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

It's 4% of named meat e.g chicken, fish. It will have a higher meat content but it will be from mixed sources. They can only say it's chicken flavour if it has 4% of that particular meat.

For e.g. whiskas chicken flavour:
Chicken:
Meat and animal by-products (35%, including 4% chicken chunks*), grain, minerals, vegetable by-products, various sugars.

Cats dont have taste receptors for sweet foods so can't taste sugars. More likely to prefer the flavour or texture rather than any sweetness

We used to do that, although ours was quite a good drinker of water. We also used to give him "fishy water" which was a bit of tuna stirred into water and he liked drinking that.

Three pages in and only one poster has put up a photo. Pay your cat tax please, people!

Ours has Sheba and those little tins of tuna and shrimp/crab cat food.
I know Sheba isn’t great but he does have simpsons cat biscuits which are a high meat content.
look on zoo plus for decent/reasonably priced food
also mine won’t even go near whiskers 🙄

My cat who is fussy adores those little cans purina gourmet creations they are chicken and spinach and it actually smells okay and I'm vege so meat is quite an unpleasant smell for me

My current pair will only eat Whiskers in gravy. Not jelly, not Felix or Sheba or vet prescribed food nor tuna or anything else. Fussy animals.

My DCat came from rescue centre on Hill science plan biscuits. She won’t eat any other dry food except Hills, although will eat any flavour. She’ll only eat Felix wet food, and is very fussy about which type otherwise she won’t eat it. Most of the time She’ll eat her biscuits rather than roast chicken. She’s always drunk loads and vet says she’s healthy, so something’s working.

My cat has expensive tastes and its encore, thrive, lily's kitchen and blink for wet food and the scrumbles for dry food. Costs us a fortune!

I had a cat that developed diabetes and kidney issues that loved whiskas. Not sure if it was related. I have a very elderly cat now of 21 years, who can't eat treats or most dry food any more but can eat Tesco wet cat food fine. Reasonably priced too

@FrightfulCounterHon tax paid

@FrightfulCounterHon whoops 🤣

Now we’re talking! A real cutie

Cheap food can cause UTIs in cats, kidney issues etc and it made my cat buzz around like a lunatic. There are other alternatives which are more protein based and don't cost the earth. Worth investigating and getting the best you can afford. I think wet food is best, overall, just because cats are prone to kidney disease etc. My sweetest boy had dry food his whole life, a couple of UTIs and died of stomach cancer at 14. I moved him from Whiskas to some food from Costco. If I had another cat, I'd probably feed raw or definitely wet knowing what I know now.

Cheap food can cause UTIs in cats, kidney issues etc and it made my cat buzz around like we'd given him caffeine. There are other alternatives which are more protein based and don't cost the earth. Worth investigating and getting the best you can afford. I think wet food is best, overall, just because cats are prone to kidney disease etc. My sweetest boy had dry food his whole life, a couple of UTIs and died of stomach cancer at 14. I moved him from Whiskas to some food from Costco. If I had another cat, I'd probably feed raw or definitely wet knowing what I know now.