Complementary wet food vs complete??

Hi all!

I would like to feed my cats a half and half wet/dry food diet. I am going to be feeding them Nutro Complete Choice dry, but for the wet food the brand I have chosen do a good value canned food multipack (otherwise its quite expensive, over double the price) - but it says its a complementary food. Is this ok or should I only feed my cats foods that are 'complete'?

The tins are 400g each (brand Hi Life), so I would feed them probably 1 tin each, half in the day, half in the night time, and free feed the dry.

Advise appreciated!

(for you UKers - £1.89 for 1200g vs £4.09 per 1200g for the complete pate stuff which comes in 85gm tins - whats the point of that!!?!)

If this is going to make up 50% of their diet, either add an appropriate supplement or switch back to a complete canned food.

I can only think here of foods such as Wysong's "just meat" that are not complete and require additional supplementation if they are to be the cats complete diet.

If you were only giving a spoonful or two of this, I'd not worry, but I think as 50% of the diet, it's too much without boosting it.

ok, its the more expensive pate stuff then I guess! though it bugs me that it only comes in teeney weeney 85g tins!!!

ooo just discovered the other smilies!

Why don't you just feed the Nutro Wet food, in combination with the dry. Its not too expensive like other brands, and its a good wet food.

I am changing my cats over to HiLife for the high meat content, and have been told that as long as the complementary food is fed with complete biscuits (HiLife also do some - 26% organic chicken as main ingredient) then it is fine as a diet. My male cat doesn't eat many biscuits though, so he has to have the pate - luckily he only eats 1 tin of pate a day. IT is going to work out cheaper for me to feed my female, as she would only eat Gourmet food - £1.38 for 4 85g pouches, but my male cat was on Senior food, so will cost a bit more to feed him, but I have less wastage.

Only 1 tin of pate a day?? That sounds like a teeny amount!

Hmm i think i will try mixing it up - 1 tin of complete pate in the morning, and maybe half a tin of the complementary stuff each at night - i tried the pate stuff on them yesterday and they mullered it!! They had 2 tins each! The little mites will eat me out of house and home given the choice!

Yeah, I did want to try the nutro wet food but U haven't seen it sold in the UK yet...

I think so too (he does get biscuits as well), but surprisingly enough, that cat is still overweight, as he pinches food next door!!! I was hoping offering him HiLife compared to whiskas etc would make him be a bit fussier, but no!! I have been told they eat less on HiLife with it having such a high meat content (the complete doesn't have as much as the complementary, but the ingredients are still a lot better than the rest of our choices). Tesco had the pouches on offer last week, and you can actually get all of HiLife's products delivered (and they do a lot more than you ever see in the supermarket) - I don't have a link here, but if you go on their website www.hilifepet.co.uk, there is a link to who they use for home delivery - you can get other brands through that company - James Wellbeloved, Eukanaba etc. Delivery charge is £3.95 though. My male cat wont eat the Tuna Imperial pate, although my female enjoys it (she couldn't manage a full tin for tea either). Just re-reading your original post, are you feeding the tins of the fish varieties? Mine wouldn't touch them, and hate the cat tuna (luckily, as I can't stand the smell either!!). Mine got them as they were only 98p for 4 tins, but never again. I have also seen HiLife complete pouches in Asda, 4 for £1, again, only 85g pouches though (and mine wont touch them!!)

sounds like you have your hands full with that fussy lot! I have tried the turkey pate, and the salmon pate and they loved them both - I will have to look around as it sounds like you are finding better deals than me!

I want to buy in bulk as it will save me the hassle of finding all the varieties, so yeah, I think I will test out the flavours on 'em first...

Ohh the things we do for our kitties

I can get all three varieties of pouch multipacks and the Tuna pate varieties only in Tesco, the biscuits are cheaper in Wilkinsons, and both Asda and Tesco do all three types of pate!! The nearest shop to me is a Co-op though, they only do two varieties of pouch multipacks and the biscuits, they used to sell the pate, but not seens it since I started to change!! I am very tempted to get it through the mail order company, I will just buy a full month to make the delivery charge easier. The range is actually unbelievable, they do senior and kitten varieties.