Is fresh cat food really better, or is Felix perfectly fine?

[LoisGriffinskitchen]

I have two rescue cats and have got them on KatKin fresh cat food. Tbh it’s wonderful, the cats are thriving on it, it’s simple to prepare and stores in the freezer.

However it’s £70 a box and money is tight at times.

I'm pretty certain if I speak to my lovely local vet Aggie she is likely to pull a face and say Felix As Good As it Looks is fine 😁.

Just wondering what other people’s opinions are on fresh food. Is it truly superior? Am I letting my girls down by buying a huge box of Felix and giving that at times.

Litter tray definitely smells better while on this food.

Felix is fine, as is Whiskas and supermarket own-brand stuff. The rules in the UK covering what can be sold as a complete cat food are strict. I will warn you that your cats will, at some random point in time, decide that they no longer like Felix and you’ll have to find some other brands. At the moment, mine will only eat Whiskas and Lidl sachets.

It’s fine. Much better fed than not at all!

My cat is fussy and only likes lidl or aldi (yay for the bank balance)

My cats have Tesco own pouches and my last 2 cats have lived until they were 18 so I’m happy with it.x

It’s fine. All of my cats have lived very healthy lives into their late teens/early twenties on Felix!

I think you're looking at opposite ends of the scale there. Yes a good quality fresh brand is great, but costs a fortune. The brands like Felix, Whiskas, many supermarket brands are much cheaper but to a degree you get what you're paying for.

You need to balance diet with cost a bit here, like most do with their own food or other possessions e.g. I'd love Wagu steak regularly but get by fine with cheaper cuts from more basic cattle - usually a stewing steak in a casserole gives me pleasant tasting food with good protein for example. If we get a new car, yes a top of the range Range Rover, Tesla or Merc would be nice but we end up with a Ford or Skoda; we don't buy a second hand car in a brand we've never heard of.

I feed mine a good quality dry, and a medium quality/price wet. Both are glossy, plenty of energy, and Tobias is doing very well considering the permanent health issues he got from being an un-neutered stray for years.

Thanks all, I lost a cat aged 12 to bowel cancer and worried in case it was filler etc in supermarket cat food. Me being me!

I’ll reduce the frequency of KatKin deliveries …don’t mind the occasional box but £70 every three weeks is a bit steep. 😁

I’d never feed that cheap crap to my cats.

I buy grain free food from zooplus or cook chicken and fish for them. A lot of cats and dogs have an intolerance to wheat just like some humans do, but most vets haven’t a clue.

Your vet sounds very sensible.
They are cats not gourmands.
Millions of moggies have lived to a ripe old age on Felix.
Spend as much as you choose but not more than you can afford.
I'd live on filet steak but I eat mince instead except for a treat.

Do you want a medal?

I think you are missing a big point here. You feed them whatever they will eat! I have yet to find anything The Stray will consistently eat and not just lick the gravy off 😩

Make sure whatever you buy is listed as complete and not complimentary and definitely don't feed them cooked chicken/fish only unless you are adding the necessary extras that cats need, eg taurine.

My cats eat own brand tinned in jelly cat food and dry food.
They like the Gourmet Perle pouches but it's beyond my budget and they prefer the Go-kat one with the tender bits in.

They go mad for Lik-e-lix and like Dreamies a lot. They get them occasionally.

Mine will eat most cat food. They'll also eat kitchen scraps but they're not keen on bread or pasta.

The best food for any cat is the one they will eat and that keeps them healthy.

I wouldn't feed cheap dry food, but cheap wet food alongside decent dry is a good compromise.

My current girl is a fusspot so there are limited options, but last boy was a feline dustbin so he mostly had grain-free everything, which was somewhat undermined when he stole pasta or cake or, his favourite, fig rolls!

My cat loves Felix and turns his nose up at most other things. He will eat every Felix flavour there is but is very fussy with everything else.

My cat will only eat Whiskas dry chicken flavour. He might eat the odd bit of ham, but he completely turns his nose up at any kind of fresh food.

I think its a smell thing for him

He will of course stuff himself if we let him on treats, but his preferred are Pets at Home chicken, so again not the most expensive

Like others say, there’s a happy medium and the best food is what you can afford and your cats will eat. I personally can’t be bothered with the hassle of raw food and subscriptions and I don’t feel I could justify the environmental impact of feeding cats human quality meat as opposed to the by-products of the meat industry. My cats are fussy about texture and won’t eat the pate style that a lot of the expensive brands are made of, so that limits our options as I’m not spending a fortune on expensive food for it to go in the bin. I tend to go for mid-range brands Zooplus (their favourite is Bozita which comes in chunks in sauce), but equally my childhood cats were fed on Whiskas and were perfectly healthy. And around the world millions of cats live long and healthy lives on Felix and Whiskas. It is a highly regulated market and it is not like just feeding your cats Macdonalds every day.

I don’t like how Katkin and similar advertise to make it seem that if you are feeding your cat on anything other than their raw food you are basically feeding them rubbish and are a bad owner. A lot of their marketing is misleading, eg suggesting that because most cat food is only 4% named meat that means it is only 4% meat, which is completely different.

Thanks for this thread OP. I feed my two darling cats classic cat food (used to be known as butchers) as their wet and artisan (!) life stage grain free dry food (jollyes).

PP mention a good dry food - is that a good dry food?

they also get the pate from Lidl as a treat and practically inhale the stuff.

Both supplement their food with wild caught prey. 😢

Mine get a mixture. Usually Felix for breakfast and higher quality grain free later in the day. They mostly prefer Felix, but I worry about them getting diabetes and other health issues if they only have that. I tend to think that it’s better to spend a few extra pounds on quality cat food than ££££ at the vets later in life!

I also find that the Felix doesn’t fill them up as much so they are more likely to badger for food. It can be a bit of a false economy

Our vet didn’t like us using Felix or Whiskas but equally mogs wasn’t going to eat dried food either. We changed from Katkin to Marro for the time being as Katkin prices were rising rather quickly.

One of my cats has allergies which mainly affect his skin but his stomach is sensitive as well. He often gets itchy and vomits if we give him Felix, whiskas etc. So he needs sensitivity control food.

The other can eat whatever and seems perfectly happy and healthy.

So it really depends on the cat.

Felix and Whiskers are not fine. Cats are carnivores and they need high meat diets - not that shit.

Feeding a poor diet can cause a multitude of health problems.

My cats are only okay with grain free food, it’s much better for them and when I feed them raw they are sooo much better behaved. I personally can’t feed mine just generic food but I’m jealous of anybody who can!

I put it on top of the dry food. The cans are much cheaper. Tasty Shreds is £4.69 / kg, own brand tinned £1.81 / kg.

They only get things like Tasty Shreds if I strike gold on the yellow stickers.

My cat would only eat Morrisons own brand cat food in jelly for years and years despite trying various cat foods out. Then one day, after 7 years, she refused to eat it any longer. I then went through the process of finding something else that met her high expectations and she finally settled on the Purina gravy gourmet pouches. My sister bought some expensive luxury brand cat food for her cat and when he died she gave me a big box of the left over cat food which was probably worth at least a hundred pounds. Would my cat touch it? Nope…because it wasn’t in gravy. Ffs.

Many cats can't tolerate chicken, weirdly. Mine gets sick on it and my vet said it isn't unusual.

So- called healthier foods aren't always!