Help with Australian cat food choices

arkadia · Apr 9, 2011

Hi guys,

I've recently become concerned with my cats diet and wanted to make sure they were eating the best foods I can give them (and afford). I was brought up with cats in a family that didn't have much interest in health (both human and pet wise) and so never thought anything of buying a can of Whiskas etc. Now that I'm older and have cats of my own that I'm responsible for, I'm learning about all kinds of things to be concerned with that I never knew about before.

So I have very little experience with what to look for when choosing a cat food, and while there is lots of lovely information online, it seems most of what people determine is the 'best stuff' is not available in Australia. I've tried to do as much research about what to look for in a food as possible, but ultimately you guys seem to know what you're talking about, so I'd like your opinions.

I'm looking to feed a kitten, an adult and a mature adult.

From what I've found, these are my choices on available 'premium' cat food:

Nutrience
Iams
Advance
Royal Canin
Artemis
Nutro Natural Choice
Eukanuba
Felidae
Eagle Pack Holistic Select
Organix
Ziwipeak
Vets All Natural Premium Choice

---

Can anyone give their opinions on any of the above, and of what they've heard of, what would be the best brand to go with? I'm feeding two dry meals a day and one wet.

For reference, at the high end scale, a 180g can of Ziwipeak will run me about $3.40, which is stretching a little out of my comfort range. An 8lbs bag of Felidae will cost me about $50, which I'd be moderately comfortable with.

Does anyone have a recommendation on what I should buy, what I should avoid, and in particular, information on the lesser talked about brands (Organix and Artemis, for instance). Any help you knowledgeable souls can offer will be very much appreciated by me and my kitties.

Thanks so much for your time

Willowy · Apr 10, 2011

Of those choices, I'd probably go with Felidae dry food, and a variety of canned food brands. I'm not familiar with Artemis, but I did use Organix once. . .I thought it was overpriced for the quality, but it's still a good food. If it cost about the same as Felidae I'd recommend it as well.

ETA: I looked up Artemis. . .the dry food is so-so, but the canned food looks pretty good.

sharky · Apr 10, 2011

Honestly I hope a AU member advises you as each country sets stds for pet food .. Take Iams , Here in the USA it is by product and grain filled though in some Countries it has No by products and much less grain...

this is USA based

or what I may have seen via a label for a food

Nutrience- decent entry level premium

Iams- Yuk , if you are okay with it try most any grocery brand without colorings

Advance- No idea

Royal Canin- IMHO grainy but solid and works awesome for some

Artemis- premium with a massive $$$ tag ... nothing special IMHO

Nutro Natural Choice- Used to love now like Royal canin

Eukanuba- see Iams only this is $$$$$

Felidae- premium never had anyone really like the dry

Eagle Pack Holistic Select-solid food works great for some

Organix-If anyone will eat I could say something other than reads so so for the $$

Ziwipeak- Awesome... except for the $$$

Vets All Natural Premium Choice- never heard of

arkadia · Apr 12, 2011

Originally Posted by Willowy

Of those choices, I'd probably go with Felidae dry food, and a variety of canned food brands. I'm not familiar with Artemis, but I did use Organix once. . .I thought it was overpriced for the quality, but it's still a good food. If it cost about the same as Felidae I'd recommend it as well.

ETA: I looked up Artemis. . .the dry food is so-so, but the canned food looks pretty good.

Thanks for your reply

I was leaning toward the Felidae dry food too so I'm glad to hear some corroboration.

