Do I put my cat back on the expensive cat food?

[Novatherova]

Hi I currently have one female pedigree cat who is 2. She is the light of my life who I love very much.

She was on Royal Canin Intense Beauty wet and dry food which was £13.50 for 12 pouches and then the dry when I ran out.

Due to cost of living Pets at Home put Price up to £16.49 for 12. My DP asked me to change the food due to how expensive.

I put her on Purina One and then Purina Mon Petit. For 48 pouches it was £18 on another website.

Since changing her coat has gone downhill and she now also has dandruff. Her fur looks shabby and I feel v guilty.

I want to put her back on Royal Canin. I also pay fee 22 per month to vets for all consultations, flea, vacs etc plus 17 for insurance. So it all adds up.

I pay it all out my wages. If I put her back on Royal Canin I won't be able to adopt a cat.

Wedding and baby on the way so I need to minimise costs. But I can't justify cutting her food that makes her healthy. When she was on it she glowed.

But my DP is adamant. I will ignore him and do what I want as I say its my money. But want other opinions??

Better quality, high meat content can work out cheaper than the overpriced crap as it is more filling than cereals/fillers/bulkers and flavour enhancing crud and no dry is needed. Try to avoid carageenan, there was some discussion about links to cancer, it is used to add colour to food.

I am not sure that Katkin is the best priced but there are other options mentioned above.

Totally agree. I have run through zooplus‘ catalogue and have tried so many different foods that are grain free/sugar free, but I have absolute divas and they go off everything so I need to keep an ever more complex rotation.
oh and they don’t like pate or chicken in any format

Another vote for Katkin. Our older lady was skinny and hard to keep weight on, rheumy eyed and her fur was dull. After a few months of Katkin she looked five years younger. She’s been on it a year now, and has gained so much weight she’s on a diet 😳

My cat loves purizon. Especially the fish one and the boar one! This is high meat content and good value, I leave it down for cat to graze on.

I feed a mix of untamed and gourmet gold wet food. Knowing the dry is good quality I don't worry about the wet so much .

My Persians had the Persian food and it does make a difference. I had to swap to Iams as I got a new cat who didn't tolerate RC. The other ones cost hasn't been quite the same since. The cheapest place to get it was Zooplus. You could try salmon oil. Or malt paste.

Please not malt paste, it is petroleum jelly with flavouring and used for the expulsion of furballs.

Rather than buy fish oil which can make the coat oily and dandruff worse if you aren't careful, try feeding oily fish (without added salt) like sardines if you can find non salted ones, they will have salt in because they are sea fish, some companies add more. A third to half tin every couple of days.

Or you could do what I do and feed a tin of Thrive sardine & mackerel or similar or Animonda Ocean )I think it's called) Thrive is the reasonably priced of the two. Both are all fish with some liquid, Thrive is a 75g tin.

IAMS is not good food, low meat content and plant derivatives (usually maize) I avoid labels with plant derivatives as I don't want a diabetic cat. Look at the labels, good food is minimum 60% meat, but higher is better.

We had huge problems with Felix and continuous vomiting. It was like the food was rented. Had Katkin for nearly a year now, nowhere close to the piles of vomit, she's put on the weight she needed to, far better condition of fur and the litter tray no longer stinks.

I’ve started buying the small bags in the three bag selection @Sunshineandrainbow.

I’d bought the 6.5kg bags for a few years. It lasts forever, I think a bag lasts me about four months. I now order 3 lots of the trios which lasts a bit less time /costs a bit more but it’s still good value.

@TinyKitty I'll give that a try. They won't usually eat wet food though. But my mum gave me some Webox and they will eat that.

I have house cats and I don’t flea or worm them routinely. I do have a dog and they did once get fleas from the dog so I flea treated and wormed them then. But if I didn’t have a dog I don’t see how they could be at risk. So could you save £22 a month there?

Thanks everyone for all of your replies.

I've spent the time looking at the different foods etc. Katkin was cheaper than RC but not by much. They recommended I feed her one pouch per day which seems too low (she's overweight.) Their food looks amazing though.

I then looked at cool cat (can't remember full name.) Their food looks good too and it's cheaper. So I've decided to try them in the first instance. If no improvement then will go to Katkin.

I'm also cancelling the 22 per month to the vet. Will buy flea an worm elsewhere.

Can I jump on to this thread to ask if there's a good food for overweight cats? On vets advice we feed purina veterinary obesity (I do buy from zooplus, we have tried some of the lesser known brands but my cats got very fat!). My cats are indoor, we have some hairball issues that aren't too bad with current food, and in the summer they sometimes struggle with cystitis.
I like the idea of the subscription ones but not sure they are specialist enough?

