I need your feedback please

[Feline Costumier]

I get my Feline Fayre from Asda or B&M. B&M tend to have a smaller range but can be cheaper, Asda has a wider range and often has specials. With Feline Fayre, the blue packaged foods are not complete and therefore a bit cheaper, the black packaging is complete and this is reflected in the slightly higher price.

[Cooper & Peanut]

We went to Morrisons today and I got some Feline Fayre pouches and some Hi Life pouches, which were all 60% meat/fish. They were about 44p per pouch. They didn't have tinned versions or boxes of pouches.

Where are you getting them from for less than that????

I've just given them some of the Hi Life and it seemed to go down fairly well.....

I shall have to see what happens 

[Fire Fox]

What's so bad about Whiskas and Felix? Or Go-Cat? Our cats love them! It's not just price and convenience, I do think that some of these expensive "special diet" foods are a bit of a rip off.

I've offered ours fresh fish but they weren't interested. They even turned up their noses at mackeral in tomato sauce and tinned tuna - I've never known a cat refuse them before.

I'm probably going to echo what a lot of the others have said. For me price absolutely is a consideration, I aim to feed Noah (large male) well on 50p per day. Noah's frozen chicken portions, raw kidney and liver are all £1.40 per kilo which is cheaper that most commercial foods. He has 200g raw per day, costing approximately 30p. Bozita pate (90% meat) was about 90p per carton when I last bought in bulk, he has 2/3 of a carton a day so 60p. Feline Fayre large tins (70% meat) were 30p and he'd usually have 1/3 of a tin alongside another complete food so 10p for one large meal.

As well as absolute price I want value for money - I refuse to pay brand prices for a dried product that is only 4% meat. Go Cat is no better quality than the supermarket Value/ Basics range in that respect. I totally agree with you that some of the expensive brands are a rip off, especially wet foods that are not even complete. Having said all that I don't think Whiskas wet and Felix wet are bad per se, as they are low in cereals and high in derivatives, which at least sourced from an animal. I just don't think they represent good value for money.

Switching Noah from Felix wet plus James Wellbeloved dry meant he stopped doing three  poops a day reducing to one to two. Less poop means I spend less on cat litter, but it also means less wasted £££ on cat food that literally gets flushed down the toilet! 

[Cooper & Peanut]

You've all given me soooooo much to think about. I shall be spending the next few weeks trawling the supermarkets, pet shops and online shops for a suitable food for my pair of tinkers! 

Thank you all very much 

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

Worth bearing in mind that not all "posh" or high meat foods are expensive.  Case in point - hi life essentials which sell for about 35p each in most supermarkets but Asda sell them 4 for £1 which makes them very comparable to cheap pouches but with better meat content.  Tesco do a foil tray (forget the name) that is 22p and has a good  meat content.  I bought a box of feline fayre fishy pouches for £1.09 recently at one of the cheap discount shops.

I consider Jaffa's whiskas and felix to be his junk food allowance    He always had felix when he was younger and he likes it and will eat the senior version.  It won't kill him and he eats the other stuff too so that's why he has it.  I believe variety is the spice of life and you have the best chance of getting a good balance of nutrients if you feed various foods.  Of course, if all your cat will eat is Go cat and whiskas there's not a lot you can do!  I am lucky in that I have a pair of gannets that eat just about everything that is put in front of them.  Sometimes they go off something but if I leave it for a few weeks they usually decide they like it again.  I think quality is most important where dry food is concerned as it is, by it's nature, an unnatural food for a cat and some have are virtually pure cereal.  For dry I buy Orijen, Applaws or Encore.  Occasionally hi life and there have been times when I've been skint and picked up a packet of pro one in the supermarket.

[Claire_smc]

For me, meat content is one of the big factors, cats are obligate carnivores and would never eat cereals in nature. I think the best analogy I've ever heard is that food like GoCat is just like meat flavoured cornflakes. Plus there are associated health problems with feeding a bad-quality purely dry diet. Cats do like the taste and will eat it happily but it's so full of sugar and flavourings that it's almost like us eating processed junk food - it's bad for us but we like the taste. Like I said, I think plain old Whiskas is a rip-off because when you watch the adverts, they make it seem as though it's mostly real fish or meat when in reality it's something like 4% meat, which is the same as you get in supermarket own brand food. The ingredients are the same, but you're paying a lot more for the brand name and the tv advertisements etc. A high meat, quality food doesn't have to cost more, I buy four tins of Feline Fayre tuna (70% meat) for 99p, pouches of FF fish for 19p each, Hi-Life Essentials is on offer in Wilkinsons at 4 pouches for £1 (60% meat I think), Bozita works out at about the same price per 100 grams as Whiskas pouches do, and the cats both love it.

