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?

It is really shocking that a supermarket branded chicken flavoured food will probably only have only 4% chicken, and there will be no mention of what other meats (or fillers) are included. By contrast, our Sanabelle has a detailed breakdown of ingredients: duck and chicken flavour is 30% chicken, 30% chicken broth, 14% fresh duck, 14% fresh lungs, 5% fresh heart (important taurine source), 5% fresh liver, 1% minerals, 1% oil.

We feed ours Wainwright’s or Lily’s Kitchen. Both available from Pets at Home (I think amazon deliver, too). If can’t get there will get Encore from the supermarket. As others have said, you get what you pay for. Whilst the cheap ones may be cheap they don’t offer value as they’re mainly grain with very little of the protein or nutrition your car needs. I don’t think the ones we have are that expensive, the cats are part of the family and deserve to be looked after including properly nourished. I’m not on a high horse, I just speak from experience after we lost one of our cats before his time due to kidney problems (fed felix and gocat). I’ll never know whether the food was a contributor but I’ve been more careful this time around.

The only food e have found that our cat always eats is Iams. All the other ones she gets bored of and won’t finish the pack, but never gets bored of the iams. I have no idea about the nutritional content though?

*cat, not car!! Definitely don’t put cat food in your car (or unleaded in your cat!!) 😂

Our cat has allergies so we need to check ingredients carefully or her skin flares up badly. I don't buy anything with 'meat and animal derivatives' because of this. She does well on encore and applaws wet food and royal canin dry.

Our old cat lived to a very healthy 22 on mostly go cat biscuits.

Mine consistently refuse anything but Felix. I've given up trying higher meat content or grain free food, they just won't eat it. Now I bulk order from Zoo plus and they are happy.

My two (10 months) are on Royal Canin kitten at the moment for the long term good of their teeth. They'll move onto the adult version soon. It's expensive but lasts for ages. They'll eat it but always look a bit disappointed so they also get half a pouch of Felix or Whiskas "on the side" which they really enjoy. They prefer smelly Whiskas to Felix.

My pair eat Applaws tuna and the Gournet jelly pouches. They turn their nose up at the rest.

I have tried lots of different dry food, but they only seem to like gocat. Of course, that means I have a giant sack of Lily’s Kitchen just sat on the side mocking me.

Girl cat adores Dreamies. Kitty crack.

I actually spend more on pet food than people food

On the back of this thread I decided to ditch the supermarket dry food. My older cat always seems so hungry and I hope the expensive dry food fills her up more.

However, the prices seem so high. I've just got an Amazon deal on James Wellbeloved so will see what they make of it.

We were advised by the vet that whistas and felix are not really good for cats. We currently feed Science Plan (a mixture of dry and wet) which they seems happy enough with.

Mine change their minds daily, sometimes even between breakfast and dinner! I'll buy a box of 48 on special offer and congratulate myself on having enough to last a good couple of weeks......they eat a couple of pouches and then turn their noses up at the rest. So I have to have several different brands available in the cupboard. The most expensive we get though is Sheba. I wouldnt pay the prices of the other ones. No more than £4.50 max. For a box of 12 pouches that's our limit

Mine will happily eat Hills dry but has pulled faces over different types of wet food except tinned Whiskas salmon in jelly. He has a bit of that for his breakfast and luckily I can buy individual tins in the corner shop because a few months ago he pulled a face over that too. He's good with drinking water as well.

My cats are overweight and one of them has a urinary tract problem so I have had to put them onto a specific Science Plan dry food. It’s expensive but I buy it in massive bags so cost doesn’t work out too bad in the long run.

Same here for me. Felix, Whiskas, Sheba, Gourmet for wet food, Royal Canin or James Well Beloved Grain Free for dry. Seems a good combination. I’ve had a lot of cats and never had any issues with the above mentioned brands.

I have incidentally tried Royal Canin and Science Plan wet food but the cats won’t touch it.

Felix As good as it looks is like crack cocaine to my cat - it doesn't seem to satisfy him and he continually yowls for more food even after just being fed. We've been through every other wet catfood on the planet which he turns his nose up at. Now its back to dried food (one of the Royal Canin ones that he'll eat) and the greasy dark meat off the chicken.

It totally depends on the cat food. There are expensive cat food brands that are trash and cheap cat food brands that are good.

Meanwhile your cat, rather like humans, will probably be most happy eating junk and not what is a cat healthy diet.

It's worth bearing in mind that cat food is advertised to humans and not cats. Cats don't eat tasty vegetables, reindeer, tenderly cooked rice etc. Cats eat meat.

If you go on Zooplus there are loads of brands of grain-free cat food that often work out a lot cheaper than high street brands, or even luxury brands. @Mentounasc has listed the main contenders. Bear in mind that you also have to feed a much smaller portion of something like Animonda Carny than Whiskas as it's all food and no filler, so cost per day is a lot less.

My cats have 1/4 a small tin of Animonda Carny a day and are full, + Purizon dry food. Only changed for the Old Lady when she needed a renal diet.

Cosmas Snackies are cheaper than Thrive if you want to feed treats and better for them than Dreamies.

