please advisE on my 2 questions

[Millys Mum]

RC means royal canin.
You are contracted in for a year with pet insurance, if you cancel before then you have to pay up the rest of the premium. If your pet dies then nice companies will let you off the rest of the premium.

M&S have just put their quotes up 

[lilycat]

I'm not contracted into mine but if I wanted to change providers I'd have to give details of every illness and vets visit they've ever had - I've got 5 and they're all 9 years old so it'd be a nightmare.

[emzbubble]

i used to feed my 2 cats on just RC dry food[/quote]

What's RC???

I agree with the others too and def go for insurance, i am currently with PetPlan but the M&S does look better if no excess, so will check that out lol
Are we contracted in with Pet insurance? xxx

[candyshandy]

Definitely keep the insurance - my vet fees since Jan for Fabes are currently standing at £3000!!

Sainsburys, Petplan and M&S policies all cover so much per illness per year.

Sol and Fabes have 100% dry food because they will not touch wet food and have fab teeth (currently feed them on RC), they are also really good drinkers (bit like their Mum! )

Foofoo has 1 and half pouches of good quality wet food a day and munches on the RC biscuits in between.

[Gillian Harvey]

FOOD
if i feed wet twice a day is it ok to get a cheeper dry to leave down to snack at , they are slim cats and not at risk at puting on too much weight

If you decide to feed wet twice a day, you won't need to leave dry food down all the time, they don't really need both, perhaps give a little dry food at bedtime as treats, thats what I do. I feed wet (raw/natures menu) twice a day, with a few Olli treats at bedtime. I wouldnt feed cheaper dry food, you could still get the good quality one, but just feed much less of it in the form of treats.

[rosiesmum]

Rosie has wet food twice a day and dry food down all day if she needs it. I would definately say get the Insurance. I cancelled my Policy after I was made redundant as I couldn't afford the monthly payments, then Rosie had her accident!! The accident was in April and I am still paying off a £900 vet bill!!!

[lilycat]

See how you get on - nobody knows your cats better than you do and you can do no more than what you feel is best for them 

[COSMIC CREEPERS]

oh rudy hell , i might try and wean off dry then and just feed wet 

[COSMIC CREEPERS]

right then well i might carry on wi the good dry , any thoughts on kitten food dry ? i have been advised by breeder to go with RC kitten ?
i will do 2 meals of wet a day and leave a bit of dry to nibble at but might restrict cause they are eating what ever i put there , i shouldnt moan , untill mango was spayed she was really underweight but now she is fine and has appitite back

i am going to look round for insurance but you have to be carefull cayse some wont pay for more than 1yr for ongoing illness i.e diabetes

[lilycat]

I agree with Susanne, mine have always been fed one large tin of wet a day and they've had dry food avaiable the rest of the time and they've always had teeth problems [except Lily] - even on t/d -  so from my own experience I'd say that the dry hasn't helped their teeth at all.

Another worry is I've noticed that only Lily crunches the dry food, the rest of them swallow it whole. They're soley on wet food for now and they actually seem to be less hungry. Humphrey usually pesters me really badly about his food but since I removed the dry and given them tinned, he seems less bothered.

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

would you let em have 2 wet meals a day im thinking of teeth

Yes - wet food isn't a problem for teeth (dry is potentially worse).

[Desley (booktigger)]

Lynn, it might not be that bad for your other cats - does only one have an existing health condition? My two are 13 and 14, and I pay just under £15 a month insurance, although that prob will go up at renewal time, as I managed to get a 10% discount on both of them!! Sainsbury's offer 5% for online booking, and 5% for second pets - excess is less than PetPlan too.
As for food - I am with Susanne, that a better quality dry is better than better quality wet, mine all have 2 wet meals a day, with restricted dry (except for fosters, who have it down all the time - if my two have dry down all the time, Lucy might eat it) - if you do a search for dry food and teeth on here, you will find some links that show dry food isn't always good for their teeth.

