What food do you all buy!

ATM I'm looking into transitioning Lilly from kitten to adult food! We have started but looking for some to buy in bulk online so far I have looked at

Mega Cosma variety saver pack at 14.99 a pack (Contains 18 cans and up to 12 flavours apparently) Now I worked out I'd only have to feed Lilly 1.5 cans of this and it would work out at about 1.49 a day as we would only need to buy 3 packs a month! That would be a whoooooping 44.97 a month! And well hubby would flip a switch at that price I told him how much it would cost per day makes it seem less but come on can you blame me! If we had it his way she'd be on cheap supermarket brand kibble just to pinch the pennies.

Also been looking at almo nature but I haven't found a good price I am willing to pay for this!

Also btw I am working in GBP I'm in the uk so need places that will deliver here

Both Cosma and Almo Nature are supplementary feeds and they can not be more than 15% of the total diet. So are Schesir, Porta 21, Applaws and most of the file varieties.

I think you can order from zooplus, right? Grau, Catz Finefood, Granata Pet, Feringa, Animonda, Bozita are all great options. I have written about some of them here, if you want to take a look.

Out of those complete foods you mentioned which is best overall for value for money and nutritional health? At the moment I have her on ever so by pets at home the nutritional values are okay but not much meat content 10% of protein over all but only about 8% is actual meat.

StephieDoodle said:

Out of those complete foods you mentioned which is best overall for value for money and nutritional health? At the moment I have her on ever so by pets at home the nutritional values are okay but not much meat content 10% of protein over all but only about 8% is actual meat.

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Animonda Carny, by far. It is the cheapest and has a very good nutritional value. Has more offal than others and it has some beef, but it is has the most to offer for its price. Look into the bigger cans, the 400 grams one, they turn out to be the cheapest.

Bozita is at the same price, but it has less protein and fat.

Grau, Catz and Granata Pet are pretty much the same - very good but pricey. Feringa is even more expensive.

By the way, based on the dry matter analysis, all are around 10% protein and that is good. However, they do not have vegetables or such so I think all 10% is meat - I will look into this to make sure.

I've not been able to find the animonda carny in cans hmmm could you perhaps provide me with a link! I'm wanting to feed her all wet but atm its looking too expensive she'd be on about 90 portions at 100g a 30 day period! I dunno if I could afford that

Here it is: http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/canned_cat_food_pouches/rafine

ETA: I don't think she would need 300 grams/day. My one year old pig boy, who weighs 5.5 kg (something like 11 pounds) eats about 200 grams/day. He should be eating less as he is a bit chubby.

Thank you shes nice and slim at the mo cant overtly feel  any bones but shes got very thick fluffy long fur to!

I was thinking about 200g to cut her down to for now and maybe 30-50 and about 150-170 of wet but I'm not sure how many meals I should be putting down!

How old is she?

I tried giving them only two meals, but it didn't work for us- 12 hours were too much. But as we work full time, the best we can do now are three meals, at 9 am, 7 pm and 11 pm. I think 4 meals would be the best for us.

30 grams of dry is not equal with 30 grams of wet. 30 dry is on average 120 calories. 100 grams of Grau wet is 100 calories.

Okay she is about 11 months a little over she was born 9th april last year so almost 1 what do you think would be best I'm really at a lost for combo feeding argh feeling very lost

Well unless she is having anymore growth spurts, she should be eating somewhere around 25 calories/pound (it could be anything between 15 calories and 30 calories, but as she is young, I am assuming she is active and has a good metabolism). So I don't know, is she somewhere around 9 pounds? That would be 225 calories.

As far as I can tell, Grau is the most calorie-dense of them: 100 calories/100 grams. Given the overall nutrient analysis, I suspect Animonda, Feringa and Catz to have similar calorie values. I am at work now and I don't have the spreadsheet with me (yes, I have a detailed description of most cat foods I use)

Gourmet Gold Pate (a medium quality food) is 85 calories/100 grams. The filet varieties are 70 calories/100 grams on average.

Dry food is about 230 calories/ 50 grams.

So if you feed her 30 grams of dry and 170 grams of wet it would be 138 calories + 170 calories = 308 calories. A bit too much. Of course, there is no fit-for- all glove, so if she doesn't appear to be gaining weight maybe that's what she needs.

In conclusion, if you really need to feed dry, I would feed
breakfast: 70 grams/wet
after work: 70 grams/wet
before bed: 20 grams/dry
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230 calories

If she needs more, you can increase the wet. Or you can just split a 200 grams can in three meals and that's it. There are many combinations, but you should figure out firs how much she needs to eat.

(I have a very skinny cat, a fit cat and a chubby cat - 3.9 kg, 4.4 kg and 5.5 kg. I try to feed them accordingly, but usually the skinny doesn't finish her food so the chubby has seconds, so I am still working on figuring out proper amounts).

I shall try the amounts you have mentioned and then go from there I'm sure she will let me know whether shes hungry or not haha

Another food you could look at is Mac's. It has at least 70% meat and no artificial flavoring, preservatives, soy, etc.. Most varieties currently contain a little bit of rice, but apparently that's being phased out. It's made at the same factory as the more expensive Grau. Mac's comes in 200 g., 400 g. and 800 g. cans. You could split an 800 g. can (GBP 2.15) into 4 portions and freeze what you don't feed in one (or two) days. The BPA-free plastic storage containers for baby food are usually perfect for that.

So far we have a regimen thats working I will be keeping my eue out for foods to rotate though so thank you:nod:

So Lilly doesn't like having her 20g of kibble all in one go! So since most days there is nearly always some one in she now gets one tray of wet at 6am then 10g of kibble between 11-12 and then a tray of wet between 4-5 and another 10g of kibble before we go to bed! Will this be to much for her or should it be okay?

How much does a tray weigh? Anyway, I think 4 meals are even better than 3, so if you split the kibble quantity in two it should work out fine!

About 100g per tray shes a year old in two days but sjes quite active

StephieDoodle said:

 
Okay she is about 11 months a little over she was born 9th april last year so almost 1 what do you think would be best I'm really at a lost for combo feeding argh feeling very lost

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In my case, my two boys are now about 7  months old.  Although I have been trying to stick to kitten food for them, they have been getting adult food too.  There are two adult cats in the household, and all four have been raiding each others' dishes.  I don't have the ability to separate them when they eat.

IrinaSaK said:

(I have a very skinny cat, a fit cat and a chubby cat - 3.9 kg, 4.4 kg and 5.5 kg. I try to feed them accordingly, but usually the skinny doesn't finish her food so the chubby has seconds, so I am still working on figuring out proper amounts).

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LOL, They're all individuals.... 

StephieDoodle said:

So Lilly doesn't like having her 20g of kibble all in one go! So since most days there is nearly always some one in she now gets one tray of wet at 6am then 10g of kibble between 11-12 and then a tray of wet between 4-5 and another 10g of kibble before we go to bed! Will this be to much for her or should it be okay?

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That sounds about right, since she's so active. How much does she weigh? That's approximately the amount we were giving Mogli when he was a year old and about 4.8 kg, and the same schedule. We've cut back on the dry now that he's getting closer to two - he gets just under a tablespoon for lunch and about 6 pieces of kibble as a bedtime snack.