Wet cat food comparison

[SunsetDream]

I've been working on finding the best cat food, so thought I'd share my findings. To the best of my knowledge correct, but please double check in case I've made a mistake.

I've mostly looked for meat content and the inclusion of Taurine. We're on the kitten/ cat crossover, so've been a bit relaxed about which we feed.

Nature's menu Country Hunter (steamed in the pouch, not raw)
96% meat
Taurine added

Animonda Carny
93% meat (unless I'm misreading something in the German ingredients)
Taurine added

Wainwrights kitten:
75% meat
Taurine added
Grain free

Evolution Naturally:
70% meat
Taurine added
Grain free

Hilife Poultry pates
50% meat
Taurine added

Butcher's Classic
48% meat
Taurine added

Purely Holistic
45-49% meat
Taurine added

James Wellbeloved
35% meat
No mention of Tauring on packaging

Sainsbury's pouches
8% meat
No mention of taurine

Felix
4-7% meat
No mention of taurine

I hope that can help someone! Please feel free to add your own findings to the list. Sorry I don't have time to go back and do a price comparison.

[Subbaxeo]

I’ve used Carny for years and my cat does very well on it. She has 100g twice a day so about 60p a day-12 400g cans are about £15. She has a bowl of IAMS on tap which she quite likes to snack on. I like the detail on the ingredients and doesn’t seem any more than buying supermarket food.

[PinkSparklyPussyCat]

Mine will currently only eat Country Hunter goose pouches. They have been discontinued and I have no idea what I'll do when my stash runs out. I've tried all sorts of alternatives but he looks at me as though I'm trying to poison him! He's now having one pouch a day and James Wellbeloved biscuits for other meals. Not ideal as he's supposed to have kidney medication in his food twice a day but the best I can do.

Any future cats will be having Whiskas!

[Neu]

Whiskas 7+ says this:

Meat and Animal Derivatives (38%, of which 94% natural*, including 4% Chicken)
Minerals (0.5%)

[Caspianberg]

Mine are super fussy.
they will only eat miamor or Alnatura wet cat food, both are chicken or fish. Neither are complete cat food. We give tin each in the evenings only. I now buy the smallest tins, as they also won’t eat food opened and in fridge.

They then have dried applaws or purizon available all day. Both complete.

We get everything from zooplus.
we have tried all the lists above over the last few years but refused. They used to Eat animonda carny as kittens.
Until recently I was offering a tin morning and night, but the left the morning food 95% of the time so it was such a waste

[coffeecupsandfairylights]

@MidnightMeltdown

I would love to feed my cats high quality food but they won't eat it. They would rather starve than eat anything other than Felix

Mine too.

Every single other brand I've tried has been looked at disdainfully - they just won't eat it, and one of mine needs wet food due to issues with bladder stones, so I'm not about to risk his health for the sake of getting him to eat a slightly better quality of wet food.

Millions of cats up and down the country manage just fine on supermarket own-brand cat food, Felix and Whiskas so I've honestly stopped worrying about it.

I think MN is a bit of an echo chamber when it comes to pets - most posters on here are fairly well off and can afford to waste money on cat food that gets left, but in reality most of us just need to feed the cat for as little as possible

[MidnightMeltdown]

I would love to feed my cats high quality food but they won't eat it. They would rather starve than eat anything other than Felix

[Ducksurprise]

If there is an afterlife I want to come back as one of these posters cats.

[sweetkitty]

My lot are on Applaws just now they love the tuna varieties aren’t as keen on the chicken. They get a little tin each in the morning and then help themselves to dry food but this is changing as I have 2 fatties.

[Roxysmama]

This info is so brilliant, it’s worth a bump up. Thank you so much Archfarchnad

[ShutUpLegs]

I have just ordered trial packs of several of these and we'll start to move them over the course of next week. At the moment, they get Royal Canin dry and pouches supplimented by cooked fish or raw food. Girlkit is increasingly only going for the Canin while Boykit goes for the wet but turns his nose up at anything other than Felix. They are massively stinky though and observing the litter tray, one certainly has bowel issues.

