# Supermarket brand cat foods bad quality?



## joeyboy (Jul 19, 2008)

Just been doing some reading and I've read that the supermarket brands of dry and wet cat food are pretty poor quality, which is a bit of an eye opener. Especially since reviews of some brands I had no idea existed state their cat used to be sick on occasion, then wasn't. One of ours is sick on occasion, we've taken her to the vets twice for it and they've found no issues at all. To be honest I've seen her eating slugs...and she never seems to learn, which is interesting as our last female cat had a habit of eating snails and slugs!

But anyway getting back on track I've been told these two brands of dry cat food are very good, MUCH better then Whiskas, Iams etc. Obviously more pricey, but you get what you pay for and all that. 

Hills...

Hills Feline Mature AdultSenior 7 Hills Cat Senior for Sale

Royal Canin..
Royal Canin Feline Health Outdoor Mature 2kg 50 OFF Royal Canin Cat Senior for Sale

Cat keepers on here, what do you do?: victory:


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## amyjl (Feb 21, 2010)

we moved ours on to the royal canin stuff a year of so back due to ours having sensitive stomachs and always having poorly tummies or being sick.

its about £15 for a 2kg bag from our pet shop but i think you can get it cheap if you shop around and all problems have settled down now. 

we have used royal canin baby cat, rc kitten, rc indoor cat and all of them are now on rc sensitive dry food. wouldn't go back to supermarket brands or the usual whiskers etc ever again.

ours have fish, chicken and rice added to it occassionally. 

im sure more people will be able to give their opinions soon too. : victory:


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## Shell195 (May 31, 2007)

I took part in the trials for Franks pro gold food when it was first imported, it is excellent quality, very palatable and a reasonable price too. I think Hills is an overpriced tasteless food. I feed all my cats and dogs on FPG
Dog Food and Cat Food - Frank's Pro Gold Premium Pet Food


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## Shadowz (Aug 6, 2008)

I think the problem with a lot of supermarket brands is that they are made to look pretty for the consumer and obviously the convenience of it all.
However a lot of them are stuffed with fillers , cereals , e-numbers and colours and very little "good" stuff. 
I think as long as you find a brand thats without artificial/colourants ect then you cant go to far wrong ( James wellbelowed , Hills , Royal canine , Burns , Burgess and so on ) 
Same go for wet food - get a good brand like Natures menu and similar brands where the majority is meat


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## pigglywiggly (Jul 19, 2008)

royal canin sensible gets my vote.

can be pricy, but they eat less as its better quaility, so it worksout the same as the cheep stuff, all my cats can eat it without problems, and i have one with major tummy trouble.

if mine want meat i`ll cook them a chicken.


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## sjl02 (May 31, 2010)

Shadowz said:


> I think the problem with a lot of supermarket brands is that they are made to look pretty for the consumer and obviously the convenience of it all.
> However a lot of them are stuffed with fillers , cereals , e-numbers and colours and very little "good" stuff.
> I think as long as you find a brand thats without artificial/colourants ect then you cant go to far wrong ( James wellbelowed , Hills , Royal canine , Burns , Burgess and so on )
> Same go for wet food - get a good brand like Natures menu and similar brands where the majority is meat


Agreed as above! I've got a pet food shop/cabin!! I don't even stock whiskas ect.... I don't stock what I wouldn't be happy feeding my cats or dog. The good dry foods most mentioned above. And wets I keep in natures menu,bozita,almo nature,& forthglades natural menu & some applaws


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## 9Red (May 30, 2008)

My cats have Orijen dry food down but they only rarely pick at it. Personally I'm not a huge fan of soley dried food diets as it can cause problems with cats' teeth (the belief that dry kibble helps to keep cats teeth 'clean' is a falacy, the kibbles actually break into crumbs which can become lodged in the cats' gumlines leading to gingivitis and tooth decay), and an all wet food or combined dry/wet food diet supplemented with meat is generally better. 

