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?

"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)."

thanks reluctant - that might explain why my cat throws up all the time.

I cannot persuade her to eat anything else though. She is a master of the art of 'sniff and walk away with a curled lip' - to tuna, chicken, salmon, wet food....anything i try.

when we first adopted her i thought i'd get in her good books by giving her a few yummy treats - no chance.

(was posting about it in littertray earlier this week - she's been better yesterday and today).

catnip = kitty crack in our house too

and whiskers treats

Girl cat only liked the catnip mice you could get at Past Times, so I stocked up prior to them closing down - she found the hiding place and now has a cat bed (or mouse house) full of expensive old-fashioned looking mice.

Boy cat is allowed to play with them occasionally, but after about five minutes she kicks him out, does a forward roll into the bed and lies on top of them all.

They both love their Go Go Hamster - although boy cat was terrified the first few times he accidently pressed it and it shouted 'GO GO GO'. Now they love chasing it up and down the lounge.

Those treats with cheese in.....cat adores them and so that leaves all the Parmesan for me!
Mind you I once caught my cat eating remnants of a large banana muffin. WTF?

Whiskas DOES NOT have 4% meat content. It has 4% identified meat content- eg chicken cat food has only 4% which is proper pure chicken meat, the rest is not identifed meat by products (eg, it is from other animals which might not be chicken). This kind of cheap cat food can contain a lot of intestines, bones, feathers fur and meat from animals not fit for human consumption including diseased, dying, euthanized pets, zoo animals etc. It also often contains fillers such as maize etc. Iams is not much better, and even worse for your cat than cheap tinned as a cat is designed to get it's water from it's food and even though they drink more they don't drink enough to prevent them being dehydrated which can lead to kidney and bladder problems. Feeding dry food to your cat also means they are eating a diet high in carbs such as maize or wheat (read the ingredients) and this over the long term can lead to obesity and diabets as cats are by nature select carnivores and their bodies cannot digest carbs efficiently. A high quality tinned food or a raw balanced diet of bone, offal and meat is best for your cat.

The problem is that me and my cat have different ideas about what constitutes a high quality cat food - I look for a high percentage of meat and recognisable ingredients, she goes on hunger strike till she loses enough weight that I buy her whiskas in desperation.

Now my kitten will not eat whiskas for anyone (found our after I bought a huge 48 pack in the Tesco offer last week) Shes a Felix girl ..... grrrrrr

Girl cat only liked the catnip mice you could get at Past Times, so I stocked up prior to them closing down - she found the hiding place and now has a cat bed (or mouse house) full of expensive old-fashioned looking mice.

My vet is always banging on about dry food being better for their teeth, and always moans about the state of my cats' teeth. To be honest, I would just feel too uncomfortable feeding an animal dry food the entire time. They love Whiskas so that's what they get (thankfully they aren't too fussy about flavours) with a bit of dried food left out overnight so they can snack and 'clean their teeth'!

I no longer buy Whiskas as it absolutely stinks the kitchen out! Does anyone else find the same?

Our cat only has two pouches a day mainly Felix, but still leaves half of those. She is not a big eater!

Mine won't touch it unless it's from a tin. Chicken, salmon, steak, red snapper? Curled lip in disgust. Tinned tune or sardines in tomato sauce? Straight down. She also eats grapes and bananas

It does stink whereas fresh cooked chopped meat smells less noxious. And the flies that land and lay eggs on commercial wet cat food- gross, gross, gross. Only have to leave the back door open or the kitchen window and if the bowl is uncovered for even a few minutes, it looks like a prop for the 'African Queen' film.

badgers retreat How often is she sick? We had a recurring problem with this for the first few months we had one of our girls. Each time the vet put her on a bland diet for 24 hours (white fish and chicken) and then wet only for a few days. It kept coming back and in the end she was on a prescription diet for sensitive tummies for quite a while and in the end had a blood test. Nothing showed and up and eventually it cleared up, We think it was a mixture of stress (abandonment and rehoming, poor love) and gobbling food too fast which she used to do really bad. Dry triggered it way more than wet though.

Does yours seem to gobble? Ours virtually inhales her food with no chewing sometimes! You could try spooning out her meal gradually to stop her gobbling it all at once. Worked for a friend with a similar problem.

My old cat used to scarf biscuits and hurl them back up almost immediately, so I rarely bought them.

Current cats don't mind a biscuit or two, but I again rarely buy them as Reuben also has bladder issues and our vet entirely blames dry food/biscuits. He also steals a good deal of the dogs' food, so I guess that is enough for his teeth.

Our vet blamed IAMS for our cat's UTIs, she could not have been more scathing about it and I've since spoken to other vets who agree.

Our boycat used to eat Felix pouches but now turns his spoiled wee nose up at anything other than Whiskas Simply Steamed Fish. Awkward bugger!

Soupqueen, I had a cat that died from crystals ripping his urethra to shreds,my vet blamed IAMS for that too.

My two have dry (costcos own) only.

Whiskas went right through them lush and they just licked the gravy off the rest.

They love a bit o ham though. And scrambled eggs.

whathasthecatdonenow I'm really sorry to hear that. We were lucky that the crystals were caught early enough.

Your poor cat.

My cat is also partial to fruitcake (as long as it's been broken up )

2 of my boys go through 48 pouches of Whiskers between them each week!

Gnocchi - I thought it was just mine that ate scrambled eggs!!

reluctant she's sick once or twice a week usually - sometimes less, sometimes more but more at the mo (think she has a furball)

she does tend to scarf it down and often the biscuits come up the same little shapes that they went down. i do feed her a bit at a time sometimes - esp if i know she's really hungry

we use Royal Canin which is considered a good one here

i hate wet food (makes me boak) but i tried the really good quality stuff from the posh petstore and she just licked the broth

she will eat string, bugs, carpet fluff and sock fluff though. And grass.

If mine have whiskas they invariably get the shits. They love it, but it really doesn't agree with them. Felix is ok though and cheaper here.

Mine gets dry in the morning (whiskers), a pouch of wet in the evening (tesco's) and a little snack of dry or cat treats before bed plus whatever food the baby throws on the floor. He's quite partial to rice cakes.

I never really considered that cat food could be of low quality, unless it was budget supermarket own brand, like Smart Price. I'll have to have a look at the ingredients next time we go to the supermarket.

Saying that, my cat catches and eats pigeons. He's not a fussy eater.

I am at dry food causing bladder problems. My two eat Iams dry, always have and boy cat has cystitis issues fairly regularly. I should swap to wet food, then? I thought I was doing the right thing giving them the pricey dry food :( :(