What to feed?

[loveisagirlnameddaisy]

I have a six month old cat, we got her from Blue Cross at 9 weeks old. They were feeding her Wainwrights from Pets at Home with a small bowl of dried Whiskas kitten food for snacks. I've carried on feeding her this.

The problem is that Wainwrights only comes in two flavours and I think she's getting really bored of the chicken. I tried a different PaH brand (not a cheapie one) but again, it only comes in two flavours and she won't eat the chicken.

I'm not sure what to do. I've read so much about cheaper food like Whiskas etc and that it contains very little meat and a lot of grains to bulk it out so I'm reluctant to change to that. But these sorts of brands are the only ones which have real choice of flavours.

Also, what's the situation with wet/dry food? I notice some people only feed dry, but again I'm concerned about this as I've heard it can be linked to kidney problems later in life.

Help!

both of my cats are fine on any cat food. including whiskers Felix and even own brand stuff. my old boy is 11 and perfectly healthy having never had any of the new posh stuff and our kitten is about 5 months now

Mine has a variety of good quality brands. Whatever is on offer at the time. We rotate between Applaws, James Wellbeloved, Wainwright's, Meowing Heads, Hi Life, Wellness, Lily's Kitchen, the Waitrose premium stuff and Purely Holistic wet foods. I'll try out any brand with relatively good meat content and changing between brands helps give some variety. Even where the "flavour" is the same (e.g. Chicken) the different varieties have quite different textures and appearances. If our cat starts to turn her nose up at what's in the cupboard then a few days of a different brand tend to do the trick. I've seen a cat decline very quickly with kidney problems having been perfectly fine for many years so wouldn't risk dry only diet but mine loves dry food so gets a little bit each day.

Try the Aldi pate trays.

Thanks Fuzzy, my sister's cat died at 8 from kidney failure and the vet said that a dry only diet was probably a major contributing factor.

I'll keep swapping and see what happens. Thanks

fuzzy Is the Aldi food good quality?

I feed my two a mix of wet and dried food.

For dried food I'm now feeding them Harringtons (salmon or chicken) as both have a seriously higher fish and meat content than whiskas and is only about £1 more and mine love it (like empty bowl). You can feed it to kittens as well as the kibbles are quite small. (it's like shiny coat city now!)

For wet food I must admit I get whatever is on special offer (for my sins) but mine are old farts now and only like whiskas or felix as good as it looks and one even refused a very posh brand I bought once.

You could try feeding her a bit of raw chicken every now and then to see if that peeks her interest to all things chickeny?

Cats do like their food to "smell" and I find mine go for fish or more meaty flavours first (unless I'm cooking chicken THEN they become interested!)

I have no idea about the Aldi food as I've never come across it but the label will tell you what % meat it is. I try to buy ones that are at least 40% meat and low or no grain. A lot of foods are less than 5% meat with the rest made up of animal by-products and grains. I try to avoid those. I know plenty of people feed Whiska's etc to their cats with few ill effects but they give my long-haired cat looser poos which get stuck in her fur, creating a not very nice mess for me to deal with. They also make her poo smell awful and she's an indoor cat who goes only in a litter tray so I'd rather not have super smelly cat poo in the house. The price I pay for the better quality food is well worth it not to have to deal with her painting poo on the walls with her fluffy tail again.

We are doing a mixture of both, the wet food (felix pouches) seems to help with hydration and the biscuits (Royal Canin) help to fill their tummies.
With two newly adopted cats who seem obsessed with food, we have found that we can't get away with just one type, but a combo is working well for us.

Sorry fuzzy, the question about Aldi was meant for fluffy!

Agree about the food smelling. The Wainwrights tuna flavour is hideous and she loves that!