I used to use Royal Canin until it was pointed out to me by a very experienced vet who also used to breed orientals, that many of the RC wet foods have no declared meat content (so you have no idea if the food contains 100% meat or 1% meat) and various added sugars which can cause problems with tooth decay and insulin resistance. The vet however did use the RC prescription diets occasionally but preferred Hills prescription diets if/when he felt they were needed. 

I've just changed my cats onto Bozita (average 93% meat content in their tetrapaks, with no bulking agents or cheap fillers, preservatives, colours or sugars) which I ordered as a taster pack of each of the different 17 flavours through eBay but can also be bought cheaper in bulk from zooplus.co.uk. It's a swedish brand and my two cats - my nursing queen with a litter of 5 and my ultra fussy neutered tom - seem to absolutely adore it. It's also considerably cheaper, not to mention more nutritionally appropriate, than the majority of British 'premium' brands such as Royal Canin, Applaws etc. For a good quality dry food have a look at Orijen - it's expensive but good.

Here are some links you may find useful: -

An excellent comparative reference of wet food brands - A-Z of wet food for cats - Pet Forums Community

And Bozita -
Bozita Moist Cat Food: great bargains at zooplus

Orijen dry food -
ORIJEN Cat Food: Great Deals on ORIJEN Dog Food at zooplus


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## sjl02 (May 31, 2010)

Sorry how rude of me, I'm still quite new have made cpl of post no threads yet but give me time lol!
So if not spoken yet, hello everyone 
Sarah xx


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## joeyboy (Jul 19, 2008)

9Red said:


> Here are some links you may find useful: -
> 
> An excellent comparative reference of wet food brands - A-Z of wet food for cats - Pet Forums Community
> 
> ...


Thanks for those links! I see they come in packs of 18x370g cans(or more if you buy in bulk). Is the idea each cat gets one can a day and some amount of biscuits? Or would you give it half a can and a helping of biscuits(same bowl) then later one the other half..and maybe more biscuits, or not. 

We've always given our two a can of whiskas etc between them a day, so I'll half the can into two bowls, and top it up with biscuits, then use the other half, with a little more. It must be enough as actually our girl is a tad overweight(vet said it's not obese or anything, just a tad into the overweight range so we might want to think about feeding her a little less), our male is ok, but is hardly lean if that makes sense. He's averagely active, usually goes out for a few hrs a day, brings back a bird or mouse sometimes, the female is pretty much a house cat, she'll go outside to use the toilet and often sits on the bin, or on the bench outside, but rarely leaves the garden. Just being lazy outside instead of inside basically.

I suppose the biscuits tell you how much an adult cat should have a day? I like to combine wet and dry and change flavours as variety is always good. Seriously going to look into this, and discuss it with my folks. I mean those 18x 370g at £16 are a bit more, as 18 cans of whiskas and the like are usually £9-10, biscuits wise obviously the brands like whiskas are £4 or so for 2kg, rather then £20 for 2.5kg, pretty sizeable difference, but I suppose the idea might be because the premium brand is much more nutrious, you feed them less then say felix, whiskas etc, so the extra cost isn't as big as it seems at first.


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## 9Red (May 30, 2008)

joeyboy said:


> Thanks for those links! I see they come in packs of 18x370g cans(or more if you buy in bulk). Is the idea each cat gets one can a day and some amount of biscuits? Or would you give it half a can and a helping of biscuits(same bowl) then later one the other half..and maybe more biscuits, or not.
> 
> We've always given our two a can of whiskas etc between them a day, so I'll half the can into two bowls, and top it up with biscuits, then use the other half, with a little more. It must be enough as actually our girl is a tad overweight(vet said it's not obese or anything, just a tad into the overweight range so we might want to think about feeding her a little less), our male is ok, but is hardly lean if that makes sense. He's averagely active, usually goes out for a few hrs a day, brings back a bird or mouse sometimes, the female is pretty much a house cat, she'll go outside to use the toilet and often sits on the bin, or on the bench outside, but rarely leaves the garden. Just being lazy outside instead of inside basically.
> 
> I suppose the biscuits tell you how much an adult cat should have a day? I like to combine wet and dry and change flavours as variety is always good. Seriously going to look into this, and discuss it with my folks. I mean those 18x 370g at £16 are a bit more, as 18 cans of whiskas and the like are usually £9-10, biscuits wise obviously the brands like whiskas are £4 or so for 2kg, rather then £20 for 2.5kg, pretty sizeable difference, but I suppose the idea might be because the premium brand is much more nutrious, you feed them less then say felix, whiskas etc, so the extra cost isn't as big as it seems at first.


