What's the best dried cat food out there?

[PippaOwl]

In your opinion?

I feed a pouch or two a day but need to nail the dried food.

I've tried Fish4cats, miaowing Heads, Lily's kitchen - she will eat them all but not enthusiastically

What do you use that you can recommend?

Thanks for the link, never heard of Orijen or Arcana though, will have a look at where to get them.

@ElspethFlashman

I just checked the Lidl one - 36% meat and 15% "oils and fats".

Is that good?

No - that's a very low meat content. Which isn't surprising as it's a budget supermarket brand of food.

The higher the meat content, the better.

Ours are on Royal Canin as our boy cat needs the medicated version for urinary issues. He is a huge cat and since switching he's had no bladder issues and his poo stopped smelling like it would knock you out. Girl cat just eats the same as our boy cat (she is a tiny little thing despite them being from the same litter).

Royal Canin all the way

I have royal canin sensible (for sensitive stomachs) and find it brilliant. The cat who needed it is no longer with us but whenever we've tried to switch over to another brand our remaining cat stops eating.

Dcat has purina one senior, I've only just taken her in but apparently that's all she eats, no wet food

@IAmSantaOhYesIAm

www.fish4dogs.com/shop/cat

There you go. Looks like this pic. You even get a toy which my cat ADORES

I've popped a fish4cats link below for anyone who fancies it. I don't benefit by the way! It's just a good little goody bag with lots in it and I order it relatively often for my cat - mainly to replace the toy which is impregnated with something and she LOVES IT

I spent a fortune trying to find an alternative that my cat would eat after Lily's kitchen changed their Senior reicpe, and have finally settled on the fishy Crave.

I did all the research too for the nutritional values, and this is 40% protein and has no added grains or soya. It is usually £4 for 750g from Wilkos.

He also has Hills tD from the vet, which is big kibbles and supposedly good for his teeth. They always say he's got good teeth when he goes for a check up so it must be working!

Vets often promote them as they get decent kickbacks - there are no kick backs to vets from food companies there never ever have been. Why do people keep quoting this fallacy?
Vets practices make profit on pet food at in exactly the same way as pet food shops do, probably less as they don't get the same bulk buy discounts.
The world small animal veterinary association provide these guidelines on choose a pet food.

@Lonecatwithkitten

Vets often promote them as they get decent kickbacks - there are no kick backs to vets from food companies there never ever have been. Why do people keep quoting this fallacy? Vets practices make profit on pet food at in exactly the same way as pet food shops do, probably less as they don't get the same bulk buy discounts. The world small animal veterinary association provide these guidelines on choose a pet food.

Ok, fair enough. If this is the case why do they continue to promote foods that are high cost but low quality, @Lonecatwithkitten?

James wellbeloved. My two cats and our visiting cat love it. They eat it much quicker than any other brand. Krave comes second. Go cat would sit there forever and none of them would eat it.

Amazon Lifelong comes in big bags and is good value if you subscribe. Grain free and good meat content. Mine like Acana too.

We use Hills Prescription Dental, bought from Pets At Home (you have to order it online but they’ll ship to your local store for free). Vet recommended it for our cat’s teeth as she had plaque build up. It worked a treat and as she loves it we keep feeding it. She’s 16 now and her teeth are in excellent condition.

It’s £35 a bag and I’d say a bag lasts us about 5 weeks - she’s not a big cat and eats when she feels like it rather than wolfing it all down in one go.

@BalladOfBarryAndFreda read the WSAVA statement - the use if boutique foods that do not have nutritionists involved in their production are being shown to be detrimental to health. TB in cats, possibly DCM in dogs.
Ingredients do not equal bioavailability.

[quote Lonecatwithkitten]@BalladOfBarryAndFreda read the WSAVA statement - the use if boutique foods that do not have nutritionists involved in their production are being shown to be detrimental to health. TB in cats, possibly DCM in dogs.
Ingredients do not equal bioavailability.[/quote]
Thank you for responding

there are no kick backs to vets from food companies there never ever have been.

That's not true, the Royal Canin rep got us pizza once

The simple answer to the question that titles the thread is "one that you don't feed too much of". At least 90% of the cats >1year old I see are at least somewhat overweight, probably closer to 95%. Many of them significantly so. This is a big risk factor for diabetes and I suspect for many other conditions as well.

