Is there a hierarchy of which cat foods are best?

[WalkingThePlank]

We've had our 2 yr old for about 6 months and we feed her Felix As Hood As It Gets pouches and Purina One, entirely because that's what the CPL were feeding her.

There seems to be a huge range in price which I've assumed correlates to quality. I recently had to substitute the Purina for the much cheaper IAMS as I couldn't find Purina. The cat is perfectly happy with it.

Price isn't a huge issue. I'm happy to pay for quality but don't want to waste money either. Is it possible to rank the easily available brands in terms of quality?

We feed Royal Canin dry food - that's what the shelter fed them, and our vet also recommended it. Older one will only eat dry food.

The younger one also gets a spoon of really good quality wet food for breakfast, just coz he likes it.

When we adopted him as a kitten he was pining for his brother and losing weight, so they were using it to beef him up - so naturally we had to get some too and he loves it.

I can't abide 'normal' wet food, makes me boak, but this has actual teeny prawns and bits of fish. You could put it in a sandwich

When Mcat came to live with me, he'd previously been fed on Go-Cat. His coat was ragged and dull. He's now fed on Royal Canin and Applaws dry and Cosma wet (just a supplementary, mind). Like Fraggle's food, it looks fit for human consumption (eg. lobster and caviar ). Felix is a bit "McDonalds". Animonda carny and Butchers Classic are good, inexpensive complete wet foods.

Zooplus is a really good place to source reasonably priced, good quality cat food online.

Royal Canin dry for my lot. Not the best but certainly better than anything you'll get in a supermarket. If I didn't live in a hot country I'd definitely look to turning to a raw diet as I do believe it's best. But in 50+ heat? No thanks

Read the ingredients.
When it says meal/byproduct it generally means it's bits that you would never eat. Avoid grains, they are fillers more than anything, cats don't digest it properly and some even get allergic to it. Your cat will need to eat more to feel full and get the nutients he needs.

I stopped buying RC when I noticed the ingredients are similar to the cheaper brands they just seem to have a great marketing skeem. It's still better than whiskas but for the same price I got better quality ingredients with Acana/Orijin and I see the difference in my cat. Her fur is softer and her poo smells much less. It's the closest I got to raw in dry form.

Generally any wet food is better than dry, purely due to the moisture content. Cats don't have a thirst drive and so when fed purely dry food, are in a constant state of dehydration leading to urine infections, crystals and kidney problems.

Felix, whiskas and the like are pretty terrible wet foods. Things like animonda, grau, bozita, etc are a lot better.

That said, raw food is even better. My 2 are on raw and everyone comments on how healthy, shiny and soft they are! I don't leave food down for them so no need to worry about raw food going off

My vet said cheap wet food is better than cheap dry food. Dry food is best. It only the good quality brands.

Butchers Classic tins are as good as any of the others, and better for your cat than most, and is some of the cheapest cat food you can buy.