to not feed my cat "Go Cat complete neutered cats" food!

[Milliways]

This stuff!

I mean - since when did losing your bits mean a special diet for life??

and PMSL at "complete neutered cats"!

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I use hills science diet as apparently a lot of supermarket brands are pumped full of sugar, such as whiskas and go cat. It gets the cats addicted, according to my vet friend. Unethical pet food companies...but apparently the hills science diet is good :)

YABU Neutered cats metabolism changes after they have been done, so they put on weight a lot more easily - they basically get fat on the same diet as they had when they were producing testosterone. They need a low cal food to maintain a healthy weight.

We feed royal canin instinctive wet food to our boy, as Im not brave enough to feed raw. He get a sprinkle of their kibble too. He simply will not eat anything else. Unless its a nice prawn or a bit of boiled chicken, that is!

This is interesting as a vet once told us not to give our male cat wet food as it would rot his teeth. He has James Wellbeloved dry food, but I've noticed that he drinks a lot of water, as do our two dogs who are on the same brand.

the trouble with cat food is that neither is perceft - cats need to get most of their water from food, but they also need something hard to keep theri teeth healthy. If they eat a natural diet of mice and birds, they get both, but only soft cat food is indeed too soft and only dry one too dry.

shockers that is a benefit of feeding raw over wet. The bones are in, and the cats love giving them a good crunch. You don't get this with wet, or even dry (my cats eat dry food biscuits whole, they don't chew at all!).

Shockerpuss doesn't eat the mice and voles he catches, he just eyes them disappointedly when they stop 'playing' .

What kinda of raw meats do you use?

*kind

Sorry... just checked, raw chicken and lamb. The chicken bones are safe then? I know you're not supposed to give them to dogs.

my 2 cats eat dry go cat only as wet food gives them the shits! Will look at that link though x

Yes the raw chicken bones are ok, they will happily chew these up and eat them, though you are not meant to give cooked bones as apparently the bones splinter too easily.

I buy a chicken, and then some chicken or lamb hearts/livers/kidneys and use a serrated knife to cut it all up into chunks. I add some eggs and sometimes sardines. And voila! A week's worth of extremely high quality cat food, that is cheaper than tinned.

For those of you that are really interested, a forum I frequent has a good post devoted to those interested in going raw: www.bengalcatforums.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=15913. There is a recipe at the bottom as well.

so if i get canned food which is the best?

I use neutered dry cat food (iams) because the cat is extremely fat otherwise.

He does hunt and eat birds as well, so maybe raw is an option to consider, he's never eaten cooked meat though - do you find raw food okay cost wise Paiviaso?

TeWi cost-wise its not bad at all, considering the quality of food you are getting. If you make the raw yourself, you can influence how much it costs, by for example seeing what the butcher will throw your way. I think I spend about £8 every 5-6 days for two active cats, and I buy organic, free range chicken (I worry about chicken welfare). But eggs are free for me because I have garden chickens :)

Ellenjames the best canned one I've seen while browsing today was the Thrive, which they seem to sell on Zooplus Its 100% meat and has vitamins added to make it a complete food.

Gosh, I need to rethink my cat's diet then! Will check out the best canned food availbale in the petstore tomorrow and see what she thinks. I will try her on half-and-hald for now, don't want to giver her an upset tummy.

I feed my cat the cheapest dry food from tesco, always have fed her the cheapest dry food. She's an extremely active 13 year old outdoor who still regularly brings me back "gifts" of dismembered birds/mice etc. Can't be doing her much harm.

Hmm I worked for a vet for 3 years. They said iams was terrible, but otherwise the best choice was just dry food.

If you give wet food you should just give wet and not dry mix as it can play havoc to their stomach.

Best choice was just dry though with plenty of water avaliable

Why dry food forever - was it the teeth thing? I'm so confused! I just gave her some wet food - highest meat content I could find - and she was very impressed. Don't know what to do now!

Forevergreek what was this vet's justification for dry food being better? I keep reading that unfortunately vets are not trained in nutrition, but I do not have a vet friend to ask about this.

I do think its very interesting that people keep carnivorous animals as pets, yet do not feed them meat. I would say this is a testament to the pet food industry's advertising, convincing everyone that is fine to feed a 100% carnivorous animal dried plant balls with a tiny bit of poor quality meat added in.

Paiviaso - "It's all marketing bollocks."

Sorry, I laughed out loud at that - is that what goes into the food? Ground up marketeers' bollocks, to make up for the ones removed!

my cat's a pig, she will eat pretty much anything although i only give her cat food but she tries to take off the plates all the time, i thought only dogs did that. takes bloody ages buying the cat something different food wise - kitten/adult/neutered blah blah bloody blah. years ago i am pretty sure there were just tins. and then the instructions on the back as to the amount you give them, blimey, according to the one my cat eats she would disappear at the amount they suggest. i find it all most confusing and as when i gave birth/was breast feeding, constantly get mixed opinions as to what i should be doing. btw milli - you drawing is a stroke of genius.

agree op - my cat lived for almost 23 years on a diet of mainly dried food that was available back then (we talking gocat dried food with a bit of soft food and meat scraps from kitchen table - she died in about 2002 and I got her in about 1979 or 1980. We never had pet insurance back then and she must have gone to the vet about 4 times in her life.

There's so much money to be made these days and it puts me off getting a cat for ds although I've very much like to.

I don't really know what brand it was.
Mainly veterinary special food according to what they were staying in for ( usually easy on digestion as mostly post operative)

But those who were in for some other reason I think just had whiskers.

I know the vet food wasnt available elsewhere and therefore quiet expensive. The dry food aspect was Definatley teeth wise especially for those mainly housebound animals. If they go out lots and eat birds. Chew on trees etc.. Then it's not such a problem

I've never seen a cat chew on a tree! :)
It's great that there are some people's pets on here who have lived long healthy lives on all sorts of diets, but with nutrition (and other sciences) you have to consider statistics, not individual cases. There will always be a few exceptions to any rule, but the question is what food will make your cat more likely to live a healthly life. And I still feel like I'm in the dark!

In that case Iv no idea!

My cats personally ate whatever dry food was on offer! and then ordinary food like cooked chicken/ leftovers from humans ( including veggies)

My parents fed the cats this all the time as far as I remember. They had 7 cats over 30 years. 4 still alive, out of the other 3 they died between 18-23 years ( youngest was attacked by a dog!)

Iv no idea what this proves/ disproves

my cat won't drink fresh water only from outside. can anyone tell me why ?