I think a better diet is the way to go - and restricting access to the biscuits.

SIgh.

[TooAswellAlso]

We used pouches originally but the cats never seemed to be full up, and their cat litter stank.

We switched to cans of butchers as recommended here. 12 cans for £5. The cats have half a can between them in the morning (boy cat and girl cat, about 10 months old) and a can between them at night, so it's about 10-11 cans a week.

Their litter smells better, they are happier and healthier, and the vet was really impressed with them and their coats.

I always grew up with cats on dry food, and mine always have biscuits available, but I much prefer cans now.

[SunsetDream]

I see Felix as being like crisps and chocolate - I love it, but it does me no good!

(We also fed Felix to begin with after picking the cat up from the rescue and before I started looking into cat food)

[SunsetDream]

Is Meowing Heads dry? I couldn't find a wet version.

Everything I've read makes me want to feed wet.

We seem to be settling on Nature's Menu and Animonda Carny, with others thrown in for experimentation.

[Daftaboutthecat]

I'm finding this thread really interesting we have just rescued our first cat it is currently being fed Felix but as we have always had dogs I'm aware of the huge differences in the quality of pet foods and suspected that felix isn't as great as the marketing would have me believe.
I have picked up some miaowing heads is anyone using this or can recommend a high quality food that he will eat he seems to love the Felix.

[FinestGrundyTurkey]

I see what you mean about the 800g cans vs the rest, Arch!

I'm just placing a zooplus order & have added one of their trial packs to see what mine think of it. (I won't be ordering pouches any time soon though )

[Archfarchnad]

Finest, you're right that compared with some brands like Applaws wet, Catz isn't the worst. And you can save hugely with economies of scale by buying the 800g cans, but that's not so easy with a single cat. Archcat's limit is 400g, spread over 2 days, before he gets peeved that it's boring and not too fresh any more.

One I missed before that is right at the top of the range in Germany is Terra Faelis, also available from Zooplus. I draw the line there cost-wise. Sure it's great, but isn't going to be better than Catz or Grau. I mean the varieties: Beef with Carrot and Watercress, or Rabbit with Broccoli and Catnip. It's like ordering food from a five-star restaurant with dope in it!

Obviously there's taurine, but also all the following too (you can tell it's been created by an obsessive German cat-person, the relationship between calcium and phosphorus is a favourite topic on forums):

Muscle meat: Ensures the body is supplied with high-quality proteins and Omega-6 fatty acids. Muscle meat includes hearts and gizzards (chicken, turkey and rabbit gizzards are pure muscle and therefore not counted as offal). When preparing pet food, the proportion of muscle meat should always be the highest. Terra Faelis Meat Menus consist mainly of muscle meat.
Lamb & Beef throat: Throat consists of 90% cartilage and is therefore an optimal natural provider of calcium, which is vital for healthy bones and cartilage.
Liver: The liver is a detoxification organ and should only be fed rarely and not in large amounts. Terra Faelis only uses liver in very small amounts in a few Meat Menus. Nevertheless it should not be disregarded completely because liver contains various important minerals and trace elements.
Eggshells: Terra Faelis replaces essential calcium gained in the wild from the prey's bones by using eggshells. Using comparative before and after analysis, the correct calcium-phosphorus ratio of 1.2 : 1.0 was established for each Meat Menu. The addition of eggshells achieves this optimum ratio in a natural way.
Fibre and roughage from vegetables, fruit, and herbs: Fibre and roughage is important for the digestion because it activates the digestion and cleanses the bowels. It is important to vary the food because the individual vegetables and fruit contain different vitamins, minerals, trace elements & phytamins (= phytochemicals). The Terra Faelis Meat Menus contain over 20 different varieties of vegetables, fruits and herbs.
Grains: A cat will only occasionally ingest grain in small amounts through the gastrointestinal contents of its prey. Therefore its dentition and digestion is not suited to consume and digest large amounts of cereals. It is not an essential nutrition component of your cat’s diet and should therefore only be fed in small amounts. Terra Faelis Meat Menus are grain-free.
Sea Algae: Sea algae provide your cat with all essential minerals and trace elements (e.g. calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, sodium, selenium, iron, copper, manganese, zinc, iodine, etc.), all essential amino acids, polyunsaturated fatty acids, and many important vitamins.
Wheat germ oil: Wheat germ oil contains vitamin E and Omega-3 fatty acids. It combines well with rapeseed oil.
Andean salt: Salt is an important element of cat nutrition, as the saline blood of its prey provides the cat with various minerals. Chloride in particular is important for a correct balance of electrolytes. Terra Faelis only uses natural and untreated Andean salt which the Incas called »white gold«.
Taurine: This is essential for healthy eyes and heart.