Originally Posted by sharky

Honestly I hope a AU member advises you as each country sets stds for pet food .. Take Iams , Here in the USA it is by product and grain filled though in some Countries it has No by products and much less grain...

this is USA based

or what I may have seen via a label for a food

Nutrience- decent entry level premium

Iams- Yuk , if you are okay with it try most any grocery brand without colorings

Advance- No idea

Royal Canin- IMHO grainy but solid and works awesome for some

Artemis- premium with a massive $$$ tag ... nothing special IMHO

Nutro Natural Choice- Used to love now like Royal canin

Eukanuba- see Iams only this is $$$$$

Felidae- premium never had anyone really like the dry

Eagle Pack Holistic Select-solid food works great for some

Organix-If anyone will eat I could say something other than reads so so for the $$

Ziwipeak- Awesome... except for the $$$

Vets All Natural Premium Choice- never heard of

Thanks so much for your helpful reply

I've noticed you seem to be the whiz on cat nutrition here so I'd like to post the ingredients of the Artemis wet food I'm interested in if you wouldn't mind looking at it and have the time

Artemis Fresh Mix Chicken Can:

Chicken, Chicken Broth, Salmon, Brewers Dried Yeast, Guar Gum, Taurine, Vitamin/Mineral Pre Mix*

*Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin Supplement, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of Vitamin C) Thiamine Mononitrate (source of vitamin B1), Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin A Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, (source of vitamin B6), Riboflavin Supplement ( Source of Vitamin B2), Folic Acid, Vitamin B-12 Supplement, Biotin, Vitamin D2 Supplement, Minerals, (Zinc Sulfate, Iron Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, Selenium Yeast, Potassium Iodide.)

I'm not sure if it's a different formula to the US one.

I'm trying to feed a mostly wet food diet but I only have a *very* limited choice of premium brand wet food to choose from. The choices are ZiwiPeak, Organix, Artemis, Holistic Select and Hills Science Diet. Not very impressive, I know. Organix is $3 a can and I don't like the look of the ingredients, so that's out. Hills is horrible so that's out.

That leaves me with Ziwipeak ($3.30 per 6oz can is the cheapest I could find), Artemis ($2.45 for 5.5oz) and Holistic Select ($2 for 5.5oz). I *love* the sound of Ziwipeak but it is far beyond my budget to feed regularly, so I think I may feed it as a treat. That leaves me hoping Artemis is a suitable food to feed once a day, with Holistic Select making up the other wet meal per day.

I'd also be curious to hear people's opinions on Dr Bruce's Vets All Natural. It seems to be a 'muesli mix' to be added to a portion of raw meat and fed to your animals.

The ingredients are a little vaguer than I'd like:

Complete mix contains a combination of mixed cereal grains (rolled oats, cracked barley, soybean meal, flax seed meal, and whole oats), dried vegetables and fruit, dried garlic, dried parsley, dried barley grass, calcium powder, yeast powder, kelp granules, lecithin granules and vitamin C powder.

and I'm concerned about the garlic content. I've emailed the company asking for an explanation. However when perusing Dr Bruce Symes' website he seems to be a very knowledgeable vet who appears to genuinely care about the wellbeing of pets.

As for the mix itself: you are supposed soak the mix and combine it with raw meat for what is supposed to be a comprehensive raw diet. I'm not in a position to make up a raw diet for my cats at this point in time, but the idea of getting a mix and throwing in some raw meat (sounds like HamburgerHelper) for a healthy and easy way to feed raw is very tempting. What do people think about this?

I'm still hoping to hear from an Australian who might have had better luck sourcing quality cat food or have tips on how not to spend a fortune on feeding your cats a nutritious diet!

Any cost-cutting tips people can recommend on feeding a mostly wet diet would also be very much appreciated

sharky · Apr 12, 2011

The artemis looks fine .. outside yeast that is a common allergen

Um .. I think the musli look s great for a horse

Cats have no carbohydrate need ( while many seem to do fine with some

) they only require a small 3-5 % veggie matter much of this is fiber...

Garlic I ONLY use under a skilled holistic vet for medicinal use only .... Too risky IMHO...
Flax seed in a meal is great fresh milled for a Human but cats cant process it in this form
Soy is a double edge sword ... high allergen and very ?? able in cats

I actually am okay with by products in wet food and found a great food in my grocery store with little to no grain, no artificial colors or flavors, NO soy .. here most premiums with or without by products are 1-1.50 for 5.5 oz ... this is 30-45 cents for the same size... Ie budget look everywhere never know where youll find a great thing

...