I use the tetrapaks rather than the tins, which are slightly smaller I believe, but am currently using 1 - 1 1/2 tetrapaks a day for my two. However, seeing as my queen is nursing kittens at the moment she is eating a lot more than normal, so if you compare than to consumption in cans, I'd imagine a single can would be plenty for two normal cats each day. I tend to use the wet food as the primary diet, with a bowl of dry down all day as well that they can help themselves to if they fancy between meals. This works well for me as my two cats don't tend to over-eat and only nibble at the dry, so even though it's expensive it lasts a long time. One 2kg bag will last about a month here, and our total food bill comes to around 50 pounds each month for 2 cats, so 25 pounds each. This is certainly a bit more than you would pay for cheap brands like whiskers, but they way I see it it's actually cheaper for me to feed them a good quality, slightly more expensive diet now than to pay thousands of pounds in vets fees later on if they developed kidney failure, diabetes or dental disease as a result of eating cheap rubbish all their lives. The Bozita is especially good value considering it's nutritional content - it's such a shame it's not more widely available in pet shops. 

Both the foods come with feeding guides on them than tell you roughly how much you should expect to feed, although you will quickly work out for yourself the right amounts each day to keep your cats satisfied and properly fed. If you decide to try these foods, I'd recommend buying just a small bag of dry and a few packs of the wet to see how well your cats take to it. Like I said, I was delighted that my ultra-fussy male loves this food, but you will want to introduce it gradually as it's quite rich - it may take a week or two for their tummies to adjust to the higher meat content, and if you do it too quickly they may get the runs. The other great thing with Bozita is that it doesn't contain any of the cheap bulking agents like grain or soya that is used in most other brands - often cats that have 'sensitive' digestions and regularly vomit or get the runs are reacting badly to these fillers. Take out the fillers and you remove the problem - my male hasn't been sick or had the squits once since he's been on the Bozita, and it must be the first time I've ever seen him empty his bowl in one sitting! My two particularly like the rabbit, crayfish and reindeer flavours. You'll probably find your female tends to lose some of her flabby bits as well on Bozita as it's leaner in protein and doesn't contain sugars like whiskers and felix. : victory:


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## joeyboy (Jul 19, 2008)

cheers mate, yeah I'll buy small amounts. So would you suggest mixing in this more meaty wet food with whiskas, or feeding some whiskas, then some of this in the afternoon? To ween them onto it a bit, as yeah I imagine they might get the runs when they switch from crap! And I mean crap because I just read my can, 4% animal derivatives, 4% vegetable derivatives! CHRIST I had no idea the "meat", if you can call it that, was so damn low!

So yeah when my mum gets back from her holiday I'll discuss it. If I find they like the dry stuff and the wet stuff, we could get a 10kg bag of the dry as you get a large saving with that, then maybe pour it into air tight conditions so it doesn't go off?

Certainly an eye opener and it might help her be less lethargic, stop the occasional vomiting etc.

Just gone on Orijen's UK site, wow I am surprised as in their feeding chart it states..

ORIJEN Cat
Biologically Appropriate for All Breeds and Sizes
BODY WEIGHT AGE/ g per day
1 kg 55g 30g 20g 20g 20g
2 kg 110g 60g 45g 40g 30g
3 kg 165g 90g 70g 60g 45g
4 kg 120g 95g 80g 55g
5 kg 150g 120g 100g 70g

right the table didn't paste properly, but basically an Adult cat in the upper weight range of 4-5kg only needs 55-70g of this A DAY. I think that is no wet food either, literally just 70g of biscuits a day. It does state there are nearly 5000kcal per 1kg so that might explain it! Bloody hell..