[FinestGrundyTurkey]

Archfarchnad your Catz food doesn't actually seem that expensive!

6 x 800g - 4800g - costs £14.90

12 x 100g Felix generally (on offer) costs between £3-£3.50 so 4800g would be £12-14

Not that different really

I would like to try it but after my Bozita experience I fear mine wouldn't eat it

[FinestGrundyTurkey]

My cats are young, admittedly (eldest pair will be 4 this summer) but seem to be incredibly healthy & glossy on Felix pouches plus Royal Canin Vet Neutered Female biscuits (which do mention taurine in the ingredients)

4 cats get max 3 pouches a day each of Doubly Delicious - ie a box of 12 between them, about 80p per cat per day.

And they share 2 bowls of Royal Canin a day - 160g - 62 bowls from a 10kg bag, at £45 a bag, costs 73p a day for all 4, or 18p per cat.

So each cat costs just under £1 a day to feed at the moment and, as I said, they appear to be doing very well on it

[SunsetDream]

By the way, what do you feel about feeding beef/ pork? I've found that some people don't like feeding it, but I'm not sure why.

[SunsetDream]

Wow! Thank you, that's an amazing help. I'm going to look at those links.

I have to say, I like that level of detail if I could speak or read Geeman, I would be searching out those forums. What you put inside is so important.

[Archfarchnad]

Great idea for a thread, Sunset. I can try and give a bit of a German perspective, since Zooplus and Bitiba are both German companies, I believe, and sell quite a few good German brands. German cat owners can be incredibly obsessively fussy about what their fur-babies eat, and I suspect the really detailed ingredient labelling on the Zooplus site is there to deal with that obsessive level of interest. I've seen arguments on German cat forums not just about the need to supplement raw food, but about the exact ingredients necessary for making your own supplements, because obviously none of the shop-bought supplements are in any way adequate. You get discussions on the exact levels of vitamin A or percentage of protein or whatever - it goes way beyond merely 'does it contain taurine?' For me the main concerns are: is it grain free (have a cat with intolerance), does it contain taurine and thus doesn't need supplementing, and what is the percentage of named meat? I'm trying to ensure at least 60% named/labelled meat. We also feed raw fairly often, supplemented with powder containing taurine and other stuff.

We've discovered that Arcahct gets bored if we feed the same brand of anything too much, so have now identified a number of reasonable-quality brands which we feed in random order, mixed with raw meals. And I'm sure he has a pretty efficient self-service habit going with the local mice too, which keeps his taurine levels nice and high. We've found the food quantity recommendations are MUCH too high, because they need less when it's such high quantity. Archcat is 6.5 kilos and gets 2 x 100g wet (either canned or raw) plus a small handful of dry. That's much less than recommended. Presumably the self-service bumps up his calorie count.

I think taurine levels are naturally highest in organs like heart. I bought a pack of chicken hearts the other day and mixed them with chicken stomachs and livers; beef heart also goes down well with the Boss. We intersperse this with commercial food.

OK, down to the wet food. Several we use have been mentioned already.

