# Difference between complementary & complete food



## ejrogers (Sep 7, 2009)

Hi, I have a really silly question - what is the difference between complete food and complementary food?
I bought a few tins of Applaws the other day but then I read on the tin that its only complementary, but the Felix food my cat eats at the moment is complete.
If I feed complementary food, what does this mean, do I need to give her something additional?

Thanks


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## IndysMamma (Jan 15, 2009)

Complimentary means they are a treat/additional food and not nutritionally balanced.

I would just feed as a treat alongside a complete food. Bozita is a good one and works out a *lot* cheaper than applaws.


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## hobbs2004 (Mar 12, 2010)

Not a silly question at all .

When a food is complementary then it does not contain all the nutrients your cats need. So for example, with Applaws, which only contains chicken breast/thigh in stock, the food is high in phosphorus, lacks calcium (because there is no bone or other calcium source), Vit A (because it doesn't contain liver), no taurine (because it is cooked and doesn't contain any heart, or other muscle meat to bump up the taurine level), no other essential vitamins and minerals and amino acids. They also do not add it in later; instead leaving it "natural" (I hate that PR term, it is meaningless as it used to imply that the food is better but in all fairness it is worse than Felix, which is complete).

With complementary foods you therefore need to look for a food source that complements that food to make sure that your cat gets all that he/she needs. Hence, they say that you also need to feed dry food daily.

By contrast, a complete food contains all the nutrients your cat needs. They need to follow certain guidelines, or let's say, they are encouraged to: Home | FEDIAF gives guidelines about the level of nutrients in pet food.

Does that help?


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## ejrogers (Sep 7, 2009)

That helps loads, thank you both.
At the moment I feed her Felix but she is starting to go off it a bit so I am looking for some alternatives, if possible with better quality ingredients.
Can anybody recommend some alternative complete foods?


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## hobbs2004 (Mar 12, 2010)

Now you are asking.... Have a look over on the health and nutrition bit of the cat forums. There are plenty of threads debating cat food.

If you are willing to buy online, well that opens up a greater wealth of choice of cheap but great quality foods than you will find in shops.

Check out this thread for loads more info on the different wet foods you can get: http://www.petforums.co.uk/cat-health-nutrition/112132-z-wet-food-cats.html

If you have an ASDA near you then have a look for a food called Toplife. It comes in little tetrapacks. That is the UK version of Bozita, which like Felix and co is chunks in jelly.

Also pop over to pets at home and have a look at their purely and scrumptious range.

But zooplus offer perhaps the greatest range of cat food. Have a look at Grau, Bozita, Smilla, Animonda, all of which are affordable foods with a high meat content that are complete. However, they also tend to be pate food, not sure whether your cat likes that.


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## ClaireLily (Jul 8, 2008)

Fear not if pate style is not a goer for you, Bozita do chunks in sauce (gravy) which we are currently trying to get our girls to eat. Fussy little madams won't eat anything in jelly!


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## kate252 (Sep 18, 2010)

complementary food is good to have with tinned wet food- or if your cat always seems hungry even after worming- a bowl of dry food down all the time is good.

i dont agree - personally with complete food and only giving that to the cat and nothing else.

i think its cruel not to give a cat left over chicken from a roast- or uneaten meat from your meal which is left over- or not to give a cat a can of sardines every now and then or tin of tuna. its good for them and gives them variety
giving a cat complete dry food the whole time without any variations is just lazy- i think animals need a bit more thought then that- it may claim to have all the right nutrients but i think it must be extremely boring for the cat to at the same thing day i day out and not to watch the cat pur when giving it a bit of chicken or beef or fish.


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## hobbs2004 (Mar 12, 2010)

kate252 said:


> complementary food is good to have with tinned wet food- or if your cat always seems hungry even after worming- a bowl of dry food down all the time is good.
> 
> i dont agree - personally with complete food and only giving that to the cat and nothing else.
> 
> ...


 I think you are confusing an issue here. You are talking about the occasional treat food in your last paragraph. That to me is not commercial complementary pet food that is being sold to consumers as being a natural food. That one needs to be supplemented with dry food, otherwise one risks some serious health issues.

Or alternatively, be feed as "treat" food once or twice a week. And no one here, least of all me, is promoting a dry only diet.

You are talking about kitchen scraps etc that a cat can easily have a couple of times or so a week. Though I personally don't understand why you don't keep some of the meat or fish behind for your cat before you cook it for yourself. That would be so much more nutritious for your cat than the cooked stuff.


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## Colette (Jan 2, 2010)

> i dont agree - personally with complete food and only giving that to the cat and nothing else.


Just want to add - eating only complete food doesn't necessarily mean eating the same thing day in day out. For a start, most on here would recommend complete wet, rather than complete dry.

My cats get plenty of variety of their complete wet - all 8 flavours of Smilla (dense pate or tuna shreds), various flavours of Bozita (both tetra and tins), various flavours of Animonda carny (inc the exotic pouches like ostrich and kanagroo).

Plus a tin of applaws every few weeks for sunday lunch! (Not inc treats, whole prey, chicken wings, etc)


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## Tmpl Knght (Aug 20, 2013)

Applaws does both complimentary wet food and complete wet food. Just check which is which. I feed my cat a mix of complete, complimentary, dry, and raw.


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## Lilylass (Sep 13, 2012)

Opps - about to comment but thread is 4+ years old


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## Erenya (Jul 22, 2014)

Zombie Thread


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