4700 kcal/kg with 40% of energy derived from protein,
15% derived from fruit and vegetables and 45% from fat.


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## RepBex (Jan 17, 2008)

we got a new kitten well we had him a while now and we use to have our adults on Gourmet (spelling) and they were okay on it however they suddenly refused to eat it... then gave them whilskers fish selection and mitch the kitten started gettin really bad runs and everytime we cut out fish he was okay so we thought okay he has an intolarence to fish to we got whiskers meat ones and well they all got bad tummys and refused to eat it and all of them were sick with the biscults :bash:
so now we are on the Asda Tiger meat selection which they are all fine out thank god and we get wilkos Brekkies as the dry food as they love it. i dont think that the price is always right we did go by the % of meat like felix but ours wont touch it at all:whip: so we stuck with the cheap shit but they like it and are happy and healthy and they get tip bits like cooked meats etc

the point im tryin to make is its not a matter of wether u feel better for feeding more expensife foods its whether the animal its self is happy with what it eats.....


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## 9Red (May 30, 2008)

joeyboy said:


> cheers mate, yeah I'll buy small amounts. So would you suggest mixing in this more meaty wet food with whiskas, or feeding some whiskas, then some of this in the afternoon? To ween them onto it a bit, as yeah I imagine they might get the runs when they switch from crap! And I mean crap because I just read my can, 4% animal derivatives, 4% vegetable derivatives! CHRIST I had no idea the "meat", if you can call it that, was so damn low!
> 
> So yeah when my mum gets back from her holiday I'll discuss it. If I find they like the dry stuff and the wet stuff, we could get a 10kg bag of the dry as you get a large saving with that, then maybe pour it into air tight conditions so it doesn't go off?
> 
> Certainly an eye opener and it might help her be less lethargic, stop the occasional vomiting etc.


I would mash the two wet foods together for each meal, gradually adding more of the new food each day until they are accustomed to it and then completely removing the old stuff altogether. Do it over 10 - 14 days, and just keep an eye on them to make sure they're not having any problems when they go to the loo. 

Good idea on bulk buying the big bags - just keep an eye on the expiry dates as they don't contain the nasty chemical preservatives that cheap brands do. Orijen tends to last quite well though as it contains Rosemary extract which acts as a natural preservative. : victory:


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## joeyboy (Jul 19, 2008)

9Red said:


> Good idea on bulk buying the big bags - just keep an eye on the expiry dates as they don't contain the nasty chemical preservatives that cheap brands do. Orijen tends to last quite well though as it contains Rosemary extract which acts as a natural preservative. : victory:


yeah we usually just leave our whiskas or what ever in the cupboard, but not in an air tight sealed container, Though we buy those cardboard boxes not sacks, so with a sack I suppose you can always roll it up and peg it down.

Still a bit confused as to whether you COULD theoretically feed them only this, and 55-70g a day each? As like you say that would make a 2.5kg bag last 3 weeks or so(but not 4) which would cost £20, so say £25 a month. You say £50 roughly, is that the cost of the wet food, but then I'd think if you provided wet you'd do say 30g of dry not 70g, and then some wet, so the cost wouldn't double, but hey I haven't done the maths yet.

Finally are their any issues of giving them both Orijen dry and Bozita wet? As in too much protein for them or anything like that? Wouldn't stress the kidneys?


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## 9Red (May 30, 2008)

joeyboy said:


> yeah we usually just leave our whiskas or what ever in the cupboard, but not in an air tight sealed container, Though we buy those cardboard boxes not sacks, so with a sack I suppose you can always roll it up and peg it down.
> 
> Still a bit confused as to whether you COULD theoretically feed them only this, and 55-70g a day each? As like you say that would make a 2.5kg bag last 3 weeks or so(but not 4) which would cost £20, so say £25 a month. You say £50 roughly, is that the cost of the wet food, but then I'd think if you provided wet you'd do say 30g of dry not 70g, and then some wet, so the cost wouldn't double, but hey I haven't done the maths yet.
> 
> Finally are their any issues of giving them both Orijen dry and Bozita wet? As in too much protein for them or anything like that? Wouldn't stress the kidneys?