Raw meat with some veggie matter can be a complete diet ... I advise NOT using more than 10% raw meat in diet without discussing with a vet ( your lucky most AU vets seems way more comfortable and knowledgeable than in the US)

rose2015 · Apr 27, 2016

Hi, I'm in Sydney and agree it is difficult to buy the 'best of food' here. There is 'Wellness'at Petbarn, however i've recently stopped using as i've heard many negative associations with their product and the development of urinary crystal. The new one i've found is Holistic Select which is available at Petbarn, Pet Stock and the online Pet stores. I'm still researching Artemis, so not sure about it just yet. There is Cats in the Kitchen by Weruva at Petbarn, however their factory is based in Thailand (not keen on that). By the way, where did you find Organix and Nutro choice in wet - would love to know? @Arkadia

charlieitis · May 3, 2016

Hi, I'm another Aussie from Qld!

I'm feeding my 5 months kitten Royal Canin kitten, and heart smart mince, also chicken mince. He's doing really well on it, so I'll be sticking with this diet until he's around 18 months. Forgot to say I also buy Royal Canin Instinctive

kitten in gravy, and mix it in with the mince.

cuddlemum · May 7, 2016

I am also from Australia qld her, and looking for a better wet food for my cat so am following this one

tobilei · May 11, 2016

OP are you specifically looking at dry foods? There is a website www.petfoodreviews.com.au/ He rates all our dry foods based on the criteria he deems healthy in cat food.

To be honest, I've done so much reading and done my head in so often about what we have available here, but when I tried most of the high end foods (wellness, ziwipeak, earthborn holistic, Holistic Select) my cats refused to eat any of them. But if your cat will eat them that's wonderful.

Some of the brands I like are Earthborn Holistic (they've had zero recalls), Artemis fresh mix dry (the wet are all fish sadly), Canidae and Holistic Select (they have a new one Rabbit and Turkey with Chickpeas although my cats don't seem to do well with pea's or legumes in general, if you're happy with grains all 3 other versions are available at most of the big pet stores). Applaws worked well for my cats but they had some issues with plastic in the food at Christmas and didn't recall the food which was a little poor on their behalf. Black Hawk my cats loved but they seem to hide any negative feedback at all (even the suggestion of doing a fish free version) from their timeline which makes me feel a bit iffy about them. VIP grain free is supermarket and grain free but I'm unsure about meat digest and some of the meats that are getting used in their foods.

Wet foods it depends on your price bracket (and what your fussy little things will eat!)

Wellness is good but has Carrageenan and is expensive (sp?)

Cats in the Kitchen is good but also expensive
BFF is ALL fish but if you're happy to feed fish it's made by Weruva like Cats in the Kitchen is
Weruva is good but mostly fish (I think the beef one and the Fowl Ball are the only 2 without)
Holistic Select, again expensive, all are pate

My cats wouldn't eat ANY of those though (boo!) either of them!

If you're looking at cheaper foods
Purr is available at Coles. The plain chicken is the only one without fish but there's a Chicken, salmon and rice one that's not got too much and a chicken in seafood medley, about 70c a can
Applaws (supplemental feeding only)
The pate versions of Fancy Feast have by-product but not grains. All the chunks and one's with gravy have cereals so read the labels. But if it's pate it should be okay. the kitten one's are also fine.
Dine in the tubs, also has by product but no cereals, about $1 a tub (Dine Desire etc in the cans is not a complete diet but on occasion is okay)

VIP in the foil tubs seems okay. Grain free. My cats won't eat it though (they won't eat most things, they pretty much WILL eat the things I don't want them to!)

Natures Gift in the tin tubs is also grain free and claims it uses organic chicken.

I have tried ALL of these at some point and despite my beliefs my cats are currently doing the best they ever have on Royal Canin dry and a mix of Royal Canin wet and Hills wet (argh! I can't believe it) and they're eating it (which is where most people recommend whatever your cat/dog does best on I guess).

