Cat Food Quality

[Desley (booktigger)]

For those that feed HiLife tins, they are normally on a 4 for £1 offer at Asda, I tend to find they dont eat nearly as much as the recommendations. I wish I could get cats to eat tins over that timespan, although I dont refrigerate mine (never have), might try it, and it might work - I can only feed tins when I have enough cats to get through it in a day, Rolo gets fed up by the second serving.

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

I think you're right, Mark, about the sugar being related to it being a complete food.  But I've never understood the link!  Not all complete foods have sugar in them but many do - I think hi life complete do but their complementary don't, which implies it is related to the addition of vits/minerals.  One of my favourite foods at the moment is Animonda Carny which has a high meat content (just basically contains meat plus added minerals).  Both of my boys love it and it is very cheap for a high meat food.  It's currently on offer on zooplus and works out at 16p per 100g.  If that wasn't good enough, the fact that it's higher in fat and therefore calories than many foods means that you can feed a bit less (I get 4.5 - 5 servings out of a tin).

http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/canned_cat_food_pouches/animonda

[tigerbaby]

Well, it is the first time I've bought tins, and so far I've served 2-3 portions since yesterday and there is a little over 1/4 left. Since the tin is 400g I assumed it would be ok for 3-4 servings (more realistically 3 servings)
I have an air-tight lid I got from PAH and my vet said as long as the food is well-covered it is fine to feed over a period of 3 days. I was advised to take a portion out a little while prior to serving so it's not ice-cold, and as usual I mix it with water that has been heated in micro for 20 seconds.
Infact I was told I could even take a portion out and microwave it for 10 seconds before serving as cats tend to like room temperature food.
The smell and colour was exactly the same today.
The 2nd serving out of the tin proved popular, he wolfed it all down.

[clarenmax]

When I used to feed tins, it was 3 servings, i.e a day and a half, but I always kept in the fridge.  Max would never eat it cold though, it always had to warm up to room temparature.

He seems to like pouchers or the single serving tins more, which I guess is to do with the freshness?

[Millys Mum]

My lot wont eat a tin thats been open for 4 hours let alone 72. As it oxidises in that short amount of time the colour changes, and the smell  When its kept in the fridge you dont notice   
I think the tins say use within 24  i would have issues feeding cold food, Milly would warm it up a bit and then reunite the world with it 

[tigerbaby]

I'll open a 400g tin which will last approx 3 days

He will eat 3 day old food? 

Umm.. yes. I thought it was perfectly normal for a tin to last that long?

[Millys Mum]

I used to think the "various sugars" part was bad but apparently, they are part of what is needed to make the food complete. The worrying part is "EC colourings" 

When Taffy got ill i read some interesting things about the link between caramel put into cat food and the ever rising number of diabetic cats. Caramel sweetens ( i think this is secret ingredient that makes pouches more appealing than tins) and also colours the food. Not that cats care what shade of skanky brown they are eating.
Im sure i have complete foods that dont have sugar in the ingredients

I'll open a 400g tin which will last approx 3 days

He will eat 3 day old food? 

Tiga, Yarrah tins, especially the beef and chicken flavour, have a lot of gravy. Hills pouches remind me of the yukky i/d prescription pouches  odd texture

[tigerbaby]

After realising some cat food have higher meat content, I decided to start giving Jameson Hi Life pouches. He really likes them, but often leaves large amounts in his food bowl (think it's quite rich for him although he hasn't had any tummy upsets) and goes more crazy over his old Lidl Opticat 4% meat content pouches in gravy, and recently I discovered he goes mad over the Whiskas tins too. (also 4% meat)

I also noticed that by buying Hi Life the spendings start to mount up, and although my cat totally deserves the best, I feel I would be wasting more Hi Life pouches (and money) in the long run. (1 pouch Hi Life 85g = 24p, while 1 tin Whiskas 400g - ie around 4 servings- would work out at 49p per tin, or 12p per serving. That is half the price).

SO... I've decided to still give him Hi Life but not everyday. I'll open a 400g tin which will last approx 3 days, or give him a 100g pouch of Opticat and then give Hi Life as a treat, about once or twice a week. Also because I want to start feeding him a good quality dry food (like JWB) I have to try to keep the costs down.

So far, so good. He is not a fussy eater at all. The only food he has turned his nose at were the Hi Life tuna pouches.

