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Best value, large bags dry kitten food - medium price range

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  • 01-11-2010 11:37am
    #1
    Plek Trum
    Registered Users Posts: 1,075 ✭✭✭


    Hi all,

    our two kitties are growing fast and their appetites too to match!
    They are fed dry kitten food with the occasional wet pouch for a treat, however, the boxes of dry food run out quite quickly of late.

    We were advised by a cattery that the 'best' quality / low price dry food was 'Go-Cat Kitten' food which they love.

    Does anyone know anywhere to buy the large bags (5kg?) of this? Had a browse by they all seem to stock other brands and it isn't available in the Centra / Supervalu 5kg range offer at the moment.

    Maybe you use a different brand that has same nutrients or better at a smiliar price? Would be interested to hear about it!

    Appreciate all help and suggestions, thanks. :D


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    #2
    mymo
    Registered Users Posts: 3,553 ✭✭✭mymo


    I tried both Royal canin and burns dry food, they ate very little of the royal canin so it lasted ages(stayed the same weight, just seem to need less), the burns was cheaper but they wouldn't touch it, however my uncles cats loved it, he was buying the 5kg go cat, he started buying the burns as it worked out the same price overall(more expensive but lasted longer), cats did great on it.
    Think the burns is €10 for 4 kg bag, not sure if they have a bigger one, think Go cat about €6 or so for 3kg, so not a huge difference.

    Sorry was 3kg bag of burns I got, they do 7.5kgs bags too.
    Can you shop online?
    Zooplus have some good foods and if you buy in bulk they are good value.
    Go cat wouldn't be the best of brands to be honest.


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    #3
    Plek Trum
    Registered Users Posts: 1,075 ✭✭✭Plek Trum


    Thanks Mymo - will check those out and see. My local vet has small sample bags of each I think, so might try a tester of Burns and Royal Canin, judge the reaction and take it from there.

    I dont mind paying extra if its better quality and healthier for the cats. Have heard too many sad stories of kittens / cats being fed poor diets and ending up with all sorts of health issues later in life.

    Thanks again ;)


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    #4
    Graces7
    Registered Users Posts: 32,634 ✭✭✭✭Graces7


    LIDl dry food is fine. and excellent value.

    The best we had was "Tiger" from ASDA when we were near the border.

    The German foods tend to be better regulated.

    But we do not feed exclusively on kibble anyway, whatever the brand. Our cats eat raw chicken. Wr get large packs of necks , wings or legs locally.


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    #5
    mymo
    Registered Users Posts: 3,553 ✭✭✭mymo


    I feed a mix of dry, some wet and the odd bit of raw. It's a healthier balance for the cats. Often they don't drink enough so giving wet and raw helps, I give mince, meat trimmings and chicken wings, small amounts about 3 times a week(varies with what we have for dinner) and wet every couple of days.
    I have had a cat with kidney trouble and one with bladder crystals and vet suggested mixed feeding, as just the dry food seems to cause both issues in many cats.


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    #6
    Graces7
    Registered Users Posts: 32,634 ✭✭✭✭Graces7


    mymo wrote: »
    I feed a mix of dry, some wet and the odd bit of raw. It's a healthier balance for the cats. Often they don't drink enough so giving wet and raw helps, I give mince, meat trimmings and chicken wings, small amounts about 3 times a week(varies with what we have for dinner) and wet every couple of days.
    I have had a cat with kidney trouble and one with bladder crystals and vet suggested mixed feeding, as just the dry food seems to cause both issues in many cats.

    Excellent advice.

    I was remembering many years ago at Olympia when one of the cat food firms was giving away samples of their new range of kibble... they were besieged by cat owners relating kidney issues from feeding dry food.

    Raw is healthy indeed. Eggs are loved too by many cats. Cheese too. The kibble is only there as a back up in case they get hungry between chicken legs etc. We get a ten k pack of the necks for E3 and wings the same weight for I think E5.


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    #7
    Wisco
    Registered Users Posts: 637 ✭✭✭Wisco


    Hills and Royal Canin do sell big bags- like 15kg size. Probably cheapest online, although I'd imagine a bag that size will last you a while. Even if your vet doesn't have that size in stock, they'd probably order it for you if you don't want to buy online.
    I see the recommended price for a 10kg of kitten food from Hills is about €64- depending how big your kitten is, it should last a few months.