Animonda Carny
Anomonda vom Feinsten
Bozita
Grau
Miamor
Catz Finefood

Animonda Carny is actually the 'entry level' Animonda food, which is perfectly OK. We tend to use the 100g trays of Animonda vom Feinsten (means 'of the finest'). We get an assorted meat and fish mega-pack like this. These are the ingredients in vom Feinsten:

Turkey Hearts: 65% meat & meat by-products (beef, poultry, pork, 8% poultry hearts), stock, minerals.

Poultry & Veal: 63% meat & meat by-products(25% poultry, beef, pork, 8% veal), stock, minerals.

Salmon & Shrimps: 42% meat & meat by-products (poultry, pork), stock, fish & fish by-products (15% salmon), shellfish (6% shrimp), minerals.

Multi Meat Cocktail: 63% meat & meat by-products (23% beef, each 10% lamb, turkey, chicken, rabbit; pork), stock, minerals.

Turkey & Rabbit: 63% meat & meat by-products (pork, 25% turkey, 8% rabbit), stock, minerals.

Chicken Liver: 63% meat & meat by-products (beef, 14% chicken liver, pork), stock, minerals.

Chicken & ocean fish: Meat & meat by-products (16% chicken), fish & fish by-products (4% ocean fish) shellfish and crustaceans (4% crabs), minerals.

Chicken & Seafood: 55% meat and animal derivatives (pork, beef, 16% chicken), fish & fish by-products (4% ocean fish), crustaceans (crabs 4%), broth, minerals.

Turkey: turkey (57%), broth, calcium carbonate, sodium chloride.

Beef & Potato: 60% meat and animal derivatives (30% beef, poultry, pork), vegetables (4% potato), broth, minerals.

Beef: meat and animal derivatives (30% beef), minerals.

Poultry & Pasta: 60% meat and animal derivatives (25% poultry, beef, pork), baked products (4% noodles), broth, minerals.

Turkey & Tomato: turkey (53%), broth, tomato (4%), calcium carbonate, sodium chloride, broth.

Turkey hearts: 65% meat and animal derivatives (beef, poultry, pork, 8% turkey hearts), broth, minerals.

Now this is really weird, because I've always assumed it has taurine, but can't find any mention of it. Hmmm.

Grau has a really good reputation in Germany for being high quality, and is available on Zooplus. We get a multipack like this.

These are the ingredients, and it contains 1000mg of taurine per kg.

Turkey & Lamb:
Meat & innards (min. 40% turkey, min. 28% lamb), meat stock, calcium carbonate.

Chicken & Veal:
Meat & innards (min. 40% chicken, min. 28% veal), meat stock, calcium carbonate.

Turkey, Salmon & Mackerel:
Meat, fish & innards (min. 30% turkey, min 20% salmon, min. 18% mackerel), meat stock, calcium carbonate.

Rabbit, Beef & Duck:
Meat & innards (min. 30% rabbit, min. 20% beef, min. 18% duck), meat stock, calcium carbonate.

Poultry & Ocean Fish:
Meat & innards (min. 40% poultry, min. 28% ocean fish, min. 18% mackerel), meat stock, calcium carbonate.

Poultry Gizzards in Jelly:
Poultry gizzards (min 72%), meat stock, calcium carbonate.

Catz Finefood

We get the mixed trial pack.

This stuff is seriously expensive, but has a fab reputation for good quality. The meat is all human grade quality! Taurine is added at 0.15% of content. I find also there's a bit much in the way of fancy ingredients that Archcat doesn't give a hoot about (cranberries, really?)

