Purrs In Our Hearts - Cat Forum UK
Cat Health & Behaviour => Health & Behaviour General => Topic started by: becky555 on April 18, 2010, 17:02:58 PM
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I have a female cat who is two years old. She is very small and weighs 6lb. She eats little bits through out the day. I have just read the tins and compared to other cat foods and I am shocked in the nutrition difference :Crazy:! I feed her felix wet tins which only has 8% protein. I would like to feed her a food with higher protein and fat. Can anyone recommend a good food that is not too expensive? The higher protein food only seems to be in dry food. I am hoping she might gain a little bit more weight by having better nutrition. Thank you in advance
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It's a good question Becky. I'm fairly certain if we trawled through the posts we'd find a similar one somewhere but it doesn't hurt to start a new one. ;)
I personally think Classic is a pretty good meat for cats. I think it's one of the ones with better nutritional value at the cheaper end of the scale.
Welcome to Purrs, by the way! :)
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Is there a reason you don't want to use dry food then ?
Hills and Royal Canine are very good and as you only have one cat it wouldnt work out too expensive
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I feed Bozita tinned food ( from Zooplus ) very good quality and high protein content. Because it is so protein dense, a little goes a long way so it works out as good value.
The draw back is that is only available online and to avoid delivery charges you need to spend over £29 on Zooplus. I have ordered smaller amount just to try it out on my cats.
You could also try Sainsbury own premium brand Encore dry which is high protein and very reasonable.
Lastly you could try supplementing her with some raw such as the odd chicken wing.
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Have you ever tried her on some raw meat? For a cat a raw mix is solid nutrition - plenty of fat and protein - a mix would contain a balance of muscle meat, bone, offal and skin for fat. Chicken wings, necks or carcasses are great for teeth, if your cat takes to these offcuts then you can move onto a thigh or drumstick which is more meaty. I have some poultry shears that I use to cut up the bones for Noah, then he eats the nutritious marrow. Noah is just greedy (tho he purrs for raw :Luv: ) but I have heard of fussy and underweight cats really getting their appetite for raw, so fingers crossed!
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Thanks all for your advice. I am a bit concerened about feeding her raw as i have two young children and she does play with them and lick them. I have given her a bit of raw beef before though. I can not find that classic cat food that was mentioned. I do feed her cooked chicken sometimes. I have two cats but have no problem with my male cat, he's a greedy butter :evillaugh:
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You can't miss Classic - the tins are bright orange with a cartoon cat on. I know Sainsbury's and Wilkinsons sell it and I'm sure other places as well. I know they sell single cans in Wilkinsons so it might be worth trying one or two first - mine lot won't touch it :evillaugh:
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oh i know, i shop in asda and they haven't had it for a while now. Do you know the protein content of a tin?
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8.5% But if it is all from meat, it should be good quality protein. Others might appear higher but a lot of the protein may be from soya which is pretty rubbish for cats.
The bit that concerns me is "EC permitted colourants" - would these same colourants be allowed in human food? :shify:
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I think it is Butchers classic
My lot wont touch it either!
Maybe you can offer her an extra meal when her greedy pal is not around and feed her up that way?
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Becky the reason wet food appears lower in protein is because the water content is so much higher than dry, you need to work the protein out on a dry matter basis to be able to compare them, i dont have the formula to show you but im sure someone else can add it for you ;D
http://www.purina.com/cats/food/ComparingCatFoods.aspx (http://www.purina.com/cats/food/ComparingCatFoods.aspx)
You can compare wet to wet and get a direct comparison so you will find something like gourmet gold pates higher in fat than felix in jelly.
Its also important that the quality is considered, as mark says a meat source of protein is much better than a plant source.
My lot are not keen on classic and that includes the pouches :tired:
Any food change you do should be done slowly so she doesnt get an upset tum. If she is a snacker do you give her fresh each time? If you swapped to pouches she may eat abit more each time, as its well known that tins are not as nice!
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Asda sells small tins of hi life essentials 4 for £1 (they are 33p each or something like that). They are a good quality food at a very reasonable price. Mosi loves the turkey and giblets one.
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The bit that concerns me is "EC permitted colourants" - would these same colourants be allowed in human food? :shify:
The permitted colourant in Classic is caramel according to Butchers.
