Great Feed, House and Keep Your Pets Hunt

98jdougl

Not got anything to add, just wanted to say thanks for all the useful info. Recently took in a kitten (like 3 days ago lol) and OH's mum had bought some wet and dry science plan and some james wellbeloved and hagen (kitten) adores it and I have seen the benefit it has made to OH's brothers dogs so glad that I could find it online for a decent price. Just got a cheque from music magpie so going to use that to buy some in bulk and that way it isn't coming out of the 'household budget'
Is it ok to mix it with a cheaper dry food- had read somewhere about doing it with dogs and the different textures etc being good for it- is it hte same for cats?

thanks

rita-rabbit

JWB is way better than Science Plan (which has lots of additives)

98jdougl

but is it ok to mix with cheaper dry food? which was the original question.
cheers

Fire_Fox

Cheap dry foods have virtually no meat in them - just 4% derivatives is common (supermarket and Go Cat for a start). By all means use it up by mixing with more expensive stuff, but don't use cheap dry food long term.

98jdougl

Was hoping to mix in maybe 25% cheap food (was thinking iams but they dont seem to be held in high regard here so if any similar suggestions are available...) with 75% good food just to help with the cost a bit - would that be ok?
The mix I give him now is probably 50% JWB, 25% hills and 25% burns

Fire_Fox

Hills Science is around 50% meat, Burns 35%, James Wellbeloved around 25%, supermarket own brand/ Go Cat/ Whiskas about 4%. Iams isn't cheap as you are paying for the intensive marketing campaign! Cats are obligate carnivores - they need to eat a lot more meat than a dog does. If you are going to mix a cheap and an expensive you will dilute the meat content, so you may as well go for a mid-price product and not dilute.

Cheap dry food is pretty much just wheat, corn or soya - IMHO it's a false economy as you can pay four times the price for ten times the meat content and a food that lasts twice as long as you feed less. I've been really nerdy and looked at the price and meat content of a wide range of foods (I have a nutrition background) and the best value are:

Jollyes Lifestage - 26% meat, £2 per kilo
Burns - 35% free range chicken, £3.60 per kilo
Pets at Home Purely - 40% meat, £3.40 per kilo
Fish4Cats - 60% fish, £3.90 per kilo

Loads of the other brands seem to be on two for one or three for two from the online petshops on a regular basis - Applaws (80% meat) is on offer somewhere at the moment for effectively under £4 per kilo. There's also a £5 voucher on the Hills Science website. The best value wet food I have found so far (haven't done as much work on this) is Pets at Home Purely in small tins - 50% meat, £2.75 per kilo.

98jdougl

thank for all the help. am using applaws as his wet food because of the high meat content

Torkijo

Fire_Fox wrote: »

The best value wet food I have found so far (haven't done as much work on this) is Pets at Home Purely in small tins - 50% meat, £2.75 per kilo.

Any chance your going to be looking into Wet more? (Our vet has stopped us feedinag our Male Cats Hills due to Urinal problems)

We have used Hills for last few years so not sure what a reasonable priced decent Wet food is?

Fire_Fox

Torkijo wrote: »

Any chance your going to be looking into Wet more? (Our vet has stopped us feedinag our Male Cats Hills due to Urinal problems)

We have used Hills for last few years so not sure what a reasonable priced decent Wet food is?

Have you tried a pet water fountain to get your cat to drink more liquids?

I will do more work on wet foods at some point but don't think I am going to be as OCD as I was on the dry food! You will need to check with the packaging that these are complete foods if you are only going to feed wet, and also with your vet that your cat doesn't need a specialist renal (kidney) food.

Try Feline Fayre in large (400g) tins in Asda for 59p or £1.48 per kilo, 70% fish. Or Feline Fayre pouches, 60% fish, currently in a multipack (8 x 85g) at Home Bargains working out to £2.50 per kilo/ 22p per pouch. Sainsburys sell Hi-life small tins (170g) at £2.90 per kilo, 70% fish. As stated earlier the PetsatHome Purely tinned seems reasonable.

I am noticing that it's fishy flavours that are coming out cheap for the quality, for meat you could feed raw chicken wings with bones which cost £1.70 per kilo if you buy Value/ Smartprice. You might also consider incorporating some offal (heart, kidneys, liver) as it's cheap and nutritious but I would read up on this first as some offal is too high in certain nutrients!

Fire_Fox

98jdougl wrote: »

thank for all the help. am using applaws as his wet food because of the high meat content

Applaws small tins in PetsatHome are £8.00 per kilo, you can get high meat content wet foods a lot cheaper which would leave you sufficient funds not to have to dilute the dry food.