[tiga]

I am still experimenting to find something that both my new boys will like. THey have Hill Science dry and Riley  likes the Hills pouches, but Digby just licks the gravy and leaves the rest. They like Sheba trays, but Digby only likes the gravy really. I have to stand over them so Riley doesn't finish Digby's leftovers as I'm worried he will get fat and have to join fat club like me!

I am going to try mashing up some of the meat for Digby to see if he will eat a chunky soup substance. Can anyone suggest a food that comes with a thick gravy?

[wharfevalley catsprotection]

I feed Katie on Hi Life petit pate sometimes (if it's not a hi-life pouch) and there's no way she could eat 2 to 3 tins a day! She barely gets through one and then has PAH dried (which I bought on someone's recommendation here and Katie really likes it!) She's not a slim cat either, so I wouldn't worry too much about that!

[Tiggy's Mum]

Dry food wise I think the best value/quality is probably PAH own brand - especially if you stock up at bank holidays when it is often BOGOF. Over Easter, you could get 2 x 4kg bags for £14.00 (40 days worth @ 50grams a day)

Hmmn, think you need a new calculator Mark    Two 4kg bags would last 160 days at 50g per day.  I have PAH dry bursting out of every cupboard after the Easter offer 

[Harna]

I'm finding the replies to this question really interesting as I have been wondering the same over the last three weeks since having my two new boys.

Prior to them arriving with me, Anoosh would eat ANYTHING that was put in front of her (and sometimes stuff that wasn't  ) due to her 'history'. Originally, she had come to us with serious tummy problems due to scavenging for food and we were advised to put her on to Oscar's dry food by our vet. It worked for her, and she loved it. However, after a while, I thought about introducing some wet food for her and as our other cat at the time liked Felix, that what Annosh had. But they both only liked the fish varieties and hated the stuff in gravy.

But these boys! Picky eaters or what!?! 

They're not keen on Felix. (shame, as I stocked up when there was an offer on!) They didn't mind the couple of Whiskas pouches that I tried them on (Oh So Fishy, or something - very palid looking stringy fish in jelly.) They were okay with the Sheba trays but didn't seem overly taken with them.

Then I found the High Life 'petit pate' stuff which is in TINY little tins - 85g and very expensive by comparison. But the tuna & chicken variety contains min 55% tuna and 5% chicken and they seem to really like it. Should I be concerned that it contains colourant and preservative? It seems like most stuff I've looked at tends to . . . .  Anyway, what I *have* noticed is that the can says that an average adult cat should eat 2-3 cans of this stuff per day but my three have one can served between the three of them, mixed in with a sprinkle of biscuits as a meal - and then still leave some. They just don't seem to eat much at all - and Alfie & Wilf weigh 6kg each so I thought they would eat for England. . . .

I was in a town yesterday where there is a Wilkinsons, which is a bit of a novelty for me as there isn't one where I live. In their cat food aisle they had a four-pack of 'HiLife Cherish Gold' , each tin being 156g (tin-of-tuna size).  It was 98p for 4 and the meat content was over 40% so I bought a couple of packs. I don't know what I was expecting but I opened a can for them last night and it was literally whole big chunks of sardines in a thick jelly.    Wilf and Anoosh went mad for it whilst Alfie looked at me with disdain so I ended up opening a tin of something else for him . . . . . . .

We don't have a Pets At Home anywhere near me and so some of the food you are talking about is unknown to me - maybe I need to go to an independent pet shop or something - but then the cost does start to mount up! I'm not saying the three Floofs are not worth it, but it's always nice to be getting a bargain, eh?!

[Mark]

I buy Asda tiger senior pouches for Clapton but they only come in chicken flavour. I don't go to Asda often but I buy 2 or 3 boxes just so he has some variation as there aren't that many senior foods - although over the last 6 months, a lot more have appeared on the market, including "Oh So" senior - but Clapton & Alice turned their noses up at that. Dry food wise I think the best value/quality is probably PAH own brand - especially if you stock up at bank holidays when it is often BOGOF. Over Easter, you could get 2 x 4kg bags for £14.00 (40 days worth @ 50grams a day)

[Desley (booktigger)]

I dont personally buy supermarkt own brands anymore, I did used to buy Asda own as Snowy would wolf a tin of that, yet look at me in disgust if I gave her Whiskas!!! But they didn't mind Whiskas Senior, which I could never work out. If money is tight, you might want to try Aldi's tins - they actually have a higher meat content than Whiskas (the highest is their supermeat at 20%), one of their meaty in gravy's ingredients are: Meat and Animal Derivatives (Fresh Meat Minimum 6%, Duck Minimum 4%, Turkey 4% minimum), Cereals, Minerals, Varios Sugars. It is about 34p a tin, but the pouches dont contain as much meat.