You can feed a solely dry diet of Orijen if you wished, personally I don't think it's the healthiest option though. Although many cat owners feed their cats solely on dried, this has been known to cause a higher incidence of dental disease and dehydration (cats are notorious for not drinking enough water anyway, and dry food can sometimes make this worse, which in turn can put stress on the kidneys). I prefer to use a mainly wet diet complemented with dry as the higher moisture content in the wet food helps with keeping the cat well hydrated amongst other things. 

50 pounds a month is roughly the cost of both the wet and dry food together that I use (20ish on dry and 30ish on wet). While 55-70g of the Orijen dry a day is enough to meet the cats' nutritional needs, it may not be physically enough to satisfy their hunger, especially if your cats are used to eating large quantities of dry food, so you may find you have to gradually reduce the amount you feed them each day as well until they get out of the habit of 'pigging out' lol. I would still personally recommend feeding a primarily wet food diet, and use the dry food for them to nibble at if they want in between main meals. You could always leave out the dry food altogether and feed several small meals of just wet food each day if you wanted - this wouldn't do them any harm and reduces the cost of feeding overall as wet food is generally cheaper, and spacing it out into several small meals will help keep your cats filled up and happy. 

As both the orijen and bozita are nutritionally complete, there should not be any problems with using them together provided their daily intakes are monitored and they don't over-eat excessively. : victory:


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## joeyboy (Jul 19, 2008)

9Red said:


> You can feed a solely dry diet of Orijen if you wished, personally I don't think it's the healthiest option though. Although many cat owners feed their cats solely on dried, this has been known to cause a higher incidence of dental disease and dehydration (cats are notorious for not drinking enough water anyway, and dry food can sometimes make this worse, which in turn can put stress on the kidneys). I prefer to use a mainly wet diet complemented with dry as the higher moisture content in the wet food helps with keeping the cat well hydrated amongst other things.
> 
> 50 pounds a month is roughly the cost of both the wet and dry food together that I use (20ish on dry and 30ish on wet). While 55-70g of the Orijen dry a day is enough to meet the cats' nutritional needs, it may not be physically enough to satisfy their hunger, especially if your cats are used to eating large quantities of dry food, so you may find you have to gradually reduce the amount you feed them each day as well until they get out of the habit of 'pigging out' lol. I would still personally recommend feeding a primarily wet food diet, and use the dry food for them to nibble at if they want in between main meals. You could always leave out the dry food altogether and feed several small meals of just wet food each day if you wanted - this wouldn't do them any harm and reduces the cost of feeding overall as wet food is generally cheaper, and spacing it out into several small meals will help keep your cats filled up and happy.
> 
> As both the orijen and bozita are nutritionally complete, there should not be any problems with using them together provided their daily intakes are monitored and they don't over-eat excessively. : victory:


right ok. Funny that on their site, both the Bozita packs have 20% off. And yet the large 54 pack is no cheaper then buying the 18 pack version per 100g, you'd think "value pack" and it's bulk size would mean a saving, weird.

But yeah If the idea is a cat gets one of those 370g "cans"(i realise they aren't metal cans) a day, it's around £50 a month. So it doesn't seem to be generally cheaper if you compare an all wet and all dry diet. 

But we'd probably just do as we do now, bit of both. Sometimes we only give them biscuits, sometimes only dry, sometimes half and half in the same bowl. I generally always do half and half, mum does only wet in the morning, load of biscuits in the evening. But what ever.


