If you have 2 cats what do you feed them, how much and where do you buy it from?

[Scion286]

We’ve got 2 cats (and a dog). I’ve had loads of cats over the years, always free fed them without any issues. Our female cat is ‘normal’, she has a pouch in the morning, biscuits mid day and then a pouch in the evening. Our male cat is an absolute glutton, he would eat continuously if we let him. He very very vocal about it and will try it on with every family member. The most frequent phrase you hear in the house is ‘has Dave been fed’ and the answer is always a resounding ‘Yes!!’. I find myself feeding him just to shut him up. He’s a beast but not over weight (yet!).

We’re going through so much food. I just wondered if there was a cheaper way of buying it. We tend to get a box of 24 pouches and a box of biscuits a week but often run out. They’re not fussy so we tend to buy from whatever shop we’re in, usually Sainsburys own brand.

I buy in bulk online so it's cheaper, eg 10kg sacks of biscuits. If you're buying supermarket own brand f have you checked the ingredients? They're often like only 40%meat or something, so maybe they're not filling him up? Especially if he's a big cat! I use yarrah and bozita, they're a bit more expensive but much better meat content so the cats tend to eat less than if they're scoffing the packets!

We have dry food out all day, with a sachet given morning and night... one of the cats does moan for more food though (I think because she doesn’t like dry food much), sometimes we give in

Ducksarenotmyfriends where do you bulk buy from?

I know supermarket own brand isn’t the best quality but I’ve never had a problem filling any of my cats up before and they’ve all thrived on it and lived to a ripe old age. I do think he’s just greedy.

Mine have tins of butchers - 1 a day between them. And a half handful of dry food over night to stop them waking us up demanding food over night.

My two share a pouch of Felix morning and evening and then have a scoop each of dry food every day which they eat as and when. We use Canagan from a pet shop which has a high meat content, it's not cheap but lasts ages and seems to keep them full. One of mine is a food pest but she's a tiny slim thing and always has been. The other never pesters but is a bit on the plump side.

We leave dry food out and give wet food twice a day. They also get some chopped cooked chicken and maybe a webbox stick or some dry treats (cosma snackies). I buy dry food from amazon or zooplus (thrive and encore) and they eat a variety of wet food.

I buy food which doesn't have sugar/grains in. This means that their blood sugar levels remain stable and they're not hungry and over eating all the time. The cheaper foods are bulked out with cereals and sugars which are bad for cats. Obesity, diabetes and dental decay are health problems caused by low quality cat foods.

I feed Orijen dry food and then a high meat content wet food as well just to vary their diet and add fluid. Applaws, Crave, Lily's Kitchen and Blink are such foods that are suitable.

These foods are more expensive, but the cats eat less of them, so that can help with the cost. Vets bills are kept down as health can improve and their teeth benefit as well so less expensive dentals.

Mine are on Royal Canin Indoor cat 7+, they absolutely love it, and I just buy it wherever it's cheapest - sometimes Zooplus, or Fetch, Petplanet, or Pets At Home. They won't eat wet food at all.

Mine eat Purina One which I buy from Tesco. We fill up their bowls in the morning and the evening and they graze on it throughout the day.

We have two cats - they eat a mix of beef mince (with bonemeal), Tescos tinned catfood, and occasional treat pouch/pod/whatever. No dry food.

They eat about 300g of mixed tinned/meat per day each - so it would be a fortune if we fed them pouches - they are larger cats, but lean as anything, no podge on them, so they're not over-fed.

Oh, and they have about 2/3rds of it in the morning - I put another tablespoon down whenever they ask for more food, normally about 3 or 4 times, until they go for naps about 10am, then they eat again about 5:30 (girl cat sometimes has midday snack), and 1 or 2 more top ups until I go to bed.

How old is he? Both our cats were like this, spending all day crying for food like they’d never been fed. Took them to the vets and they had overactive thyroids, on medication now which has helped a lot. They’re incredibly fussy though and will often lick the jelly/gravy off, leave the meat and complain they’re still hungry

We have this problem, currently have 3 girls and one boy. The wake up call was when I found out he'd gained 30% of his body weight between 2 vet appointments a few months apart, when he was about 2 YO, so probably fully grown. I had noticed he was getting a bit fat.

Problem is that he eats his food, his sisters' leftovers (they generally eat about 2/3 pouch each) and hunts so probably eats a mouse or bird most days too.

So annoyingly, one solution has been to give the girls less food. They get two pouches between the 3 of them and then they eat everything with no leftovers. I know that Mumsnet abhors penis portions and I am suitably ashamed of this. They do have free access to dry food, which one of the girls actually prefers and fortunately, fat boy cat seems less bothered about.

You could try different food, some with less grain and more protein. Mine eat mostly Felix AGAIL or Sheba, which is not my preference but we also get Carny, Smilla and Bozita tetrapacks from Zooplus and I try to get them to eat some of this too.

These may seem more expensive, but they eat less of it, so probably works out about the same. We also get Smilla and Iams dry food and have had Harringtons in the past but they seem to have gone off that.

Zooplus are good for trial packs if you want to try different things, but don't fall into the trap that I did, and buy big packs because they work out cheaper per kilo, because we all know that with cats, the trigger for them going off a food that they've previously loved is the purchase of a large amount of it (I foster rescue cats, so have lots of opportunities to try and get a cat, any cat, to eat some of the backlog, currently have a nursing mother of 5 who's going through about a kilo of wet food a day and fortunately seems quite happy with the stocks of Carny and Smilla that my cats have decided are not to their taste).

You could also try the chipped cat bowls, that only allow them to eat their own food.

Our boy cat requires a mouthful every time he comes back in, as a reward for surviving his long, arduous and dangerous stroll around the garden. Obviously he will waste away without constant sustenance and is very keen to let everyone know, especially if his food bowl is less than 75% full. Theoretically he has royal canin dry food constantly topped up and a pouch in the morning and afternoon. In reality he has as many pouches he can get out of my poor unsuspecting family who are under the impression he is needlessly starving.

We have 2 cats. Imams 1 female. He's a big chap she's tiny. They share 2 pouches a day plus adlib biscuits. They're not big cat food eaters but big killers so I guess that balances it out

I never get pouches. They are nearly twice as expensive as tins in some cases for the same food, and a lot of plastic waste. For Sainsbury’s own brand, a cat eating 300g tinned food a day would cost you 29p/day. A cat eating the same amount out of pouches would be 59p/day.

With greedy cat (RIP) I banned everyone else from feeding him, it became my job alone so I could monitor the amounts.

Mine are fed from 15kg bags of dry & large cans (keep in fridge when opened).
Cat2 dislikes the dry & cat1 dislikes wet, sigh. I don't like the wasteful packaging with pouches.

×Ducksarenotmyfriends where do you bulk buy from?

I know supermarket own brand isn’t the best quality but I’ve never had a problem filling any of my cats up before and they’ve all thrived on it and lived to a ripe old age. I do think he’s just greedy×

Zooplus. To be fair, my parents had a cat who lived to the grand old age of 22 and he ate just felix and go cat. He was also a large and greedy cat, used to break into the neighbours for extra food. Caught him eating a packet of wotsits once

You can get gluttonous cat (I have one like Mog who does around the neighbours) but as someone already suggested get him checked just in case ( thyroid, diabetes etc). Cats are grazers so need continuous small meals through day, dry food ticks this box as can be left down.