Which is the least smelly, but still decent, cat food?

[MimiSam]

We are new to cat owning and have just adopted two rescue cats. They are lovely. However, I'm shocked at just how bad wet cat food smells. Any tips on which brands aren't quite so stinky? Thanks.

[MoaningMingeWhingesAgain]

Wet cat food does stink IME. Dry is the way to go I'm afraid.

[pudseypie]

yes dry food also better for their teeth. maybe keep wet food as a weekend treat for them.

[thesixteenthtry]

No brand of dry food is much good and it can cause bladder problems. Wet food is better for your cats. I give mine a snack of better-quality dry food to get them indoors at night but they'd get addicted to it if I let them.

[thecatneuterer]

I agree with thesixteethtry, wet food is always better than dry. Cheap dry food is extremely bad for them and is the main cause of blocked bladders. Even very expensive dry food isn't in fact as healthy as the cheapest wet food.

Vets at our clinic (and elsewhere I think) recommend Butchers Classic (in orange tins). It apparently doesn't have as many nasty additives as some other brands and can also help with mouth/gum problems. It's also cheap. I also think it doesn't smell as bad as the other tinned stuff. Give it a go.

[Mintyy]

Felix As Good As It Looks in sachets is less smelly than Whiskas or Sheba imvho. It is not the cheapest but the big supermarkets often have a special offer on. I give my cat one of those little foil trays of Sheba every now and then for a treat ... but with the proviso that he eats it just outside the back door. Tis vair whiffy!

[thecatneuterer]

What really turns my stomach is when they come and 'kiss' you straight after eating. Cat food breath is the pits.

[4yoniD]

Gourmet Perle and the other Gourmet cat foods have very little smell. However they contain sugar (many cat foods do) and - entirely by coincidence, of course - my cat had to have a load of teeth taken out.

There are cheaper cat foods without sugar, but all the ones I've tried stink :(

Might try Butchers.

[itsnothingoriginal]

yy to Butchers Choice. We switched from Felix which pongs and made kitten very smelly too - awful wind! She gets a small amount of wet food plus the more expensive dry food every day and it seems to do the trick.

[bundaberg]

we buy either encore or applaws because they have a high meat content and aren't just full of loads of "filler" type stuff. because it's basically just meat in a tin it doesn't smell that much

wet is much better for cats than dry.

[bundaberg]

or, if you're up for it then give a raw diet a go? google it

[MimiSam]

Thanks everyone - the Vet said to avoid too much dry food, so will try some of the wet brands suggested above. We started on Sheba and it really smells awful (so does their poo!)

[loopyloou]

I order Bozita online, it has high meat content and doesn't smell as much as others IMO.

[SydneyB]

I'm confused. Our vet says dry food is much better for them than wet and that they should be on one of those complete dry food. Wet bad for their teeth apparently. And since we had to pay £500 for a tooth extraction, eek, a year ago...

[Madratlady]

My cats have Go Cat dry which I know isn't great, kind of the cat equivalent of feeding your kids chicken dippers, chips and beans, but the cats like it and it's not too expensive. They get a pouch of good quality wet food, HiLife, between them every day. It seems to be suiting them ok because they are beautiful, sleek, glossy coated kitties.

I'd be tempted to up the wet food but the decent stuff isn't cheap. I was considering switching to bozita although it'll cost a bit more and giving them a tin a day.

[thecatneuterer]

sydney well it's a bit of a toss up really. As previously said a lot of the wet stuff contains sugar, which is bad for the teeth. Butchers Classic is apparently much better and contains something which is actually good for gum/teeth/mouth problems.

Dry food can mean your cat doesn't get enough liquid, which can lead to cystitis for example. The cheap dried food has been shown to be responsible for up to 90% of crystals in urine and blocked bladders, which can kill you cat if not caught early enough and which is very expensive to treat.

So if you must feed dried don't feed the cheap stuff.

And madratlady I'm sure your cats are fine now because they are still very young, but you are asking for problems in the future if you carry on feeding them that way.

[loopyloou]

Sydney, my vet told me dry food doesn't keep their teeth clean, but does cause bladder problems.

[thesixteenthtry]

I used to buy Bozita but Zooplus kept delivering my huge heavy orders to the wrong address. Now I feed Classic, which is good and much cheaper and more readily available. Butcher's dog food is good too.

[ALSKDJ]

You may find this interesting - my old cat (19 years old) recently had a stroke, he ate nothing for five days and i had to syringe water inside his mouth whilst he laid motionless. I thought he was going to die. Then he began to lick beaten egg off my finger. Next i smeared chicken sandwich spread on my finger and when he finally wobbled to his feet it was for me to carry him to have a wee on his tray. I tempted him to eat with tasty human food - warm poached salmon, scrambled egg, finely cut up cooked bacon, squirty cream, dairylea cheese triangles, corned beef, cheddar cheese shreds in potato mashed with butter, and now he gets fresh shrimps, fresh meat scraps from the deli counter, tinned sardines, tuna, croutons, even carrots! - i noticed that his bad breath disappeared completely, his poo's were no longer offensive and he is a completely satisfied cat. I no longer buy any kind of cat food, i include him in the family's meals and even though there is still a bowl of cat munchies on the floor, he never goes to it, which shows me he's very contented with the tasty meals i provide for him. Also, it doesn't cost anything like what i was spending on cat pouches. I always bought only top brands, but they were all causing smelly breath and poos.

[ElegantDream]

What a wierd zombie post