish-and-brown-rice-adult-senior-dog-food-2kg-100213 - it is white fish though so not sure if Zara will like it (linked to P@H as they do full ingredients but def not the cheapest)

It's more expensive than the Vitalin but not too bad (around £42 / 15kg) but, for me anyway, I went for the cheaper option as a) there doesn't appear to be that much difference overall quality wise and b) the Burns pouches are really expensive (around £10 for 6:eek:) so I needed the money to put towards them

(I've had to cut my hours at work as I'm still not that well and that's obviously affecting things a bit )

gettingready

RFTA - thanks.

Zara was on Burns ages ago, would not go back - but would be willing to try that Vitalin...

Both both Zara and the cats..

gettingready

Just ordered Vitalin for cats...

Still got about 3kg dreaded Go-Cat so will mix the 2 together first and then will see.

Fingers crossed the hairy monsters eat it

gettingready

Just a quick update - Vitalin arrived few days ago.

In a see through bag with just a sticker on it so was not really that impressed as how can I REALLY know what is inside? It was not in a branded bag, bit worrying - is this normal?

Saying that - all 5 cats are very happy to eat it and I have to refill the dishes like 3 times per day. With GoCat I was topping up once per day so it looks like they eat more Vitalin? I was expecting them to eat less rather than more? Again - is this normal? I live dry food out for them available all the time by the way, with 6 cats I could not feed them "meals" of dry food.

I said all, I take it back - Fred of course not interested. He never eats any dry food/treats.. BUT he nicked a corn stick (whatever the bit inside is called when you eat the kernels, the bit that is left?) and had to fight him (and then Zara the dog) fro it as quick google search said they should not have it...sigh..

Fosterdog

Vitalin is often used in shops that have the food bins so you can scoop your own, I'd imagine the trade packs to fill them would have reduced packaging compared to retail bags so you've probably either had a trade bag or the place you bought it from weighed it from a bin.

We have two local feed places that do that too, their own bags are quite thin so we take our own thick bag to fill instead.

rising_from_the_ashes

I would agree with FosterDog re the packs

Did you buy it direct from Vitalin or another supplier?

If direct from the supplier, I'd probably expect it to be in "proper" packaging and it's certainly marketed that way on their website


Glad the cats are liking it though!

I guess you can only see how long it lasts and then compare the cost to GoCat - however, obviously the quality is a lot higher (I'd expect them to eat less too)

sazzybum

My 6 cats love Purina One and 2 big bags (10 quid from ASDA) does them a month, and they don't eat as much wet food either.

To be honest and to my eternal shame- they like Whiskas dry as well, but they seem to chow more on wet food when they have that, so usually Purina.

As for the dreamies :eek: I got 12 bags of them from Home Bargains-89p each, thought that'd do them a month- they lasted a week. Husband gave them dreamies every time they miaowed. Men!