Raw feeding is the best diet a cat could have but not all will entertain it, I know that Pepsi looked at me like I was a crazy woman the first time I put a raw chicken wing down in front of her, but now she loves them and purrs away as she crunches them up. I can buy a carrier bag full of 'pet mince' at the local butchers for 60p, it's pure meat and mega cheap and a lot better for a cat than processed foods can be.

[Mark]

What's so bad about Whiskas and Felix? Or Go-Cat?

I don't think Whiskas & Felix are too bad (especially Whiskas supermeat as it has no sugars or cereal) but go-cat is probably the poorest quality food there is - it is so high in cereals - and therefore carbs, which cats aren't designed to eat. Whiskas dry and supermarket own cheapo is the same. When I got Kylie, I had no clue. At the time, go-cat used to supply CP with food. I was given a box and asked to please not buy it and the only reason they were fed in in care is because it was free.

[snarf]

for me, i dont feed whiskers/felix because of the high sugar content, my vet always comments on how good the kits teeth are and i dont do anything special. i read (wish i could find it again to post) that cats become bacically addicted to the sugar and then wont eat other, more natural food, as it then tastes bland. my own opinion is that supermarket own are better quality (marginally) so why pay more for a brand name? i do think the recent fad for cat food that claims to be better as its got added carrots or suchlike is a rip off.
i fed supermarket own brands untill a few months ago as i had assumed ordering from the internet would mean i had to order a few months in a go and cashflow wouldnt have allowed it. but actually its not  been the case so far for me.
dry, once mine tried applaws no cereal theyve refused everything but that and the PAH purely. i wont complain about that, its not expensive (and better if brought on offer) and within my understanding seems to be good quality. i dont understand the indoor/neutered cat/long haired/big boned specialist drys you can get now.

it all comes down to personal opinion though, its so much harder to find decent understandable relevant information on the ingredients, sources, link between specific ingredients and health. there are anecdotal links between high protein/low cereal and more stable tums/less fragrant bottoms  .
 im going with the closer to natural the better within what i can reasonably afford but if they wont eat it you have to feed them what theyll eat and plenty of cats have lived long fulfilled lifes on diets of go cat/whiskers/felix.

[jezebel]

What's so bad about Whiskas and Felix? Or Go-Cat? Our cats love them! It's not just price and convenience, I do think that some of these expensive "special diet" foods are a bit of a rip off.

I've offered ours fresh fish but they weren't interested. They even turned up their noses at mackeral in tomato sauce and tinned tuna - I've never known a cat refuse them before.

[Claire_smc]

To be honest, Whiskas and Felix etc are  but feeding them doesn't make you a bad meowmy. There are many reasons why people feed it, money reasons, convenience of being able to get it in the supermarket or simply that it's all that their furbabies like. I think the main bad thing about Whiskas is that it's just as crap as the cheap food, but they try to trick you into thinking it's better and charge you a lot more for it. I don't think there's really any right or wrong answers and you just have to feed the best that you can afford, at least you're trying to do a bit of research and looking at options instead of just feeding Go Cat all the time 

[Cooper & Peanut]

I must admit, I'm quite surprised by how many of you give your babes stuff like Whiskas/Felix........I thought I was gonna get nothing but posh expensive food lists!! 

Mine are on Whiskas Simply (both fish and meat) and they seem to really like it but I do feel guilty cuz I have been lead to believe that its 

We do offer them cooked chicken and fish, especially when we eat it.....so hopefully I'm not being a bad parent! 

[Mark]

Mine usually get a decent quality dry, such as Hill's (I would prefer Arden Grange or similar but they aren't interested) and regular wet. Until recently, it was mainly Felix, but they seem to have gone off it. Clapton was the main one that had it. I am just running down stocks now - Alice & Kylie just have a tin of beef in gravy gourmet gold between them most days. Also fresh fish. Kylie has coley, but Alice loves Salmon. I have realised the tinned upsets her tum, so am trying out steaks. There is a salmon steak in the oven as I type - a firl with expensive tastes 

[Fire Fox]

I only feed high meat/ cereal free foods - I believe that is healthiest and it certainly makes for smaller quantities of unscented poop!    As I came to Purrs forum from Money Saving Expert I looked at the meat content and price per kilo of a number of commercial foods; arguably home made raw is cheapest for the quality. I decided not to buy from Mars, Nestle, Proctor & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive which rules out most familiar brands of pet food, and I try not to get pouches as they cannot be recycled. Of course I am lucky that Noah is greedy so will eat most animal products, tho he certainly has his favourites: raw, prawns (treat) and Bozita all elicit purrs.

