NEW Whiskas - the one with the Cod flavour

[crosspusscrossstitcher]

is going to cost more.

For a 3kg cat it is now recommended you feed them 3 or 3.5 pouches per day. Old recipe was 2.

Calorie content has reduced from 77 to 62 per pouch.

There is also NOTHING ON THE BOX TO SAY THIS IS A NEW RECIPE

Please spread the word outside of here.

I won't be buying any more of this s$£t, and will never buy another MARS product.

🤬🤬 on behalf of my 2 hangry cats.

@Rebel2023

Ha ha! Mine have been known to refuse Tuna on occasion!

I've witnessed girl cat turn her nose up in disgust at her very expensive cat food, and then go out and eat a giant moth!

My cats particularly hate beef flavour food. Probably makes sense given that most cats don't catch cows! I think I'd have more success if they manufactured moth and mouse flavour cat food!

Mine has Felix! He also has a gourmet sachet during the day. He has the Felix morning and evening but he doesn't really eat much of the meat but loves the jelly. We have tried him with other foods but he is extremely picky. We bought Sheba , he walked to his dish , sniffed it, pointed his nose in the air and walked away. He looked at me as if to say now that is not good enough. I think we may end up giving him the gourmet at every meal.

Mine throws up if he has beef
I fed him beef FLAVOUR treats once which probably hadn't ever seen a cow
Cat "I be sick now"
Thanks

Our cats are also mostly raw-fed. They love it and now feel very hard done by whenever I dare to serve the occasional high-end tinned stuff instead. I looked at the PurrForm mentioned above and noticed that it doesn't contain any vegetables which might be why your cat gets constipated (if that's what your feeding?).
I make my own raw meat mix including all necessary supplements and always add about 5% of carrot or pumpkin purée from the baby food isle (tip picked up from a BARF forum I frequent). Zero mess and no more bunged up kitties. This could also easily be added to a ready-made mix like PurrForm.

We're big fans of raw feeding as it's super healthy, quite cheap (works out at around €5 / kg with meat prices here similar to the UK) and I never throw away uneaten cat food these days. Prep takes me a few hours about once a month but would take less time if I had more freezer space to store more portions.

Same with my diva cat (12). She won't touch Whiskas wet. Will eat Felix but only certain flavours. Have tried her with "better" foods over the years such as Lily's Kitchen, Nature's Menu, she won't touch them. Not saying she's a spoiled Senior Catizen but these days she prefers her chosen Felix flavours with some tuna-in-spring-water or some chopped chicken mixed into it.

I feed mostly wet as I had a previous cat who became diabetic from eating too much dry food.

I was mixing it with other stuff, still bunged her up, she had surgery a while back, I think she's not quite right in there, so is on unblocking stuff.

Untamed
Meowing heads
Blink
Scrumbles

All good quality foods, I give both of mine all of the above so they don't get bored, I used to mix a small amount of whiskas with it but now they'll eat any of them. No more 4am wake ups!

The only food my three will eat is Felix AGAIL. Everything else they sniff and ignore completely, even if that's all I give them for several meals in a row.

I know the people suggesting lots of high quality foods mean well, but you can only feed what your cats will actually eat. I've spent so much money trying all these foods off ZooPlus and similar and it's all ended up being donated or given away on Marketplace

I tried a couple of raw ones. Mixed with some of her other food. She was happy with it at first but then would always eat the canned stuff first and the raw with less enthusiasm. Making my own would be ideal, but not practical.

I do add veg to her food but all the reading and research indicated it would be better for her, sadly not. Feringa has veg added so add a bit less when it's in the rotation, otherwise about 5 -10 grams per meal depending on how she is.

My worry is that she will become diabetic so am doing my best for her. Vet checks show no problems so think she must have been very hungry for some time before going into rescue.

I know the people suggesting lots of high quality foods mean well, but you can only feed what your cats will actually eat.
This!
My cat will only eat Felix wet food and whiskers biscuits and then only a few flavours. I wish I could buy single flavour boxes so there was less waste.
My surplus goes to a neighbour who feeds strays who will at least eat anything.

Sounds like the constipation may well be somehow connected to the surgery you mentioned earlier. Another tip I've seen is a small amount of psyllium husk soaked in plenty of water, but not sure if that would be suitable for your cat. Adding some melted butter / ghee / a bit of greek yoghurt can also help with constipation, but may not be an option if weight management is a problem.

FWIW, to me it sounds like you're doing much better than the vast majority of cat owners slaves with no dry kibble and grain and sugar free wet food, so I wouldn't be overly worried about diabetes even if kitty is a bit on the chunky side. IME it's really difficult to get cats who were raised on junk used to the healthy stuff, so great job there. Our old boy who died last year ended up with hyperthyroidsim and chronic pancreatitis in the last few years of his life which probably could have been avoided with healthier food. We tried to wean him off the junk he was used to so many times, but he'd rather starve himself than eat grain free food without flavour enhancers. Very frustrating.

HiLife changed a few years back, I don't bother with it any more. Applaws is not complete and they don't make it obvious, so people are buying it thinking they are feeding their cats proper balanced food. It was/is made by MPM products who also make Encore. I don't buy either. I'm not sure about the pouches, but the tins for sure are not complete.

Quite a lot of the shredded foods are not complete, I get annoyed on Zooplus as you have to read all the info to find out which wastes a of of time.

I buy some of the Almo, but check it is complete first.

A friend has just informed me that their last few purchases of Blink were mouldy, they order from Pets at Home.

While looking to find them something else, I looked at Pets Corner and they deliver now. There might be something on there of use.

I have to admit this, I used to cook a portion of fish every day and divide it into 3 to serve with normal cat food. It was worth it just watch it vanish.

