Recommendations for Dry Food

[Littlesunshine123]

Hello I am just after some advice as I have recently taken on a family members 3 year old boy cat. He's just been neutered and has always just had dry food. He use to have go cat dry food. I have since changed him to applaws dry food salmon and chicken.
He won't eat wet food, I have tried basically all types of wet food and most brands (trial packs from zooplus etc) and won't eat any of them. He will occasionally eat tuna. He has lots of water and a normal water bowl and cat fountain. He wees a lot (I scoop at his litter tray at least 3/4 day). He's a house cat and I was going to let him out but there is a few boy cats around my area who are big and bully other cats. My boy is always been indoors and very timid.

I'd love him to have some wet food but he won't entertain it at all.
So for now looking to give him a decent dry food. Is there anything as decent as applaws for a little less money? (struggling with money a little so anything that saves money at the moment will help).

Have you tried Royal Canin Indoor? Sorry no idea whether this will work out cheaper than Applaws.

I'd imagine royal canin is more expensive with less meat in it

I give a mix of vets kitchen and thrive dry (mix it up in a cereal pouring tub) but don't know if it's any cheaper than applaws

Thanks so much for the recommendations. I have a look at them and work out the costs. I remember getting vets kitchen for my previous cat a few years ago but it seems as though price has gone up a lot and it's not avaliable in as many places. I use to get it on offer at Asda.

Am going just have to stop him being a greedy guts after being neutered as well.

I get the vets kitchen from sainsbury's. I dont live near sainsbury's so stock up when I do go.

Have you tried Scrumbles? I don’t know how it compares to Applaws price-wise but it is really high meat content with no grains or fillers.

Our cat mainly eats wet food but she loves Scrumbles adult and would stuff herself silly on it if we let her.

I found the scrumbles kibble was very small in comparison with other brands. My cats chewed it even less than usual!

I'm sure you've tried this, but when mine didn't want wet I would mix a tiny bit into his drey food, increasing every day. I've been told male cats can get blockages on purely dried food.

Canagan, high protein and grain free seems to keep mine content!

My cat got on well with a mixture of Thrive (salmon or chicken) mixed with Concept for Life sterilised cat food. The sterilised food is meant to be extra filling to avoid weight gain for neutered cats, and it seemed to help her appetite calm down a little (she's an ex-stray so hates to be hungry). The Thrive she just seemed to like the flavour and it suited her tummy. She's now on hypoallergenic food so the options are more limited but I'd put her back on that if I could!

The mix of thrive and the concept sterilised seems like a good idea. He's defo getting chunky so need to address this. Thrive seems better than applaws ingredients wise.

I will keep on trying with the wet food but I have tried every method and food and he won't entertain it.

As long as he has access to water and is eating a good quality dry food, I wouldn't worry too much about him not eating wet.

While it's best if a neutered male eats wet food, you can hardly force them!

He has lots of water thankfully. He's only 3 and I've only had him 4 months now. So plenty of time to hopefully get him to have some wet food. Yesterday he had some chicken from my plate so that's a good start at least.

If he likes chicken and tuna have you tried those little Applaws tins? Or cat soups?

My cat is on Crave (only available from Zooplus now that Willis has shut. Grrr) I recently mixed in a bit of Thrive which he liked. They have a high protein content and not much filler type ingredients. He was on Applaws dried but they changed the recipe and I think he was allergic as he went very itchy and scurfy.

He didn’t used to like wet foods, but now really likes ones in gravy, never the jelly ones and only fish flavoured. He likes the soup one - felix? Gourmet Perle and the Sheba fine fillets. I give him half a pouch twice a day as he won’t eat a whole one in one go, and then won’t finish it later if it’s dried out at all.

I can’t believe a rescue cat is so fussy!

We feed our 3 Proplan dried. They love it. We have chicken or turkey downstairs and salmon upstairs. Upstairs is topped up way more often.

They do eat wet food but are all grazers so the dry keeps tummies happy once the wet is gone, till we get home from work.

Yes I've tried the applaws and encore chicken filet type tins. Also cat soup. Tried Jelly, Gravy and Pate in different brands. Nothing at all. I mean I know cats are fussy (my previous cat would turn her nose up at a lot of foods) but he doesn't seem to even entertain any type of wet food.

So for now best I can do is a good quality dry but mix in with one for sterilised cats as he is constantly meowing for more food and treats all the time.

Thank you for all the recommendations and advice. I also have a boy toddler who has also turned fussy so I've got two boys now who are fussy little things haha.