Recommended brands?

chupi · Sep 27, 2005

I've been feeding my cat whiskas, and have recently discovered (on this forum!

) that this brand of food is not neccessarily the best for my kitty. I live in the UK so can anyone suggest any particular brand? Is Royal Canin very good?

I also have 5 kittens and a mum at to feed at the moment, so would appreciate any recommendations..

jen · Sep 27, 2005

Basically think of it this way...feeding low quality food with all those bad ingredients in it such as Friskies, Alley Cat, Whiskas etc...is like you eating McDonalds every single day all the time.

It is difficult to find THE BEST brand for your cat because everyone has different opinions and all cats are different. Nutro, Chicken Soup for the Cat Lovers Soul, Royan Canin, Solid Gold, basically anything is a great step up from the three bad foods I mentioned. Even Purina One is better, though not the best. I feed Chicken Soup to my cats.

You want them to have meat as the first few ingredients, not corn or meal or anything but meat really. That is the ideal food. Also low ash and magnesium are recommended too. Search around for yourself.

If you can get the food from a grocery store then avoid it. Go to Petsmart or Pet Supplies Plus or Petco or whatever is near you and spend some time searching. It WILL be more expensive but with these good quality foods, your cat is filling up on good nutritious ingredients, it fills them up faster then crappy food so it goes a long way. The expensive food will last longer and the litterbox messes will be nicer and less smelly.

pat · Sep 27, 2005

Originally Posted by chupi

I've been feeding my cat whiskas, and have recently discovered (on this forum!

) that this brand of food is not neccessarily the best for my kitty. I live in the UK so can anyone suggest any particular brand? Is Royal Canin very good?

I also have 5 kittens and a mum at to feed at the moment, so would appreciate any recommendations..

Easiest way for you to find this is to do a search for "recommended cat foods europe"

My short and easy list - avoid foods with by-products, by-product meal, animal or poultry digest. Avoid any food where the first listed ingredient is corn gluten meal (which is a protein source) - you want to see real meat/poultry or meat/poultry meal as the first listed ingredient. Try to avoid foods with soy or wheat (as in flour or soy protein concentrate), whole/ground/cracked corn, corn grits.

I would indeed take Royal Canin over whiskas, another company you might want to consider is James Wellbeloved cat food - I took a quick look at the ingredients for the turkey and rice, not bad!

arlyn · Sep 27, 2005

I just want to add that unidentified meats are also not a good idea.

pat · Sep 27, 2005

Originally Posted by Arlyn

I just want to add that unidentified meats are also not a good idea.

When I say "meat" I mean beef, venison or rabbit or...it was a word I was using to not have to list all the ones I am aware of being available, and with poultry I mean turkey,chicken, duck or pheasant (evangers brand has a pheasant canned available).

Def. do not buy a food that lists as an ingredient "meat meal"...no mystery meats!

arlyn · Sep 27, 2005

I knew what what you meant

Just wanted to make sure everyone else did

navdoc · Sep 27, 2005

My two are doing extremely well on Purina One. Do not know if you have it there.

sharky · Sep 27, 2005

I am sure some of our European friends will chime in ... I do know Royal canin is very easy to get in most areas... Nutro is called choice and is fairly easy to get...

chupi · Sep 28, 2005

Ok we have Nutro and Royal Canin that I can get easily here - haven't really seen any of the others (though Chicken Soup for the Cat Lovers Soul sounds nice...mmmm could tuck into that myself!)

I will try both these see what my boy likes as hes a fussy little critter!

dicknleah · Sep 28, 2005

I feed Chicken Soup to my cats and my dogs. It is a much better food and cheaper than Nutro. The dog's food is $5.00 less than Nutro and the cat's food is $10.00 less. Go figure.

booktigger · Sep 28, 2005

Hi

I also live in the UK and don't have a decent petshop near me, although can get JAmes Wellbeloved, Hills and Royal Canin near me. I think James Wellbeloved is good, it has a good meat content, although my female won't eat it, so I am currently trying to find a good food for her, the only two she will eat at the mo is Purina One and Natures Best, but Purina has the higher meat content. I am going to ask my vet if they can get me some samples of Hills tomorrow for her, before I came on here she got Whiskas biscuits, but I won't feed them now.

laureen227 · Sep 28, 2005

Originally Posted by chupi

I've been feeding my cat whiskas, and have recently discovered (on this forum!

) that this brand of food is not neccessarily the best for my kitty. I live in the UK so can anyone suggest any particular brand? Is Royal Canin very good?
I also have 5 kittens and a mum at to feed at the moment, so would appreciate any recommendations..

Royal Canin is a good food. i use the Chicken soup because it's less expensive but still has the good stuff in it. check out this thread and this thread for some other suggestions.

emb_78 · Sep 28, 2005

My kids LOVE Nutro!!!