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    #8
    lorebringer
    Registered Users Posts: 1,712 ✭✭✭lorebringer


    Your best bet is to buy in bulk - with two cats, even a 7.5kg bag will last for ages. Just a note though, please get a good storage container for the food. Food left open will go off and won't be as good for your cats. Plenty of hardware stores and large pet shops sell container/bins specifically for dog/cat food. Worth the investment if you are buying in bulk.

    Go-cat is not the best quality food, as a rule of thumb supermarket foods are generally not the best. With the better quality brands, you end up feeding less and generally it works out around the same price wise in the long term. Good brands include Royal Canin, James Wellbeloved, Burns, Pro Pac and Hills. An example of cost - James Wellbeloved is around €56 for a 10kg bag and Hills is around €70 for a 15kg bag and both would last for ages.

    I agree with Mymo wrt feeding a mixed diet and many good dry food brands also do wet food that can be mixed in with their kibble. Most can be sourced in vet practices or online (www.zooplus.ie or www.zooplus.co.uk (slightly cheaper) are the big sites).


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    #9
    lubie76
    Registered Users Posts: 1,150 ✭✭✭lubie76


    I second the bulk buying. I got a really good deal on Hills Science Feline on zooplus.co.uk. Worked out just over €100 for 30 kgs (2 x15kg bags). That would probably feed your two cats for 7-8 months and it is a really good food that will actually all eat. It worked out at €150 on the Irish zooplus.

    Like other posters said, just store it in an airtight drum/container.


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    #10
    Roots-Sinead
    Registered Users Posts: 62 ✭✭Roots-Sinead


    Hi there,
    I have an 18 week old kitten. I asked amongst friends who have cats and kittens and no-one mentioned giving raw meat!
    I have been feeding mine on the Go-Cat. I bought a 2kg bag of Kitten Complete for €10 {beginning to think I was ripped off there!} on Christmas Eve and I still have about two days worth left. I refill twice daily {but never leave the bowl empty, especially if I'm out} and give tiny pieces of cooked chicken in the evening {what's the advantage of giving raw meat?}.
    She is drinking a full bowl of water daily and uses the litter tray fairly normally {2-3 wet, 1 dry daily}.
    As a person who is new to cats, reading these posts are making me feel as though I am not caring for her properly.
    I thought kibble was best for keeping weight down especially when it comes to the stage of her being neutered. She has been kept indoors since we got her at 15 weeks as she is a rescue kitten and I wanted to make sure she was strong and settled before carting her to the vets for shots. I've flea'd her and will be taking her for her first lot of shots in about two weeks time.
    Without losing the run of yourselves {i.e. please don't berate me or overload me with information} are we doing everything as we should???
    Thanks


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    #11
    Shanao
    Users Awaiting Email Confirmation Posts: 919 ✭✭✭Shanao


    Would definitely reccommend Royal Canin cat food. It might cost a little more, but it is far better quality than the supermarket brands. If I fill two bowls in the morning, they aren't even completely empty by the following night and I'm feeding four cats. You can get 20kgs (2x10kgs) from the uk Zooplus site for about €90. I mix in wet food every second day because one doesn't drink as much water as the others and i mix in a bit of the science plan food every now and again. Plus, less smell in the litter box which is always good. We had an extremely lazy cat as well, but since we put him on RC he's seemed to revert to kittenhood and is now running around with the rest.


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    #12
    Heroditas
    Registered Users Posts: 9,445 ✭✭✭Heroditas


    We have three indoor cats and I recently faced the dilemma of changing their diet.
    We fed them Go Cat in the morning and at night and then divided two pouches of Felix between them in the evening for dinner.
    The problem was the litter tray stank, particularly when they had the beef pouches.

    We've changed the dry food to Iams indoor and now just give them the fish flavoured Felix pouches.
    We also give them raw bits of meat a couple of times a week such as trimmings of chicken.

    The cats are no longer overweight, are much more nutso and hyper and most importantly the litter tray doesn't smell as bad!

    Iams isn't too expensive and they absolutely love it.
    The tle of thumb seems to be the stronger the smell, the more the cats will like it but the worse the litter will smell.


