Best dry cat food?

[TalkinPeace2]

Have two cats, shorthair blotch tabby neutered male, skinny build. Longhair moggy - non persian, no furballs - neutered female, bowling ball build.

Vet has insisted that bowling ball loses weight.
Bought a bag of Royal Canin but they eat twice the daily suggestion (constant begging otherwise)
Like Hills, will not eat Iams, BUT, always ate GoCat while still fed on tins.

SO
Is there really a difference between the cheap and expensive dry foods?
How many grammes a day do you actually feed your cats?

[Lonecatwithkitten]

If you fed twice the daily amount of dry food the will just get bigger. Cats are often misinterpreted as begging for food when they are actually looking for attention.
Choose a food and fed the correct amount of food for the size you want your cat to be. Cat weight loss should be slow and steady.
A car being overweight can lead to diabetes, heart disease, liver disease and joint problems to name a few. You just need to be strong.
(Climbs off her soap box).

[ZebraOwl]

The Zebra kittens are on half wet & half dry food. I weigh out the recommended amount of dry food each time & keep their mealtimes as regular as is possible. As they're The Right Size & get plenty of exercise despite their not (by their own choice!) Playing Out they get the occasional treat between meals - only a couple of pieces rather than anything like the guidelines on the packaging though! Might also help they consider their anti-hairball lickstick, toothpastey stuff & vitamin tablet to be Delicious Treats as well...

At the moment I'm trying to decide on what will become their Usual Dry Food & they're currently on Hills Science Plan, which is one of the foods their vet promotes. They like it lots & also liked the Applaws dry when they had that to try. I've got them the Royal Canin for kittens who've been neutered & some James Wellbeloved to try next, the latter on the recommendation of a cat-worshipping friend.

There are differences between dry foods & it seems the more expensive brands often but not always are better nutritionally speaking. Best thing to do is to read, research & compare. It is also worth noting that sometimes food that costs more to buy per pack might not work out vastly more expensive per meal, especially if you shop around. The Pets At Home website has a little thing on the pages for the various foods to say how much they work out at per day, which can be a useful starting point

Is the Hills food you're giving them the one meant for cats who need to lose some weight? Various brands do weight control dry foods: Hills Light (you can get pouches as well as the dry food, too); Iams Weight Control; James Wellbeloved Light; Royal Canin Sterilised Appetite Control; & SPECIFIC Feline FRD Weight Reduction. You could also try using one of those feeders where the cats have to work for their food, like this or this.

Lonecatwithkitten is absolutely right about how bad it is for cats to be overweight: overfeeding, while it is meant lovingly, can really hurt cats It might help to be really firm about mealtimes as well as volume of food given? My kittens meow like mad for me in the mornings whether or not my brother's already fed them because they want my attention. It sounds as though they're clamouring for food so I always have to check if they've been fed or not before we settle down to snuggle because as well as the risk of them ending up with a second breakfast (which they'd happily gromph down...) they've also been known to delay meals for cuddles!

[cozietoesie]

Yep. Seniorboy has a pretty rigid feeding schedule with regard to times so any clinging behaviour I assume immediately to be wanting cuddles and not food. If he were, exceptionally, to want food outside of his proper times, he simply wouldn't get it. But he knows his schedule so wouldn't normally ask.

[issey6cats]

mine get 1/4 of a tin of butchers tinned cat food in the morning and have started giving them 1/2 a mug of harringtons dry biscuits in the afternoon, i get it from asdas and it has a higher meat content and no wheat and price wise is about the same price as whiskas, all four of mine like it, they wheigh between 5kgs (the big hairy ginger and white boy) and about 2kgs (tiny girl tuxedo) and non of them are wrong wheight for thier individual builds, hills and royal canin are expensive

[TalkinPeace2]

issey
thankyou - that is the sort of info I need - I'll check out Harringtons.
I've taken the food bowls away till the evening for today.

Tricky thing is that old cat and psycho sis were fed half a tin a day each and had unlimited crunchies and never got overweight till they died in their late teens
barrel cat on the other hand has a kilo to lose!

[cozietoesie]

Some cats are self limiting - and some are just piglets in disguise!

