Can I have opinions about different cat foods?

[shockedballoon]

On advice from the vet, I'm currently feeding our 3mth old Hills kitten biscuits (always have some in the bowl for him to eat as and when) and giving him half a wet food sachet morning and evening as a treat. He will eat the biscuits but is a bit 'meh' about them, but goes mad for wet food.

Thing is, the vet sells the Hills stuff and no other brand so I'm vaugely suspicious that there is likely other food out there that's just as good, but cheaper. The last time o had a cat was when I was a child (I am now 42!) and it just ate whatever was cheap in the supermarket.

Got a bit bamboozled looking on the net so I thought I'd ask you experienced cat hosts!

[Partyfops]

If you can keep your cat on dry food your life will be so much easier and cleaner.

I spent time scrubbing dried on wet cat food off my skirting this week.

Give it dry food only and maybe a few small soft treats occasionally.

Learn from my bitter experience.

[shockedballoon]

Yes - dried wet cat food is up there with dried on weetabix 😁 but as it's only a little bit and the bowl I put it in is fairly high sided it's copeable-with!

[childmindingmumof3]

I feed Applaws dry food with an occasional wheat free wet food as a treat. I buy a huge 3 month supply bag of dry from Zooplus so it doesn't work out too expensive.

[Allergictoironing]

You will probably get about as many opinions on the "best" food as there are posters on here!

Have a look at sites such as Zooplus or even Pets At Home for the range of foods available (there are dozens). Aim for a high protein/low carb food for both wet and dry. Bear in mind that for many cats the dry food is for keeping them going, the wet food (to them) is for enjoyment. Mine have "posh" dry food ad lib, and good old Felix AGAIL for their wet. I would try small tasters of as many as you like the look of to see which your cat enjoys the most.

[Stickstickstickey]

We use ava from pets at home. It's 60% chicken, reasonably priced and is also grain free.

For wet food we use purely hollistic also from pets at home which has a very good meat content and is without fillers ECT I beleive.

Our cats get one or 2 pouches a week between them, as a treat.

[viccat]

Dry food is the worst option especially for male cats and contributes to bladder and urinary issues.

A high protein, grain free wet food is the best food you can feed. Lots of recent discussions about this on here if you search.

[childmindingmumof3]

My vet said dry is best so long as they drink well.

[Fruitcocktail6]

I buy bags of frozen white fish from Sainsbury's, boil it and keep it in Tupperware in the fridge. They get that morning and evening and a bowl of biccies out all day. It's the only thing that stopped our sensitive tummied cats throwing up all the time.

[dementedpixie]

My kittens got the AVA dry kitten food from pets at home. >60% meat and no cereal. They had a variety of kitten wet foods but weren't keen on pate style which most of the high meat ones are.

They now (age 1) get thrive dry (90% meat) and Sheba or gourmet perle wet food.

[CatchingBabies]

Dry food is awful for cats. They are obligate carnivores and will never drink enough water to be healthy on dry food and spend their whole lives dehydrated which is particularly dangerous for male cats. Hills is also not a particularly good food. Sadly vets receive very little training on cat nutrition and most of their training comes from seminars funded by the likes of Hills and Royal Canin so is biased advice. Zooplus sell a great selection of high quality foods that are not expensive but any wet food is better than dry.

[CatchingBabies]

www.petforums.co.uk/threads/zooplus-cat-food-list-just-the-good-stuff-work-in-progress.440844/

This form has a comprehensive database of the available cat foods and their nutritional content and price etc. You may have to trial a few varieties to see which one is a favourite so don't buy a huge amount of each brand at first. If you want to continue giving dry food alongside the wet which many people do then Applaws or thrive dry is grain free and has a high meat content.

[shockedballoon]

Wow. Thanks all - some really good information here.

I have thought that Dcat does seem to drink a lot - he's always got his head in bedside glasses of water or tap drips (He does have a bowl of water out as well, naturally) so maybe I will up the amount of wet food but still make sure he has biscuits to graze on. Also going to look up the suggested brands.

[EachandEveryone]

I’ve never heard of wet food been given as a treat before I thought it was meant to
Be their main meal

[FriendsDontLie]

Zooplus has loads of excellent and cheap food, that has a high meat content. We use Animonda Carny and Feringa - both kitten versions. She particularly likes the Feringa and the turkey one smells vaguely of Christmas dinner 😹

[shockedballoon]

I know EachandEveryone the vet told me it was better for them to eat just the dried food but to make sure he had access to plenty of water. Dcat loves his wet food though, but as I've only got cheapo supermarket stuff in at the mo I'm just using it up as a little treat. I'll get some good stuff and start introducing that and up the proportions in favour of wet food once I've done that.
He came to us at 8weeks eating just asda tiger wet kitten food and was a wee bit skinny. I bought some just because it was what he was used to and i didnt want to upset his tummy or stress him out with new food on top of a new home. Vet said it fills him up too much and decent dry food is a better way to get calories in them.

[shockedballoon]

...sorry posted too soon.
Anyway I had never heard dry food better than wet food before, but as I said I haven't had a cat in a long time and just took advice from vet. Doing bit more reading round now though.

[CatchingBabies]

It's complete rubbish. It drives me insane the bad advice vets give out regarding cat nutrition. Can you really see a cat in the wild choosing to eat dry biscuits, that often have to be sprayed with chemicals just to entice the cats to eat it, rather than actual meat that are designed to eat?

[Tinkofhousepan]

When mine were kittens they both were on James welbeloved which went down really well! Now they have gocat and wet food

[TroubledLichen]

Personally I go for a mixed diet. Dry as it’s good for their teeth to crunch and it can be left out without spoiling when we’re at work. But then they pampered princes also get a tin of wet food once a day. Left to their own devices cats will generally not drink enough water and are prone to UTIs and kidney problems. They have Thrive for both.

[dementedpixie]

Go cat is a terrible dry food. Does it not have cereals as its first ingredient?

[Giraffey1]

My three cats lived on a mixed diet of kibble and wet food, along with occasional tuna, chicken, crisp etc. They lived to spprox 24, 19 and 18 respectively!

[Tinkofhousepan]

dementedpixie I didn't know that, thanks for the heads up! Will be checking now. They don't usually have much dry, they tend to have 3 pouches a day the little one would survive on dreamies and my dinner if she could

[LapdanceShoeshine]

Mine have a combination of Felix pouches - not AGAIL, just the regular, as they prefer it which is very thoughtful of them (it’s cheaper!) - & Royal Canin Neutered Female biscuits. They seem pretty healthy, although the one who eats biscuits more than Felix has much better teeth & gums.

Felix doesn’t appear in the pet forums list, presumably because it does include sugar. It has no cereal though & they really do like it so I’ll stick with it. (Have tried various “better” foods from Zooplus, like Bozita, Smilla & Animonda Carny, but a lot got left so it was a waste of money & food)

[AnnaMagnani]

We started our kittens on Feringa but they seem to prefer Bozita chicken chunks and Sanabelle kibble. They refuse to touch James Wellbeloved.

Dry food is good for their teeth and convenient for us, esp in the summer. It's crap for their kidneys.

Wet and dry food needs watching for if it's padded with cereal filler. Cats eat meat, not grains or veg. Cereal is the fast-track to fat cats and diabetes.