What do you feed your cat?

[CatCafe234]

Fussy little buggers aren't they! I had bought chicken stuff previously, she sniffed it and walked off. So that all got donated to the cat rescue near me. My cat also likes the lillies kitchen stuff.

I tried that as it gets really good reviews but I think it was too rich and offaly for my cat as it made her throw up I stick to Encore now and high-meat content biscuits. She’s really fussy about biscuit size too and it drives me wild, twice I’ve had to find a new brand for her and it’s a real struggle!

 

[Shutterbug99]

So for the past few days my cat (2 years old, indoor cat, generally full of beans, no health problems as per her last check up) has been a bit off her food. I thought she might be eating a bit less because of the heat, but though she is eating less, she is pooping more (twice a day instead of her usual once - and it stinks! This has only happened twice but I'm always on the lookout for any changes). Her diet is a combination of wet and dry food (she eats Whiskas nuts & gravy pouches and also Gourmet Mon Petit pouches. She is usually a really good eater - but while she is still eating her wet food right now she seems to be gone right off the dry food.

Anyway, I was looking in to changing up her food and fell down an internet rabbit hole, which has told me that feeding a cat Whiskas is akin to feeding them McDonalds every day (basically Whiskas is like junk food for cats?!) The internet has also informed me that for dry food I should stay well away from Whiskas and should only feed my cat high-quality grain free dry food. There's also an argument that cats shouldn't eat any processed food at all - that they'd be better off eating meat, fish etc.

So....what do you feed your cat? I'm interested in hearing of any brands of grain free dry food people might use. I was looking into Canagan's cat food and the content of their food does seem a lot more natural than the Whiskas dry food. It is also a lot more expensive, of course! She does seem to be turning up her nose at the Whiskas nuts at the moment, so I might have to fork out!

If any of these issues with her persist, I will of course take her to the vet. I'm just interested in finding out any good brands and what everyone generally feeds their cat/s!

 

[Saddlesoap]

@Saddlesoap She's indoor.

I would feed a specific food for indoor cats then. Dry is fine, but make sure she is drinking enough.
I wouldn't specifically hunt out a grain free diet. There's nothing wrong with grain.

Eukanuba, Hills, ProPlan, Royal Canin are all good foods. If you want something you can pick up in the supermarket, go with Iams.

 

[CharlieTYBT]

My cats have been on Purina biscuits since we got them , were recommended by our vet and by the cats protection when we got them and they’ve been fine ..

Thanks, that's good to hear. I used to feed my cat the generic maybe more unhealthy Whiskas etc and thought that putting him on a diet of indoor forumula Purina would do him some good so seeing the comment about Purina being linked to deaths worried me. He's generally a pretty laid back boy and eats anything. The only thing he ever turned his nose up to was Blink.

 

[Shutterbug99]

@Saddlesoap She's indoor.

 

[Libertine1975]

My cat has Canagan wetfood but I also throw in some Lily's Kitchen and Carnilove. She has one tin/sachet a day of wet and the rest dry.

The dry food I like to cycle through include Canagan (especially the dental one), Carnilove and Eden. We've had Scrumbles and Lily's Kitchen before too. I'm going to have to brave either Sainsburys or Pets at Home to get some dry food as I've only a weeks left and I can't get to the usual petshop before I run out.

The lady at the petshop I usually buy the food from has told me that Royal Canin is basically overpriced Whiskas and full of sugar. She has tried to stop the owner from stocking it but its a good seller.

 

[knivesnflowers]

does iams fall into this category?? we feed our two moggies both their pouches and dry vitality food and since switching from whiskas have noticed way fewer mice!

 

[CharlieTYBT]

All 3 moggies , just rescue cats ! We have Tilly and Ollie who are brother and sister and 3 years old and then older boy Sid who is 7 and I have had since I was at uni !

very finicky creatures but I love them !!

Awh bless them, mine is a rescue, too. I bet they all have their own characters and preferences the fussy buggers

 

[CharlieTYBT]

I feed Canagan wet food, Catit wet food and Royal Canin dry and Canagan dry. Two of my cats have health issues so I have to give them Royal Canin veterinary diets.

Iams isn't great, you'd be better off with Canagan, James Wellbeloved or Natures Variety.

Be aware that a lot of people are having problems with Purina foods at the moment, mainly Felix. Their cats are ill and some have died. There is also a problem with pancytopenia which is killing cats and has been linked to Sainsburys hypoallergenic dry food, Ava dry food and Applaws dry food.

Feed the best food that you can realistically afford because it does pay off in terms of improved health and less illness.

This comment has really concerned me. I have been feeding my indoor cat Purina indoor formula and the indoor Purina wet cat food formula. Has anyone had any bad experiences with this paticular type ?

 

[Petalnick]

My cats are indoor and aged 6 months and 9 months. They eat Hills Science dry food. Sterilised cat for my older cat and my younger cat is still on the kitten food

They also have a applaws wet tin between them every day.

I wish they would eat more wet food but they don’t seem to bothered about it. They both drink a lot of water so hoping that is ok.

 

[Shutterbug99]

Had my kitten since 26th December. She's always had whiskas kitten and dry whiska biscuits.. First time I've had a kitten. Is it really that bad for her to eat whiskas ? She eats it and seems go enjoy it.