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My female cat won't eat a lot of dry food, she eats more of the wet that's why i feed her the tinned food. What do you all feed your cats?
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I feed mostly pouches as they aren't too keen on tins. None of my cats will ever eat a 2nd meal from a tin opened earlier so it is a waste of money. If I had 3 or 4 young, healthy cats and I could split a tin each time I fed them, that would be great, but them all eat different things at different times.
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I feed mostly pouches as they aren't too keen on tins. None of my cats will ever eat a 2nd meal from a tin opened earlier so it is a waste of money. If I had 3 or 4 young, healthy cats and I could split a tin each time I fed them, that would be great, but them all eat different things at different times.
Wish it worked like that mark, i have 9 and no they wont eat tins of felix between them :evillaugh:
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I feed either Hi-life essentials that Susanne mentioned, but I get 4 pouches for £1 from Wilkinsons instead of 36p each, they're something like 50% chicken, or Feline Fayre pouches with I think are 60% fish, I get mine either 19p or 25p per pouch from Home Bargains or B&M, although you can get them in Asda and other places. There's also I think it's Hi-life tuna tins which are 60 or 70% tuna, 99p for 4 in the pound shop. Then as an occasional treat Pepsi will either get a raw chicken wing, some tuna in oil or pilchards in tomato, or a tin of Feline Fayre Simply chicken fillets in ham and jelly, which is 50% meat and you can see that it's actual shreds of chicken and pieces of ham, they're 99p for 3 little tins so quite expensive but nice for once in a while. :) So it costs pretty much the same as Felix or Whiskas does when it's not on offer
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Pouches would be so easy but at 60 pouches and nearly 3kgs of biscuits in 24 hours the Clan are back on their 10 tims!!!! :shocked:
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Claire, just be careful with Feline Fayre, the pouches aren't complete, so you can't feed purely those. The tins of tuna might not be complete either, it depends, all the ones I have found in pound shops aren't, although HiLife do make a complete tuna tin, in their essentials range. The little tins of Feline Fayre are complete though.
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Claire I also feed them the feline fayre pouches as a treat twice a week and they've had those tins. I also buy them little tins of applaws with the shredded chicken also the tiger prawns one. Do you think cat milk will fatten her up? she likes a little bit in the day. She is just fussy :innocent:! Also is it normal to see a cats third eye lid when waking up and going to sleep? It isnt visible any other time.
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Claire, just be careful with Feline Fayre, the pouches aren't complete, so you can't feed purely those. The tins of tuna might not be complete either, it depends, all the ones I have found in pound shops aren't, although HiLife do make a complete tuna tin, in their essentials range. The little tins of Feline Fayre are complete though.
Aye, she only gets those once in a while, her diet is mainly the Hi-life pouches with other bits and bobs thrown in for some variety :) The FF tuna tins aren't complete but the Hi-Life ones are, they're the ones I got int he poundshop but I've only seen them in once I don't think they're one of the regular lines. I also try not to feed too much fish in a week because I remember someone telling me that it's not very good to feed a cat a diet that mainly consists of fish and it's better to feed mainly meat. I'd like to try Bozita too but I'm going to have to wait until I have some spare cash and place a really big order to stock up and get the free delivery.
In another question, I bought a bag of 'pet meat' from the butchers ages ago for 60p and stupidly put the whole thing in the freezer when I got home. Of course it's now frozen into a giant block but I'm guessing cats are the same as humans in that if I defrost it and split it into portions then I won't be able to refreeze it or it'll upset Pepsi's tummy?
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I'm lucky aren't I? Jaffa and Mosi eat whatever they're given and are happy to eat tins that have been opened (zapped for a few seconds in the microwave). Admittedly, Jaffa is getting a little fussier as he gets older, but the only thing he has refused to eat at all is natures menu, although he scoffed a pouch of the beef and chicken on sunday and licked his dish clean. But I've yet to try anything else that they haven't eaten. Mosi's a happy little lad who scoffs it all down although he does sometimes insist on being fed under the bed :shify:
Mosi generally has hi life essentials, hi life collection, natures menu, bozita, animonda carny, schmusy, feline fayre, PAH purely, tesco luxury and tesco just nature foil trays. plus whatever biccies I have in on top (usually orijen or encore). Jaffa mainly has bozita, animonda, schmusy, felix senior (jelly and AGAIL), tesco just nature, hi life senior and waitrose senior. I do buy other stuff when I see it and it all goes down the hatch.