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## 9Red (May 30, 2008)

joeyboy said:


> right ok. Funny that on their site, both the Bozita packs have 20% off. And yet the large 54 pack is no cheaper then buying the 18 pack version per 100g, you'd think "value pack" and it's bulk size would mean a saving, weird.
> 
> *But yeah If the idea is a cat gets one of those 370g "cans"(i realise they aren't metal cans) a day, it's around £50 a month.* So it doesn't seem to be generally cheaper if you compare an all wet and all dry diet.
> 
> But we'd probably just do as we do now, bit of both. Sometimes we only give them biscuits, sometimes only dry, sometimes half and half in the same bowl. I generally always do half and half, mum does only wet in the morning, load of biscuits in the evening. But what ever.


True, but it would probably only take 1 of those individual 370g tetrapaks to feed both cats a day (half a pack each per day) so it would work out a bit cheaper. Like I said, I'm using 1 - 1 1/2 a day at the moment, and that's with a nursing queen that's eating like a horse lol. Once the kittens are weaned I expect I'll only use 1 tetrapak a day for both. : victory:


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## joeyboy (Jul 19, 2008)

9Red said:


> True, but it would probably only take 1 of those individual 370g tetrapaks to feed both cats a day (half a pack each per day) so it would work out a bit cheaper. Like I said, I'm using 1 - 1 1/2 a day at the moment, and that's with a nursing queen that's eating like a horse lol. Once the kittens are weaned I expect I'll only use 1 tetrapak a day for both. : victory:


Ah right makes more sense. So giving them half a tetra pack(185g of wet) a day, could you estimate how many grams of the biscuits they're also getting that day? Or is it just the 185g of wet per cat, per day?

Ours are both 8 yrs old, lazy as cheese(not 18+ haha) really, I wouldn't be surprised if the male was verging on overweight now tbh. Problem is my mum will give in to them meowing for more food, when IMO they really do not need it. As in the female will wolf down a load, then scratch at the food cupboard for more. I keep telling my mum not go give them more then the two meals as she is overweight, maybe with a more nutritional diet, this would cease though.


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## 9Red (May 30, 2008)

joeyboy said:


> Ah right makes more sense. So giving them half a tetra pack(185g of wet) a day, could you estimate how many grams of the biscuits they're also getting that day? Or is it just the 185g of wet per cat, per day?
> 
> Ours are both 8 yrs old, lazy as cheese(not 18+ haha) really, I wouldn't be surprised if the male was verging on overweight now tbh. Problem is my mum will give in to them meowing for more food, when IMO they really do not need it. As in the female will wolf down a load, then scratch at the food cupboard for more. I keep telling my mum not go give them more then the two meals as she is overweight, maybe with a more nutritional diet, this would cease though.


Yeah my two get half a tetrapak (185g) plus just a small handful (probably about 3 -4 tablespoonfuls of dry) each day, and usually there's some left over. It's important to get them used to a routine of being fed at certain times, not just whenever they ask for it, otherwise this is how you end up with overweight cats as you're starting to find with your two lol. Also it's unlikely that they're crying for food because they're actually hungry (especially if they're on the podgy side) - but just because they enjoy eating and it's something to do. Try breaking their daily portions down into 3 or even 4 smaller meals, and use something else like playtime with toys to distract them if they start howling for more inbetween. Also, once feeding times are over, take up the wet food bowls and put them out of sight, so that they only have their fresh water and some dry food in a seperate dish available. They should only see their wet food bowls at mealtimes, otherwise every time they see them sitting there empty the cats assume they should be full of food and start howling. 

If your mum finds it hard to stick to a regular feeding routine you could try using a timed feeding bowl like this? Automatic Cat Feeders: on Sale now at zooplus


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## Johelian (Nov 25, 2006)

I feed my cats Fish4Cats. I buy the 15kg bag and it lasts for ages. I have one cat that is allergic to almost everything, and this is one of few foods that doesnt upset his stomach (we have tried JWB, Arden Grange, Hills, Royal Canin...RC Sensitive was the only other one that didnt upset his stomach, but I wasn't keen on it due to low/unnamed meat content). They all seem to like it, but don't gorge on it. My first cat was a rescue, and the difference in his coat once he went onto this has been great. 