My two love this Purina and the vet always comments on the quality of their coats https://www.petsathome.com/shop/en/pets/gourmet-natures-creations-wet-cat-food-chicken-and-turkey-multipack-8x85g?weight=680g?utmsource=google&utmmmedium=cpc&utmcampaign=googleeshopping&cmmmc=GoogleeCPCPC--%20googleeshopping--googleeshopping&ita=1976&ito=googleshopping&istCompanyId=7255ccad-a1fc-4729-af31-478f79e5071c&istFeedId=385e6b9a-8b03-4076-a8bb-e4737df8549c&istItemId=imrxmlapm&istBid=t&cqqsrc=googleads&cqqcmp=19029649874&cqterm=&cqqplac=&cqnet=g&cqqplt=gp&gclid=Cj0KCQjwz6ShBhCMARIsAH9A0qWB9YOfoC3e4dfcjLbH4XGFZPJttBU49gvj8EWfPp1wfxysqEJfuUaAlO6EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Thoroughly recommend Zooplus - have used them for years, always excellent value.
My cat loves cosma -high meat content, the chicken is just - chicken, it doesn't look like cat food at all. For dried food, she has concept for life.

Agree it lasts such a long time.
I love the trio bags too.
Had a delivery this week and tried the chicken and fish variety.
It def fills my ginger boy up, he loves the lamb and boar variety, bit random flavours but obviously works.
I must leave a review actually as been using it for years and not a brand often heard of.
Delivery is so quick too from zooplus.

Try the trio mixed pack op. It is so good. And I don't worry too. Much about the quality of wet food I give as this is so high quality.

www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/dry_cat_food/purizon

You don't need specialist food, just less. Weighloss must be slow to avoid loss of body condition. It does take a long time.
High meat content food like the ones I mentioned above. Find out the weight of your cat, and how much he/she needs to lose, get some baby scales if you don't have any.
I am doing this currently, have been since last year.

Vets are brainwashed to sell you 'special' foods. Many of them are higher fat where they should be normal food, but high meat content, close to a natural cat diet.

My cat is small and was being overfed before I got her. She was already on the good quality food, as soon as she came home I put her on Animonda Carny, then ordered a selection from Zooplus. She looks a lot less like a blob now. Also play, lots of excercise and treats come out of the daily allowance.

Absolutely No Dry food, it is too high carb, even the better ones, cats need liquid in their diet.

Cosma is not a complete food. Please check your cat gets enough taurine etc.
Supplementary, complementary foods are not sufficient in the nutrients your cat needs and should be fed only as treats. Applaws, Encore (made by MPM products) and many other shredded foods are not complete. Some also contain rice but say 'grain free'.

If you buy shredded foods please check it is complete. Blink, Meowing Heads and others cost more but are nutritionally balanced.

This is a particular annoyance to me because the stuff is marketed as being good, when it is not a balanced regular food. It's a con.

@TheGoogleMum Dry food contributes to cystitis, I stopped it many years ago for that reason and sometimes fed half a dozen kibbles as a treat, until I came home to find blood, lots of it.

Cats are not designed by nature to eat kibble, and if it hadn't been sprayed with a flavour enhancer (the greasy residue it gets) they wouldn't choose to eat it.

Meat and sometimes a nibble at some herbs or grass, plus what is in the stomach of the creature they consume means they get what they need. I feed high meat, sometimes with added veg like Feringa or just meat like Animonda Carny.

Anyone looking for advice on food and weight loss could do worse than looking at this site

https://www.petforums.co.uk/forums/cat-health-and-nutrition.9/

My cats are both 10 and on 100% dry food. Neither have ever been unwell or overweight. We use Purina however I'm going to look into the 40% protein one in Pets at home a pp mentioned. Didn't know about the low protein content.

For an indoor cat only using your own garden, unless she hunts out there and kills and consumes stuff regularly, you're fine to drop the routine monthly flea/worm stuff - instead, treat the house annually for fleas as a preventative with a product that lasts 12 months (or bi-annually with a 6 monthly product) then just treat topically if you find fleas. If you do find fleas or you see symptoms that indicate she should be wormed, or you know that shes killed and eaten something wild.. then worm too.

Food.. better quality foods you'll feed less of, you'll also get less output so litter will last longer. The best for many is a raw diet but that takes some research and knowledge - it can however be done pretty cheaply once you know what you're doing!

You can buy ready made raw if your cat takes to it. Freezers in the pet concessions of garden centres have a small section for cats. There are some good ones online. Google for raw cat food, most of them are for dogs, but also have a selection for cats. It seems that cat owners are not their intended target (yet).

I'm not sure about the other issues but with obesity are they active? My one is an indoor, is semi active, but loves her food. She's roughly 5kg now.