Best hard cat food?

[Italiangreyhound]

Vet suggested our 4 and a half month old ginger tom should have hard cat food for his teeth. He does seem to prefer hard to soft but not the Iams one that I got (at great expense!). Who can recommend a brand that is tasty and nutricious. We have Tesco and sainsburies close by but I prefer to shop at Sainsburies. Does he still need kitten food?

Tesco Crunchies hard cat food - salmon, trout, tuna and shrimp - he likes that but am I right in thinking it is a treat food not a full food???

Cockycat eats smilla from Zooplus.co.uk, it's not the best but she will eat it.
I was recommended Orijen as the best dry food but it is very expensive and cockycat won't eat it anyway.

I think all the supermarket brands are much of a muchness.

I like Applaws because it's grain free. Good value if you can buy in bulk.

Oh yes I forgot Applaws, cockycat won't eat that either but it is good and you can get it in pet shops.

I avoid iams after finding out about their animal testing.

Fluffycat liked applaws until I bought the really big expensive bag.

Go-Cat is my cats' favourite. Stupidly this time I bought Tesco crunchies and they are leaving quite a bit.

Vets recommend avoiding all 'cheap' dry food - such as Tescos and Go-cat. Apparently they are the single biggest cause of urinary crystals, which often lead to cats being put down (there was a case on this board very recently).

Go for anything better quality, such as Iams. The Celia Hammond Animal Trust only use James Wellbeloved, and so do I. All cats seem to like it. You can normally get good deals online, and if you buy in bulk (I buy the 10kg bags for about £39-42, it probably doesn't work out that much more expensive than buying a lot of smaller bags of the cheap stuff. And it's certainly much cheaper in the long run than paying the vet bills for the problems caused by the cheap stuff.

We recently changed to Royal Canin complete dry kitten food from whiskas and has really helped with digestion etc. Is pricy but worth it. I would have gone for Applaws dry as was also recommended by vet but more difficult to get hold of as our local pet shop doesn't stock it.

Is great your kitten likes dry as although our kitten likes the dry stuff she's a massive wet food (Felix) fan so we now need to find a better wet food for her too!

Thanks thecatneuterer but I went for Iams and he would not eat it. I got Co op own and he doesn't like and I got Co op wet cat food and he loves it. I also go to Go cat complete and he loves it too!

I would love to try James Wellbeloved but I can't buy a £40 bag and him not eat it, he is very fussy.

Like everything to do with owning a cat this seems to be a bit of a minefield. I had never realised it would be so complicated!

I totally agree with cat neuter. A student recently did a retrospective study of block cats ( with crystals) for her dissertation 90% were feed cheap dry food supermarket or go-cat prior o their first episode of being blocked.
My own cats eat the hills vet essentials one mainly as when the the beautiful moggy girl was alive it was the dry food she vomited least. Most brands do come in small bags that you can try. I will probably switch them after this bag to Arden grange which is grain free and the mobile mop eats the dog food.

Ours are having Sanabelle from the zooplus site at the moment - it's cheaper than the Iams they were on before that, it comes in Ostrich flavour, and they like it just as much! (apart from the kitten - see other thread!)

Got some James Welllbeloved, it was on special offer! Is it all I need, just dry not wet?? Looks good.

Oh drat, cat not interested. What if I mix it iwth Go Cat and then gradually phase out the Go Cat?? How they sell it is if it is not good for cats?

What about Waitrose own brand?

Is it his feed time, though, or did you just put the food down on spec?

Vets Kitchen, ordered from website or Amazon. It's made by a vet, Joe Ingles of former Vets in Practice fame. No unnecessary fillers and my cats both love it.

ChangeCats love James Wellbelloved Fish for Seniors. There are kitten foods in their range. Nice to know the CHT rate their food

I got a bit geeky about all this cat food stuff a while ago while working out what to buy for our kittens.

The worst wet food is, apparently, better than the best dry for reasons other posters have already stated. Also, the benefits dry foods have for teeth are questionable, since the kibbley bits break up and stick in and around them.

Lots of vets don't get nutritional training and recommend based on what pet food manufacturers come in and sell them.

From memory the bladder problems come about because cats don't drink enough to compensate for the dry food. They wee much more on wet food, which says it all!

Essay - sorry!

Our Siamese always appear to have thrived on the Opticat Premium hard food from Lidl.

We make sure to have loads of water receptacles around the house - they cats particularly like the wine bucket kept in the lounge!

Oh dear now I am mega confused! "The worst wet food is, apparently, better than the best dry for reasons other posters have already stated. Also, the benefits dry foods have for teeth are questionable, since the kibbley bits break up and stick in and around them."

So wet is better?????????

Our dentist recommended Royal Canin Dental

www.pet-supermarket.co.uk/Products/CN180106/royal-canin-dental

It has big bisucits and when he eats it he salavates a lot!

Italian greyhound as a vet I actually feed both. Dry in the morning and wet in the evening.
Dental issues are much more common in cats than urinary issues. It is not that dry food is good for teeth, but wet food is bad for the teeth as it hangs around the teeth longer forming plaque and tartar.
I did get nutritional training it is a myth that we don't, quite a lot of hours and significantly more than a member of pet shop staff. We receive less incentives than pet shops do to feed particular foods.
I now feed mine Arden Grange dry (no cereals) in the morning and waitrose essentials wet in the evening.
In answer to the won't eat expensive will eat cheap dry. Think of cheap dry as Maccy D's and expensive as vegetables with children. Even though they like Maccy D's you wouldn't let them eat it for every meal.

Lonecatwithkitten thanks so much, how kind for you to give such a great answer.

Is waitrose better than Co op (own wet food??)

I said Our dentist recommended Royal Canin Dental

www.pet-supermarket.co.uk/Products/CN180106/royal-canin-dental

That should read our VET! not dentist! What do you think of the Royal Canin Dental?

Thanks.

Did you try more than one flavour of IAMs? My cat is a picky fucker and will only eat certain ones. Roast chicken is the preference (which is a shame because it bloody stinks).

My cat prefers soft and posh stuff at that, so for a while if he had Whiskas 'Oh So Meaty' or similar he wouldn't touch the dried stuff. I eventually had to resort to leaving the dried food out and ignoring 'complaints' until he actually ate some.

He does now seem to understand that he needs to eat both the wet and dry food, but one changed meal and he's off fussing again

I assume you're also putting out water alongside the wet food? (I might get flamed but mine gets cat milk once a day because he would rather leave his dried food and lick puddles than drink fresh water from a bowl in the house )

Oh and our vet was happy as long as he was eating dried for at least one meal a day.

Though he must be getting some crunch from the bones of his numerous rodent / avian victims

One of the things I read somewhere was that you should offer water away from the food. Something to do with wild cats drinking elsewhere to their kill.

I actually read that after we had got into the habit of leaving ice buckets full of water in various places in the house, having noticed how they would choose to drink out of an ice bucket that we had been to lazy to take back to the kitchen forgotten about.

I had the Iams kitten would I could only see one kid, purple pack.