Cat Food!!

[Bumblelion]

What brand of cat food do you buy (obviously, only if you have a cat!).

I cannot seem to find one that my cat likes. He changes his mind from one week to another what particular flavour he likes and the quality is just awful. The jelly ones seem to be all jelly and the ones in gravy seem to be very runny.

Am giving up on ideas of what to feed him?

One question - why don't they make cat food in "bird" flavour or "hamster" flavour as they seem to be the one thing he does like eating - not very easy to explain to daughter why we can't have any more hamsters until the cat has passed on as he seems to like eating them. He ate the first one and then we bought another to replace the first (without the daughter knowing) - I think the cat couldn't believe it - he eats the first one and then we go and buy him another one to eat. Not any more!!

Any suggestions?

The only food our cat will eat is Arthurs (but not the stuff in jelly) which restricts us to 3 flavours - rabbit&chicken,turkey and I think it is sardine & pilchard. So I know your problem - It comes to something when the cat is a fussier eater than the daughter (and that is saying something).
Of course said cat loves chicken, lamb etc when we have a roast and gets most put out when she is 'chucked out' of the house rather than being allowed to climb all over the table!
Good luck

My cat is very strange - if we put beef/lamb/chicken in his bowl, he turns his nose up and won't touch it.

If we put it straight in the bin, he will do his utmost to get it out.

Cats are wierd aren't they?! We've got two, and both of them will only eat the 'Classic' cat food, specifically chicken flavour and nothing else. It's got a lot of jelly, but isn't runny, so a hit. I agree about the bird flavour food tho! Our particular favourite at the moment would be vole flavour - we always find one in their bowl in the morning.

Bumblelion-I sympathise. We have 3 cats. Thoroughly spoilt by 5months stay with M+D whilst we were moving house. One had fresh fish cooked every day. Another liked raw beef or turkey, and the oldest one was given sheba. Couldn't be doing with all of that when I got them back, so it was a return of Felix (big tins). Needless to say, they refused point blank. So after a week of the jelly being sucked off and the meaty bits spat out all around the place, they now get only dried food. A mix of felix/whiskers/iams/friskies in every kind of flavour. They seem well nourished and happy, and positively hoover up any wet food I happen to buy on the odd soft occasion. Just one point though, if you go this route, make sure there is oodles of water available. Mine will only drink rain water or loo water (yuk) so I collect as much as possible in a bucket to top up their bowl. Thats if they dont finish it off first. The birds dont get a look in in their water bath! A queue of cats waiting for it.

Another vote for Classic here - we've never looked back since we discovered it and our two were as fussy as - they were like Jack Sprat and his wife, if one like one the other refused it but Classic (and crunchies) seems to have done the trick.

And it's not expensive!

LOL at your cat stories - voles in bowls(!) and cats down the loo sound very familiar.

Our cats have Whiskas or Kitekat sachets. The different varieties go in and out of favour but becuase I try to stick to the Nestle boycott there isn't much other choice, really. The old cat loves Whiskas biscuits and the young one goes mad for Hill's Science diet. Anything stolen is by far the best, though.

our year old goes in for hunting worms....yuk, they have been brought up on dried food. Our first Badger like Felix, but not the second half of the tine that was stored in the fridge..and he loved mamite and cheese and fish. Jasper the next cat loved curries.

We have three batty burmese, Bollinger, Moet and Clicquot (`Tattinger went walkabouts and never came home) One will only eat dried, one only wet and the other is indifferent! Whiskas, kitekat sachets are the best! It is the only way I can get the children to feed the cats, but they get through 5-6 a day each!