Hope this is helpful! (I promise I do not work for Royal Canin OR Hills! I spent months and months trying to make my cats eat what I deemed to be good food and not liking it aside, their fur was dull and horrible and one wouldn't gain weight)

rose2015 · May 11, 2016

Tobilei said:
OP are you specifically looking at dry foods? There is a website www.petfoodreviews.com.au/ He rates all our dry foods based on the criteria he deems healthy in cat food.

To be honest, I've done so much reading and done my head in so often about what we have available here, but when I tried most of the high end foods (wellness, ziwipeak, earthborn holistic, Holistic Select) my cats refused to eat any of them. But if your cat will eat them that's wonderful.

Some of the brands I like are Earthborn Holistic (they've had zero recalls), Artemis fresh mix dry (the wet are all fish sadly), Canidae and Holistic Select (they have a new one Rabbit and Turkey with Chickpeas although my cats don't seem to do well with pea's or legumes in general, if you're happy with grains all 3 other versions are available at most of the big pet stores). Applaws worked well for my cats but they had some issues with plastic in the food at Christmas and didn't recall the food which was a little poor on their behalf. Black Hawk my cats loved but they seem to hide any negative feedback at all (even the suggestion of doing a fish free version) from their timeline which makes me feel a bit iffy about them. VIP grain free is supermarket and grain free but I'm unsure about meat digest and some of the meats that are getting used in their foods.

Wet foods it depends on your price bracket (and what your fussy little things will eat!)

Wellness is good but has Carrageenan and is expensive (sp?)

Cats in the Kitchen is good but also expensive
BFF is ALL fish but if you're happy to feed fish it's made by Weruva like Cats in the Kitchen is
Weruva is good but mostly fish (I think the beef one and the Fowl Ball are the only 2 without)
Holistic Select, again expensive, all are pate

My cats wouldn't eat ANY of those though (boo!) either of them!

If you're looking at cheaper foods
Purr is available at Coles. The plain chicken is the only one without fish but there's a Chicken, salmon and rice one that's not got too much and a chicken in seafood medley, about 70c a can
Applaws (supplemental feeding only)
The pate versions of Fancy Feast have by-product but not grains. All the chunks and one's with gravy have cereals so read the labels. But if it's pate it should be okay. the kitten one's are also fine.
Dine in the tubs, also has by product but no cereals, about $1 a tub (Dine Desire etc in the cans is not a complete diet but on occasion is okay)

VIP in the foil tubs seems okay. Grain free. My cats won't eat it though (they won't eat most things, they pretty much WILL eat the things I don't want them to!)

Natures Gift in the tin tubs is also grain free and claims it uses organic chicken.

I have tried ALL of these at some point and despite my beliefs my cats are currently doing the best they ever have on Royal Canin dry and a mix of Royal Canin wet and Hills wet (argh! I can't believe it) and they're eating it (which is where most people recommend whatever your cat/dog does best on I guess).

Hope this is helpful! (I promise I do not work for Royal Canin OR Hills! I spent months and months trying to make my cats eat what I deemed to be good food and not liking it aside, their fur was dull and horrible and one wouldn't gain weight)

Oh my goodness, tell me about it! How difficult is it. and WHY do they make the minimal selection of high quality as paté only? Arrrgh. I've moved away from Wellness after hearing about their association to urinary crystals, so have switched to Holistic Select (despite being owned by the same company, haven't heard any urinary issues caused by their canned food). Have also started incorporating a little of the Barf style patties into my cat's diet. I purchased a box of approx 12 patties from Pet Stock (it's called Big Dog Food for Cats) in the kangaroo meat. Nice change from the canned and the customer service is excellent f you have questions (same with HS customer service).

What does everyone here do for dental care and maintaining jaw strength? I've been giving kitty 1-2 bones per week and a small amount of muscle meat to chew on 3-4 times a week. However i'm cautious about throwing out the nutritional balances with too much bone & plain muscle meat. I also brush her teeth a few times a week (sometimes unsuccessfully) but we're getting there.

