New cat owner... questions re food

[tadpolefeet]

Hi there,
We have recently acquired a cat, and faced with an array of choice in the supermarket I need some views on what to feed it.
She literally just walked into our house, and so we started her on Felix/Whispers (as this is what our corner shop had).... but she seems to be here to stay, so am happy to shop online. Given that she hardly seems to drink, I'm thinking wet food. (And I've seen some of the debates online re dry food...)
Also, she was doing terrible farts the other night, so any food that might help in this area would be great too!
I gather I should be looking for high meat and low grain... Any pointers as to which brand (preferably without breaking the bank!), please?!
Many thanks!

[LivingInMidnight]

Have you checked for a microchip? Someone could be looking for her.

[tadpolefeet]

Yes - I assumed that it would be obvious that I have checked. I have taken her to the vets to be scanned, and she is not chipped. I have phoned all the local vets, and no cats of her description have been reported missing. I have put notes through doors, and posted on various local forums. I have searched on various 'missing pets' websites. No-one has reported her missing.

Anyone able to help with my original question re food??!
Thanks!

[LivingInMidnight]

Sorry, from your post it wasn't obvious, to me at least. Mine have thrive wet, dry and treats, plus James wellbeloved dry and royal canin gastrointestinal dry because one of them has had extreme digestive problems previously. Thrive is one of the few high meat content wet foods I've found that is complete. It's not too expensive.

[tadpolefeet]

Sorry, it wasn't obvious from the thread. I just assumed that everyone would check for a microchip before anything else.

Anyway, thanks for the Thrive recommendation, which I will look out for.

Anyone else?

[DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen]

I feed a combination of wet food( Aldi select or Sheba) plus Applaws dry food which is 85% meat. I tried Applaws wet food but he wasn't interested in it. I order from Zoo plus and they do taster bags for a fiver iirc.

My cat just turned up and never left too

[PinkiePiesCupcakes]

I few my boy on what I thought was the better choice, Animonda Carny.
He ate it, but never keenly, his crap was loose and stank the house out too.
But as it was the better choice I kept on it until Yodel the bunch of cunts pissed me about with a delivery from Zooplus. I had to buy supermarket stuff and has he was on Felix when he was at the rescue I decided I'd get that.
Within a day or so his stools firmed and stopped stinkoing and he now eats every bit as soon as its down.

I would vote for Felix As Good As It Looks. And then just put some Tesco branded dry complete just for nibbles.

[DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen]

We started on Felix but he's decided he doesn't like that now

[DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen]

After a £300 vet bill for a UTI I wouldn't feed bog standard dry food again.

[catlover1987]

We feed our cat a combination of wet and dry, which works well. Wet food morning and tea time, then biscuits at bedtime. We use applaws, encore, Sheba fine flakes and seriously good (which is pets at homes own brand.) For dry food, we alternate a few as she gets bored but tend to go with James wellbeloved, applaws etc. Ones with low quantities of ash. There are usually pretty good offers at zoo plus website, and if you sign up for pets at home VIP club (free) they regularly send vouchers out too. Enjoy your new fur baby!

[longdiling]

Ours does well on Butcher's classic which is high meat content but relatively inexpensive. She currently doesn't have dry food as she's on a diet and that stuff is like crack to her and makes her stop eating the wet.

Definitely not obvious that everyone would look for a chip! Cats do a good 'nobody loves me and I haven't had food in ages' routine that people fall for without properly checking.

[catlover1987]

We also feed her some cooked white fish (Tesco value frozen ) or cooked chicken once a week or so as a treat.

[DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen]

Raw fish and beef goes down well also cooked chicken.

[DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen]

Soaking the dry food and adding water to wet also bumps up their liquid intake. Mine likes cat milk too.

[LivingInMidnight]

Ohh Dame my vet said you can add water to wet food too. Bit hit and miss with my last cat though.

[Twolittlejobbys]

Also stinky farts could be a worming issue! Wouldn't do any harm to worm and deflea her

[Weedsnseeds1]

Ash in pet food isn't an ingredient. Ash is a measurement of the micro nutrients which will be mainly calcium and Phosphorus from the bone content ( included in the food as the animals need it, not as a cheap filler instead of meat) so a low ash content isn't an indicator of quality. Pet food legally has to be labeled differently to pet food. Also, only the named meat has to show a percentage, so 4 percent beef doesn't mean only 4 percent meat, but the rest of the meat can be any species.

[Weedsnseeds1]

Human food, typo Ash is one of the tests completed at the factory and has to be shown on the label.

[DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen]

Yes, definitely de flea and worm!

Living found that little trick from here, works pretty well!

[PinkSparklyPussyCat]

Mine has James Wellbeloved dry for breakfast and lunch, a Natures Menu pouch for dinner and a very small bowl of dry for supper, depending on whether he's finished his dinner.

[BeBopTalulah]

Another Butchers Classic buyer here. It's great value for money and is considerably better quality than some more expensive brands (and cheaper). Ours also have ad-lib mid-range dry. We've had ours from kittens so providing ad-lib biscuits has stopped them gorging themselves, as they know there's always something there. Not sure how that would work with an adult cat/stray....

[TopsyZZZ]

I've had a few cats. They have done fine on Whiskas/Felix wet food in jelly as a main. I've found that gravy bases make for nasty farts! Also provide a few crunchies such as Go Cat for a snack. Fish such as coley occassionally or when they have an upset stomach. Sheba or similar for a treat. Just be aware that some of the expensive 100% meat foods aren't really for a sustained cat diet, cats would eat the whole carcass of prey and need what we would consider the junk, e.g. bones, ash etc to get the minerals they need.

[Memoires]

How old is she? The vet will have been able to estimate. If she's very young then adult cat food may be too much for her right now; I have used James Wellbeloved for young kittens before, and it's been good for those first few weeks when the diet is richer than they're used to. Otherwise, I use adult food indiscriminately, really.

I used to use Science Diet, which was great, but upon marriage I had to stop feeding it to my two as dh's cat got those very expensive little foil packs several times a day; we compromised on Whiskas, Felix etc.

I do find that our cats tend to go off one brand for a while, then go off the next brand etc. I buy whatever our somewhat limited shops stock now.

Ours prefer jelly to gravy and supermeat, and prefer fish to meat.

[Memoires]

Good luck with your cat; can you post pics?