Re: the food, some rescues will pick it up if there is a fair bit. Might be worth asking, or find a small one, more likely to collect it.

Oh yes, tried adding psyllium husk, tried various things, in fact everything reasonably natural before going down the route of malt paste which does work and lactulose. Have been there before, 12 years of it, hence the refusal to feed dry. I add water to food, along with veg and lactulose. Treats are a squirt of malt paste and a squirt of vitamin paste. No dry treats.

I was determined this time, no rubbish. I took in a sick cat that owner couldn't be bothered with, turned out to be diabetic, I never want to go through that again, it was bad. Sad thing was, he also would eat whatever he was given at first, including the good stuff which he never had until he came to me.

I hate to say it but I think the crap food would resolve or partly resolve the constipation due to the amount of grain and gunk in it.

I have to answer one post at a time or I get myself muddled up, sorry.
As long as they are healthy, don't worry about the pong. One of mine used to clear the entire street (well almost) but it was due to illness.

Good quality food mostly doesn't do that. Feeding a carnivore on maize and carageenan with a little bit of meat and fish meal and some additives isn't great on the digestive system.

I currently weigh the food if it's in a 200g tin or more. I have a goal for her weight, asked the vet. I have baby scales and a washing up bowl, bowl on scales to weigh bowl. Set scales pre-cat loading. Cat into bowl, quick look at weight before cat leaves bowl in disgust. Small squirt of malt paste as a treat.

Do try not to let them get too big, especially if you have a catflap that you would like to keep intact...

I would get them weighed and find out what they should weigh and take it from there.

So now another thing to consider. If you can work out how much they 'should' be fed, maybe a bit less if they are bordering on porky, you can work out which food to get to make it easy for yourself.

The good stuff weighs surprisingly more than you would think (it does to me anyway). Pate is dense and usually in 85g pouches with a little diagram on the pack with different sized cats and the recommended amount.

I poste earlier about a problem my friend had recently with Blink being mouldy so maybe leave that one for now. I would also suggest buying single pouches if you can get them, but more than one of each and rotate makes and flavours so they don't get used to it or bored.

That means getting it from a shop. Meowing Heads, maybe HiLife which isn't as good as it was but the fish ones used to be very fishy. Thrive tins if you can find them, they do some good fish ones. There's 3 to start with. You could put some freshly cooked fish in with it and gradually reduce it.

It wasn't my intention to take over this thread, sorry to other posters. I am kind of passionate about good food for pets, and not letting them get sick if it can be avoided.

On Pet Forums there is a saying 'Any wet food is better than dry'.

I would never suggest feeding a carnivore with grains and potatoes. I even avoid wet food with non cat foods in but that's possibly a bit extreme. It can be done but is a long drawn out procedure requiring patience - weaning them off the crap in the same way as weaning them off the dry. People give up in desperation when they won't eat the new stuff. I know, I have done it but have also been in the situation where I gave up.

You're clearly the expert on this! I think you could do a lot worse than a bit of malt paste and lactulose if your cat gets good quality food otherwise.
I suspect you're right, though - crap food probably would resolve the constipation as it seems to regularly cause very soft stools or diarrhea in many cats. Felix AGAIL being one of the worst offenders IME. To quote your other post: 'feeding a carnivore on maize and carageenan with a little bit of meat and fish meal and some additives isn't great on the digestive system.'

I would urge anyone who's never tried feeding quality (high meat content, sugar and grain free) wet food to give it a go and compare the state of the litter box against junk food poos. The amount, size and smell will show very clearly that a carnivore's digestive system can't actually cope with maize or sweet potatoes. Good quality wet food will definitely save you money on cat litter!

I tried the malt paste on a paw. He blinked at me, and neatly tucked his paw under him, smearing it everywhere. No go

On Pet Forums there is a saying 'Any wet food is better than dry'.

Couldn't agree more! Even the very best quality dry foods still have a significant amount of ingredients in them that just aren't suitable for a carnivore. Also terrible for feline kidneys!

@CatAssTrophic please take over if you want to. I don't mind, and I'm sure anyone else in a similar position won't either. Thank you for your advice so far 😻😸

I'll have a look on zooplus tomorrow - tonight I have a 2 hangry cats v dining room curtains battle to referee. 🤦‍♀️
They're porky, they are always thinner in summer🤞
Their diet is, erm, guilty as charged 🤦‍♀️ Girlcat will happily sit behind me while I eat a roast dinner and demand/pat my shoulder begging for most of the chicken.
I'm a soft touch
New day tomorrow - they are in for SUCH a shock. 😭
I'll pick half a dozen random(ish) ones from zooplus and merge them with their (old menu) whiskas - luckily they have a few weeks worth...I never stocked up on loo rolls, but have always had a good stock of food/litter for the cats. 😻

My previous vet was evangelical about getting them on a dry Royal Canin diet, which really didn't agree with either of them.

Luckily, that vet decided I'd need to travel around 25miles if I wanted an OOH visit, so I swapped to a local one (4miles) and they're much nicer.

I do think wet food is better than processed biscuits dry.

@RedCatWhoGotTheCream Is there one brand where you think I should start?

As prev post, I'm going to order a selection so Cats Protection will be getting a large donation at some point so any "this is the ONE" recommendation is a good one for me (and maybe them) 😻

Put it on his nose ans smear it a bit, so that if he shakes his head it doesn't fly off. He will lick it off. He might like it and ask for more. (Or he might not). Some are more appetising than others. The one I had least success with was Kalatax, the expensive one from the vet.

I've been told that vets learn very little about cat nutrition during their studies (too many other things to cover), so unless they have an active interest in the topic, many really don't know an awful lot about it. Companies like Royal Canin or Hill's hold 'nutrition workshops' for vets and many vets earn comission on their special diets (definitely the case in Germany, probably similar in the UK).