Would love to know what all of you do, and if you have any suggestions on how i could improve my own cat's dental routine, without using too much kibble.

xo

lisahe · May 12, 2016

I don't know much about foods in Australia but I can say that the key to toothbrushing with our cats has been to use a toothpaste they love (CET, which isn't easy to find right now) and, while brushing, to alternate between actively brushing and letting them lick small amounts of the toothpaste as a treat. I learned this technique from @Angels mommy -- it really helps keep the cats happy so I can brush more. Not that "more" is much: the total is probably five or so seconds per cat but at least I get a few good swipes in on both sides.

Dry food doesn't actually do much to clean cats' teeth: there's an article about that here.

tobilei · May 14, 2016

Rose2015 said:
Oh my goodness, tell me about it! How difficult is it. and WHY do they make the minimal selection of high quality as paté only? Arrrgh. I've moved away from Wellness after hearing about their association to urinary crystals, so have switched to Holistic Select (despite being owned by the same company, haven't heard any urinary issues caused by their canned food). Have also started incorporating a little of the Barf style patties into my cat's diet. I purchased a box of approx 12 patties from Pet Stock (it's called Big Dog Food for Cats) in the kangaroo meat. Nice change from the canned and the customer service is excellent f you have questions (same with HS customer service).

What does everyone here do for dental care and maintaining jaw strength? I've been giving kitty 1-2 bones per week and a small amount of muscle meat to chew on 3-4 times a week. However i'm cautious about throwing out the nutritional balances with too much bone & plain muscle meat. I also brush her teeth a few times a week (sometimes unsuccessfully) but we're getting there.

Would love to know what all of you do, and if you have any suggestions on how i could improve my own cat's dental routine, without using too much kibble.

xo

I know! They're almost ALL pate! And my 2 pretty much sniff anything healthy and walk off. I tried to outstubborn my male cat once. Took me 16 hours before he broke down and even then he barely nibbled. In the end I had to feed him what HE wanted because I was worried for his health!

I too worry about Wellness and the crystals thing. I had a male kitty who suffered crystals and it was awful. I try not to pay *too* much attention to things I read randomly but there's SO many reports of that particular problem it's hard not to take notice.

Hw is the Holistic select going? Do you feed the dry or only the wet (sorry, I'm looking for a new dry food, mine only eat about 1/4 cup a day total and at the moment are on Royal Canin and Applaws)?

I have thought about the big dog but my 2 year old male gets terrible diarrhea from raw chicken that requires antibiotics every single time (and I'm pretty sure I remember reading they all have chicken, he also can't have kangaroo, ugh)

(consequently my female gets sick the same way from fish!).

I wish we had more foods available here with limited ingredients or just something different from chicken or fish. The number of times I've wanted to start my own cat food company!

tobilei · May 15, 2016

Just thought of another wet food that my cats WILL eat. Hills Ideal Balance. It's not grain free but has only brown rice, no soy, no by product. It comes in roasted chicken, roasted turkey, roasted salmon and braised trout flavours and isn't a pate but is chunks in gravy. It's not been hugely popular round here but given my cats habit of promptly burying anything with any kind of nutritional value it's a winner.

rose2015 · May 16, 2016

Hi @Tobilei I'm so glad you have heard the same things about Wellness! There should seriously be warning labels or stricter control on pet food. Ridiculous! Ahhh, to answer your question, we've recently switched to feeding main meals of Holistic Select canned, with only tiny amounts of kibble in between for work days, otherwise it's chunks of meat as snacks. I'm still finishing off a bag of Wellness dry kitten,but will let you know how it goes once i open up the Holistic Select - it seems the kibble pieces are bit larger - not sure if that matters. If you look on their Australian site, they have quite a bit of information.