Noah has whichever commercial food is on offer
Bozita pate (K9 Capers, 10% off first order)
Pets at Home Purely 156g tins (when five for £2)
Feline Fayre 400g tins (B&M or Home Bargains)
Orijen kibble (Pet Planet) and Fish4cats kibble (VetUK), both purchased to make up an order of cat litter to get free postage!

And on raw days, most £1.40 per kilo 
Raw chicken portions (Tesco Value frozen)
Pork liver, pork kidney, ox heart (Morrisons)
Free range egg (only when short dated or cheap!)
There is little preparation in raw feeding part time, but obviously you really need a freezer - Noah has his own drawer. 

[Zenith (Liz)]

I'll have to add Soreen malt loaf as something Luna eats  There went my lunch

[Michelle (furbabystar)]

Dry - mine love Purina One, avalible at supermarkets 3kg bag roughtly £15

Wet - sorry (I'll get moaned at) but my lot have Whiskas pouches or something simular

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

Quite a wide selection for my boys - they like their variety!

Currently in the cupboards we have:
Animonda Carny (zooplus)
Schmusy (zooplus)
Bozita (zooplus)
Almo Nature (zooplus)
Encore (Sainsburys)
Feline Fayre
Hi Life Essentials (Asda 4 for £1)
Hi Life pouches
Hi Life senior pouches
Pets at Home Purely (Adult & Senior)
Felix jelly and AGAIL senior
Whiskas Oh so fishy senior
Miamor (zooplus)

I have loads of pouches and small tins in the little cupboard but I can't remember what they are - various from zooplus


Mosi's dry is Sainsbury's Encore at the moment.

[Leanne]

My boys have Felix as good as it looks meat and fish pouches (Jess won't eat anything but Felix)

Dry food, they have Royal Canin sterilised  biscuits.

[Feline Costumier]

At the moment they are on Feline Fayre wet, all varieties and Royal Canin dry as I got it on special from PAH a couple of months ago.

I usually feed the PAH premium dry others have mentioned as it's great value for the quality and even better when it's on BOGOF!

Other wet foods: Bozita cartons but the newest arrival doesn't like it so will try the tins net time I order, I usually get from Zooplus but the packaging is dreadful. Also fed Animonda Carny in the past, also from Zooplus. Nature's Menu, Hi Life. Whiskas goes down like a lead balloon and gives Little Miss a dicky tummy, it's months and months since I fed any Felix, occasionally they get the Sheba foil trays as Little Miss loves them.

My budget is extremely tight but I make sacrifices so they can get good quality food. I fed them Go-Cat in an emergency for about a week a couple of months ago and was wracked with guilt every time I put it out, spoiled much!?

[jezebel]

I would really like to know what you wonderful peeps feed your furbabies!

Whatever's on offer at Tesco this week!

Usually they have Felix or Whiskers pouches twice a day, and there's always a bowl of Go Cat biscuits available.

Whilst we're on the subject of food, is there much difference between normal adult food and "senior"?

[Zenith (Liz)]

Novelty answer for Luna is that she likes tomato ketchup and bread, and pasta sauce ..and anything human I cant hide from her 

Dry foods are Hills Kitten dry food which i'm going to  slowly start cutting down on now she's 10 months old.  Hills adult food is what i'm mixing in with the kitten, I got a very good offer of £10 off a bag when i got my cats vaccinated.  As i'm currently having to be better with money i've bought a small 2kg bag of the Pets at home food and when the Hills is all finished i'll try them on that as the ingredients seem to be very good.  Have seen Helen recommend it too

Mia and Nova went off Bozita a while back, and so for now their wet food treats are Sheba sachets and Whiskas oh so fishy, with the occasional Hi-life tin

Luna has to be fed her wet food shut away from Mia and Nova as she'll wolf hers down then push them away from their own bowls growling at them for venturing near!  She's so big now!  And such a bully 

[Kay and Penny]

my Trigger thinks the premium dry food called A Taste of the Wild is better than Dreamies

it's made in the US and stocked by Zooplus

[Cooper & Peanut]

Thanks Helen, that's great!! I shall check out the link 

[Tiggy's Mum]

I feed Bozita wet food (breakfast & dinner) with Pets at Home premium dry food down 24/7 to munch on.

