I'm in B.C. Canada and am not sure if we have Petco here - the nearest pet supply store is Tisol. I have tried Wellness, Merrick, Tech-Cal(sp?), Natural Source, Science Diet, Iams, Natural Balance Ultra, even Friskies(!), and some others that I can't remember. I do have a listing of the Top 10 wet foods (website: cats.about.com) but the trouble is Annie will NOT touch any canned food except FF. Maybe I should try again mixing FF with one of the above, but I don't have much hope - it didn't work before, she just ate her dry food instead and pestered me for treats. I have cut back on FF though, she gets a can and a half of the 3oz cans per day. Is there a premium food out there that most cats love?
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- Thread starter andrewweilin
- Start Date
I changed my cats onto better quality wet and dry last year, and for the first time, Ginger didnt have any clumps - just before I changed, I had to get the vet to help groom him as he had so many and hated being groomed- 2 days later he had more. Changed his diet the week after, and the only time he has had them since is when he pinched too much of Tom's food while I had workmen in. No one had made the connection between his diet and his fur before then. I know that his years on cheaper food hasn't affected his organs though as he has regular blood tests.
Some people get a little hysterical when discussing pet food. By-product meal and meat meal are not the devil. How wasteful are we as a species if we think that anything other than muscle meat from an animal is gross and useless?
As a matter of fact, whenever I see real meat listed as the first ingredient in a dry cat food I raise my eyebrows, as by weight "real meat" has less protein than meat meal.
As a matter of fact, whenever I see real meat listed as the first ingredient in a dry cat food I raise my eyebrows, as by weight "real meat" has less protein than meat meal.
as I am from the UK, I find this discussion a bit confusing, as we haven't got half as much choice in cat food as you do in the US. My cats don't like dry food much, and only eat it, when nothing else is there (I leave it out all the time, in case I get stuck at work or am late home). Dry food is quite cheap here, even premium (Science Diet, Hills, Eukanuba etc), but I like Iams Kitten for dry, and the cats seem to agree.
When it comes to wet food, I have noticed that price has no relation to how good food is, some just has fancy packaging and is therefore more expensive, but has identical ingredients to cheaper stuff.
Iams wet was really expensive compared to Whiskas (even though the ingredients on Whiskas actually look slightly better
), but instead of Iams getting cheaper, Whiskas has now got more expensive. I just went to the supermarket and stocked up on the old Whiskas pouches, as they are currently half the old price, which makes them cheaper than cans.
You say that expensive cat food is better,as you don't have to feed as much, but my cats don't understand that bit. They want food when they are hungry. They eat less of the canned stuff, but thats because they don't like it, not because it's better quality.
My best shot at the whole thing (being on a budget as well), is to feed them a variety of brands (whichever is on special deal at the moment), and hope that overall that way they get what they need. There is some natural stuff at the petshop which they like and I used to buy, but since I double checked the ingredients and found out that they use free range chicken from Indonesia and Thailand, I decided I will give it a miss. Don't need my cats dieing of bird flu...
Wet food wise, I have the choice of:
Katkins
Supermarket own brand
KiteKat
Whiskas/GoCat (= Friskies)/Felix
Iams
Sheba
Arthurs
Hi Life
Gourmet Gold
this is in price order. Katkins is awful. It has no real meat in it, just "Fish Flavour" etc, Gourmet Gold has a picture of a Persian Cat on it, and cost a fortune, but looks no different from Sheba. Out of these, what would you chose ?
When it comes to wet food, I have noticed that price has no relation to how good food is, some just has fancy packaging and is therefore more expensive, but has identical ingredients to cheaper stuff.
Iams wet was really expensive compared to Whiskas (even though the ingredients on Whiskas actually look slightly better
You say that expensive cat food is better,as you don't have to feed as much, but my cats don't understand that bit. They want food when they are hungry. They eat less of the canned stuff, but thats because they don't like it, not because it's better quality.