The only few negatives i can say about Holistic Select canned is 1. only available in paté (sigh) 2. It contains carrageneen, which even though it's debatable, i'm not keen on it, they also seems they vary amount of carrageneen depending on the flavour / protein (moves places in the ingredients list). Their grain free version of canned uses Xanthum gum instead but my kitty gets constipated/ soft stools on grain free. 3. It's a weeny bit higher on carbs (on a dry matter basis, it works out to be 18%, but Dr Lisa Pierson recommends no more than 10%). However, with the limited choices on our Australian market, compared to others, i feel Holistic Select is a good food apart from these points. 4. It can be a bit pricey, but if you buy bulk online, the unit price comes down considerably. Canidae is also very good, although some of their 'chicken' formulas contain ocean whitefish. 5. I'm a little bit concerned about how they promote their food to be 'acidic', which helps reduce the chances of struvite crystals, but from articles i've read it seems there is a big rise in the opposite type of crystals forming called 'calcium oxalate' crystals,belived to be from pet food cmpanies changing acidity levels. However i think the main thing is to ensure lots of water so the cat's bladder is flushed out regularly, reducing the chances of either crystal / stone forming. Pet food is SO dfficult!

Have you tried any of the BARF / Bog Dog Food for Cats patties? They seem good to add a bit of variety to a diet, however we tried our first on Friday and ended up with kitty doing a part white poo - other people say it's because of too high bone content, so i'll try again and see if it was actually 'white' or just 'light coloured'. Apparently there is a difference in what they indicate.

PS how long did it take you to workup to 5 seconds per cat for toothbrushing? I'm still only up to a few swipes each side while kitty is sleepy, then a break, then a few more swipes. The whole thing takes about 1/2 hour because she moves so much!

PPS I have seen Hills Ideal Balance but wasn't exactly sure if the 'pork plasma' ad starch was good or bad. I also notice they include Sodium Menadione which i've heard is a synthetic form of vitamin K and perhaps not entirely safe. Just check the label.

ARRGHH so frustrating with the limited choices we have!

lisahe · May 17, 2016

Rose2015 said:
PS how long did it take you to workup to 5 seconds per cat for toothbrushing? I'm still only up to a few swipes each side while kitty is sleepy, then a break, then a few more swipes. The whole thing takes about 1/2 hour because she moves so much!

The trick -- which might not be an easy one to replicate! -- is to find a toothpaste that the cat likes. With our cats, I let them taste the toothpaste, brush on one side, let them taste the toothpaste again, brush on the other side, then give them another taste of toothpaste. I reapply toothpaste to the brush once per cat. They love the toothpaste so much that they think of it as a treat; they even remind me if I'm late with brushing. They also know they'll get a good food treat after I brush their teeth. I think a treat is important.

If you haven't already watched Cornell University Vet School's videos on cat toothbrushing, I'd recommend taking a look. (they're here) I was able to go through their training stages faster because our cats were so fascinated by the toothbrush and the toothpaste.

tobilei · May 17, 2016

@Rose2015 I agree! I emailed a company the other day (my kitties are currently on a mix of RC and Applaws for dry as I've mentioned) and asked for the percentage of meat in their product. I was told it was a "proprietary blend" and they were not able to disclose that to me. Where is the truth in labeling? I have to wonder, reading ingredients list after ingredients list, just how much meat goes into ANY of the foods over here. None come in much above 32% protein and most of those also contain plant proteins (and consequently carbs) from corn, wheat etc or the grain free one's pea's or chickpea's! I might not love Applaws but at least it promises 50% of it's content is meat. I'm getting a sample of Meals for Mutts (cat kangaroo version) so will see if they like that, I don't know how much meat is in it though. I figure if I give them variety then something somewhere has to be right!

Have you looked at the Cats in the Kitchen and Weruva ranges? I'm pretty sure they're carageenan free although most are fish (there's 2 or 3 that aren't though and are chicken or turkey).

There's also one variety of Gourmet Delite that is Chicken only (the rest are all fish) but they do use some kind of thickener which is likely carageenan (that stuff is in everything).

There's another one that mostly makes fish but they do have 2 that are chicken and are complete. I can't think of the name of them but you can get them at Petbarn and woolies, they come in a flat oval tin kind of like smoked oyster tins. I don't think they had a thickener either (but I could be wrong, my fussies wouldn't eat those).

