Completely overwhelmed by cat foods

gettingready

My 4 boys are settled on Butchers Calssic from supermarket too.

And believe me I have tried all the top shelf tinns - they were losing interestes after 1-2 days and that was it.

So now they have Taste of the Wild dry from Zooplus and Butchers Classic tinned.

Between my 4 boys they get one tin in the morning and one in the evening, Fred gets a bigger portion than the rest as Fred does not touch dry food ever.

They never tire of Butchers Classic and as far as supermarket food goes - this is not a bad option.

CreditCrunchie

Sorry if this had already been mentioned but Hills and royal Canin are pushed by vets as those companies sponsor the royal veterinary association and aggressively target vets in order to market their products through them. It's a good idea to avoid any foods recommended by your vet as they only have vested interests and minimal nutritional knowledge.

In addition both companies are owned by the massive vivisection corporation Colgate Palmolive!

James Wellbeloved is often mentioned favourably, and is what I use. Although personally I'm looking into making my own from high quality protein and vitamins as all the commercial brands (even the ethical ones) are full of things like corn which are not great for cats.

jenhug

If anyone has a costco membership I would recommend you take a look at their Kirkland super premium biscuits.

I feed this with a tin of purely meat from pets at home (1 tin lasts 1 day with 3 cats, as they each get a sixth in the morning, and a 6th in the evening) so 65p for 3 cats for one day isn't too bad I don't think, plus the Kirkland food is £17 for a 12kg sack, which lasts around 2/3 months (ish)

penny_pincha

CreditCrunchie wrote: »

Sorry if this had already been mentioned but Hills and royal Canin are pushed by vets as those companies sponsor the royal veterinary association and aggressively target vets in order to market their products through them. It's a good idea to avoid any foods recommended by your vet as they only have vested interests and minimal nutritional knowledge.

In addition both companies are owned by the massive vivisection corporation Colgate Palmolive!

James Wellbeloved is often mentioned favourably, and is what I use.

James Wellbeloved and Royal Canin are both owned by Crown Foods.

penny_pincha

Haffiana wrote: »

I suspect that if you fed a child a diet of chicken nuggets and chips the child would be larger than average as well. But they would not be eating a nutritionally balanced or healthy diet.

This is true but by the fact you are posting it you are suggesting my cats are not healthy. You seem to me to be just trying to insult me with no factual basis. My cats are not fat but very healthy. Every time I take a litter of kittens to the vets the vet makes a positive comment as such every time.

penny_pincha

paddypaws101 wrote: »

Penny-pincha...why did you stop feeding raw rabbit?

I only stopped feeding raw rabbit which I bought from an independent game dealer because they had supply problems and increased costs.

The wet winter of this year and the very cold winter of the previous year and some virus that has swept through the wild rabbit population has depleted the availability. They put their prices up by 50% in less than a year which meant I had to look for alternative sources with which to feed my cats.

rising_from_the_ashes

penny_pincha wrote: »

I only stopped feeding raw rabbit which I bought from an independent game dealer because they had supply problems and increased costs.

The wet winter of this year and the very cold winter of the previous year and some virus that has swept through the wild rabbit population has depleted the availability. They put their prices up by 50% in less than a year which meant I had to look for alternative sources with which to feed my cats.

My mum & dad would welcome you as they've got a bit of a bunny problem in their garden

rita-rabbit

paddypaws101 wrote: »

Well then i think you can do a lot worse than Bozita tins, backed up by Butchers Classic from the supermarket. Adding some raw or cooked meat into her diet along the way can work out cheaply too....things like pork shoulder are always on offer in supermarkets, kidneys and hearts are cheap as chips, and if she will chew on a raw chicken wing then you have built in tooth cleaning! You can feed around 20% of her weekly diet with these scraps as top ups....any more and you need to look more into a balanced mix which is a little more complicated.

Paddy paws suggestions are great. Feline Fayre & Toplife are both excellent petfoods that can be bought in supermarkets. Smilla & Animonda Carni are also good wet tinned foods - I have only seen them on sale in Zooplus.com. I have fed my two on it quite happily but for economy I mostly feed Butchers Classic wet tins & Burns dried during daytimes (or as a top up):T

Lastly some dried food is good for cats - for one thing mine get hungry during the day. I feed Burns - mostly available online.

do not change kitty's food too often or this could result in upset tummy however. Whiskas - apart from being fairly pricey is full of additives etc & so like feeding cats MacDonalds every day - avoid it & read the ingredients on pet food the same as you would for yourself - less is more

JellyBox

Feeling very guilty at having fed my beautiful boys only dry since we got them, I thought that, by buying them the more expensive dry food, they'd be happy and healthy that said, is there any dry food I could give them that would be ok? They are both indoor cats, and I'd rather give them some dry food they could eke out over the day, then wet food in the evenings as there are days when we are both out of the house for upwards of 10 hours and I wouldn't want them getting hungry.

rising_from_the_ashes

JellyBox wrote: »

Feeling very guilty at having fed my beautiful boys only dry since we got them, I thought that, by buying them the more expensive dry food, they'd be happy and healthy that said, is there any dry food I could give them that would be ok? They are both indoor cats, and I'd rather give them some dry food they could eke out over the day, then wet food in the evenings as there are days when we are both out of the house for upwards of 10 hours and I wouldn't want them getting hungry.

Dry really isn't good for them & I'd get them off it if you can - there's nothing wrong with a little as a treat in say a treat ball when they have to chase it around to get to it etc but not as their main food

They don't need to graze all day & should be fine with 2 meals / day OR if you're still worried, what about getting an auto-feeder and they could then have an extra meal middle of the day