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.

A warning, Zooplus is addictive. It is also the kind of place to buy in bulk which is why I suggested trying pouches from a shop first in case you end up with lots of stuff they refuse to eat.

Stock changes often on there, you can find something you get on with and go back to find it isn't available, but you can get notified when it is back.

I have had varied success with the good foods, only flat refusal was a very sick little kitty with what turned out to be cancer. The randoms that moved in for one reason or another finished it all off, my 'Best Boy' loved his fish, but would also get through chicken with no worries.

He loved Whiskas Oh So and was on Whiskas when he was adopted so always a stand by. He was of unknown age anything from 5 -10 when he arrived depending on which vet he saw, and he was with me for 12 years, on meds for a lot of it, but the Whiskas didn't kill him, heart disease and kidney failure from the heart meds did. I did try to keep him of it though.

And no dry. If you have ever seen a cat running upstairs and leaving a trail of blood spots behind him, you wouldn't even think about dry food. Not even a tiny bit.

Whiskas has one good feature. It aids the throwing up of furballs. Especially on carpet. It's the moisture content you see, a good lubricant.

Put it inside a very small piece of ham. Check your fingers afterwards.

Malt paste or cheesespread inside a very small piece of ham make good tablet pockets for medicine/worming tablets. Again, count your fingers afterwards.

This is why I have a VAX carpet cleaner and rubbish carpets.

I'm in Germany and unfortunately there seems to be a lot less choice on the Zooplus UK website, but I would definitely second CatAssTrophic's recommendations.

Feringa is probably the best value for money among the better wet foods and acceptance tends to pretty good.

Animonda vom Feinsten is not amazing ingrendients wise, but still much better than your typical supermarket fare and tends to be a good starting point for introducing cats to healthier brands. It's overpriced but acceptance is really good (mine particularly like the chicken, lamb and chicken liver).

Animonda Carny is also a bit overpriced for what it is, but also one of the better brands for 'beginners' as acceptance tends to be pretty good. I've read that 'Meat Saucer' (the German name on the tin is 'Multifleisch-Cocktail') is one of the most popular flavours and it is often sold in my local pet shop. Mine also love the Chicken, Turkey & Duck Hearts.

Catz Finefood is fairly pricey but very good ingredients and declaration and a really popular choice with my cats.

My cats also love these pouches from Mjam Mjam if you can find them for a reasonable price (way overpriced on Amazon):
www.amazon.co.uk/MjAMjAM-Package-Chicken-Beef-Hearts/dp/B07D1CKBDJ/ref=sr_1_7?crid=39RB4O8P92R6G&keywords=mjam+mjam&qid=1674765620&s=pet-supplies&sprefix=mjam+mjam%2Cpets%2C82&sr=1-7

I'll say one thing for the "new recipe" WHISKAS - there's a lot more 💩
BoyCat has just dug towards Australia...that's all you need to know.
<holds breath>

It's a bugger to get the stains out though. Simple Solution used to remove it but leave a patch instead.

We have green carpets (not my choice) so I wipe/blot as much as pos, then pour one neat VAX carpet shampoo (sainsbury sell it) and scrub with a dish-washy sponge, or if it's bad a nail brush. Rinse the sponge/brush in clean hot water, blot with loads of Asda Shades Kitchen roll (better/thicker than Plenty).
I cleaned a cream coloured pure wool rug with that and you can't tell he barfed there.

I used to order from Zooplus before they opened the UK version, it all came from Germany.
There was another German company that were very good and used to put a little gift in the parcel.
I used to buy a lot of German stuff before it became to expensive to deliver. Keramik im Hof have terrific cat fountains and raised bowls.

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).

I had a fight with one vet who had been so brainwashed that she insisted that dry food was good food. I insisted that it wasn't good at all, especially for constipation and urinary problems and that I had no intention of buying it just so she could get commission. I changed vets in the end and only see a vet that listens and doesn't try to force me into bad decisions.

I was very surprised to find that the vet that did recent surgery knew about high meat content food and recommended a couple for me to try, one being Feringa. She was very surprised in turn when I told her that Feringa was a pretty good food and was one of the few high meat content foods that contain vegetables 😸

ted that it wasn't

I don't know who ted is or what he has to do with this thread

Yes, Keramik im Hof is great! I bought a cat fountain before Christmas but was too impatient to wait for one of the Keramik im Hof ones (current delivery time is 10 weeks +) so ended up going with a fountain from Miaustore (also ceramic and so far, I'm very happy with it and would recommend).

Fressnapf and Zooroyal are other big German websites with a good choice of brands, but neither of them appears to deliver to the UK these days.

