Recommend cat food

mada82 · 19-04-2014 9:17am #1

Hi all.
I have 3 young adult cats that I got from a pet shelter nearly 2 years ago.

I have been feeding them 28 Felix as good as it looks pouches a week and a bowl of purina one dry food a day.

To be honest I couldn't afford to spend much more money than I am on cat food but can anyone recommend any affordable changes I could make?

I think I average about 50-60 a month on food a month at the minute

Nody · 19-04-2014 2:30pm

Wet: Smilla, Bozita, Animonda Carny, Cosma and go for larger 400g for a lower price
Dry: Acana, Applaws, Taste of the Wild, Porta 21 Feline Finest Sensible - Grain free

The dry stuff is more expensive but of much higher quality which should allow you to serve less to get the same effect (and you want to avoid anything with maize, wheat or corn in it)

Pumpkinseeds · 19-04-2014 5:15pm

I was feeding the Felix as good as it looks to our 4. I switched to Bozita tins, which are much better quality and are 6.99 for 6 cans, there are better offe.rs on it, the more cans of it that you buy We use about 1 and a half cans a day between the 4 of them, so it's far more economical.

They eat all of it, unlike the Felix stuff which they really only ate the jelly off. We used to feed them Applaws chicken dry food too, again it goes an awful lot further than other kibble as it's grain free high protein.

We use Zooplus.ie or Zooplus.Uk as it's much cheaper from them.

lolo62 · 19-04-2014 5:57pm

mada82 wrote: »

Hi all.
I have 3 young adult cats that I got from a pet shelter nearly 2 years ago.

I have been feeding them 28 Felix as good as it looks pouches a week and a bowl of purina one dry food a day.

To be honest I couldn't afford to spend much more money than I am on cat food but can anyone recommend any affordable changes I could make?

I think I average about 50-60 a month on food a month at the minute

if you are spending 50-60 a month you could go for any of the top foods on zooplus if you buy in bulk.

I get royal canin oral sensitive (my cat has a touch of gingivitis) in 8kg bag for €50 and that lasts about three months. She drinks lots of water so the dry suits her, it might be a different storey if you have a cat/cats that don't drink well but just to give you an idea..royal canin is one of the best foods for cats (according to my vet!)

buying online definitely best value for money

Gran Hermano · 19-04-2014 6:00pm

Vets love royal canin, even more so when they sell it.

lolo62 · 19-04-2014 6:56pm

Gran Hermano wrote: »

Vets love royal canin, even more so when they sell it.

its good stuff though, cleared up and kept at bay my cats gingivitis

Pumpkinseeds · 19-04-2014 7:22pm

I can't fault the RC Calm. If it wasn't for that my cats would be going nuts with each other. I ordered the dog version by mistake and have had to order a smaller bag of the cat one until I can exchange it for the 4kg bag. We've been mixing it in half n half with the Applaws to try to eek it out and I can already see Felix getting crankier and more aggressive. Hopefully we'll have enough of the RC to last until mid week when the new bag arrives.

Nody · 19-04-2014 8:27pm

lolo62 wrote: »

its good stuff though, cleared up and kept at bay my cats gingivitis

RC only is worth considering for special needs (i.e. your case of gingvitis, or calm like Pumpkin mention but not for normal food) due to being greatly overpriced for content.

For example this is RC Indoors.

Corn, poultry meal, rice, vegetable, wheat, animal fat, animal protein (hydrolyzed), lignocellulose, Minerlalstoffe, beet pulp, soya oil, fructo-oligosaccharides, yeast, fish oil.

Corn first is a no go given an option and for 20% less you can get this:

Porta 21 Finest sensible - grain free wrote:

Ground chicken meat (64%), chicken meat (9.15%), chicken fat, dried potatoes, dried brewer's yeast, beet pulp (sugar removed), cellulose, MOS (mannan-oligosaccharides), FOS (fructo-oligosaccharide), dried cranberries, green tea extract.

lolo62 · 19-04-2014 8:47pm

Nody wrote: »

RC only is worth considering for special needs (i.e. your case of gingvitis, or calm like Pumpkin mention but not for normal food) due to being greatly overpriced for content.

For example this is RC Indoors.
Corn first is a no go given an option and for 20% less you can get this:

thanks for highlighting, that s interesting
was just pointing out to OP though that its possible to purchase top cat food for the price they're paying out already..i don't have any knowledge of the other rc foods, only the one I use which is excellent

mada82 · 06-01-2015 3:10pm

I couldn't get my cats to switch to Bozita, they would just walk away from the plate when I put it down, after a day I felt sorry for them and gave them the felix again.

Is there a method to switching them over? or could it be that they wont eat it no matter what?

I've recalculated what I spend and its between 100 - 120 a month, I wouldn't mind finding a way to reduce it.

the 3 cats are 5 kg each.

One of them had a stone in her bladder so needs to be on special food, its cleared up now so I was told to feed her hills c/d.
But this adds up to about 40 euro of the monthly spend.

any more advise is appreciated.

Nody · 06-01-2015 3:57pm

Well for starters there's a reason they don't want to go of Felix; it's because it's spiced to smell good (but really contain some dodgy stuff) and cats are smell based animals. Your best bet is simply not to give in but Bozita can be a difficult transition to.

Having said that there are a few you can try. Feringa Duo has been a hit for us (where as standard single type was not). Buy a trial pack and it's quite cheap. Catz Finefood usually also goes down; once again try the trial pack to test before going big on it. Schumsy Nature (and only Nature!) has a handy pouch version to let you sample what's in the cans early on for a cheap price. The cans are quite nicely priced to be honest even with out any special discount. Cosma is another common one; the Cosma Thai with chicken liver is a current favorite but there are multiple versions out there inc. with quail egg which was mandatory for one of our fussy eaters (she'd basically refused any other wet but the cosma quail one!). Buying the trial packages in smaller sizes let you see what they are willing to eat and not allowing you to target buy the relevant 400g cans later (only keep the tuna down, while they will most likely go down a treat cats should be limited on tuna to once or twice a week at best).

Kibble will be harder to find a suitable match, Applaws Senior would be similar to Hill's in fat & protein levels (but I can't say if it would fit all the bills as a replacement) or to change to RC Cat Veterinary Diet S/O which appears to be about 2 EUR cheaper per kilo but is for the same deal as Hills, Porta 21 grain free would be a cheaper option for the other two.

goz83 · 06-01-2015 4:25pm

I give my cats the dried food and wet pouches from Lidl. Used whiskas a couple of times and they never finished it. No problems at all with Lidls best. And it's good value too.

Note: i dont work for Lidl, or the catfood mention, which I cant even name

Chloris · 06-01-2015 11:06pm

Have you ever tried substituting whatever meats you're eating for some of the wet food? There are only two of us in the house, we give our cat some leftovers every day. I cook two chickens at the start of the month and defrost it in batches so that I can give it to him if we're not having meat, or if we're having something he doesn't like.

I also make extra if we're having a breakfast with any meat or eggs. He loves eggs! His coat has improved tremendously since we got him, I attribute it to the varied diet he has. I feed him meat or eggs and half a pouch of Royal Canine Kitten Instinctive each day as well as 25g Orijen Cat and Kitten. He eats it all at his leisure, I've never had any problems with food refusal or stools being irregular.

He's just the best little guy!

Recommend cat food

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