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.

Cats are carnivores. They should eat high content meat diets. If you want to give them something that isn’t and convince yourself it’s fine that’s up to you.

I find yellow sticker meat to be tje cheapest way to feed my cats. I roasted them a pork joint which cost me £6. Free range from waitrose. That will do two cats for the week and the juices set into a nice jelly which they adore. Way cheaper than even the cheapest supermarket pouches. £24 a month for 2 cats. They are free to supplement with mice and one is a fabulous hunter. Next week it will probably be a yellow sticker roast chicken.

Felix is one of the worst, look at the meat content. So many better ones you can get eg Almo Nature, Thrive

So that’s all you’re basing this on? Cats are carnivores.
i think the make up of commercial pet food is based on a greater knowledge of cat nutrition than that. They may even, shockingly, know more about cat nutrition than you do.

I don’t need to “convince myself” of anything, I’m basing my decisions of scientific and legal facts, as presented on a regular basis by regulatory bodies and experts in animal nutrition. You are falling victim to companies who know ‘cats are carnivores’ is about as far as the knowledge of their customers goes.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNjBSWItInT/?igsh=bHVhcjA0NDAyc2hj

Yes, of course - I am basing it on what cats in the wild would eat. They don’t naturally eat a load of sugars and carby crap. It speaks for itself that if you have a cat who farts all the time and whose poo absolutely stinks, the food they are eating is not very good.

The same goes for humans.

@MonteStory No one is saying supermarket cat foods aren't OK to feed your cat. They will provide sustenance, they're not poison. They are just really not ideal in the same way as a UPF diet is not ideal for humans. There are known carcinogens in many commercial cat foods, especially the cheap ones, and they are full of filler.

And yes, cats are carnivores. They are not really designed to eat food out of a pouch that is 80% cereals.

I’m another who raised a litter pair to 18 & 20 on supermarket stuff in the pre internet days. With my current boy I did huge amounts of research and ended up with products that scored well for nutrition vs cost.
So mine has one 100g pouch of Meowing Heads (most pouches are 70g so it’s good value at £1 a pouch. Then topped up with Scrumbles dry (just about the highest meat content available in dry). Wet because it’s better for overall health and dry because of dental health.
The wet stinks so badly I’m looking at other options. He seems to like the Pets at home pouches.
Anecdotally my old Whiskas fed girls used to eat their mouse catches. My current boy doesn’t so I wonder if that’s an indication of what they were missing in their diet.

Thank you for this, that’s a great post. I love Cat the Vet, she’s brilliant.

I've always fed our cats on grain free high protein food, a mix of wet and dry, our vet jokes we raise athletes because our cats are always long and lean with very shiny fur. Cats will live on any on junk but I'd go with the best quality you can afford. I could live on chicken nuggets and potato waffles but I don't. The first cat I owned as an adult I was given a box of Felix with and was surprised to see it contained ash! I weaned him off it

Exactly, thank you.

Ash is just shorthand for the essential minerals added to pet food.

I feed mine Untamed wet food and Purina One dry. I think you get what you pay for to a certain extent, and I definitely see the difference in quality between Untamed and Felix. But it's also about balance and what your cat will actually eat. If the higher quality food is too expensive, then your cat will be fine on cheaper brands but perhaps not absolutely tip-top in terms of glossy coat etc. But absolutely tip -top isn't necessary for them to have a happy and healthy life.

Some posters ARE saying that actually.

But either way the analogy is wrong. Commercial cat food is not comparable to a diet of UPFs. A human on just UPFs will be overweight and deficient in essential vitamins and minerals. It’s more comparable to cheap fresh human food - provides you with what you need but isn’t necessarily the best diet for your own individual needs.

Im in no way saying everyone must feed felix, felix is the best food, your cat is healthiest on Felix. I accept that many people find their cats are leaner, sleeker, have better bowels etc on different foods. Of course, cats are individuals like humans. Equally you as an owner may look at a food and think ‘hmm I think I can find something better’

But comparing commercial cat food to human fast food is scientifically inaccurate, offensive to pet owners and perpetuates aggressive marketing favoured by these unethical pet food companies.

Thank you you for giving a perfect example of why non experts shouldn’t be reading food labels as if they know what they mean.

Not in the quantities you get in cheap cat food and cats in nature don't eat ash they eat bones , how do you amount for the have come off grains in cheap cat food? That's not nutritionally beneficial at all

It doesn’t mean ash as in from a fire.. what are you not understanding?

Grain is nutritionally beneficial, it provides fibre and energy. Cats can digest grain well. Quite possibly it’s a cheaper way to get the energy into cat food and hence if it is used in cheap cat food. This fashion for ‘grain free’ as given a nonsense impression that grain serves no purpose.

Thank you, I was worried about grain content in food having lost a cat to bowel cancer. Started worrying that this caused it which I know is irrational.

I’ve calmed down a whole lot (helped by this thread) to be honest.

They will still get KatKin but I will also add supermarket sachets (which don’t take up loads of freezer space). 😁

Why do people have to be ‘experts’ to have an opinion that cats are going to be healthier if they eat food that is close to what would be natural for them?

I assume you consider yourself to be an expert in some capacity at least?

Serious question why do you cook it? Surely the most natural for cats would be raw?

I think it’s more the assumptions that follow on from ‘they should eat similar to what they eat in the wild’. These are usually things like:
they must ONLY eat meat
All meat is good for them
This thing that is not meat must be bad for them

I can’t possibly know if a food is good or not good for an animal based on just whether it is meat because I am not a nutrition expert. Van the animal digest it? Can they access the nutrients? Is it nutrient dense?

No I do not consider myself an expert. But people who are have stated very clearly that commercial food is not equivalent to fast food, is nutritionally complete and each ingredient has a purpose. I’m simply repeating this information.

There is so much snobbery around cat food and as my vet put it they all have to meet regulatory standards and the best food for your cat is one they will actually eat!

Cats eating naturally will NEVER eat grains.
( a field bordering 1 side of our garden has wheat grown in it every year, the squirrels, mice & birds eat the wheat, none of our cats in the last 45yrs has eaten a single grain of wheat.)
Dometicated cats have only been fed the highly industrially manufactured & packeted ‘foods’, found in human supermarkets, for a very few years of their whole evolution.
Please nobody feed your cat grains, it will shorten its life.
some cat nutrition reading:
https://www.ibdkitties.net/feline-nutrition/
https://edepot.wur.nl/522169

does katkin know you have 2 cats? Ie are you in the subscription model per cat?

it worked out quite expensive that way. I put in I have one giant active cat and there is enough food for both my cats per pouch.

I think katkin, untamed etc are much better quality with no grain fillers etc. cats are obligate carnivores so only want meat. My 2 thrive on it.

Interesting article here from the school of veterinary medicine at Tufts University about grain free diets, suggesting that they are mostly a marketing ploy rather than based on robust scientific evidence:

https://sites.tufts.edu/petfoodology/2017/07/03/research-update-new-insight-into-grain-free-cat-diets/

My cats do actually eat grain free because I got them onto it early on before reading more about how robust the theory really is, so I have no skin in the game other that I think people shouldn’t be guilted into spending money they may not afford easily on the basis of something that doesn’t seem properly evidence-based.

A cat eating wild birds and mice will also eat the entire contents of their prey (well, except for the small green wobbly bit), so I suspect they get a certain amount of random veg that way.