My best shot at the whole thing (being on a budget as well), is to feed them a variety of brands (whichever is on special deal at the moment), and hope that overall that way they get what they need. There is some natural stuff at the petshop which they like and I used to buy, but since I double checked the ingredients and found out that they use free range chicken from Indonesia and Thailand, I decided I will give it a miss. Don't need my cats dieing of bird flu...
Wet food wise, I have the choice of:
Katkins
Supermarket own brand
KiteKat
Whiskas/GoCat (= Friskies)/Felix
Iams
Sheba
Arthurs
Hi Life
Gourmet Gold
this is in price order. Katkins is awful. It has no real meat in it, just "Fish Flavour" etc, Gourmet Gold has a picture of a Persian Cat on it, and cost a fortune, but looks no different from Sheba. Out of these, what would you chose ?
MadPiano - I am in the UK and feed mine with HiLife for wet, the girls get HiLife biscuits and the boys get James Wellbeloved biscuits. I know what you mean with some of the wet foods, Gourmet gold might look different to normal cat food, but it still has the same ingredietns - althoguh dont know about the nutritional values.
For dry I feed James Wellbeloved or hi life. As to feeding less of the better quality stuff - if you look at the recommended feeding guide for a good quality dry and a poorer quality dry you'll find that it's lower for the former. When I feed dry I weigh it out and my cats know that's all they're getting! For dry food my advice would be to look at the ingredients and avoid anything that contains a lot of cereal.
Incidentally, a lot of european brands of pet food are manufactured in Thailand. Mine like almo nature which is made there and they haven't succumbed to bird flu yet!
Urbantigers - you can feed the pouches daily as long as you have a decent amount of dry food with them, and HiLife also do tins that are complete - and cheaper in supermarkets than their online supplier. They also do some complete pouches, but can only be found in certain supermarkets (Asda being one) - they are only 85g rather than 100g though.
Water is good!
almo Nature was the one which I stopped feeding due to the use of free range asian chicken....
I do feed hi-life sometimes, when it's on special deal at Asda. They aren't that keen though and Gizmo is still a Kitten, so she needs kitten food really, and I haven't found one from Hi-Life. (Almo is for all ages btw).
I might finally do the switch to raw food. For people in the UK, if you feed raw, do you have your own meat grinder, or do you ask your butcher ?
I do feed hi-life sometimes, when it's on special deal at Asda. They aren't that keen though and Gizmo is still a Kitten, so she needs kitten food really, and I haven't found one from Hi-Life. (Almo is for all ages btw).
I might finally do the switch to raw food. For people in the UK, if you feed raw, do you have your own meat grinder, or do you ask your butcher ?
Both almo nature and hi life do kitten versions
I'm quite interested in raw food but I think it would get too awkward when I want to put them in the cattery etc. I would be interested in giving them the odd raw meal though. Whenever I give them a piece of raw meat they love it.
I'm quite interested in raw food but I think it would get too awkward when I want to put them in the cattery etc. I would be interested in giving them the odd raw meal though. Whenever I give them a piece of raw meat they love it.
Yes and no. When you buy a wet food there's already a ton of water if it isn't already listed as the second ingredient [or first]. So whether the meat has extra moisture or not doesn't really matter, and it's more worth your time for your cat to have more meat, than more water. Most cats regulate their water intake very well, and if you're already feeding wet food don't really need to have more fluids. People act like cats don't know how to drink water, but they do.
I agree about by-products. My only issue is quality control.
Besides, you can add your own water. It probably comes out of the tap cheaper than it comes in the can :-) I add a little water to Polly's canned food to increase her water intake.
True, and I don't think anyone here can seriously vouch for the dry food because it hadn't been on the market long enough for people to see the effects.
Although I have several jugs of the Fancy Feast dry food handy because my cats love them better than their treats.
I like the fancy star shapes and colors. I put them in glass bottles so people who visit me think I am giving my cats expensive treats but I am not.