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You are so lucky. Not only are mine fussy, they change their minds constantly. I bought a can of Denes senior to try yesterday. They all sniffed it as if it was something the dog did. The whole lot went outside on a dish for the hedgies and other cats. The bowl was clean this morning at least :evillaugh:
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In another question, I bought a bag of 'pet meat' from the butchers ages ago for 60p and stupidly put the whole thing in the freezer when I got home. Of course it's now frozen into a giant block but I'm guessing cats are the same as humans in that if I defrost it and split it into portions then I won't be able to refreeze it or it'll upset Pepsi's tummy?
Cats stomachs are far more acidic than ours and their digestive tract is much shorter, this makes it unlikely they will get an upset tummy from raw unless you are careless with hygiene. It's obviously your call but IMO you are fine as long as the meat stays really cold as bacteria grow VERY slowly at low temperatures, most species much prefer body temperature! I had some chicken hearts which were frozen in a block, I simply left them on a metal baking tray for a short while until they were just defrosted enough to split (basically still frozen) and then popped them back into the freezer loose on the baking tray on fast freeze.
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Hi
My cat mika as lost weight so off to the vets we went as she as herpes and calicivirus so i thought they were her reason for weight loss,anyway her tests were fine so the vet said try kitten food wet/dry so thats what im doing i got felix pouches and burns kitten biscuits,then i discovered sainsburys own brand which as much protein as felix and its cheaper and its taken a while but mika as started to gain some weight i also give her a malted kelp tablet a day half in a morn and half at night,that helps boost her appetite and gives her extra vitamins she looses when she as a flair up of her viruses,hope this helps. :hug:
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I was going to put her back on kitten food but lots of people advised me not to saying it wouldn't give her the nutrition she needs as an adult :scared:
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some pics of her
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Lizzy stell....I read that Lysine can help cats fight off viral attacks. Sorry I do not know much real detail but it might be worth you investigating.
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Hi thankyou for posting the lovely pictures she/he is georgeouse,it was my vet that told me to feed her kitten food as when a cat is pregnant or feeding kittens they give kitten food for more protein.
i will investigate the lyslene thankyou i will try anything to help her body shes only 2 years old. :thanks: :hug:
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I have just realised i already use it but i know it as ENISYL the vet gave me it i would reccomend it,its cheaper to buy it on vetuk its £15.80 at vets and £13.49 at vet uk mika's insured so i claim it back but for any one who isn't then get on line thankyou everyone for a wonderful forum your all so friendly and helpful. :thanks: :hug:
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It isn't ideal to feed adult cats kitten food long term because of the higher protein content.
She doesn't look too underweight Becky, some cats are just naturally small - I had a 15yo foster cat who weighed 2.5kg, which is probably the weight of a 6mo (well, I homed a 6mo that weight the same year, although she was tiny for her age too). As long as you can't obviously feel ribs and other bones and the vet is happy, then that is just her ideal weight.
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Why isn't it ideal to feed an adult cat kitten food?my vet was the one who told me to feed her on kitten food to help my cat gain some weight i have a 2 year old ragdoll who only weighes 2.7kg but for a ragdoll she should be heavyer if you have a under weight cat you will feed anything to help gain them some weight.
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I read an article a couple of years back that said that adult cats might struggle to process the higher protein levels, and that can put a strain on their kidneys/liver, so it might be OK in the short term, but not in the long term. At 2yo, your ragdoll wont have stopped growing yet, she still has another year to mature, so I wouldnt overly worry. I have had lots of underweight cats (in fact, 3 out of the 4 in my house at the moment need to gain weight), but prefer to use things such as cat milk, extra dry, chicken, tuna, treats, an extra meal, a/d etc than kitten food.
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thanks for all your reply's. She weighs 7lb so she has gained weight slowly. You can feel her spine quite prominantely though. Also her hip bones stick out. :-[ Here's one of my boy who weighs a hefty 12 lb
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http://feline-nutrition.org/
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Is she a nervy twitchy type?
