Expensive cat food vs. ordinary

[zafferana]

We just adopted a healthy cat from the RSPCA. She was being fed Royal Canin at the kennels and I got a voucher for 2 free bags of the stuff, which she seems to like. However, it is really expensive, so I'm just wondering if it's worth buying this kind of premium food on a permanent basis? We can afford it and I certainly don't want to feed her rubbish as I wouldn't eat rubbish myself, but what is the real difference between this fancy stuff and the bog standard Whiskas, Felix, Gourmet whatever?

Dearest is not always the best. Some expensive branded foods are full of crap. Best to look at the ingredients than the price

NB there is no cereal in Felix - apart from a smidgen of “sugars” it’s all animal protein - not what we’d want on our own plates but still meat.

People often say “but it’s only 4% meat!” - it isn’t, its 4% named meat, so eg “chicken” is 4% chicken, but the rest is still animal protein of one kind or another.

Fish Selection:
Meat and animal by-products, fish and fish by-products, minerals, various sugars.

Cosma and thrive here for my 2.

They have half a tin morning and dinner. Then dried royal canin biscuits available throughout the day

Our lad has Thrive wet and dry sometimes Blink wet. I keep meaning to try some different dry food. I think he would eat anything as he is such a greedy beast. There are so many higher meat content foods out there now. With wet food make sure it's a complete food so it has all the nutrients required. Wet food in jelly or gravy is what can cause dental problems so try to avoid those. Vets often sell small packs/individual tins of foods so you could try before you buy in bulk.
Hills, Royal Canin and Purina are owned by Colgate-Palmolive, Mars and Nestle respectively so they aren't necessarily the biggest pet nutrition experts but have plenty funds for good marketing.

One of my cat's has Sainsbury's grain free wet food (she used to have Whiskas but started being sick on it).

The other cat has Royal Canin Hairball dry food. She has never tried to eat the wet food that's down, even though she had wet food as a kitten apparently (she was 10 when I got her, so we've continued with RC).

Wondering whether to change over from RC and if so, what to?

Also re dental probs; both mine are having dentals this week at a cost of £800 - someone recommended Plaq Off, anyone tried that?

Sainsburys own dry is grain free. We get the organic one in the smaller bags. We like a variation but i can safely say either the wet or dry will be grain free but not at the same time. I choose my battles if they want savoury cakes so be it.

Be careful of Cosma etc they are nowhere near complete you are better off with Sainsburys posher version.

Re cosma and even the thrive I treat as complimentary. The dry RC is the complete side of things

@Horsemad I put a version of Plaque Off on my cats’ food although it’s hard to tell if it really makes any difference

Plaque Off itself is very expensive - £10 for 60g from amazon (& more from zooplus - £10 for 40g!)

I currently have Plaque Out which is £10 for 200g, less dusty & easier to use.

www.amazon.co.uk/PLAQUE-OUT%C2%AE-Plaque-Removal-Multi-Mite%C2%AE/dp/B01ETU3S8M/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?keywords=plaque+out&sprefix=plaque+out&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&qid=1579054772&sr=8-3

Thanks @GiantKitten 🙂 I'll have a look at that.

@zafferana - as a heads up, and it varies /alternates between Tesco and Sainsbury's - we can usually buy a box of 12 x 70g tins of mixed / chicken or fish for £8. Look out for the pouches too as they have some really interesting flavours not found in tins eg seaweed and prawns (or similar) and Mango and Tuna... our cat loves the bakery and she has a very delicate tummy.