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    #13
    Zapperzy
    Registered Users Posts: 2,524 ✭✭✭Zapperzy


    Roots-Sinead wrote: »
    Hi there,
    I have an 18 week old kitten. I asked amongst friends who have cats and kittens and no-one mentioned giving raw meat!
    I have been feeding mine on the Go-Cat. I bought a 2kg bag of Kitten Complete for €10 {beginning to think I was ripped off there!} on Christmas Eve and I still have about two days worth left. I refill twice daily {but never leave the bowl empty, especially if I'm out} and give tiny pieces of cooked chicken in the evening {what's the advantage of giving raw meat?}.
    She is drinking a full bowl of water daily and uses the litter tray fairly normally {2-3 wet, 1 dry daily}.
    As a person who is new to cats, reading these posts are making me feel as though I am not caring for her properly.
    I thought kibble was best for keeping weight down especially when it comes to the stage of her being neutered. She has been kept indoors since we got her at 15 weeks as she is a rescue kitten and I wanted to make sure she was strong and settled before carting her to the vets for shots. I've flea'd her and will be taking her for her first lot of shots in about two weeks time.
    Without losing the run of yourselves {i.e. please don't berate me or overload me with information} are we doing everything as we should???
    Thanks

    Ya pretty much doing everything right. Just a few things I would say.

    You weren't ripped off for €10 for a 2kg bag. I pay about £13 for a
    2kg bag of james wellbeloved adult food, that lasts me about 3-4 months (I think, it's so long between buying them that I forget) for 1 adult cat but Im mixing it with wet food. Go-cat generally isin't the highest quality food, if you look at the ingredients label you'l probably see something like 'meat & animal derivatives (min. 4% chicken), cereals etc.', both of which aren't very good for neither cats or dogs. I would recommend a brand like james wellbeloved, burns, royal canin, applaws (dry) or orijen, all of which are available on either zooplus.co.uk or zooplus.ie.

    The thing with higher quality foods are you have to feed less of them because they contain less fillers (ingredients which are useless to your cat and just pass through her= more poo :D) so while they may seem expensive they work out pretty much the same price or cheaper in the long run.

    Secondly I don't agree with feeding cats only dry food, cats generally don't drink an awful lot, they would usually rely on their food for most of their water intake, and when they are only getting dry food this isin't very much. Some people feed cats only dry food for all of their lives and they will never have problems but you'l probably find that the cat is catching a few birds and mice to make up for the lack of water in dry food. I would maybe have half and half wet and dry food.

    There are some brilliant brands of wet food on zooplus like bozita, animonda carny, grau and smilla, you've probably not heard of any of them because they are impossible to get in stores in Ireland, there are other like applaws and almo nature which can be got in petshops here, they are also good quality but they are not complete (they do not have all the nutrients to keep a cat healthy) and must be fed alongside a complete diet and they are very expensive for what essentially is just shredded chicken, rice and the cooking water.


    Im sorry if I have berated you with info, if theres any part you want to to go into in more detail or you want me to clarify it just ask.
    And don't feel as if your a bad owner, your definitely not, sure aren't you here asking questions and looking for info, that definitely is not the sign of a bad owner! :D


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    #14
    Roots-Sinead
    Registered Users Posts: 62 ✭✭Roots-Sinead


    Thanks so much Zapperzy. The information is great.
    I'm going to go to zooplus.ie now and shop for both kitten kibble and wet food. I've had dogs, rabbits and fish before but cats are a whole different kettle of kitten, aren't they!? :)

    The other thing I was wondering, once you start letting them out, how do you 'orientate' them, i.e. make sure that if they wander they remember where they live. I was thinking of just letting her into the garden {which is enclosed but with climbable walls} accompanied each day for a week or so, so that the smells etc., would become familiar.

    My daughter {who is 5} is also dying to bring her out to show her little friends but I'm worried that once she puts her down, the kitten will be off like a shot. Does anyone use a 'walking harness' with their kitten? I had miniature rabbits that I had harnesses for and used to take them out for little walks when the local kids would come calling. Probably looked like an idiot but less so than I would have chasing a rabbit up and down the road! *lol*


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    #15
    ISDW
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,378 ✭✭✭ISDW


    Roots-Sinead wrote: »
    Thanks so much Zapperzy. The information is great.
    I'm going to go to zooplus.ie now and shop for both kitten kibble and wet food. I've had dogs, rabbits and fish before but cats are a whole different kettle of kitten, aren't they!? :)

    The other thing I was wondering, once you start letting them out, how do you 'orientate' them, i.e. make sure that if they wander they remember where they live. I was thinking of just letting her into the garden {which is enclosed but with climbable walls} accompanied each day for a week or so, so that the smells etc., would become familiar.