I fed mine the same when she was a kitten -she loves Whiskas and as a kitten wouldn't eat anything else. The only reason I looked in to changing her food is that she seemed to go off it - although I think that might have been down to the heatwave that week rather than the food itself. However, now that I know that Whiskas only contains 4% meat, I didn't feel good about continuing to feed her that. The food I have her on now (Canagan) is more expensive but if you take a look at the ingredients in that and compare them to Whiskas there is a big difference -e.g. A Canagan Chicken & Duck pouch contains 54% chicken and 26% duck as opposed to 4% meat and 'meat derivatives' in a Whiskas pouch . I also read a lot of articles that said Whiskas, Felix etc is basically junk food for cats and that feeding them better quality food is better for their long-term overall health etc.

I was pretty surprised to discover that Whiskas contained such little meat. I guess I should have done more research - but I always thought that Whiskas was good quality food.

 

[Giggling Squid]

Had my kitten since 26th December. She's always had whiskas kitten and dry whiska biscuits.. First time I've had a kitten. Is it really that bad for her to eat whiskas ? She eats it and seems go enjoy it.

Our vet told us that whiskers is the equivalent of kitten fast food, it’s quite a low meat content/mostly meat derivatives rather than actual meat

 

[Tinkerbell cat]

My cat is just over a year old and is so fussy. She has really went off chicken so everything we buy tends to be fish based. She loves the Encore range, ocean fish, tuna, tuna and salmon - they are her favourites. And we buy the royal canine/Hills/Purino one dry food. She gets wet food in the day and then we have a little bowl of dry food out for her incase she gets hungry. The dry food always has to be fish flavoured. Spoilt little madam

 

[Tricham]

I don't feed dry food at all. After having 2 cats suffer with urinary issues and being told it was probably due to the dry food (as cats aren't naturally supposed to eat dry food, and they don't generally drink, they get their water from their food) I switched to only wet. No urinary infections since (it's been years!)
One has a sensitive belly. He now gets kattovit wet food. This suits him well and poos have now firmed up.
The other eats Bozita wet food.
They've never been fussy with either. They'll always finish their bowls.

We buy bozita from zooplus. it’s Swedish and can be in a can or Tetra Pak with jelly or gravy.

It’s a high meat content jelly meat which looks the same but is much better. Both of mine have beautiful coats since they swapped.
They get royal canin dental biscuits too.
I was shocked at how bad whiskas and felix is!

Bozita is great!
One of mine has a sensitive belly (typical Ragdoll!) So had to come off it and go on a sensitive diet but they've both always loved their Bozita. I love the tetra paks.

 

[blackmasque]

My cats are on Hill's prescription diet cat food, prescribed by their vet. One cat has FLUTD and the other has developed a food allergy so she's on prescription novel protein. It's $$$$$$ but worth it since non-rx will damage their health. Previously they liked sheba wet food and Iams or nutrish dry food.

 

[Merpedy]

any house plants I may need to get rid of

I found a love for houseplants so I just stand googling in Asda whether they're toxic for cats. Probably look a bit weird to the staff

 

[CharlieTYBT]

One of our cats (the only girl , Tilly) is very fussy .. she will not eat any wet food apart from Shebe and Gourmet and it’s why we moved to dry food only diet ! We bought them all a Lily’s Kitchen Turkey Dinner thing for Christmas - the boys wolfed it down but she turned her nose up at it ! Purina is the only thing she’ll eat !

Aww bless her. They can be a pain can't they and are very assertive animals Gourmet is a hit with my cat and I used that before moving on to Purina wet pouches. What breed are your cats ?

 

[Merpedy]

My cat eats Perfect Fit but we only really got him the brand because the dogs have it and he kept stealing their food
We got him some Encore fish fillets for treats and he has since decided that wet food is a no go, so we try to give him that once a week at least. Also treats like Dreamies for his food-dispensing ball which he now seems to prefer to just having the treats dropped in the bowl

 

[Merpedy]

I think advertising has a lot to answer for. Funny how the better quality brands don’t have flashy advertising campaigns.

I'd love to learn more about their marketing tactics because I reckon they're very similar to what cigarette brands did that was then used for other issues (including global warming I think? there's a podcast on this)

Anyway, recently a study came out on dog food and canine heart disease links which found that peas may be the cause, peas are a common replacement for grains in grain-free foods apparently. Anyway, a lot of people noticed that the research was funded by a few pet food brands including Purina which would make one go hmm
Here's a link to the actual paper, check Ethical stuff for who was interested in this. It's interesting that a few pet food brands came up but all of them seem to not have grain-free options. Royal Canin has a whole article on their site in support of grains
Honestly if you do a short google in general a lot of articles that seem possibly sponsored by pet food brands come up

Anyway, the grain-free debate is generally interesting. These foods do have more meat by the looks of it but it fails to mention that they're still full of carbohydrates, the grains are just replaced by other fillers (such as peas). I read an article (that I now can't find sadly) that essentially said that apart from the meat content there isn't that much difference in carbohydrate content and cats don't need it that much within their diets

 

[bolimepipi]

Maybe. My 2 never drink. I've bought fountains for them, tried all sorts. But they didn't drink enough and gave them UTIs. Not a problem when feeding wet, but obviously big problem when feeding dry! I've also heard the cleaning teeth thing is a myth with dry food. My cats are 6 and 7 years old by the way, so the drinking water thing is not a sudden health issue. Wet food is 80% water, so they do not need to drink nearly as much as when they are fed exclusively dry food. I'm guessing mine must drink a bit (obviously I always have fresh water available for them) but I never ever witness it.

maybe it would be good to have a bowl/fountain in each room? for example mine loves the bowl in the living room, much more than any other, and she'll leave all the others full while in the meantime she drinks everything from the living room one