I'd like to start adding more wet to the diet, and Bozita was the one that I'm looking at. We have treated occasionally with Almo Nature, Hi-Life and Natures Menu, but they are very expensive relatively - well, Almo is. The others aren't too bad, but they are not nearly as good quality as Almo.

I personally wouldn't feed any supermarket own brands, or any of the regularly stocked brands like Whiskas etc as the ingredients list goes on forever and is rammed full of additives and poor quality items. The only time I have fed Whiskas is when we got the kittens, and each of them had been weaned onto Whiskas/Felix so we kept that going initially before switching over. Its a bit gross, but the difference in their poos (all of them, adults and kittens) once we switched to Fish4Cats is astounding; they are far less smelly and better formed. I really think you get what you pay for with a lot of pet foods. I spent ages shopping around to find one I was happy with, both in terms of ingredients and price; in fact, when I run out and need something to tide us over til the next delivery, I drive my boyfriend mad by studying all of the cat food packets in the shop til I find something acceptable.


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## dopey.rachel (Jun 17, 2008)

I feed my cat the hill's dry food, she does get bits of meat and things as well but have tried giving her many different varieties of wet food to have as well and she just wont touch the stuff. She's really fussy with what she eats and when i accidently got the wrong flavour of food for her she wouldn't touch that either she went a week with no food other than what she possibly eats when she is outside during the day.


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## joeyboy (Jul 19, 2008)

Johelian said:


> I feed my cats Fish4Cats. I buy the 15kg bag and it lasts for ages. I have one cat that is allergic to almost everything, and this is one of few foods that doesnt upset his stomach (we have tried JWB, Arden Grange, Hills, Royal Canin...RC Sensitive was the only other one that didnt upset his stomach, but I wasn't keen on it due to low/unnamed meat content). They all seem to like it, but don't gorge on it. My first cat was a rescue, and the difference in his coat once he went onto this has been great.
> 
> I'd like to start adding more wet to the diet, and Bozita was the one that I'm looking at. We have treated occasionally with Almo Nature, Hi-Life and Natures Menu, but they are very expensive relatively - well, Almo is. The others aren't too bad, but they are not nearly as good quality as Almo.
> 
> I personally wouldn't feed any supermarket own brands, or any of the regularly stocked brands like Whiskas etc as the ingredients list goes on forever and is rammed full of additives and poor quality items. The only time I have fed Whiskas is when we got the kittens, and each of them had been weaned onto Whiskas/Felix so we kept that going initially before switching over. Its a bit gross, but the difference in their poos (all of them, adults and kittens) once we switched to Fish4Cats is astounding; they are far less smelly and better formed. I really think you get what you pay for with a lot of pet foods. I spent ages shopping around to find one I was happy with, both in terms of ingredients and price; in fact, when I run out and need something to tide us over til the next delivery, I drive my boyfriend mad by studying all of the cat food packets in the shop til I find something acceptable.


cheers for that! I think I'll try the food 9red recommended first, simply because I can buy both from the same site, makes it a bit simpler, I'm sure both are equally good anyway, as that's the idea. It says Orijen has bison in it haha! Would a cat manage to kill a bison?:lol2:


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## joeyboy (Jul 19, 2008)

9Red said:


> Yeah my two get half a tetrapak (185g) plus just a small handful (probably about 3 -4 tablespoonfuls of dry) each day, and usually there's some left over. It's important to get them used to a routine of being fed at certain times, not just whenever they ask for it, otherwise this is how you end up with overweight cats as you're starting to find with your two lol. Also it's unlikely that they're crying for food because they're actually hungry (especially if they're on the podgy side) - but just because they enjoy eating and it's something to do. Try breaking their daily portions down into 3 or even 4 smaller meals, and use something else like playtime with toys to distract them if they start howling for more inbetween. Also, once feeding times are over, take up the wet food bowls and put them out of sight, so that they only have their fresh water and some dry food in a seperate dish available. They should only see their wet food bowls at mealtimes, otherwise every time they see them sitting there empty the cats assume they should be full of food and start howling.
> 
> If your mum finds it hard to stick to a regular feeding routine you could try using a timed feeding bowl like this? Automatic Cat Feeders: on Sale now at zooplus