They too only like water from bedside glasses! One will kill for icecream,- any Ben and Jerrys, we have a photo of him with his head stuck in a B&J phish food carton!
Poppadums,crisps, pasta, cheese, anything they'll eat! They always appear for fallout from the highchair tray at the same time everyday, they will climb onto the table if we don't watch out!
It doesn't stop them bring in mice by the gross, squirrels, baby rabbits,dozy woodpigeons, magpies,rats - UGH weasels, they have had about 50 robins, 3 pairs of jays, 4 woodpeckers, the odd duck, cornered a muncjac deer in the garden, I can't bear the bits they leave on the laundry room floor, why do they always have to bring them home! They are belled, tagged and double belled!!

pamina - I too have a cat who will only eat felix smoked salmon and turkey! What do they put in that stuff?

Wow, you have some killing machines there, Alibubbles! Burmemese are real characters aren't they? A friend had four and they were all so different in personality, but very friendly. We have one colourpoint Persian who over 12 years has caught about three things (and DH reckons they were actually suicidal and jumped into her mouth) and an ordinary tabby who has brought in a few things, in 18mths. The last mouse was very much alive, running round our family room!! I caught it eventually.

Yikes Alibubbles, all those birds! I work for a well known bird charity you know - I might have to send the boys round!!! (Only kidding )

Our cat, Clyde TALKS to the birds and has never caught anything in his life - he's not the hunter, rather the hunted ! What a poof ! DD has just started to notice him and gets really excited every time he comes near. Unfortunately he doesn't share her enthusiasm !

Our cat used to eat the Whiskas sachets but now IAMS dried cat food (it was on special offer in ASDA one day). We havn't looked back since trying the IAMS, it's not as messy as the wet food and you don't have to worry about smelly leftovers or half used tins getting smelly in the kitchen (especially in the summer). Ds aged 3 can even feed her for us, we have put a black line round the measuring cup and he has learned to scoop out the right amount. Have to make sure she has lots of water mind you. Know what you mean mind you she likes chiken flavour but I am sure mouse flavour would go down better judging by the amount of them she brings home!

I think you can get litter tray liners, a bit like nappy sacks, they deodorise a little....

What about an enclosed litter tray - would that help? Is Catsan the stuff like clear beads or is it the granular litter? I used the beads and it was brilliant for our kitten!

I'd check that kitty doesn't have a bladder/kidney infection; that made our cat very smelly.

I used to use Catsan, but found woodchip pellets cheaper and easier to use when I had nine of the little Burmes b**s running arount. The tart got out before we knew she was in season and had a double litter, 3 mogs and six burmese! The wood chip pellets (not shavings) come in huge bags, and you only need to lift out the wet/soiled bit and the rest stays very fresh. They use it in our cattery too.

Nine kittens - wow! Did you find homes for them all?

Batters - agree with SueDonim about the enclosed litter tray. I found whatever litter I used, it smelt after awhile. I then got a tray with lid and carbon filter (about £10.00 in Argos), and have never looked back. Even keeps stinky poo smells in!
Agree with Alibubbles about wood pellets too - I was spending a fortune on catsan/clumping litter, only to remove great clumps daily to dispose of, then having to refill litter. Now buy massive bags of wood pellets from pet store (much cheaper than supermarket) and its great.

SueDonim, we homed four of them in pairs, we had to keep one as he was the runt so couldn't go on his own, which meant his brother couldn't go as a singleton either (according to my DH, who really isn't as cat batty as I am!) ) Burmese do need company so are best in pairs. This mean we had 5, mum then went walkies, and old blue had to be put to sleep at 18, so now down to a manageable three, they rule the house and re so vocal, one cries just like a baby, if heard on the phone people always think its the baby!

We had a Burmese for 24 hours, Alibubbles and that was enough! We got our first three cats from a rescue home and the woman then told us she had a very special cat she was keeping for us, a blue Burmese. He was being rehomed because he didn't get on with the family Afghan hounds(!). What a cat! Our cats loathed him at first sight and they spent all evening trying to get at each other's throats. When we went to bed he escaped from every place we put him, having to rescue him from an upstairs ledge, because he'd opened the windows and climbed out. We knew we weren't the right home for him, lovely as he was, so had to send him back.