I feel bloody awful with regards to cat food

[StuckInLimbo]

My cats are 7 months and 18 months. I've been feeding them whiskers dry and wet food but I feel bloody awful because I've read it's really bad for them?

As they've been on it since I've had them is there a way I can wean them on to another brand without causing upset? Also what brand would you suggest is a decent one to buy?

Don't beat yourself up! It's not the end of the world. But no, it's not great, particularly the dry which is linked to urinary problems/blocked bladders.

Butchers Classic tins are good. Cheap and without nasty additives, and most cats seem to like them. Any quality dry food is fine: James Wellbeloved, Iams, Royal Canin etc etc. Generally persuading cats to eat quality dry food is no problem, they seem to like it.

Oh now I feel terrible. My little one is 6.5 months and all she eats is whiskas kitten....I didn't know there was anything wrong with it!

Thanks Cat neuterer. I'll be shopping over the weekend so will look out for the brands you've mentioned. :)

I feel bad ine are eating tesco value dry food at the moment as we are skint, they used to have james wellbeloved and loved that, they seem quite happy with the tesco stuff for though.

Butchers choice is 39p a tin at pound stretchers, and apparently at home bargains (though I haven't seen this myself)

Will go and have look mine are bit fuss with wet food, one of them only licks the jelly or gravy and leaves the meat...

precious its because whiskas has cereal in it which isnt natural for cats to eat and has a low amount of meat so like feeding the kids constant mcdonalds felix is similar, butchers classic has no cereal and a high proportion of decent meat in it but no need for anyone to feel guilty i only discovered butchers classic about 12 months ago and all my preceding cats seemed to live ok on supermarket own or whiskas

And studies have shown (and Lonecat our resident MN vet has confirmed) that around 90% of cases of blocked bladders - which are quite common, very nasty and often fatal - are linked to cheap dried food (not specifically Whikas - all cheap dried food).

If money is a problem it's best not to feed dried at all. Just tins (preferably Butchers).

My kitten came to us on Felix adult food and Whiskas dry food - similarly we didn't realise that it was responsible for her wind/tummy problems until I spoke to the vet about it! We gradually changed to Royal Canin dry kitten food (which she loves!) and to Butchers Choice for wet cat food.

She's recently gone off the Butchers Choice unfortunately so I've done a bit of research and Pets at Home kitten food seems fine so I'm going to try her on that! Both the Butchers and Pets at home are quite cheap and no added nasties.

Switching food:

You can either mix the two brands together for a period of time.

Or you can make them go cold turkey and just switch it.

I have done both before. Ultimately when they get hungry they'll eat!

Really don't feel bad - whiskas is like cat drugs, I think they put something in to make the kitties love it.

Our two new kittens are eating Aldi pouches at the moment as we are skint - we need to start giving them dried food during the day so they get used to grazing when we are out, I am delighted to hear about butchers as they are wolfing the dry food down - does anyone know a good budget dry food - we were going to try a pet food wholesalers this weekend to get some in bulk.

Goodness, don't feel awful Stuck. How were you to know? And now that you've found out, you're changing things.

That's responsible.

My girl point blank refuses Iams dry..she will only have GoKat.
But reading this, I am going to give it another go.

In regards to wet food...is it all the brands (bar Butchers) ?

I use Gourmet sachets.

missmakesstuff - unfortunately, when it comes to dried food, the words 'budget' and 'good' don't seem to go together very well. It's all the cheap dried food that seems to be linked to blocked bladders etc etc.

There are lots more brands of quality dried: Arden Grange, Almos, Hills Science Plan, Applaws and lots more. To save money try buying in bulk online (although of course you need to try a small sample first to make sure they like it). For example I buy James Wellbeloved in 10kg bags for about £41. If you buy a 2kg bag of Go Cat, even on offer, it's about £6.50. So that works out at £32.50 for 10kg, which isn't that much less than a large bag of James Wellbeloved.

Just make sure you change gradually, mix in a new food over a week or so. 2 reasons: 1. A new food might upset their tummy if you suddenly switch 2. Cats can develop food aversions so its best to persuade them to like it rather than force them.

Thanks for all the advice on this thread. They're stuck on Whiskers until I go shopping over the weekend but I'll definitely change brand.

I didn't realise the dry was the nastier one out the two. Limbo boy adores his biscuits so I think a change is in order soon before it does do any harm.

Sometimes magstermay you can't do that.

And usually nothing bad happens. They get over it.

Mine developed an allergy so had a sudden change of food. She lasted a day of being picky before diving in.

Crazynana, gourmet has higher protein levels so use it if you can, I can imagine she won't be impressed at all if you take it off her.

Mines on tinned aldi food, it's all cereal free except the rabbit & turkey flavour and it has 9.5% protein. He has applaws chicken biscuits which he eats begrudgingly and noisily.

Seniorboy is mainly on Gourmet - simply because that what he likes along with the Coop chicken stuff. He's so elderly now that I can't really hang tough with his eating so he just gets what he wants as long as it's not actually bad for him.

My cat is fed on dry whiskas and whiskas pouches. I've tried her on all kinds of food, from very expensive to budget, and whiskas is the only one her tummy can tolerate. Anything else gives her diarrhea. :(

Ooh Fluffy - useful to know the Aldi tinned food is cereal free too..

I have 3 cats and they either eat butchers choice or aldi/lidl chunks in jelly.

They also have a small handful of dried biscuits and access to fresh water. The biscuits keep their teeth and gums healthy. They all drink water.

Our eldest cat lived to be 19. He died 2 years ago. Our current eldest is a mere stripling at 16 1/2, and she is in fine fettle. I can't even remember the last time I took her to the vets. It might have been 6 years ago to have 2 teeth out!

I use a mix of Iams and Purina/Purina Sensitive - is this OK? Neither of mine like Hill's. I used to give them a pouch of wet food each, but it gave the kitten a squirty bottom (and she has the furriest arse in the world, so not fun to clean even after she had wiped it on the carpet. She loved the wet food and still cries for it - should I try her on the butcher's classic? (She is not a kitten, by the way, she is 2 now, but is just referred to by everyone as the kitten... as she was one when we got her, and our other cat was rescue pre-loved.