I did think the boys had gone off Bozita but turns out they both had some kind of virus that meant they were just off their food in general. On the subject of Bozita, it's high meat content (around 90%) and is really good value. The cartons are around £1 each and are 370g so closest equivalent is 4 pouches, so basically a quarter of a carton is equivalent to one pouch. The boys eat the ones in jelly and are keen on all flavours, the pate ones aren't too popular here though. I used to get mine from Zooplus but their bulk-pack flavours were a bit restrictive and also their packaging isn't great.

I always order around 3 months worth at a time as a) it works out cheaper in bulk and b) I don't have to wait in for deliveries. The last time I ordered from R L pet products and was really impressed, their standard price is £1 a carton but if you order in bulk over the phone it was 89p or something like that with free delivery= so quite a good discount. It came really quickly and was well packed too.  http://www.rlpetproducts.co.uk/store/cats/food

The PAH dry is the one in the silver packaging and has a decent meat content, it's very similar in ingredients to James Wellbeloved but is much cheaper and the bonus is that it is often on BOGOF or other offers so I always stock up when it's on offer.

[Cooper & Peanut]

This is great stuff guys - keep 'em coming......

[snarf]

Wet -Bozita Cartons (zooplus) after reccomendations from purrs
Dry- Pets at home Purely 70% chicken/applaws no cereal
try to feed some fresh/raw food every week

[Claire_smc]

I think you can only get it online, Zooplus is the best/cheapest supplier of it. It's good quality, high meat, and not that expensive either.

[Cooper & Peanut]

I've never heard of Bozita - where is that from? 

[Gillian Harvey]

Raw - either ready prepared minces or my own recipe.

Butchers Classic (meat varieties - they don't like the fishy ones much)

Co-op own brand Gourmet foil trays.

Any of the Sheba varieties that don't contain cereals, think its Chicken and Turkey, Salmon, and Rabbit and something 

Whiskas supermeat occasionally.

Used to feed Bozita, but had a few dodgy cartons and they went off it anyway, planning to try the Bozita tins though as they are pretty good meat/no cereals etc.

Planning to try the Toplife Chicken dinners from Asda as well, but apparently they are made by the same manufaturer as the Bozita cartons, so not sure about those.

Dry is just a treat, so usually a handful of Hi Life dry at bedtime. 

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

After they all refused to eat Felix anymore they are all on Gourmet Gold or Gormet Solitaire........the pain LOL

They also have purina one fish flavour or Purina Pro fish flavour but hope you dont mind if I also ask for some food info.

I need a fish flavoured biscuit with small kibble for a very sensitive tummy,,,,,,,,,,,one that disolves quickly once swallowed.

[Claire_smc]

My two get a mixture depending on what's on offer, which shop I'm in etc. They normally get Feline Fayre tuna tins, FF pouches (Home Bargains or B&M), Hi-Life Essentials pouches (Wilkinsons), Sainsbury's own brand tins. They'll always have a bowl of cheap kibble down too but that's due to the fact I'm really skint, ideally I'd feed a high-meat dry food. I know that this isn't the best food for them so I wouldn't reccommend it, when we've got a bit more cash I'll feed Bozita all the way as I'm not a big fan of giving cats dry food unless it's exceptionally high in meat. I also feed a raw chicken wing or some fresh fish as a treat every once in a while

[puggy1975 Zoe]

I feed Ollie and Tyler Hills Dry Indoor food and alsoButchers Classic tin food to give a mix. Butchers is oange tins or pouches from PAH. Also they get Natures Menu but being using the butchers classic recently as it helps Tylers gums

Zoe x

[Cooper & Peanut]

I am currently feeding Cooper & Peanut on various Whiskas pouches, Felix and have even tried them on Hi Life.

I would really like to know what you wonderful peeps feed your furbabies!

Please leave the brand name and where you get it from (if it's not a common brand). I would really appreciate the feedback so I can make a better judgement regarding what is best for my two babies! 

Thanks very much guys and gals!