    My daughter {who is 5} is also dying to bring her out to show her little friends but I'm worried that once she puts her down, the kitten will be off like a shot. Does anyone use a 'walking harness' with their kitten? I had miniature rabbits that I had harnesses for and used to take them out for little walks when the local kids would come calling. Probably looked like an idiot but less so than I would have chasing a rabbit up and down the road! *lol*

    Some people put butter on the cat's paws so that they can trace their way back home for the first few times they're allowed out:D


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    #16
    Tucking Fypo
    Registered Users Posts: 177 ✭✭Tucking Fypo


    Check out your local pet food store too. I was killing myself through the bad weather constantly stocking up for my cats. I have 6, and they were eating masses of food. I eventually tracked down a very good quality food in a 12kg bag locally, and they are doing great on it. I am now on my 3rd bag today, so that will tell you how much they eat.


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    #17
    Lawrence1895
    Registered Users Posts: 7,627 ✭✭✭Lawrence1895


    I tried 'Coshida' from LIDL's as well, it's really good and my cat says much the same :cool:


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    #18
    Tucking Fypo
    Registered Users Posts: 177 ✭✭Tucking Fypo


    Lars1916 wrote: »
    I tried 'Coshida' from LIDL's as well, it's really good and my cat says much the same :cool:

    My lot had that at one stage and they certainly didn't turn their noses up at it. However, Tesco brand, OMG, they would rather starve it seems.

    I find supermarkets extremely hit and miss with stock and offers, so we went through many brands week in week out. Thankfully we seem to have found 'the one' for our six.:D


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    #19
    Zapperzy
    Registered Users Posts: 2,524 ✭✭✭Zapperzy


    Roots-Sinead wrote: »
    Thanks so much Zapperzy. The information is great.
    I'm going to go to zooplus.ie now and shop for both kitten kibble and wet food. I've had dogs, rabbits and fish before but cats are a whole different kettle of kitten, aren't they!? :)

    The other thing I was wondering, once you start letting them out, how do you 'orientate' them, i.e. make sure that if they wander they remember where they live. I was thinking of just letting her into the garden {which is enclosed but with climbable walls} accompanied each day for a week or so, so that the smells etc., would become familiar.

    My daughter {who is 5} is also dying to bring her out to show her little friends but I'm worried that once she puts her down, the kitten will be off like a shot. Does anyone use a 'walking harness' with their kitten? I had miniature rabbits that I had harnesses for and used to take them out for little walks when the local kids would come calling. Probably looked like an idiot but less so than I would have chasing a rabbit up and down the road! *lol*

    When you decide to let her out skip the meal before that and let her out just before she's due her next meal, if she's hungry you'l find she'l not go too far. Keep a few treats in a jar or tin for her now and when you shake the jar/tin and she comes give her some, get her used to the sound of shaking jar/tin= I get tasty food, so when you start letting her outside you can just shake the jar/tin to call her back. I use a harness for my cat, there was a thread a while ago about how to train them to get used to it, here it is, some good tips here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056137465
    I used to walk my rabbit on a harness and lead too! :D

    Just make sure to check both the .ie and .co.uk site of zooplus because sometimes the .co.uk site can be cheaper or have deals on that the .ie site hasn't.


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    #20
    Madame Razz
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,252 ✭✭✭✭Madame Razz


    We buy a big bag of 'Meowing Heads' dry food for our lot, they absolutely adore it, it's all natural, it really seems to fill them up, and the bag lasts 7weeks or so for 2 cats. It's about 35euro per bag at Petworld, think it's a 7kg bag. have tried others, but this is definately the one that suits them best, and it smells almost pleasant aswell:D

    They get Applaws wet food sometimes as a treat; that stuff is incredible:eek:


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    #21
    Roots-Sinead
    Registered Users Posts: 62 ✭✭Roots-Sinead


    I'd heard that, it's such a cute idea. I thought it was to show them what side their bread was 'buttered' on so that they'd want to come home! *lol*


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