I have seen the big dog patties. I tried turkey Dr B's once and my cats sniffed it, buried it and walked away forever

The big dog one's ALL contain raw chicken and my boy gets violently ill off raw chicken and raw kangaroo (sigh). They do contain quite a bit of bone for cats though I believe.

Hmm I didn't notice the sodium menadione. But thank you, I will double check it. They've not really been eating it anyway (grr!). For now I have them on a new Hills Healthy Cuisines Chicken Stew (we're weaning from Hills I/D prescription stew), Royal Canin Instinctive Pouches, Applaws Chicken and Duck and a little fancy feast chicken (with grains and all, but I'd rather my underweight boy ate anything at all, I'm picking my battles for now!).

It's not me who does the teeth brushing. I suspect if I tried I would likely have skin that was shredded to ribbons

Please do let me know how the dry goes

rose2015 · May 18, 2016

@Tobilei Awww your boy poor, getting sick on raw chicken and raw kangaroo. Poor darling. At this stage, i guess anything that will help him to put weight back on without him reacting to it is the main priority. I personally don't think it matters if he's eating a little grains, completely grain free doesn't suit all cats, and IMO it's the type of grain and amount that makes a difference. eg small amount of complex grain such as oatmeal is better than large amounts of corn or wheat, unless the cat has an allergy or intolerance. Actually, thank you for mentioning Cats in the kitchen / Weruva, i will check it out next time i'm in Petbarn - have you ever tried them? Why oh why are our choices so limited! GAH!

Hmmm thanks for the heads up on the Big Dog Patties for Cats, i was hoping to introduce some fresh variety but if i's too much bone then will have to look at an alternative.

tobilei · May 18, 2016

I'm not sure if it has too much bone, I just recall reading it on a couple of raw forums/groups that it is quite high in bone, but it's worth checking the content

Yes, he is my nightmare boy. Allergies, itches, failure to thrive, behavioural issues, fussy with food, never buy a purebred! I waited 10 years to own a Maine Coon and both times I adopted one it didn't go so well

I'm thankful for Tilly my RSPCA girl (even though she has digestive issues :/ Apparently I am not meant to own healthy cats!) I confess, he gets grain. I feed some of the Royal Canin because its high calorie (Sensible 33) so helps to keep an extra 400g on him or there abouts...

I have tried Weruva, he didn't mind the Lambourgini (but then I discovered it had Tuna in it). He sort of ate the Chicken in Pumpkin (in the pouch) but he wouldn't touch the cans. Some kitties love them though. I don't know why but neither of mine will go anywhere near the healthy foods. If I mix even a tsp of it in with their "junk" they'll bury it and take off! Consequently I just about cry every time I dish up their dinner! Little horrors (lucky I love them so much!)

rose2015 · May 18, 2016

hahaha oh they sound like characters! you're doing your best for them and that's the most important. Some people wouldn't even care - so good on you! Don't worry, one ha an intolerance to something but we haven't been able to pinpoint exactly what it is, it's either beef, fish, chicken giblets or just eating too much chicken neck.

They are all little horrors in some way, but we love them to bits don't we!

tobilei · May 18, 2016

We do (and some of them like my cranky 2 year old are lucky we do!).

I know the pain of food intolerance! It didn't take me long to figure out fish for Tilly (there are other things, she seems to just have sensitive digestion) but something makes my boy itch like mad. We thought fleas, we've done food reduction trials (but not a full elimination), we've looked at plants in the area but we haven't been able to pinpoint it either so he's on long term prednil at the moment

I hate that too but quality of life trumps a miserable one. I think it's harder here too to pinpoint because we have zero limited ingredient diets. The Hills Z/D causes diarrhea initially and still contains chicken (hydrolyzed but chicken none the less) and the Royal Canin one has NO wet food and is made ALL from soy (blech! I refuse!)

Help with Australian cat food choices

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