Best cat/kitten food?

[kittiesmom]

  my two are so opposite to each other, Tilly will only eat Whiskers wet and Scooby will only eat Go-Cat dry which I heard is not a good dry but he will not eat anything else. ? 

[LadyMcTavish]

It's hard because nearly everything has something bad in it. Wish tippy wasn't so fussy :/

[animal crazy]

Gillian from when I was looking into diet from what I could gather the 4% meat stuff does mean named meat, the rest of the meat was the rubbish stuff from what I could gather, its mostly the extras that I don't like the look of though.

So far since putting applaws with her food she is choosing to leave the tiger stuff, got her some applaws tins now and again she is choosing that meat (or at least seems to be) over the tiger, going to try her with hi life next week seeing as applaws tins don't contain taurine and see how she goes, I try to steer away from stuff with added cereals and things the best I can (though applaws does contain a small amount of rice) Its so hard knowing whats best for our babies isn't it? x

[LadyMcTavish]

Bring mosi round and try explaining that to tippy I had every intention of feeding her JWB and good quality meat but so far she has turned her nose up at it all !!

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

I have no scientific evidence to back this up but my feeling is that its hard to get cats off the poorer quality stuff onto stuff without cereals, veg derivatives and a lot of sugar in the same way as it is hard to get children off a diet of sugary cereal and processed food. They are resistant to change and the poorer quality stuff can be addictive. I'm not having a go at anyone (especially as I feed Jaffa supermarket own brands, Felix and royal canin) and you do have to feed them what they will eat and what suits your pocket. But I think it's much easier to feed them the higher meat stuff if you feed it from the start and before their tummies get used to something else. That's what I did with Mosi. As soon as he settled in I switched him onto the cereal free stuff. He still has dreamies and does pinch Jaffa's food sometimes, but apart from that I don't allow him anything that contains grains.

[LadyMcTavish]

I had your issue a few weeks ago. My girl is 4 months old soon she was on butchers classic meat to begin with as that's what the mum-cat lady fed her. Within a few days she was fed up an wouldn't eat it.  She also started off on whiskers kitten biscuits and wouldn't touch them. After a bit of trial and error, she had hills kitten biscuits and tesco own brand kitten pouches (meat in gravy) as that is all she will eat for now. She won't eat the higher content meat stuff, so I treat her a few times a week to fresh meat or ham/raw fish/Cooked prawns. Her coat is so much better now she's eating what she likes. She's a much more content kitty. For now feed them whatever they'll eat then gradually swap them over. That's what I've done. I'd prefer tippy to be on better quality food but she just won't eat it so I too her up with "treats" instead. Good luck

[Gillian Harvey]

As an on-going adult food, I used to recommend Whiskas, however, they now put cereal in the food, but for adults, maybe a high protein diet isn't that great: too much protein could lead to CRF.

High protein doesn't lead to CRF. Cats need a high protein diet.

I just don't like that the meat content is only 4%, just seems way to low to me.

It doesn't mean the total meat content is ONLY 4%, it means that the named variety of meat i.e. chicken is only 4% - the rest is still meat, just maybe not chicken 

[animal crazy]

Thanks hippy, its not so much that its a home brand that bothers me as we do sometimes use a tesco home brand, I just don't like that the meat content is only 4%, just seems way to low to me. I got her some applaws dry today and gave her some mixed with the tiger dry and she ate all the applaws and left the tiger :/ I wanted to do a slow switch over but seems she has other ideas little minx!

[Hippykitty]

Despite the fact that it's an own brand, Tiger cat food really isn't that bad. I fed my first feral rescues on it and they've grown into healthy cats. The two I kept - Fred and Vic - are quite large, but they were about 4 months when rescued. I've seen one of the others regularly and he's small but athletic and lives with a friend of mine. I've seen pics of two who were very young kittens when with me and they're enormous! (Though their people probably over-love them, they also had one of the other older ones and she's big too.)

As an on-going adult food, I used to recommend Whiskas, however, they now put cereal in the food, but for adults, maybe a high protein diet isn't that great: too much protein could lead to CRF.

For a kitten, consider giving her real meat, such as chicken. You may have problems weaning her onto cat food when she's older.

[Dawn F]

I do use royal canin dry food but more because all four will eat it than anything else as susanne says it isn't necessarily the best

[animal crazy]

Thank you, yeah I would do the change over slow, I would change her dry food gradually first and then her wet, I don't mind the costs her health is the main thing for me, I do find my boys get a bit of an upset tummy if I feed them some of the other foods, we gave them felix a few weeks a go, big mistake, I naively didn't think one tin would hurt between them until asdas opened the following morning, never again they stunk when they used their tray! x

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

I don't think royal canin or Hills are particularly good nutritionally in terms of meat content and not containing cereals (their special foods can be quite good in terms of working well - eg sensitivity foods, renal food  - esp in terms of platability) as they contain cereals etc.  Lots of vets get paid to promote them which is why they push them a lot, plus most of the nutritional teaching vets receive is sponsored by those companies.  So I wouldn't worry about what your vet says.  Sometimes cats won't eat what we want them to and they aren't bad choices then (I feed Jaffa whatever he will eat which is mainly RC renal food and supermarket own brand senior foods) but Mosi has applaws dry and hi life or similar wet (for the same reasons as you - no cereals and meat content more suitable for a carnivore).  I wouldn't hesitate to switch your kitten onto what your other cat eats, as long as you do the change over gradually.  Some cats find foods with a high meat content too rich but there's no reason why a healthy young cat should have a problem if the switchover is done gradually.  I was the same with Mosi - started him off on whiskas etc as that's what he was used to then switched him over to the better quality stuff.  He is fine on it and actually gets the upset stomach if I feed him stuff containing cereals/veg deriviatives.  I have fed feline fayre tins also.  Zooplus do a wide variety of good quality foods btw.  I wouldnt hesitate to switch to a grain free dry and wet provided she will eat it and you can afford it (they do tend to cost a bit more). 

[animal crazy]

I currently have 2 cats who are 17 mths old and an 8 week old kitten, my adult cats are both on Applaws dry food and Feline Fayre simply tins, both because of the high meat content and neither contain cereals. The kitten Tabitha is currently on Tiger Kitten food wet and dry as that is what the previous owner had her on and I wanted her to settle before changing her diet, she has been here a week so now I want to start changing her over to a better food. When my older ones were kittens they were on applaws kitten dry and hi life wet food again for the meat content in each, I intended to put Tabitha on the same.

The vet however told me to put her onto hills science plan or royal canine, I can't find the meat content for royal canine and hills doesn't sound that great to me, though I appriciate I am not a cat diet specialist, so I was wondering what everyone here uses for their cats? I have no issue changing all of their food if its better for them, just don't want to start her on a bad food.