I hardly ever buy from Zooplus because - as you mention above - you have to buy in bulk and might get stuck with 12 tins of something your cats hate. My go to is Sandra's Tieroase. Again, no delivery to the UK right now but I'll still add a link if anyone needs brand recommendations. All the brands featured on their site are good quality and many of them will probably be available on Amazon / eBay / from UK pet shops:
www.sandras-tieroase.de/Katzen/Nassfutter

Trixie have a small rip-off of the Keramic Im Hof fountains, in 2 sizes. I lost the pump for mine somewhere and ended up buying a small Trixie one until it turns up. The quality isn't great though but I think something had gone wrong with production because lots of Ebay sellers had them at the same time, in large quantities. I had one with a broken bowl, a bit was chipped right off. It was replaced with another one with some missing glaze and the pump worked for about a day. Between them I managed to cobble a complete one together.

I have seen some nice slightly imperfect ones on Keramic Im Hof, there's a small section on there for them but they don't have them often, already made though, so faster.

I will look at the link, thank you, always interested in something different.

I'm not surprised, my mother is friends with a vet who feeds her dog dry food only. 🙈 She's a good and very experienced vet otherwise and the dog is her baby, so I find it quite weird how successfully people like her have been brainwashed by Royal Canin et al.

Seems like you found a vet who is really on the ball and up to date on pet nutrition, sounds like a keeper!

Yes, I think she is a good vet, I haven't met her yet, only spoken on the phone to discuss surgery etc. I do know she is from another country and was working with rescue cats which is a good sign.

My previous vet was a sweetie, she was never in a rush, willing to listen and discuss complementary treatments and diet and was amused to find that I fed ostrich and kangaroo (used to be available from Zooplus) so I gave her some to try out on her cats. Moving to different area and finding a good vet was a challenge and I have tried most of them. I don't hesitate to change if my cats don't get treated in a way I feel is correct for them and I won't be told I am wrong by one that knows nothing about cat nutrition.

I looked at the Trixie fountain is well, but the reviews weren't great and Keramik im Hof didn't have any of the already made fountains with imperfections in stock, either.

Miaustore have replacement pumps which may be compatible with your fountain if it ever becomes an issue again:
miaustore.com/uk/spare-parts.html

I also bought the pump guard which so far has done a good keeping cat hair out of the pump and the motion sensor. I have the Miaustore Mini Fountain and really like it so far, especially considerung it's only £34.

I like the Trixie one, it is also easier to clean and reassemble than the Keramic one. So far I have replaced the pump in that one twice, once with one from Germany and it was expensive, next one from an aquarium supplies place where a very helpful man found me one and checked the tube was the right fit. It comes with a piece of plastic tubing which is a bit basic, and the end is always wonky, the tubing goes green and not easy to clean. The tubing goes from the pump to the hole in the top so has to be the right level. All in all it is very fiddly but the pottery is great, the pump and tube part could be refined a bit though.

The Maistore one looks difficult to clean, similar to the Catmate in style, I liked the Catmate but none of the cats would use it, probably the plastic.

I've found the Miaustore one very easy to detach and re-attach to the fountain and cleaning it seemed also pretty straight forward, but I have no other pump to compare it to and can't say anything about longevity yet. We're in an extremely hard water area, so I suppose I'll find out soon enough! The cats don't seem to mind the plastic, although with being raw-fed they don't drink huge amounts anways and mostly seem to enjoy messing about with the water.

Urgh, seem seem seem and lots of mistakes in my last few posts. My English is definitely a bit rusty and I'm probably read for bed!

Water is very hard here too, I soak it in white vinegar and water to remove buildup, and run the pump in it too, then run it in clear water, wash the fountain as normal.
I had Catit ones before, they are terrible.
I have made a few typos too, so also off to bed.

Yeah, I do the same with citric acid, hopefully that will be good enough. I didn't like the look of the Catit fountains either and really wanted a ceramic one. If the Miaustore one doesn't work out, I'll try Kermik im Hof next.

Sorry for spamming your thread with random talk about cat fountains, crosspusscrossstitcher!

Citric acid/lemon juice are similar to vinegar, I use lemon juice in my washing machine as it smells better than vinegar.

It's worth getting another fountain, I have a little stainless steel one as well so can rotate them when one needs cleaning if I want to leave the Trixie one to soak.

Yes, sorry about changing the subject crosspusscrossstitcher. Maybe it will be of interest to you if you want a fountain at some time 😺

I use a squirt of salmon oil for constipation which seems to help
Mine had a blood clot blocking his urethra and cost me a bloody fortune. Couple of years later he got what they thought was triaditis so I'm really cautious what I feed him

I have dry down but it's grain free and he's only got one tooth so might nibble a few bits, it's mostly for not my cat
I'm also feeding the hi life tuna in jelly which is a complementary food, mostly because little 3kg idiot here eats like a lion and I can't afford the 5 pouches of natures menu he wants a day!!!
Tried loads of stuff from zooplus which he rejected. He does like Purrform obvs, it's expensive and occasionally lily's kitchen. His taste buds are a mystery and apparently change daily

Oh and for water he drinks out his own personal fountain, otherwise known as the neighbours water feature
Luckily they love him and when it broke she was round immediately "tell Ollie I'm ordering one today, he won't go thirsty will he"