Ingredients:

Veal:
70% veal (approx. 50% heart & lean meat, of which approx. 2/3 meat and 1/3 heart; approx. 50% offal, of which approx. 1/3 liver, 1/3 lung, 1/3 kidney), 27.45% water, 1% apricot, 1% pineapple, 0.15% taurine, 0.15% linseed oil, 0.15% sea salt, 0.1% seaweed.
Game:
70% game (approx. 70% heart & lean meat, of which approx. 2/3 meat and 1/3 heart; approx. 30% liver), 24.45% water, 3% potato, 2% cranberries, 0.2% rosemary, 0.2% wheat germ, 0.15% taurine.
Poultry:
69% poultry (approx. 50% heart & lean meat, of which approx. 2/3 meat and 1/3 heart; approx. 50% offal, of which approx. 1/3 stomach, 1/3 liver, 1/3 necks), 27.7% water, 2% cranberry, 1% dandelion, 0.15% taurine, 0.15% safflower oil.
Herring and Crab:
45% herring, 26.45% water, 25% crab, 2% pumpkin, 1% aloe vera, 0.2% seaweed, 0.2% salmon oil, 0.15% taurine.
Lamb & Rabbit:
49% lamb (approx. 50% lean meat; 50% offal, of which approx. 1/2 liver and 1/2 lung), 24.45% water, 21% rabbit (approx. 50% lean meat; 50% liver), 3% cranberries, 2% carrot, 0.2% egg shell, 0.2% sunflower oil, 0.15% taurine.
Salmon:
36% salmon, 35% poultry (approx. 70% heart and lean meat, of which approx. 2/3 meat and 1/3 heart; approx. 30% liver), 26.2% water, 1% spinach, 1% tomato, 0.3% egg shell, 0.2% sea salt, 0.15% taurine, 0.15% hempseed oil.

[SunsetDream]

It's so complicated, isn't it? That's why I started making notes

[FinestGrundyTurkey]

I used to get Bozita for mine but the buggers went off it. They love Felix (it's probably the sugar )

I wonder if Bozita's 'yeast' is equivalent to Felix's vegetable protein extracts? (Like marmite)

[IAmAPaleontologist]

My cat gets Bozita. High meat content, added vitamins. taurine etc but no soya or grains or fillers. Not as fancy as some of the premium foods but a good complete wet food at a good price.

From Zooplus:

Haddock:
Chicken, haddock (4%), pork, beef, calcium carbonate, yeast (ß-1.3/1.6 glucan 0.01%).

Perch:
Chicken, perch (4%), pork, beef, calcium carbonate, yeast (ß-1.3/1.6 glucan 0.01%).

Crayfish:
Chicken, crayfish (4%), pork, beef, calcium carbonate, dill, yeast (ß-1.3/1.6 glucan 0.01%).

Mackerel: Chicken, mackerel (7.2%), pork, beef, calcium carbonate, yeast (ß -1,3/1,6-glucan 0.01%).
Minced beef:
Chicken, beef (4%), pork, calcium carbonate, yeast (ß-1.3/1.6 glucan 0.01%).

Beef liver:
Chicken, beef liver (4%), pork, calcium carbonate, yeast (ß-1.3/1.6 glucan 0.01%).

Chicken liver:
Chicken (> 4% chicken liver), pork, beef, minerals, egg, carrots, ß-1.3/1.6 glucan

Rabbit:
Chicken, pork, rabbit (4%), beef, calcium carbonate, yeast (ß-1.3/1.6 glucan 0.01%).

Rich in Chicken:
Chicken (50%), pork, calcium carbonate, yeast (ß-1.3/1.6 glucan 0.01%).

Elk:
Chicken, elk (4% in chunks), beef, pork, calcium carbonate, yeast (ß-1.3/1.6 glucan 0.01%).

Turkey:
Chicken, pork, turkey (4%), calcium carbonate, yeast (ß-1.3/1.6 glucan 0.01%).

Salmon & Mussels: Chicken, salmon (4% in chunks), mussels (4% in chunks), beef, pork, calcium carbonate, yeast (ß-1.3/1.6 glucan 0.01%).

[hollinhurst84]

Mine likes the natures menu country hunter. As does stable cat (although she eats anything so possibly not a good tester!)
I use it alongside raw food for mine