[COSMIC CREEPERS]

yet at the moment moomin and mango have petplan and it is £65 excess , i might look into m and s too but as mango has already been claiming for breathing probs i think they would not pay out if she has already had a prob

might keep mango on pet plan and do the other 2 on m and s then ill have to look into it
thankyou all x much appreciated

moomin and mango have 1 pouch a day and a bowl of dry food between em but they are after 2 wet food meals a day would you let em have 2 wet meals a day im thinking of teeth

[lilycat]

Do get Insurance. It might seem like you're economising if you leave it for a while but none of us know when our pusscats may get ill and you know what vets bills can be like 

Also, if you get your new addition insured at a later date, he/she may already have shown signs of an ongoing illness and no insurer will cover that particular problem.

I don't want to sound like a doom merchant but it's a fact of life that as our lovelies get older they are more likely to develop illnesses and at least if you have cover in place for them, it takes away that feeling of "What will I do if they get ill?" It'll give you some peace of mind   

[CurlyCatz]

sasha re the insurance, i know lots of policys mount up but i'd keep them all going and take out for the new one.

i used to have my 2 dogs and 2 cats insured until we were in extreme financial hardship and hubby kept going beserk as it costs roughtly £450 per year i think so i cancelled it..ive regretted it ever since and to now start them all again will be astranomical due to ages etc.

cody is insured and any future furries will be too, we will have to deal with financial burden if and when we cross that bridge for the others but i know in my heart of hearts since i do not earn the income that money would play a part in treatment if we were looking at huge bills, whereas its so much better knowing it doesnt matter as the insurance will pay out.

I am also seriously thinking of swapping to m&s no excess policy which is working out cheaper than than the petpan i currently pay with a 60 quid excess !!!

[Christine (Blip)]

Blip has two pouches of wet food each day and I leave a little bit of dried food down, but she rarely eats more than one or two kibbles.  So, even though I throw away the dried food every day and put out fresh, a bag lasts a very long time.  As for the wet food, I clean out the bowl immediately Blip finishes her helping so that is that until the next meal time.

I'd definately get insurance, Cosmic.  You only have to read some of the tales on this forum to see how expensive some treatments are.

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

I feed wet only to Jaffa - he has 3 pouches a day - and a mixture of wet and dry to Mosi - has has 11/2 pouches a day plus some JWB.  I'm increasing his wet and eventually he will be on all wet like Jaffa.

I actually think it's more important to get good quality dry than wet, so I'd leave down good quality dry and cheaper wet rather than the other way round.

When I got Mosi I had to schedule feed him as I couldn't leave his kitten food down otherwise Jaffa would scoff the lot.  He was fine as to begin with I was at home a lot so would put some food down for him then take it away when he was done but could give him it again when he asked (I put aside a small amt of Jaffa's to give him then so that he wasn't left out).  Then when I went back to work I'd feed him in the morning and do the same thing up until I left for work.  Then he'd have nothing while I was gone but I would do the same thing in the evening.  He was nearly 18 weeks by the time I was back at work properly though due to taking time off for him and then easter.

re insurance - it depends on how much and how quickly you can put money by, really.  Could you affford a vet trip costing £1500?  I would go for insurance tbh - yes there's the chance (hope) that you wont' need it, but you generally need it eventually.  Your raggie should come with 6 weeks insurance which will cover any immediate problems but I would definitely take out a policy when that ends.

[COSMIC CREEPERS]

FOOD

i used to feed my 2 cats on just RC dry food and i was advised to feed wet as well

anyway i leave the dry food down all day and feed wet at tea time , but they want wet in the morn too but it costs a fortune for RC and wet food too and surley they dont need 2 lots of expensive food

does some people only feed wet ? ( i will keep leaving dry there though )

if i feed wet twice a day is it ok to get a cheeper dry to leave down to snack at , they are slim cats and not at risk at puting on too much weight

also when i get my kitten i will have to leave a good kitten food down so will probably get RC kitten from zooplus  and then they will probably snack at that , is that ok cause i wont really beable to stop them


( MANGOS WEIGHT IS NORMALL SINCE SHE HAS BEEN SPAYED  FOR THOSE WHO NEW SHE WAS UNDERWEIGHT)

INSURANCE
we have insurance for moomin and mango we have never had to claim for moomin but we have a lot on mangos , anyway we are getting our new kitten soon , we will keep insurance for mango but do you think it is ok to have a contingency fund for the new kitten and moomin instead of paying for three policys, i ask cause i know a lot of you have a few cats and wonder what you all do