I am so Confused about food!!!!

[Leanne]

Milo has biscuits down constantly on the work surface so Jess can't get them, Milo will graze on them when he wants.

Jess has biscuits sprinkled on his wet food and then gets 5g before bed, I can't leave biscuits down with Jess he'll gobble the lot as he adores them, he got quite overweight on Hills when we first had him.

[Gillian Harvey]

I never leave biscuits down. I feed my cats twice a day with wet food/raw, (sometimes they'll get a little extra meal at lunctime, but not always) then its a few biscuits at nightime. Cats arent grazers - in the wild they would eat several small meals (when they've caught them!) but they wouldnt have a bowl available that they could just dip into, a lot of energy would go into stalking and catching their meals. Some days they probably wouldnt catch as much as others, there would never be a constant supply of food 'on tap'.

You can feed meat raw or cooked, raw is better because cooking depletes a lot of important nutrients (such as taurine) - not so much of a worry if you are feeding complete wet foods mainly though.

[Janeyk]

I've always left biscuits down for grazing

[Sam (Fussy_Furball)]

I agree with Mark.  I feed my lot Royal canin biccies but they have felix wet food (or if I'm feelilng a bit flush they get applaws occasionally  ).

In answr to your questions:

1.  Kitten food is higher in nutrients and has smaller chunks for little mouths.

2.  Ocassional "extra" meat can be raw or cooked depending on how you feel about "raw".  If you go to the home page and then do a search on "raw feeding" you will bring up lots of threads and opinions.

3.  I leave biccies down all day so my gang can graze.

[Chook]

Wow thanks for the responses. I don't feel guilty every time I reach for the pouch. A few more questions sorry;

1. Is kitten food higher more specific nutritionally or just smaller chunks? When can I switch to adult food as there is so much more choice?
2. Extra fresh meat occasionally, is that cooked or raw?
3. Should I leave the biscuits down all day as I do at the moment, or do I mix them in with wet food?

Thankies peeps 

[Janeyk]

I agree too, Byron just loves Whiskas, Felix if in the mood and is going mad for Classic atm (I finally got some).  I also buy more expensive types but some she'll eat some she won't.  She likes chicken applaws and Tescos Finest fish ones (which is unusual for her she's not a fish fan) and she loves Hi Life Chicken and Liver, in fact anything chicken and liver usually.  I think a healthy balance is best and it's a case of finding what good foods they will eat and supplementing those with their favourites.

[Gillian Harvey]

I'd always go for a high meat content wet food, its true you don't need to feed so much because it is more nutrient dense, so yes, cost would balance out, but if he likes the Whiskas and does ok on it I'd keep on with that and theres no reason why you couldnt  introduce some of the higher meat content foods like Applaws every now and then. I don't feed dry as part of their meals - they have a few biscuits at bedtime (and as treats), but I'd go for good quality dry as others have suggested - the new Applaws dry, Hi-Life dry etc, but I wouldnt make dry the major part of diet as cats need the moisture from wet food.

[Leanne]

We too work on the same principles as Mark.

For wet food we feed Felix, Jess in particular won't eat anything else. And Milo has Royal Canin biscuits, Jess has his urinary biscuits.

[Kay and Penny]

I endorse Mark's suggestion - ordinary wet and premium dry is a good compromise, and less wastage     

I have been through a phase of buying in lots of high quality wet food and mine have turned their noses up at most of it - I would say save your money and offer the occasional fresh chicken or white fish instead

[Mark]

I think it's good to supplement Felix or Whiskas wet with a good quality dry such as Royal Canin, Hill's, James Wellbeloved or another premium one. Whiskas & G-Cat dry as well as supermarket own-brand cheapo ones have a lot of grain which cats don't need. Also colourings etc. You will find that you need to feed less of a decent food as it isn't made from cheap fillers so doesn't actually work out as expensive as it seems. A really good quality dry foos is Pets at Home own one (the one in a silver bag, not the 99p type one  )

[Kirst]

Mine have been on Felix all their loives on and off and they have done Ok on it!

[Dawn F]

I used to use natures menu kitten food - its quite high meat content

[Chook]

Hi I am new and have a 12 week old male kitten called Mouse.
We have had him for just over 3 weeks and he is settling in nicely, his previous owner had him on Whiskas Kitten and I bought him the same so he didn't get upset tummy!
He has a bowl of the whiskas kitten biscuits available all the time and he really enjoys snacking on them and he is on about 1 pouch a day. He seems to prefer the fish ones to the meat ones and wont touch gravy only jelly.

I am nearly out of food and was going to bulk buy, but people have said whiskas and felix is really bad for cats! I would like to feed applaws but they seem so expensive.
So can anyone help me with advice on which foods have good content which I can get relatively easily, which aren't going to cost gazzillions?
 I really would like to know about quantity as well because the vet said the better the brand the less they need and then the costs are relatively the same!

TIA Clare x