To think Felix, Whiskas and other cat "food" manufacturers are taking the mick

[TuppenceForYou]

Most commercial cat food has actually about 4% meat. This is for nearly 100% carnivores. They put soya protein shit in instead, plus carbohydrates (to make our cats fat).

Its really a scandal. And one I've only noticed because I've got a lovely little kitten I want to feed well.

Apparently this commercial cat "food" makes them hungry all the time (no real meat) so they overeat (diabetes) and it also makes their pooh pong when it doesn't need to, it makes them less energetic and their coats not so shiny!

Does anyone else wonder what planet we are on when our 100% carnivore pets are fed 4% meat by these bstd manufacturers? Its not even cheap!

Embarrassingly I only realised this after watching a Netflix documentary recently.

I now buy Encore or HiLife

Just raw feed. Its cheap and its species appropriate. Win win

I think it's actually 4% of the named meat, there's more in there. It's pretty cheap compared to thrive etc. I think it's the cheap dry food you really need to worry about, and I say this as someone with a garage that resembles the PAH aisle with the posh food.

my cats are between 12 years old and 6 years old eat supermarket food and not one of them goes to the vets for anything other than yearly vaccinations so supermarket food cant be that bad, mind you i buy aldis own or butchers as theres no wheat in either and harringtons chicken and rice biscuits

My mum told me about that documentary today RainbowJack and I was really pleased that this was now in the public domain. I'd known for months and been a bit seething about it!!!! For goodness sake, giving our carnivore pets soya protein (which I notice my cat leaves to the end when he's starving poor thing) and carbohydrate and other shit (96%). Sometimes I want to scream.

Rainbow encore is not complete, unfortunately. Unless there's some I've missed.

Get 'em some of that cat soup

The mind truly boggles

Apparently raw food can cause all kinds of issues

Yep I found this out when I switched our cat from dry to wet food, shockingly low meat content in pretty much all the brands available on supermarkets and not enough taurine or ash either. I wouldn't mind raw feeding but for convenience I now order omnomnom, tundra, Granatapet, Macs and Ropocat from the happy kitty company online (not advertising by the way but they are great!)

I think it's not even meat it's 4% meat derivatives.

Do used to feed his cats Felix and one of his cats had the worst smelling poo. When we got together I researched food and changed to applaws or encore and the poo doesn't smell anymore.

I think Felix is promoted as better but you're right it's meat and ash content is rubbish.

I did a lot of reading up about feline diets before getting my cat and I agree, completely ridiculous and totally unhealthy for the poor cats. I think people are perhaps a bit naive seeing felix etc advertised so buy it without knowing what's in it (not a good excuse in my book). Ours gets encore, applaws, natures menu normally. I check the meat content of everything before buying!

I think cats need something called taurin Livia, and you need to make sure this is included for a "complete" cat diet - otherwise there are problems it is true.

but what these cat and pet food manufacturers do is - include the taurin, yes, but almost nothing else thats genuinely good for the cat i.e. meat! Everything else is inferior quality, soya and vegetables and other crap that has no place in a kitty diet!

fuzzy applaws wet? Neither encore nor applaws wet are complete foods so your cat is missing some essential nutrients. Applaws dry is good.

Maybe its just me.

But I feel I've been sold a kipper (hmm).

You shouldn't even really feed cats fish - much more their natural diet around mice and rabbits and chicken. Fish is too strong and unnatural for their palates!

Living I've heard dry food is very bad for cats even if technically "complete" e.g. includes taurin etc. I do give my cat some dry food - maybe one bowl every few days. But I don't think its good for them particularly. There's lots of carbohydrates in dry cat food.

Try having a cat that is allergic to tuna. The staff can tell I am in the shop when they hear shouts of 'why does lamb flavour need tuna in it?!'

General brands like Whiskas are impossible due to 'animal derivatives' and loads of expensive brands use fish oil. I am limited to about three brands which I have to rotate because they get bored and just stop eating.

I tried raw food but as their first owner was a cat hoarder who fed them on chicken nuggets they weren't impressed

LivingInMidnight I think it depends on the type.

Fish ones are better than the meat ones.

TUNA WITH WHITEBAIT : Tuna Fillet 65%, Fish Broth 24%, Whitebait 10%, Rice 1%.

Obviously the rice isn't ideal but I think compared to the other brands. They are wayyyy better.

What are all these problems raw feeding causes? I feed raw... cats are animals, they go out and catch things and eat them, how is feeding raw any different?

It was on that Trust Me, I'm A Vet the other day. I'm turned it over as I'm anxious when it comes to my cats

mist thank you for that recommendation! One of mine likes to try and refuse anything that isn't applaws so I keep trying to find new food for her.

Thrive is great food BTW until they start refusing it

Sorry to butt in but what would you say the best meat brands are (besides raw).
Currently feed James wellboved dry and wainwrights wet but they're barely touching it

It's the taurine pink, they get it naturally from crunching up raw bones in vermin. If you raw feed you have to add in the taurine

I assume commercial raw feed brands add it in though. Only a problem if you try to make the raw food yourself

Applaws dry is good.

I just looked it up (not heard of it) Lots of peas, lentils, chickpea flour type stuff in it.