You've got a lot of squawking ahead. (Or thieving from the other cat's dish.)

[TalkinPeace2]

:-)
thin cat can eat much faster than fat one so he'll cope - and he does not miaow anyway :-)

[RugBugs]

You'll most likely find that your cats will eat a lot less of a better quality dry food.
Look for one with a high protein/meat content - applaws has already been mentioned, another one which is harder to find is orijen.

I would suggest making the transition slowly though, mix the two kibble and gradually increase how much of the high protein food you add in as it can cause a bit of a dirty shock to the digestive system if they're used to carb-packed so-called supermarket cat food.

[TalkinPeace2]

We did
tins plus kitekat ~ to kitecat plus iams (which they hate) ~ to iams plus hills (which they love) ~ to hills ~ to royal canin
and when that bag runs low I'll look around again

turds are safely up in the veg garden during the winter!

[cozietoesie]

Just thinking, Talkin. Is there a strong reason why you can't feed them just/mostly wet food until the bowling ball is more svelte? It bulks more and might satisfy 'chewing cravings' better for the same amount of calories.

[TalkinPeace2]

Could happily go back to tins
but vet suggested that dry was better

all suggestions welcome because she's begging macaroni from the saucepan at the moment
whereas skinny lad is on my lap!

[cozietoesie]

Go for tins then talkin - unless the vet has given you chapter and verse on why and wherefore. (Which I would expect from my vet I have to say.)

[cozietoesie]

PS - I've happily fed my brood on wet. Seniorboy will only eat pouches (darn him!) but The Lodger would eat anything wet and he was a hunter par excellence - and just 'a point' re his weight. Unless the vet gives you a real good reason for dried - go with your instinct.

[Fluffycloudland77]

I'm sure I've read on here that it isnt that dry is good for them it's that it's not as bad as wet for causing dental problems.

The raw food dieters give chicken wings to cats for dental hygiene, from what I've read on the american sites.

[TalkinPeace2]

Cool - I'll bulk buy tins tomorrow
but will also take on board the sound advice about specific meal times and not assuming that hanging around the food bowls is anything other than wanting company.

And then DH wonders why I ask questions on forums firt! :-)

PS any brand recommendations? - bowling ball happily eats cheap stuff, but maybe I should go for middling ....

[Fluffycloudland77]

I'm using Aldi but only pouches, the tins of food have maize in them. Cats arent really meant to eat maize.

I think the online pet stores do tins that are pure meat but I cannot remember what they are.

[RugBugs]

Bozita is a good brand with a high protein content and no grain.
It costs about 2x whiskers and comes in wacky Swedish flavours.
We get ours in bulk from zooplus

[cozietoesie]

Seniorboy, that most fussy of Siamese, likes Co-op jelly pouches@ £2.49 or something on offer this week. (Normally £2.99 or so. ) He's 18 so they're not doing any harm.

[TalkinPeace2]

Do all the tins have grain in?
Old cat and his sister always lived on tins (till they were 19 and 17) but I was not sure ....

[cozietoesie]

Google research Talkin.

[TalkinPeace2]

hot dang, you sussed I was being lazy :-)

[cozietoesie]

I sure did. (But I understand.)

Just treat it as a tax issue!

[prettybird]

Our siamese pair are fed the dry stuff from Lidl (Purina) and seem healthy on it.

They actually refusedto eat the wet stuff we put out once when we'd run out (had been given a pouch). although boy cat does bring back and try to open punches that he scavenges from somewhere

[cozietoesie]

They would eat it if they were hungry. Be strong. Sounds like they have you under the paw!

[mycatlikestwiglets]

My moggie has James Wellbeloved - he was a rescue cat and it was what the RSPCA used so we stuck with it. I top his bowl up whenever it gets low and he seems to regulate his intake. He also has Whiskas pouches 3 times a week as a treat (1/2 morning 1/2 afternoon) although he'd eat them all the time if he could and is always leading us to his bowl. He's a big strong boy with a very glossy coat - vet always comments on how healthy he is so I think the JW is decent stuff. He supplements his diet with occasional mice too