Are fancy cat foods worth the money?

[RainyDaze4]

My kitten is nearly old enough to start eating ‘Adult’ food so am thinking about which brand/type to start feeding her as there’s obviously so much choice.

I’m not interested in raw food etc. I’m talking about your normal cat food you can buy in pet shops and supermarkets but even so, I’m bombarded with all the usual Whiskas, Felix, then you’ve got Sheba, Gourmet, Lily’s Kitchen and on to the fanciest looking ones like Royal Canin, Hills, James something etc.

I’m sure there’ll be some people waxing lyrical about how rubbish Whiskas and Felix is but my kitten has thrived on these normal brands!

Does buying a fancy cat food brand make a difference or are they all the same really?

What do you feed your cat?

@hopefulvibes yes it should do.

I raw feed my two bengals with Purrform in frozen tubs. It comes in several varieties but my two like the rabbit ones.
I’ve never raw fed before, in 30 years of cat ownership, but I am a total convert. They were raw fed by the breeder and I’ve carried on with it as I have become very disillusioned with the filler/non-meat content of most cat food.
On a raw diet their poo is firm and not smelly which is an added bonus

@prettybird yep our big cat has started with the killing... 8 voles in 2 weeks even though she has bells on her collar.

We also have a couple of water fountains in the house as she will only drink from fresh flowing water.

Killing machines

@prettybird they are beautiful!!

These are mine... only the biggest one at the moment as littly can't go out yet. Although she has left me 2 dead giant spiders in the living room which I think may be a sign of things to come.

My 2 wee horrors. The hairy one brings in all sorts of stuff in his fur including the odd slug.

Now come to think of it, when my cat was eating Lidl's Coshida brand wet food in gravy, his poo was solid and not smelly. But he'd only eat the poultry and the game flavours.

Does anyone know the meat content of it? I can't remember and I don't have any boxes to check. I stopped giving it as I thought it's poor quality but then it's German (like many of the Zooplus brands) so maybe it's not so bad after all.

I'm wondering whether to go back to it. The heat pieces looked more authentic and less 'formed'.

Loving the photos!

@dementedpixie your non-hairy cat looks so cheeky, like s/he knows you know he's up to no good.

My cat is part moggy part Maine Coon so quite furry. He brings home tree loads worth of leaves attached to his coat.

New cat owner here and have been feeding my girl Hills Science dry food. I see her drinking water but to be sure have been giving her small portions of tuna (canned in water, whichever brand we eat) topped up with water to create a soupy mix. She loves it - licks off the soup first then eats the tuna.
Think I read somewhere though that too much tuna is not good for them which would be a shame as I know that the canned tuna is just that.

I love cats. Turn their nose up a sub par cat food then eat rats gizzard and all, flies, spiders, ants.....

Pandora

To update my update - she seems now to have gone off the Applaws. The sample of Orijin arrived this afternoon ... will try that tomorrow..

AND because so many posters said their cat liked the savory cake in Purina Gold i bought a box. Does she like it? No!

sigh.

She does like the gold chunks in gravy (tin) and the purina pouches. But only the jelly ones. Maybe i'll go back to those.

I feel i've totally confused her and myself now

I found a weird chart online which showed the meat/cereal content of lots of cat food brands, but most of them were american. It did have Royal canin on there and the cereal content was high! Why do so many breeders use it i wonder?

Mine only like some of the fish variety savoury cake, and only sometimes. They like the small pouches (more waste) more than the big ones and one likes wet food more than the other. Sometimes Dusty look at his bowl as if we've crapped in it!

And they don't like pate style at all. They seem to still like gourmet solitaire beef in tomato sauce tins so we alternate them with a variety of other wet foods
I have a big cereal pourer tub and there is a mix of encore and thrive dry in it

One lean cat, one chubby cat = microchip cat feeder.

Old Lady cat is the lean cat in this house. We were sceptical whether she could learn how to use the microchip feeder but with persistence she did.

We supervise her having her wet food and she has kibble whenever she wants from her microchip feeder.

Chubbster cat however has to wait for mealtimes. The day the microchip feeder was switched on was the worst day of her life as we realised she'd been eating at least half of Old Lady Cat's food as well as her own. The cries of distress of having to eat normal portions could be heard for miles.

@dementedpixie when you say small pouches do you mean those red Purina ones? The petite servings or whatever it is?

She loves them but I can never get it all out of the bloody pouch! I really resent standing squishing and squeezing and trying not to get it on my fingers for ages at 6am while she stands there and shouts at me

I wish they did it in jelly. Jelly just slides out of the pouches. And - tip - if you squeeze a jelly pouch in the middle you can easily just plop out half of the pouch. Keep the other half for when their highness decides they might deign to eat a bit more.

Yes the gourmet mon petit ones- I use a teaspoon to get them out. Sheba does mini ones too and some of them are in jelly. They smell worse though

Mine prefers pate or shredded but given he only has one tooth that's probably why
They offered him boiled chicken at the vet and he did a "why you no roast it like mama?" face and declined turned his bum on them
He doesn't hunt either, I found him peering at an earwig on his paw fascinated and just letting it run over him

My cat hates expensive food. She will only eat felix, whiskers or tuna

All the cats in the world had a conference when they agreed that their diet should ideally be soft cat food three times a day. However they agreed to compromise on this and the vote went to hard complete food in the morning (preferably whiskas), with a small top up midday and a sachet of whiskas wet food in the evening. (Supplemented with the carcass of small, frightened mammals such as mice). Some of the cats said they quite liked the Sainsbury, or lidl wet food, but all agreed that the whiskas dried food is the best.

Ps this is written by my cat

SO - put a piece of Orijin (Cat and kitten) on the cat tree this morning and she was VERY interested - and ate it. The bag smells like pond fish food for those who know what that smells like. Not horrible but quite strong. Her nose was going as soon as i cut the top open.

Then she got down and investigated the little bowl of it i'd put down. But thrashed her tail ... so now she's got her bowl of mon petite gourmet (ate some), a bowl of Applaws duck and chicken (ignored form alst night) and a bowl of Orijin. (and water of course) It looks like a pet food testing lab. on the mat

(is anyone else finding this thread a pleasant gentle distraction from all the stress at the mo?)

(is anyone else finding this thread a pleasant gentle distraction from all the stress at the mo?)

Yes. However stark things get, a picture of a cat in a cardboard box is always comforting.

Here is mine, wondering why the vets didn't roast chicken for him. Worst hotel ever, too many needles, no mama, and gave him a bad haircut

Aw, butter wouldn't melt! How can anybody resist such charm?

Hope his leg isn't too sore.