Yeah well I always feed them twice a day. When I get up(7am), then around 5pm. Usually feed the larger meal at 5pm, simply because the gap between that and the next meal is longer, so if there's a bit left in the bowl, they can have it later. Also yeah I know they're not really hungry, as sometimes the female will eat hers and some of the males, and a few hours later is scratching at the food cupboard! She just likes to eat basically, and knows if she moans enough, my mum usually gives it. But that'll stop as I'm taking charge! Hopefully since these brands of wet and dry are meant to be so much more nutritious per 100g, she'll not feel so hungry. I guess it's like eating pasta. If I only ate pasta and Sainsburys basics ham, I'd feel full up, but feel hungry sooner then if I eat something better quality with more protein etc per 100g, rather then empty fillers and water,


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## Johelian (Nov 25, 2006)

joeyboy said:


> cheers for that! I think I'll try the food 9red recommended first, simply because I can buy both from the same site, makes it a bit simpler, I'm sure both are equally good anyway, as that's the idea. It says Orijen has bison in it haha! Would a cat manage to kill a bison?:lol2:


Orijen is one of the few 5* pet foods, and I don't think you will go wrong with it (I have heard some animals react to the high protein level initially - its quite a rich food - and get runny poos for the first couple of weeks. Not unusual for a food switchover!). If I didn't feed Fish4Cats I would be feeding Orijen; to be honest I think it was just a matter of price that just deterred me!


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## joeyboy (Jul 19, 2008)

Johelian said:


> Orijen is one of the few 5* pet foods, and I don't think you will go wrong with it (I have heard some animals react to the high protein level initially - its quite a rich food - and get runny poos for the first couple of weeks. Not unusual for a food switchover!). If I didn't feed Fish4Cats I would be feeding Orijen; to be honest I think it was just a matter of price that just deterred me!


Well I'm going to get a 400g pack of it for them to try out, no point buying in bulk and finding they hate it. I think my male will be more likely to gladly accept it and this Bozita wet stuff, as he loves fresh chicken, finishing off my kippers etc. Where as the female is less sure, she'll have chicken, but is less keen on other meats, the male will have anything, sweet and sour sauce, gravy, cream and mushroom sauce, bolognase. He's like a dog, comes into the room when we've finished dinner and will start licking our plates...freak.:whistling2:

So if I've priced this up right, and per day my cats are getting one "tin" of this bozita between them, and some biscuits too(say 30g each when the biscuits state 55g is the daily allowance for a 4kg cat if you were only feeding dry.)

£32 worth of "tins" lasts me 36 days( it's 20% off at the moment)

£19.99 2.5kg bag of orijen lasts me 41 days, if I bought the 7kg the price would be reduced by a third.

So we spend around £15-20 a month now.

£26 a month for the Bozita(30 days in a month on average)

£14.40(roughly) for the dry stuff.

So £40. 

I say we try it. Thinking of it as a fiver a week makes it easier to absorb I think. I'll probably just pay her £20 a month extra to cover it. Or try and stop us wasting money on takeaways as you can make it yourself or buy Sainsburys premium takeaways which are just as nice and easily half the price of ordering from somewhere!

My mum got back and questions as to why I want to bother with the extra expense when they eat the felix and go-cat and have lived on it for 8 years and are fine. But...meh I'd rather try. They might be ok(I'd hardly call the female fine, she's been riddled with problems) but a human eating £1 ready meals everyday would survive, they just wouldn't be as healthy and fit as someone who ate good quality meat and veg.


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## Tillies reptile rescue (Aug 22, 2009)

Fish 4 cats is a great food, I feed Jame wellbeloved, mainly because its the only food stella gets on with.


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