Other than that I haven't been able to discern a pattern- I'm in the habit of asking the owners of every slim, well muscled, shiny coated, bright eyed cat with super teeth what they are fed and the answer varies hugely.
Conversely I can find no pattern with the brands or types of foods cats with chronic illness have been fed through their life. I don't think grains or gluten are the Great Satan. The Go Cat thing used to be true IME but it was reformulated years ago (less magnesium I think) and now I haven't seen good old struvite stones for yonks. Blocked cats tend to have soft tissue blobby sort of plugs now and I can find no dietary pattern causing them.
I see a fair few cats developing a quiet sort of inflammatory bowel disease in their teens that seems not to cause the vomiting, diarrhoea or overt pancreatitis or colicky episodes that might give you an early warning- often these only eventually get picked up when they are losing weight and their guts feel like old rope. I wish I knew what caused these but again can find no pattern.

Basically if your cat likes a food and its body condition, energy levels, coat, skin, teeth and poo are good then it ain't discernably broke so don't fix it. Don't let them get fat (ignore the back of the packet and look at the cat, especially the lower belly), encourage water intake by any and all means possible and if your cat has a bare looking tummy where it has licked, don't ignore it even if the rest of the coat is OK- it can be a sign of bladder or gut pain.

@powershowerforanhour you got pizza in 23 years I haven't even had a sandwich from a pet food company. Not even seen a free pen for years.
Interesting you don't see struvite, we still see load of horrible gritty blocked cats.

@BalladOfBarryAndFreda - thank you for the link re cat food quality - I am shocked at the low ratings of some brands that I thought were quite good.

D white cat had a horrible time with pancreatitis a few weeks ago. I really want to avoid him going through this again so switched to a dry food with probiotics for a sensitive stomach. Not sure I made the best choice.

The vet keeps pushing Purina and Royal Canin, but these have disappointingly low scores.

Might try and gradually introduce an Acana dry food.

@powershowerforanhour

there are no kick backs to vets from food companies there never ever have been.

That's not true, the Royal Canin rep got us pizza once

The simple answer to the question that titles the thread is "one that you don't feed too much of". At least 90% of the cats >1year old I see are at least somewhat overweight, probably closer to 95%. Many of them significantly so. This is a big risk factor for diabetes and I suspect for many other conditions as well.

Other than that I haven't been able to discern a pattern- I'm in the habit of asking the owners of every slim, well muscled, shiny coated, bright eyed cat with super teeth what they are fed and the answer varies hugely.
Conversely I can find no pattern with the brands or types of foods cats with chronic illness have been fed through their life. I don't think grains or gluten are the Great Satan. The Go Cat thing used to be true IME but it was reformulated years ago (less magnesium I think) and now I haven't seen good old struvite stones for yonks. Blocked cats tend to have soft tissue blobby sort of plugs now and I can find no dietary pattern causing them.
I see a fair few cats developing a quiet sort of inflammatory bowel disease in their teens that seems not to cause the vomiting, diarrhoea or overt pancreatitis or colicky episodes that might give you an early warning- often these only eventually get picked up when they are losing weight and their guts feel like old rope. I wish I knew what caused these but again can find no pattern.

Basically if your cat likes a food and its body condition, energy levels, coat, skin, teeth and poo are good then it ain't discernably broke so don't fix it. Don't let them get fat (ignore the back of the packet and look at the cat, especially the lower belly), encourage water intake by any and all means possible and if your cat has a bare looking tummy where it has licked, don't ignore it even if the rest of the coat is OK- it can be a sign of bladder or gut pain.

Thanks for the advice, really helpful. I didn't think grains were a problem (based on my research) because cats would normally eat grains by consuming their prey.

The Lidl food was the only one I could find that listed the amount of magnesium. 0.08% Phosphorus is also low at 1.1%

My cats eat wet food mainly, whatever prey they catch and dried food. The dried food is mainly to help clean their teeth.

I'm biased I know, but my cats are good weights, with great, shiny coats and great teeth! They are 3 (4 in May). Boy cat is trying to move out body part by body part though...he's missing a hip after being hit by a car and yesterday had to have part of his inner eyelid removed after getting in a fight.

I'm forever taking these cats to the vet! The cats I had growing up hardly ever went (only for their annual jags). Why so different??

Purizon is good value though as they dont need much otherwise we use IAMs which is grain free

I buy Acana, Thrive and Applaws and mix them together. All grain free complete food, my cats love it.

Can you still get applaws after the recall?

Ooh, we recently switched to Feline Choice. Very high meat/protein content, our cat loves it, so much that we are now 100% dry. Super convenient, her poos don't stink, no plastic waste from pouches, the kids can feed her easily. We buy it online, have never seen it in a shop. Cat drinks lots of water now which she never did, but seems very healthy.