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?

Those eyes! He’s beautiful.

Thank you he just had a bandage on to keep the cannula in, he did a rather dramatic near death on me because he hadn't had enough attention/drama for a while, and has racked up an insurance bill of nearly 2k for triaditis

insurance bill of nearly 2k for triaditis thank god you have insurance which actually pays out.

@Laiste yep, Tesco. Always been really good

QueenOllie - ''He doesn't hunt either, I found him peering at an earwig on his paw fascinated and just letting it run over him''

Bless him. My old ragdoll used to do this with spiders. He's come to sniff them and they'd either get on his feet while he watched or they'd get all up in his whiskers and he'd go cross-eyed trying to watch. The spider would invariably end up being eaten and while he was crunching it he would be looking for it round his feet ... Not the brightest cat :)

Our cats eat very nicely, and the older cat (being a feral feline originally, not that you'd think that now) used to regard Iams as a treat. Over the years, however, they've had all kinds of food from basic Felix, Go-Cat and Whiskas to rather nice Lily's Kitchen and some of the Gourmet Perle and others (as a treat) and have gradually got parkier and parkier. And then all of a sudden they'll decide they'll be happy with Whiskas again!

I think, like people, they get sick of eating the same food; we've recently started them on Royal Canin kibble for domestic short hairs, and though it's expensive, it does mean we don't have to worry about waste (or the 'orrible flies that have been pestering us all flippin' summer, despite our clearing up the wet food as quickly as possible and sticking it in the biomass boiler box and then in a sealed box in the shed). We're aiming to persuade them that kibble is the way to go....(we have also tried them on the Purina with Spirulina and the low allergy version and they really rather like those as well).

Honestly, cats!

Just to add, they also really disliked the Hill's and the James Beloved that we tried them on (we had to find someone to give it to in the end), have decided they don't like anything with lamb in it, and are only really happy drinking water from the fountain (either the indoor one with the pump or the little outdoor one which is basically a bowl with solar panels in it. Which will obviously be going into storage soon for the duration...).

No, they're not spoiled at all. Not in any way shape or form....!

Felix and Go-cat.

We tried to give DCat the posh stuff but she turns her nose up. She hates Royal Canin and shakes her paw at Lily's Kitchen.

We call her the Alley-Cat because of her preferences

@middleager

(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.

Cat in a fruit bowl works just as well.

I’ve found that most cat foods are popular until it is on special offer and you buy in bulk, in which case it instantly becomes inedible.

This one is on Royal Canin Oral, which does seem to be doing the trick with her teeth, with half a pouch of Gourmet fishy stuff twice a day.

I know she drinks plenty of water because the level in my water glass goes down steadily during the day

So enjoying this thread - this one and the one about cheese have cheered me up no end the last few days.

We have a healthy 15 year old cat, the only food she's ever eaten is 'Hills science diet' which ever one was appropriate for the life stage she was at, shes now on 'Adult 11 plus'. She has never had a visit to the vet other that routine jabs and an abcess from a rat bite when she was 6. Her teeth are perfect as is her weight. It's cheap compared to wet food and her shirt doesn't stink.
I'd never feed her anything else.

shirt? Shit!

How about a cat in my clean washing and a cat in a lunchbag?

@Thatnameistaken

shirt? Shit!

I was thinking wow, yours must one posh cat, getting fed Hills Science AND wears a shirt!!

My veg told me whiska’s is a cats McDonald’s.

I buy whatever is on offer if I’m honest. My cat is absolutely fine and eats whatever she’s given her high is usually left over roast dinner too!

In fact, the bloody cow can jump up at my inner porch door and pull the handle handle down to let herself in from the porch!

Mine is long haired, he’s a Norwegian Forest, so he’s a hefty beast (though a perfectly healthy weight according to vet)

Biscuit-wise, he eats a 50/50 mix of James Wellbeloved Furball & Arcana Wild Prairie (excellent quality Canadian food). This is available 24/7

The dry food is ‘complete’, so nutritionally he doesn’t need anything else but he does like a wet pouch too. He also has 4 or 5 pouches of the Purina Gourmet Perle Mini (they are 50g so much smaller than regular sized pouches which are about 85-100g) as he prefers lots of small meals rather than a couple of larger ones. The large/regular sized ones are a waste of money because he leaves half of it behind to get crusty .

My mom, my sister and I all have/had cats from the same litter. I feed royal Canin (dry & wet), my sister feeds Iams dry plus whatever wet is currently flavour of the week and my mom fed whatever she could get from the supermarket.

Sadly my mom’s cat ended up in renal failure at around 14/15. The other two amazingly have no renal issues at 18.

I would say that food was probably the not the only factor though. My mom was not the greatest with sticking to preventative vet visits.

For our cat we noticed her general condition improved when we started her on premium food (from around age 5/6). We are lucky though that she seems to like the food we give her and she has never really gone off it.

See, now, i'm reading thinking yes, i need to get her a cat food to combat hairballs, cos she's fluffy. And the indoor formula cos she's indoors 99.9% of the time. Oh and senior, because she's 10. And the high protein content obvs. That 'Oral' formula sounds very sensible. The one to help keep a coat oiled is recommended when they spend a lot of time next to the radiators ... tick.

So ... which one?!

Well, Laise, the obvious answer is feed her one of each type
, so she has about six meals a day and will allow her to randomly refuse to eat one or two of them, just to keep you on your toes.

And unless you're a millionaire, you will need to switch to own brand beans on toast in order to afford keeping madam in the manner that she deserves.

BarbaraofSeville

With the samples i've ordered off the back of this thread i think that's the stage we're at now !

My kittens were raised on Whiskers kitten food, in jelly. When that was out of stock I tried them on Tesco own brand kitten food, in gravy. They LOVED it! Its cheaper so I'm sticking with that for now.

My previous cat needed a specialist allergy diet and it cost a fortune.

I use BURNS ...because I believe they have reasonably high ethical standards when it comes to ingredients.

I do not support factory farming, battery hens etc, animals farmed in awful conditions ete etc....so many pet food brands recognise you love your individual pet but assume you give no thought to the animals you are feeding them on. It is not all free range but I think fairly farmed. I think even the so-called high premium brands use factory farmed ingredients.

By the way, if you have a cat with a teeth issue you can ask your vet for a tub of seaweed extract...it is what the pet food makers put into their anti-plaque pet food. Cost me £9.....and it lasted over 3 years! Much cheaper than buying specialist pet food and does exactly the same.

Yes in some circumstances my elderly cat has had major bowel surgery and when we tried to put her back into felix or whiskas she got loose bowels. So she's on Lily's Kitchen no grain meat foil trays.

However if she hadn't been so poorly she would still be on whiskas as she has thrived for 12 years in it.

1 bowl of Origin
1 bowl of Applaws
1 bowl of her usual - Purina One Indoor Formula

She's ignoring the £££ Orijin and Applaws and is eating (and actually begged for when it ran out) her usual Purina which i buy in Tesco.

I wanted to get her a better quality brand!

Here is Cuthbert who is now refusing to eat even his usual Whiskas poultry in gravy as I once tried to mix a bit of better quality Wild Farm chicken into it.