[barney]

I feed mine with either sheba prime cuts, mainly because it actualy looks like what it says it is. And natures menu, they also get either fresh chicken or fish once a week. I avoid anything that says it has animal protein or derivatives in the ingredients.

[Mark]

I know some E numbers can be nasties like tartrazine and others can be totally natural and harmless. As for cheap biscuits. I would avoid go-cat, whiskas, supermarket cheap stuff as it is mostly wheat cereal which is a big no no. Othe dry food like Asda own Tiger select has really good ingredients. It really is a case of "you are what you eat" - I think a lot of illnesses like diabetes are casued by poor nutrition. Using a good quality dry food like PAH own brand which is often on offer can cost 20p a day so surely any cat is worth that much?

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

NM can be too rich for some cats.  Mine are both fine with it, fortunately, and with other high meat brands. 

[gibraltarcat]

I'm disappointed that when I changed to Natures Menu, because it had a much higher meat content, it caused awful tummy upsets. I did introduce it very very slowly. I've had to go back to using Whiskas Oh So Meaty which is 14% meat as opposed to ordinary Whiskas at 4%. It so hard sometimes trying to do what's best when it comes to feeding.

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

I don't really care what brand it is, I'm only interested in what's listed in the ingredients.  Price is no indicator of quality, imo.  Some of the so called gourmet foods sold in supermarkets still only have 4% meat.  Personally, what I look for in a cat food is a high meat content, a low grain content (preferably none) and no artificial colourings or preservatives.  I dont' buy any of the supermarket brands much - own brand or stuff like whiskas - but if you're going for a supermarket food an own brand may well be as good as a well known brand.  It is confusing in that the labelling laws seem a bit basic so you don't always know exactly what's in the food.  I wish the ingredients would list everything in the food, but it doesn't. 

[Katherine]

well an e number is just like a code number for any added ingredients in food. So it could be an organic colouring made from natural organic ingredients or it could be some thing to stop them going off or something to preserve the texture.

[tigerbaby]

E numbers are just European codes for ingredients, some are harmless some arent.

Yeah it's confusing as the other day I had some ''organic bisquits'' and saw it had E numbers in the ingredients list!!! I asked my friend How the  can an E number be organic????  (and the reply was something in line with the way it preserves the food...still don't get it!)

[Katherine]

hehe yes it is confusing as the ingredients seem to be quite vague unlike human food. I can't really fathom out what is in it. I tend to buy the "own brand" ones at the moment as I am on a tight budget but I do worry that I am feeding crunchie rubbish. However it could just be the same as the brand food without the fancy name. Confusing!
E numbers are just European codes for ingredients, some are harmless some arent.

[Mark]

I used to think the "various sugars" part was bad but apparently, they are part of what is needed to make the food complete. The worrying part is "EC colourings" 

[tigerbaby]

I have thought about this myself. Sometimes I actually prefer the stores own brand to bigger brands when buying groceries etc. (not talking the Economy or Value range but the ''Own'' range if that makes sense). Stuff like toothpaste, tissues, kitchen rolls, washing tablets... aswell as soy milk, cereal etc. I always always read the ingredients as I try to avoid buying things with lots of stuff in it. The way I see it, the shorter the ingredients list, the better the product, in most cases anyway.

I noticed a few cat foods (both ''own'', felix and kitekat) had E numbers and 'various sugars' in them. (wet food). I always avoid E numbers and not sure what 'various sugars' means, but I stayed clear of it. I don't actually know if those E numbers are 'bad' ones, cos I know some E numbers are good (only a few ones like certain acids to keep food fresh).

Apart from that I'm totally clueless, and it actually feels like the more I read up on good quality catfood, the less I understand (and the less money I have left in my purse!)

Edited: because I didn't actually answer the question. I think that as long as it has the basic nutritional values (the standard seems to be 4% meat content etc) I personally don't think there is much difference in between say supermarkets own brands and more popular names. Today I chose Whiskas over Felix and Asda Tiger tins as there were E numbers added (for colouring) in the Felix ones, and various sugars in Asdas. As I said I have no idea if this is good or bad, but Whiskas didn't have either added so I chose them.

[Katherine]

I was wondering what people think of buying cheap supermarket own type cat foods as opposed to brands like whiskers, felix etc.
They seem to have the same "meat content" but they obviously look lower quality (to me anyway)
Do you think it has an effect on a cats health to feed them these foods?