To ask a question about cat food?

[MamaBear17]

My moggy is a two pouches and a big bowl of biscuits a day kinda girl. I normally buy her which ever food is on offer at the supermarket. This time I have bought her Whiskers and I am wondering if anyone knows if they use some sort of additive in it? She is constantly mewling for more and more and yesterday she ended up eating 4 pouches and still crying for more (in addition to eating her biscuits) She was like this last time she had it too and my husband made some sort of joke about it being 'cat crack' and I'm wondering if there is something in it that affects them? She has recently been wormed so I know it isnt that. Any thoughts?

Mine LOVE the pouches, especially Whiskas and will beg for more! They just really like the taste.

The problem with pouches is that they are mainly water, very little meat content. I got mine onto Iams dried food, and they eat a lot less now as it's higher quality.

I like the 'cat crack' comment though! Will have to remember it when mine are going made on catnip!

Pouches are really small portions. The Tesco own brand are especially teeny- they feel heavy because of the thickness of the foil but I'd be surprised if there was more than 15 g in there!

I don't think anything bad is in it, but cats do seem to LOVE it. I think it's more just the highly flavoured additive-stuffed junk food Maccy D's type thing of the cat food world. It certainly is very calorific and the feeding guidelines are over generous, but I don't think Whiskas is the only culprit with this.

In my family cats have always been given Whiskas but our current two have been weaned off it since we adopted them as they've been on special diet food for ages and won't be going back to Whiskas after. Our vet is fairly disapproving of it.

I don't buy the 'wet food bad, dry food good' argument, though. I think IAMS have a lot to answer for with their ad campaigns. There's nothing BAD about the water content of wet food. If a cat has dry food they will drink more water to compensate and it swells up in their tummy after eating (which is why some cats are prone to being sick after eating a lot of dry food). The mixture that ends up in the cat's tummy a short while after eating is pretty much the same either way. What form it takes on the plate is pretty irrelevant. What makes a difference is the quality of the brand itself - more natural products like James Wellbeloved/Origin etc. vs Whiskas etc and food with lots of additives and high ash content. IAMS may be good in this sense, I don't know.

I also understand that long term an exclusively dry food diet is a suspected factor in kidney problems.

Interested to read this, am cat sitting at the moment, and she asks for more food ALL THE TIME. Especially at 4.30am

Go Cat are also part of Nestle, so it might be the added evil in them

My cat loves wet pouches, I give him 1 a day, more as a treat, and then he gets good quality dry as his main food.

I've never seen him drink his water out of his bowl, but he's quite happy to drink out of flower pots/watering cans/my glass of water/tea

This cat, who arrived as a kitten and has doubled in size, has two pouches a day, and a bowl of biscuits, all of which she eats, plus a bowl of water.

Currently Go Cat and whiskers as that's what they gave me (but forgot bowls ) but soon I shall have the choice...

Raspberry - LOL, in cat world, everything clearly DOES belong to them. Everything. Including you. And your house. And your glass. And your water.

My cat loves the Whiskas gravy pouches and any self regulation of intake goes out of the window.

Whiskas meaty bites, he hates and I find it a nuisance how it flops out in a solid flat tile and requires chopping up. Watching the cat trying to lift up the flat edge with it's tongue and teeth...............Well, I shouldn't laugh.

I supplement with chopped up real meat. Seems healthier.

Yesterday she turned her nose up at tuna in favour or whiskers - never done that before! I think I might look to switch to another brand!

Dry food like GoCat does just swell up, but 'dry' food like IAMs or Science Plan doesn't so much because it's not fully dried. The problem with wet food is it causes tooth decay, and the dry food helps keep their teeth clean. I have a bit of a froot shoot thing about Whiskers and GoCat, cats do love it but it's shit

My mums cat only likes the "in jelly" stuff.
We gave her dried whiskas biscuits once and she pooed and puked everywhere :-/
She only eats about half a pouch morning, tea, and night time because she hunts mice and birds as my parents are surrounded by fields!

Apparently she is incredibly healthy for a 10 yr old car according to the vet so it must be a good diet for her!

I give my cat the well roasted crispy bits of meat that he has to really gnaw at.

The cat I previously looked after had ham for dinner once a week. And she bloody knew when it was "ham night" too.

Whiskas has about 4% meat content thats why your cat is craving more. Cats live on protein so I would suggest getting your cat onto a higher quality food.

What's that other 96%? Knew that crappy cat food had a crappy meat content but shocked at how low that is!!

Most of that other 96% is water :).

Mine used to just have dry food, but boy cat's diabetes led to tooth loss, so with only four left he has whiskas as well. Girl cat bosses him about so gets all the jelly and then leaves the meat bits for her brother.

The real pain is that they will only eat chicken flavour 'oh so meaty' in jelly. I get told 'a multi-pack is cheaper' at the checkout every week as I buy 20 individual pouches. Perhaps they should tell the fussy diabetic cat that!

My boy cat is not allowed dry food on vet's instructions as he has bladder problems. Both cats have a pouch each in the morings and at tea time. If they are ever offered dried as a 'treat' they go mad, gobbling like crazy, then throw it all back up later. As a treat a couple of times a week they have fresh,
raw meat or fish.

Both of them do not seem hungry, in fact the boy is a bit hefty, even though he does not hunt (his sister does).

'cat crack'

cat nip is cocaine for cats according to my vet.

I tend to vary between whiskers and felix pouches, this is because I refuse to have an opened tin of cat food in my fridge. Depending on the weather, she either has a pouch morning and night, or if its very hot weather she switches over to dry food completely.

Also any white meat or fish we have going spare I give her in place of a pouch.

My cat has a cat Kong catnip toy as long as him and an American catnip 'cigar'. After attacking, shimmying against them and licking them all over he sleeps with them clutched between his furry little paws.