UK Members: Which wet food is better?

I've always fed Pippin Felix (any one!) for breakfast and Whiska's fish selection in jelly for dinner but since joining TSC I've been doubting the food I've been automatically programmed to buy (being a first time cat owner) isn't what he should be eating to get the most nutrients etc.

I've never tried any of the "fancier" brands sold because they are far too expensive for my budget... I seriously cannot afford to spend more than what I am at the moment per month (+/-£40.00/month) on Pippy's food!

There is now Ollie on the market which I'm going to try and find - so far I've not seen it at either my local petstore's, pets at home or at the larger superstores but I'm determined to try it!

Also, while on this subject of what to get Pippin and why, what is the best litter for him to use? He will not use pellets, crystals or anything with a scent so I'm pretty much stuffed! He is currently using Tesco's Own litter which is horrible and just stays completely wet all the time and is clay based. I'm looking for a litter which clumps, can be flushed and doesn't have a scent but controls oudor - something my partner is beginning to complain about - even though I scoop 2x a day and clean the entire tray out every second day! Also it needs to be affordable!

Thanks guys... Your advice and wisdom is greatly appreciated!


So out of those 3, which one is the best to be feeding Pippin on? He does get Iams dry food though, he cannot stand their wet food!

I feed Hi-Life and am just now trying Nature's Menu. I get both of them in Tescos. They're not the cheapest food out there, but they are really good quality. I don't know about tins because I buy the pouches (much easier as I am a single-cat household!) and Hi-Life costs £2.99 for 8 pouches, Nature's Menu costs £4-ish for 12 pouches.

Hi-Life:
The pouches I get come in boxes of Meat Medley, Ocean Assortment, and Poultry. They are 60% meat or fish, and contain no wheat, corn, or other fillers. They look quite tasty and the cat loves all of the flavours. I get a mixture of adult and kitten pouches, the kitten ones contain more jelly for the calories.

Nature's Menu:
I have only tried the kitten/junior pouches of this, in chicken, but it comes in a range of flavours. 70% meat content. The pouch contents are more pate like than chunks (at least in the kitten ones), and require breaking up with a fork. Again these are a hit with the cat.

Compare to the ingredients of Whiskas or Felix - around 4% meat in both of those! The rest of it is vegetable proteins and fillers. Compare it to either of the above in the way it looks, and there is a huge difference, it doesn't look like meat, more like some sort of meat substitute moulded into meat shaped chunks.

As for litter, that is my husband's domain (I joke that I deal with the front end of the cat and he deals with the back!) and I can't keep track of which litters we've tried, but I'll ask him later to see if he has any suggestions.

ETA: Haven't tried Ollie yet, will see if I can find some and have a look

Hi
I feed mine James Welbeloved or Ollie dry and Hilife wet, Asda sells Ollie and I get the James Welbeloved at Pets at Home (Chelmsford) or my locat pet shop I usually stock up when they are on special ofer PaH do three bags for the price of two every now and then and the pet shop had three kilo bags for the price of two kilo. I found with the better quality food they eat less and subsiquently poo less
As to the litter box thing I use Asda cheap clay litter I have two litter boxes and I can't be bothered to scoop so I completely change and wash one every day, I do have covered litter boxes andthe only time I have had any issues with smells is when I gave them some free samples of whiskers.

I'd second natures menu and hi life pouches for having the highest meat content. I stocked up on natures menu when they had a special offer on in pets at home - they were selling the big multipacks (48 pouches) for £15.99 but you could get 2 of them (96 pouches) for £19.99 or something. It worked out at about 20p per pouch. The offer wasn't advertised everywhere and you had to actually put 2 of them through the till to get the offer to come up (staff tended not to know about it). I've not bought any for a while but last time I was there I noticed they were advertising one of the 48 pouch packs for £13.99 which isn't so cheap but still a very reasonable price. So it's worth having a look around at what offers are on.

Almo nature is also good but that's expensive and not readily available. I feed mainly natures menu, hi life and almo nature or allpaws (very similar to almo nature) but I also order some stuff from zooplus http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/c...t_food_pouches as they sell lots more varieties that you can't get in the shops over here and which have a higher meat content. Not terribly cheap though, although the animonda carny which mine like is fairly cheap compared to the price of single serve pouches. If you can't afford to feed that kind of stuff all the time you can always mix and match - feed the felix some of the time and the more expensive stuff at other times (assuming they like it).

re litter - I use a clumping litter and use premium choice which tescos have recently started selling (comes in a plastic tub). Tracks a fair bit though. Catsan clumping is similar. Many people over here seem to like worlds best which clumps and is flushable but you'd probably have to buy that online as it's not sold by supermarkets or pets at home.

I'll third the Natures Menu - my lot all love it and it actually doesn't work out too dear!

James Wellbeloved is also a good additive to the food too!

As for litter, I use WBCL. It clumps nicely and holds back smell - so long as kitty covers their 'business' Can be pretty dear, but if you do a bit of shopping around you should be able to get a good deal. Plus, as you only have one cat, a large bag will last for ages for you (a 34lb bag lasts me, with four cats, for approximately a month! Only costs £33.75)

Originally Posted by Anakat

Hi

I Pets at Home (Chelmsford) .

Click to expand...

How funny... you are so close to me and we never knew it! I'm in Brentwood!

I'm going to look into everything I've been told here today and see if I can adjust Pippin's food budget so that I can afford more decent food for him!

As for the litter, I'm going to go to Pets at home and see if they have any specials on Catsan! I seem to remember my vet recommending that when Pippin was first brought home!

Thanks everyone!