I used to feed them Iams, and I can see a huge difference in their stool, and they don't eat as much!!!

sharky · Sep 28, 2005

My only trouble with chn soup is grain and veg type heavy but for the price at some feed stores it is much cheaper than Nutro or RC but I dare say not the same quality..

ryn · Sep 28, 2005

RC is a good food. I currently feed my kitties a Canadian brand called Acana, though I'm thinking of going raw. I'm pretty happy with it: Human grade chicken ingredients, no wheat, only natural additives, about the same quality as RC etc., contains more meat actually, and it's about half the price of other quality brands, because they don't advertise like the big players. Here in Finland you can order it by post, or as I do, from an individual retailer, who delivers. In Canada they sell it in pet shops also, don't know about UK.

laureen227 · Sep 29, 2005

Originally Posted by sharky

My only trouble with chn soup is grain and veg type heavy but for the price at some feed stores it is much cheaper than Nutro or RC but I dare say not the same quality..

actually, i find these ingredients to be quite good...
[font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] Chicken, salmon, chicken meal, whole grain brown rice, oatmeal, whole grain white rice, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), powdered cellulose, potatoes, cracked pearled barley, millet, turkey, duck, flaxseed, egg product, natural chicken flavor, carrots, peas, apples, dried skim milk, kelp, cranberry powder, rosemary extract, parsley flake, salt, choline chloride, dried chicory root, methionine, potassium chloride, taurine, zinc sulfate, vitamin E supplement, niacin, manganese sulfate, copper sulfate, thiamine mononitrate, vitamin A supplement, biotin, potassium iodide, calcium pantothenate, riboflavin, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), vitamin B12 supplement, manganous oxide, sodium selenite, vitamin D supplement, folic acid. [/font]

pat · Sep 29, 2005

Originally Posted by laureen227

actually, i find these ingredients to be quite good...
[font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] Chicken, salmon, chicken meal, whole grain brown rice, oatmeal, whole grain white rice, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), powdered cellulose, potatoes, cracked pearled barley, millet, turkey, duck, flaxseed, egg product, natural chicken flavor, carrots, peas, apples, dried skim milk, kelp, cranberry powder, rosemary extract, parsley flake, salt, choline chloride, dried chicory root, methionine, potassium chloride, taurine, zinc sulfate, vitamin E supplement, niacin, manganese sulfate, copper sulfate, thiamine mononitrate, vitamin A supplement, biotin, potassium iodide, calcium pantothenate, riboflavin, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), vitamin B12 supplement, manganous oxide, sodium selenite, vitamin D supplement, folic acid. [/font]

It's not that they aren't good ingredients, but that they are all in this one food

Count the grains and carbs - there are 7 - rice (brown and white), oatmeal, potatoes, cracked pearl barley, millet, flaxseed, and then comes 3 veggies and a fruit...for an animal that is an obligate carnivore, not a herbivore. So no, it's not a bad food, but I agree with the point Sharky was making.

laureen227 · Sep 29, 2005

i looked up some others, too - is it because it has a variety of carbs, or are we talking amounts? i was under the impression that ingredients are listed from highest amount to lowest amount. some other premium brands list these as the 1st 3 ingredients- i don't see that much difference. what am i missing?
Chicken Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Wheat Flour- Nutro Max

Chicken Meal, Ground Rice, Corn Gluten Meal - Natural Choice

Chicken, Chicken Liver, Chicken By-Product Meal - Eukanuba

Chicken, Chicken Meal, Brown Rice - Natural Balance

Chicken fat (naturally preserved with mixed tocopherols, rosemary extract and citric acid), chicken meal, corn gluten meal - Royal Canin

pat · Sep 29, 2005

Originally Posted by laureen227

i looked up some others, too - is it because it has a variety of carbs, or are we talking amounts? i was under the impression that ingredients are listed from highest amount to lowest amount. some other premium brands list these as the 1st 3 ingredients- i don't see that much difference. what am i missing?
Chicken Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Wheat Flour- Nutro Max

Chicken Meal, Ground Rice, Corn Gluten Meal - Natural Choice

Chicken, Chicken Liver, Chicken By-Product Meal - Eukanuba

Chicken, Chicken Meal, Brown Rice - Natural Balance

Chicken fat (naturally preserved with mixed tocopherols, rosemary extract and citric acid), chicken meal, corn gluten meal - Royal Canin

I don't recommend the eukanuba because of the by-product meal, and my point was that in just the one formula, how many of those grains are present. Yes, ingredients are listed in order of prevalence, but when 7 ingredients alone are grains, it's too much, imho. Not that there are any grains (though I am leaning more and more towards a lower carb formula), but that what you are feeding has so many.

wellingtoncats · Sep 29, 2005

I definitly recommend Royal Canin! Persian especially because that's what my beautiful cats get!

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