Tippy - Fussy cat - Advice on dry complete food

[LadyMcTavish]

This is what a belly full of prawns looks like

[LadyMcTavish]

Tippy was having 1/2 a pouch with a handful of biscuits around 8am then same again around 7pm. We tried her on 3 meals a day and she didn't really eat any meat in the day but she always has biscuits down to snack on.

She's had prawns for tea tonight while we ate so I'll pop her some biscuits down if she finishes what's left in her bowl. She's a grazer rather than a stuffer

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

Mosi has 50/50 wet/dry (approx) and it lasts him a month    You must be more generous with the biccies than me!    I guess Tippy is a growing kitten!  Mosi does have a few all wet meals but otherwise he has half a pouch/tin 3 times a day and some dry sprinkled on the top.

[LadyMcTavish]

A small 400g bag of hills lasts tippy a fortnight with 50/50 meat/dry meals so a big bag will last a month if she's on 70g a day

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

I buy the 400g size bags!  As it's only Mosi who has dry and he has wet too, a small bag lasts a month so any longer and it will go stale.

[LadyMcTavish]

I was also considering 2kg bags

Why oh why do they have to be so damn FUSSY!!!!!!

[Kay and Penny]

I always have at least four varieties of biccies on the go at any given time, and rotate them regularly

the one thing I do find, though, is that the big bags seem to lose their flavour sometimes - mine always are keener when I open a new bag, so I never buy anything bigger than 2kg bags - they may not be as economical as the larger bags, but I always reckon the cheapest diet for cats is one which always gets eaten

[LadyMcTavish]

Orijen looks a good food too. I think it'll depend on what's on offer every month when I buy. Will it effect her digestive system swapping biscuits?

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

I give Mosi Applaws or Orijen (the latter from zoo plus) as they are both grain free.

[LadyMcTavish]

It advises combined wet/dry feeding so do I just double the dry amount?

[Kay and Penny]

http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/dry_cat_food/almo_nature/almo_nature_label_red/315717#analysis

[LadyMcTavish]

Just had a look at almo rouge and it seems expensive and on zooplus it didn't give you any nutrition information like it does on other brands. I'll have a look see if I can find the nutritional stuff on another page

[Kay and Penny]

the ones I mentioned are all dry kibble

I have two cats who won't eat ordinary wet,  so I know where you're coming from -  though they will eat Porta21 chicken in tins if I don't push it more than a couple of times a week

[LadyMcTavish]

Problem I'm having Kay is she won't eat wet food so it needs to be a kibble that doesn't need balancing out :/

[Kay and Penny]

you might find Almo Rouge worth checking out - no grain and mine like the duck and chicken flavours - on special offer at Zooplus at the moment

Josera is another one mine like, even the low phosphorus Carismo, which I give them alongside the higher phosphorus foods to balance it out a bit, although none have kidney problems as yet

[LadyMcTavish]

Hills in "minimum" 40% meat, Applaws is 58% chicken and porta 21 is 37.9% chicken. I'm looking at chicken varieties as she's eating the hills chicken kitten at the moment and loves it. Applaws sent me some samples and she does like the biscuits but not the posh meat in a tin!

[Mymblesdaughter]

I would stick with applaws if she'll eat it as it's a good quality food, the porta 21 is only about 40% meat which is better than the stuff you get in supermarkets whiskas etc. Applaws is 90% meat I don't know about Hills. 

[LadyMcTavish]

Thanks

Just had a look and it's cheaper than hills & Applaws but the feeding guide is 110-125g a day whereas hill & Applaws are upto 70g a day so the extra weight in each meal makes it more expensive to feed than either hill or Applaws. Just been looking at the compositions too. It's all soooooo confusing. I'm assuming high ash and sodium content is bad, and high taurine and meat is good?

[Mymblesdaughter]

I feed Xander on Porta 21 dry food which I get from Zooplus, I've started to mix it with applaws as applaws has I much higher meat content. He won't eat any wet food either nothing not even fresh chicken, tuna etc. So I have to give him dry food. I brought a cat water fountain to try to encourage him to drink more as I do worry that it's not a great diet. He seems to drink from it quite a bit so was worth buying although he hates me to look at him when he's drinking (strange boy)   

[LadyMcTavish]

Hope this is the right place to post!

We've been having a battle of wills with tippy for a while now. She did settle on some wet food pouches in gravy but she's changed her mind. We've tried her on all sorts of different foods. Applaws, gourmet, whiskers, butchers, other samples and sachets - all in varieties of gravy, pâté, terrine, jelly etc. I just don't think she likes wet food!

Spoke to my vet this morning and they said if she's drinking plenty (which she does) that she will be fine on a good quality complete biscuit. She's already on hills kitten chicken kibble. I'm happy to keep her on this but I was wondering if anyone could recommend any other brands? She likes JWB lamb & rice but this is discontinued now, she also likes the Applaws chicken kibble (roughly same price as hills)

I've been working out and a 2kg bag @ 70g daily will last her 28 days. I've also looked at the "Purely" range and seen some terrible reviews - has anyone fed their kits on it?

Are there good places for offers (looked on zoopla and p@h) but I'm put off by delivery charges on some websites.

Any advice greatly appreciated!