Is Whiskas really that bad??

[LavenderLxx]

Our 5 month old kitten has been eating Whiskas for the last few months as that what he had eaten initially and we didn’t want to change it. I’ve been reading how Whiskas is full of rubbish - meat derivatives, very little real meat, cereals and sugars; so have been looking at more of the ‘proper’ food brands. We could afford to pay more than we currently are with the Whiskas but not the super premium brands.

However my husband says there’s nothing wrong with Whiskas and his childhood cats lived till 18 eating it and that ‘proper’ food is an unnecessary expense.

Opinions please on how bad Whiskas really is and some affordable proper brands would be much appreciated. Thank you x

Re affordable brands try animonda carny, feringa, wild freedom all from zoo plus. I originally bought small amounts of all of them to try out on my kittens. Unfortunately one has inflammatory bowel disease so now on a prescribed diet but before that they both willingly ate all of those. None of these are significantly more expensive than whiskas pouches and were a big saving on what my cats ate previously (blink). Downside is they all come in cans so you have the storage of partially eaten cans, to bring it up to an acceptable temperature before serving etc. However cans are more sustainable than plastic pouches so an environmental benefit.

Our cat eats Sainsbury's own brand pouches in jelly. Have tried him with various healthier brands from zooplus - animonda, smilla, feringa, wild freedom. He's not super keen, will eat most but not the wild freedom. He likes the scrumbles dry food though. He has soft poo unless I supplement with a powder used for this purpose, vet thinks just give him more time as we've only had him 2 months.

You can get them in those 100g trays which is potentially less storage although I still feed one of those over 2 meals so depends how much they eat in one go!

I've never fed any of my cats premium food. Whiskers or Felix is the go to. They have all been happy and healthy. They do get off cuts of fresh meat and they sub with mice.

The best food for a cat is one they will eat!

Slightly off topic, but is it ok for cats to chew chicken thigh bones? Ours loves them, usually acquires them by theft from the kitchen counter, but I remember my mother RIP telling me that chicken bones were very bad for cats! I do find this hard to believe, given that they've evolved quite happily eating birds.

Decent dry and basic wet is what I do with added water into wet if I think they aren’t drinking enough. I also have water fountain and ‘not to be used by cats’ water bowls in bathroom and en-suite ( sure fire way to get them to drink more)
They get their nutrition from the dry, the wet is just to make life a bit more interesting and fill tummies so they don’t sit in my head all night.
I have many cats so I also offer more than one type of wet and they sort themselves out with the right plates. I try not to use bowls unless they wider than their whiskers and because it’s a multicat household I use mostly metal not plastic dishes/plates.

@CherryFlan no - cooked bones are really dangerous for cats (and dogs). Raw only.

Ok, thanks, @biscuitsandbooks , mother was right! We will have to change practices on kitchen counter leftovers. Out of interest, why does cooking them make a difference? Mum said something to do with splintering.

@CherryFlan yep - mum is right! Splintering means they can cause damage to the throat and stomach. Raw chicken wings etc. are fine though - or you can give them things like dried sprats (designed for dogs but my cats love them - they stink though!)

We now use the Lidl own brand which is cheap and 65% meat content - far higher than most supermarket brands. We mix with Lidl own brand cat pellets and they love it, devour it.

The whiskas we get occasionally if we run out of Lidl looks dreadful. Mushy and watery. They eat it but it smells awful, as does their poo 💩

Nearly all the supermarket cat foods are about 4% meat (yes that is a 4).

We spend quite a lot feeding our cats Canagans wet and dry food, but my attitude is what's the point in having pets unless you adore them.

They're very happy, intelligent and agile cats as a consequence, so I do think it's worth it.

There are also millions of happy, healthy, agile cats who are fed nothing but Whiskas or Tesco own brand.

I think it's really easy to say "buy xyz" but if the cat won't eat it, then it doesn't matter how much meat is in it, or how good it is for their joints.

We tried so many of the expensive brands and couldn't find a single one that all three cats would reliably eat.

when we got eric as a kitten he was on go cat dry. changed to iams dry and introduced wet with scrumbles untamed etc. he turned his nose up at all wet food so i started him on felix as good as it gets and he would eat it but still preferred his iams. ernie was put on the same diet when he joined us and all was good until.....
eric developed idiopathic cystitis, had urethral blockage and tried to die twice!
now i've had to wean him off the iams and felix and he is on royal canin urinary wet that costs more than liquid gold and purina urinary dry. poor ernie has had to make the swap as well for ease and preventative (they are biologically maternal cousins possibly paternally half brothers 😂).
i wish they still had felix and iams as they almost cost more to feed than my kids now!
what works for one cat doesn't work for another so i'd say stick with what they enjoy and ease your guilt with a bit of fresh fish or cooked chicken now and again for a treat. eric isn't even allowed his beloved tuna anymore.
that plus having to get gabapentin into him twice a day makes me feel like his little life is all a bit sadder compared to before.

I thought Sheba was good quality?!! It's so much more expensive than other brands.

Ours likes variety including Purina which I often think is the equivalent of a McDonald's

Although actually she's also rather partial to a maccies 😂

I had no idea Lidl was that much better, which one is it - the pouches or the little trays?

Cats are ridiculously picky when it comes to food ime. My old cat only ate felix pouches and looked at dry food with disgust.

My current cat won't touch wet food and only likes a particular brand of dry food 🫠

You can certainly try different foods but don't expect them to eat it 🤦‍♀️😂

@lochmaree its the pouches. A sort of beige colour in cardboard with ‘65’ on it quite clearly.

Amazing thanks will give it a try!

We noticed a huge difference in our cats appearance when we switched them to Katkins which is 100% meat. Their coats are glossy and so soft and their eyes bright. The litter tray doesn't smell and they now always lick their bowls clean.

Having said that, I know it's expensive and not for everyone. However we used to spend a lot of money on supermarket food which barely got eaten so for us it's been worth it.

I think any wet food is better than dry and as long as your cats are happy and healthy that is the main thing.

Thank you for all your replies! We’ve only been a cat owner for 6 weeks so it’s all new to us! And as a lot of you wisely say the best food is the one they eat!!

The problem is. If they don’t like what ur offering they will just go else where. Cats are very good at looking starving so people feed them. 😂

One of my cats is extremely fussy. I try to buy food with a high meat content but he will either refuse it altogether (most often!) or eat it for a while then eventually turn his nose up. Sometimes I can go back to it later. If I get out some 'junk' food he will come running and this week I had to feed him that every meal because he wouldn't eat anything else!

Of course she likes it. Because they add lots of sugar in it which simply creates an addiction to sugar and she doesn’t want to eat any other food.

I have a lot of cats and have to have many varieties of food in at all times. Some will only eat Whiskas, Sheba or Felix, others will eat Lidl own brand. As long as they all eat that’s what matters.