Mine has tinned wet food because the pouches can't be recycled. Usually the gourmet gold tins. She has one per day unless she has a chicken breast that day, she likes them raw. She also gets biscuits - Royal Canin Sensible bought in 2kg bags from Amazon - half a bowlful refreshed each day.

She is funny with water, if it's anywhere near her food she won't touch it! She likes a bowl on the landing and in dds room and we have one outside for rainwater this time of year, but we often see her drinking from puddles, flower pots etc.

A lot of the time it's pot luck what your cat will eat, not all of them will only eat the good quality food that you might want them to eat. I have 4 of my own and foster rescue cats so have spent a lot of time trying to work out which is best, most cost effective and what they will reliably eat. My own get Felix AGAIL or Sheba because they mostly prefer that. One seems to eat almost entirely dry food and I suspect the younger 3 all supplement with birds and rodents quite a bit.

Of course they won't all eat the same so I've got the mental load of trying to remember which one likes which food, which may or may not be the same as last week. I'm seriously thinking of buying a whiteboard for the kitchen so I can keep track.

One thing that they categorically will not eat is what you think is their favourite food and have just bought a lot of because it was on special offer .

If your cat will eat it, Carny from Zooplus is probably the best value good quality food. It's nearly all meat and comes in cans, so you can recycle them. It's more filling than the likes of felix so one cat will probably eat around 250 g of food a day so can work out cheaper than sachets of standard food like whiskas/felix. If you want to try this, I'd suggest getting some 200 g tins and aim to feed one a day supplemented with dry food if she will eat that.

However, if you only have one cat, you won't get the economy of scale that I do, buying on average for around 8 (the rescue does provide some food, but not all that the fosters might need), because I buy big packs that work out quite a bit cheaper per kilo and spend enough to get free postage, which you might not do and certainly not while you're trying out what she will like. Zooplus also do Smilla, which is not quite as high meat, but it's quite good and the 200 g cans work out a bit cheaper per kilo.

For dry food we get Iams, Harringtons and Smilla dry, which again are a good balance between cost/quality. All the cats over the years have seemed perfectly healthy with good teeth and lived generally to 15+ so I must be doing something right.

Mine has Applaws tins. The ones with actual meat in natural broth. I'm half convinced he's diabetic but he is symptom free on a wet food only diet. If he has biscuits or cheaper wet food (with grains/cereals in, so carbs) his behaviour changes and he starts looking unhealthy.

Ideally I'd like him to be raw fed, but he's being picky so it's taking a while to switch him over!

@RainyDaze4

This is really useful, thank you!

I am thinking stick with the Felix which she likes but invest in some more expensive dry food - she is long haired so I am keen to get one that helps with hair balls (unless that’s just advertising!!) - I’ve seen Royal Canin do one...

If you're looking to reduce hair balls, I've found that these help (especially in the summer when dcat 1&2 are shedding their coats.)

Good luck OP with whatever you decide to do with your cat, and I hope it brings you all the love that a cat can give.

I had a few months living with my parents whilst I awaited a house sale. The supermarket was on my way home from work- a simple task to do the shopping, except when it came to what food to get the cat (who was not the one I grew up with as a child).

We started out on Royal Canin wet and dry food then I made the mistake of getting Sheba for a Christmas ‘treat’ when she was about 2. After that she refused to go back to RC wet food. We had a week’s standoff and I had to give in when I came down to a massive pile of crap right in the middle of the sofa!

She’s been on it ever since but she’s an outdoor cat and an avid hunter so not too worried about the meat content.

@AnnaMagnani

It totally depends on the cat food. There are expensive cat food brands that are trash and cheap cat food brands that are good.

Meanwhile your cat, rather like humans, will probably be most happy eating junk and not what is a cat healthy diet.

It's worth bearing in mind that cat food is advertised to humans and not cats. Cats don't eat tasty vegetables, reindeer, tenderly cooked rice etc. Cats eat meat.

If you go on Zooplus there are loads of brands of grain-free cat food that often work out a lot cheaper than high street brands, or even luxury brands. @Mentounasc has listed the main contenders. Bear in mind that you also have to feed a much smaller portion of something like Animonda Carny than Whiskas as it's all food and no filler, so cost per day is a lot less.

My cats have 1/4 a small tin of Animonda Carny a day and are full, + Purizon dry food. Only changed for the Old Lady when she needed a renal diet.

Cosmas Snackies are cheaper than Thrive if you want to feed treats and better for them than Dreamies.

My one cat has started being sick after Dreamies. Are these known for being bad for them?

Mine is a fussy little madam. She prefers wet food but will only eat the same brand, even if they're different flavours, two or three days in a row. I buy selections from Zooplus with the occasional box of Felix from the supermarket. Certain brands, such as Lily's Kitchen, don't agree with her but I try to feed quality ingredients to her.

She was on ProPlan dry food when we've got her and she'll happily eat the same flavour day in day out. I don't know why she's so particular with her wet food.

My one cat has started being sick after Dreamies. Are these known for being bad for them?

No but you shouldn't give them many - 18 a day max I think? And less for kittens.