It took me a long time to get Taz to 3kg and hes quite a big cat by frame, hes now nearing 4.5kg and still boney! He is now 4yrs old so its taken me a long along time to get this far :tired:
I cant feed him lots of extra food or high fat diets as it comes out the other end too quickly which defeats the object!
He is by nature a very twitchy highly strung chap who for the first 3 years of his life would pee blood at anything that upset, which was alot :( around his third birthday he started to mature and all of a sudden his urinary issues stopped and he started to calm a little, this i think has helped continue his slow weight gain.
Becky if you and your vet are happy shes healthy then dont panic it takes some cats longer to grow, like some teenages who stay really lanky then suddenly bloom (or is that the lager :evillaugh: )
If she likes wet then some of the high meat pouches (i mean the chicken and meat flavours not fishy) may help without being too rich, pah purely pouches, hilife or feline fayre, the ones i get are all complete ;D
your big boy is very handsome :Luv2:
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yes she is a nervous cat and jumps at every loud noise. When people come to visit she goes upstairs to her bed :-[
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Bless her, Taz spent months being like that, he once threw himself repeatedly at a closed window because a carrier bag had got caught on his brother, we call that the bag monster episode :scared:
I think when they live life on the edge their metabolism is high speed to match how they feel, spose you could call it mouse mode :rofl: everything running twice the speed it should
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Aww, 6lb, she's teeny!
I agree with Bozita, mine have got on great with it. Mine love Hi-Life too but does anyone find it doesn't fill the cats up? There is Hi-Life, Pets At Home's Purely, and Tesco Luxury food and none of them seem to fill my cats at all, they eat it and are back meowing to be fed an hour later.
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I've only just picked up your post and would add Classic cat food is the only one my cats have stuck to over the years. Everything else they have gone off sooner or later and won't touch again. They don't add cereal, soya, grains, additive or preservatives so I think it's the best you can get at the cheaper end of the scale, 6 cans for £2.49 in Sainsburys. Some stores of Wilkinson, Tescos and Pets at Home stock it.
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Ours eat anything except Burns in fact couldn't give it away including the outside crew here at the Clan left a note to the effect we were trying to starve them! :shocked:
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B&M and Home Bargains have the Feline Fayre large 400g tins (70% fish) in stock at just 39p each: complementary tho so I am just using them to pad out complete foods cheaply. Recently got the Bozita pate which is going down a storm, Noah definitely prefers the pate to the chunks in jelly version. Bozita is a complete food (~90% meat), you can pick it up for 85p a 360g tetrapack from K9 Capers as they do a 10% first order discount.
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Does anyone know where I can buy the Hi Life Essentials from, other than Asda and Wilkinson, as we don't have an Asda by us and there's no parking near Wilkinson so it would be a trip on the bus with a bagful of cat food!!
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If the are the multipack cans, Sainsbury's has them.
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they are the same as the cans of pate that come in a box of 12 - I forget what they are called. something different. it took me ages to realise they were the same as the hi life essentials sold in asda but I checked the ingredients and they are the same.
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Petit Pate?
http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/Shopping/FindProducts.aspx?Query=petit%20pate&SortBy=3
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Morrisons sell the boxes of HiLife in pouches.
Susanne, strictly speaking, the pates aren't the same as the pouches, they are different flavours and textures.
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I have some in at the moment but I can't recall them. Don't think it's petit pate but it is something pate. They are complete and are the same texture as the tins of hi life essentials (the turkey and giblets one anyway which is the one I buy for Mosi as he's not too keen on fish). I didn't realise they were the same as the asda ones until I compared ingredients and nutritional analysis and discovered they were exactly the same. The box of 12 cans comes in 3 poultry flavours I think. I prefer to get the essentials from asda as they are cheaper.
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Pets at Home do sell the pate tins in boxes of 12 that come in different flavours to the ones in Asda - Chicken, Chicken and Liver and Turkey and Giblets - they were either under £3 or under £4 when I got them the other month - they do the same in fishy varities too, but they are still called Petit Pate - they are marketed to tempt even the fussiest of cats.