Just how bad is Go-Cat?

[Sunshine49]

Hello everyone! My mum came round to meet our two young rescue cats (a boy and a girl, both one year old) the other week and brought a big bag of dry Go-Cat biscuits for them as a present. It's what she always fed our cats when I was growing up.

However, since then I've done some research (and posted quite a bit on here!) and realise now that Go-Cat is apparently one of the worst possible foods you can feed your cat.

Both cats weigh just under 3kg and at the moment, they're getting two pouches of wet food (Royal Canin) each per day, plus a small handful of Go-Cat dry each in the morning.

I have bought a big bag of Royal Canin dry food for them too, which I'm planning to switch them on to when the Go-Cat runs out, as I've been very impressed with the RC wet food.

However, since reading up on Go-Cat and how bad it is, I'm wondering - would it be best just to chuck it away and switch them straight onto the Royal Canin?

Money is quite tight at the minute so I'd rather not do that if possible, but if it's really that bad for them then obviously my cats' health comes first. I'd say I have another two weeks' worth left.

Any advice would be much appreciated, as always!

what's wrong with Go-Cat? (another who feeds their cat Go-Cat sometimes)

Go-Cat and other cheap cat foods are full of cereal - cats are carnivore and need as near to 100% protein diet as possible.

OP maybe you could mix a bit of cheap stuff in - a little bit each day won't do them any harm mixed in with a good diet otherwise.

Thanks all! Hmm, still in two minds whether to keep mixing a bit of Go-Cat in or binning it entirely as Spartacus suggested. I think I'm leaning towards to latter, as I'm a bit of a paranoid first-time cat owner here!

I've been ordering Royal Canin in bulk on Amazon and have found it to be cheaper from there than Zooplus (although maybe I missed some good offers)?

How bad is Go-Cat? Bad enough that Leroy won't touch the stuff .

I wouldn't bin it if your cats like it, but I'd make sure I was giving them better stuff more often.

My cat, lived a very long and healthy life on nothing but go cat. No health problems until very old age, which were entirely age related (she was 19!)

Royal canin isn't that great either and also contain grains/cereals. I have been giving AVA dry cat food to mine and it is 60% chicken and am now moving across to thrive which is 90% chicken.

I wouldn't bin it, I'd mix it in with the better quality stuff.

If you do change food then gradually mix the new with the old rather than going straight from one to the other

Thanks all!

Daydreamnation - that's the same as my parents' cat. He ate nothing but Go-Cat his whole life and lived until about 17 I think, with no major health issues. He was semi-feral though and a real hunter, so I'm sure he supplemented the Go-Cat with lots of rodents!

DementedPixie - why is it best to switch over gradually? Can they get tummy problems with a straight switch? I've been very impressed with the quality of Royal Canin wet food (it helped clear up my cats' runny tummies very quickly when they arrived) which is why I bought the dry. Once they've got through that I will definitely look into Thrive though, as that level of meat content sounds great. Thanks for the tip!

They can get upset tummies with a straight switch so it isn't recommended. Have you looked at the royal canin ingredients as they aren't that great for the price you pay?

DementedPixie, no I didn't I bought the dry before I'd read up (via Mumsnet!) on just how important meat content is. Learning what to feed a cat is definitely an education!

By the way, is Thrive better than Applaws in your opinion? I was considering getting Applaws next, but will probably try Thrive now!

I think applaws is 80% meat. I though about trying it but the chicken one especially was getting bad reviews on zooplus with people saying it made their cat sick so I decided against it

You don't need to bin it. One bag, mixed with other stuff, isn't the end of the world. As for 'how bad is it'? - it (and other similar cheap dried food) is directly linked to urinary crystals and blocked bladders in male cats. Of course, just as some people smoke 40 a day and live to be 110, some male cats can eat Go Cat and it's ilk and be totally fine, but that doesn't mean it isn't a risk.

That's not to say it's totally fine for female cats. However, while it's certainly not the best food, you don't risk killing them with it, whereas you do with males.

We get 10kg bags of Royal Canin from Pets At Home, works out slightly cheaper than Amazon, though they don't deliver (We have it delivered to the nearest store and DP picks it up). We were told by our vet than female cats can eat the male cat stuff but not vice versa, something to do with their kidneys. I'd probably mix the Go Cat in with the RC, just a bit at a time, til it's all gone.

I'd also ensure that there's always plenty of water available for the cats especially if they eat higher cereal foods, as drinking reduces the chances of bladder issues.

Surprised you couldn't get the Royal Canin delivered from PaH, I get my litter from there & often a bag of dry food at the same time, and always get it delivered (bad back won't take lugging heavy sacks around).

One of the reasons i use Zooplus is that I get the big 10k bags there, at the moment you're getting 12kg for the price of 10. Add in that they are a bit cheaper for my kitties favorite Felix AGAIL, and orders over a certain amount are free, and I definitely make a saving.

Thanks Allergic. Yes, I'm really conscious of how important it is to always have a fresh supply of water down at all times (again, thanks to Mumsnet!) Girl-cat was drinking some earlier - she makes the cutest noise when she drinks!

Thrive is brilliant and is a complete food which I don’t think Applaws is (unless they’ve changed their formula since I last researched cat food which was when we got our 2, 5 years ago). So I think if you feed Applaws wet food you also need to supplement with a complete dry food. Thrive is bloody expensive though!

I got my cat in October, he was being fed James Wellbeloved dry by the vets he came from so i started with that and then got a zooplus order with several small bags of other higher meat content dry food to try, mixing them in with each other. I was put off by the bad reviews for the applaws chicken too but did include it and it's fine for my cat and he loves it. (Mind you he is a total greedy scavenger who will try eating anything he can get in his mouth!) So I'm sticking with that now as it seems to be the highest meat content for the price.

I think applaws dry is complete. Thrive dry is £9.99 for 1.5kg from zooplus.

Eden is an excellent food. Very high meat content. Weigh it out according to their body weight as it’s important to get the right amount. It’s a very good food.

We feed our cats raw (not just raw from the supermarket though - raw from a specialist pet shop) it if we didn’t feed raw we’d feed Eden.

Cats don’t need veg like dogs do. They do need tourine though which you get in heart or a powder form if the thought of raw hearts grosses you out (understandable).

If you fancy giving raw a go it’s not expensive. I feed my 2 high quality minced chicken (including bone, cartilage and offal) for about £5 a week. Another plus is that their poo doesn’t smell much when their fed raw! Do your homework though and it is slightly more faff so not for everyone.

Here’s a link to a website that rates dog food. I know you’re talking about cat food but as a lot of cat food suppliers make dog food it might be interesting to see how the dog food equivalent is rated.

www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/

Thrive dry is cheaper than that and has 90% meat

We ran out of Royal Canin when there was all the snow and my Amazon delivery wash held up. Kitten ate one portion of GoKat and the smell of his poo was horrific. There is almost no smell to his poo normally.

Hyena, where do you get the chicken from?