# Is sheba cat food good for cats?



## Guest

I recently changed my cats diet after realising that hills science plan dry food was making my cat put weight on and not loose it? I have tried her on various dry food diets and all she has done is put weight on and not loose it. She has also been tried on whiskers wet food but she woke up one day and turned her nose up and refused to eat any of the various favours I had for her. I put her on sheba and she loves it. Is sheba good for cats? She is also more affectionate and active on sheba.

Thanks for any advice.


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## gloworm*mushroom

Wet food is better all round than dry food, as the grains in dry food are not good, and can cause weight gain due to the carbs which you have found out.

Sheba is not great nutritionally, neither is whiskas really (nor hills!)

Best ones are german/swedish brands in general available from zooplus. Good wet brands include grau, smilla, bozita and animonda carny


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## IndysMamma

most 'diet' pet foods are high in carbs - which is stupid really as a cat is an obligate carnivore - their digestive tract is simply not designed to deal with cereal in bulk.

try to move onto a grain free diet that is high in meat, a semi-good budget option is Butchers Classic which is essentially the same as much of the Bozita range and can be bought in most supermarkets/pets at home

there's also Nature's Menu I believe that's grain free

and those mentioned above of course


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## Ali82

The problem with the likes of Sheba is that they don't divulge the information required for the consumer to interpret the quality of the food. Personally I suspect that some varieties are better than others, I feed my cat a variety of brands with the Sheba Terrines being one. The ingredients in the Terrine's being Meat and Animal derivatives (chicken min 4%), Minerals. Considering the ingredients and the macro nutrient profile (which from memory is well balanced) I am relatively happy that they contain a decent meat content (although I suspect this will be more offal than muscle meat) and most importantly they are one of my cats favourites. Other varieties contain cereals (usually small amounts in the gravy varieties) and those in jelly or gravy will also have a lower meat content. I imagine the ordinary pouches to be on a par with the likes of Whiskas etc.

For the money there are undoubtedly better quality, better declared foods but if your cat really likes them like mine does I would have no concerns in feeding it whastsoever.


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## hobbs2004

As Ali82 says, there is some variation in the Sheba offering with some containing cereals, others don't, with some being complementary foods and others being complete. So, read the labels 

I personally wouldn't feed it as I like to know what I feed my cats and Sheba hides behind opaque labels and proprietary information excuses, which isn't good enough for me.


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## alan g a

I'm showing age now but my first cat was fed on food cut from a slab. There was little choice back then, but then along came Kitty Cat and I still wouldn't reacomend it.


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## Peter Galbavy

What the others say. With Hobbs' wonderful work in the health & nutrition forum and reading other sources I have come to the conclusion that 98% or what they sell in supermarkets is, basically, overpriced unhealthy crap.

You have to go looking at either proper pet shops or online for quality food and they usually cost less than the big brand stuff.

Take a wander over to the other forum and read up on the info posted by Hobbs and others - lots of good stuff.


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## Michellemillsporter

Feeding your cats any supermarket brand of cat food is in essence like bringing your kids up ion MacDonalds! Sorry to disagree with many, but I have bought up cats all my life and Royal Canin is brilliant. And it is a dry food. My 4 year olds have been brought up on it, and never craved human food, cadged or begged. They have not been interested in any other foods - until I recently used Sheba! My cat had a reaction to something and had a very sore mouth. Rather than stress her by syringing her medicine into her mouth, we decided to give her some soft wet food in which to disguise it, hence the Sheba. To encourage her and show no favouritism, I let the others have some at the same time. Since then, all of my 3 cats have begged daily for Sheba and are constantly on the scrounge but only want Sheba. In my opinion that stinks of something BAD for them, not the other way around. I now it's been a while since they were allowed to spike cat food with catnip and the likes, but considering most processed human food is still loaded with things to make us feel addicted, I am certain that it will be loaded with something similar. I am phasing it out and will NOT go back to using it. Royal Canin has everything that a cat needs naturally and more to enhance life. With very best intentions for our cats. x


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## SusieRainbow

Dry food is not good food for cats , they should be taking fluids with their food and most cats do not drink enough water to compensate.You would be better to research a wet food you are happy to feed your cats , i'm sure many people will have suggestions. 
It would be advisable to start a new thread on the topic as this one is over 5 years old.


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## QOTN

Michellemillsporter said:


> Royal Canin has *everything that a cat needs naturally and more* to enhance life.


If you believe that, you will believe anything. I would not try to defend Sheba but why would RC be better?


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## moggie14

Michellemillsporter said:


> Feeding your cats any supermarket brand of cat food is in essence like bringing your kids up ion MacDonalds! Sorry to disagree with many, but I have bought up cats all my life and Royal Canin is brilliant. And it is a dry food. My 4 year olds have been brought up on it, and never craved human food, cadged or begged. They have not been interested in any other foods - until I recently used Sheba! My cat had a reaction to something and had a very sore mouth. Rather than stress her by syringing her medicine into her mouth, we decided to give her some soft wet food in which to disguise it, hence the Sheba. To encourage her and show no favouritism, I let the others have some at the same time. Since then, all of my 3 cats have begged daily for Sheba and are constantly on the scrounge but only want Sheba. In my opinion that stinks of something BAD for them, not the other way around. I now it's been a while since they were allowed to spike cat food with catnip and the likes, but considering most processed human food is still loaded with things to make us feel addicted, I am certain that it will be loaded with something similar. I am phasing it out and will NOT go back to using it. Royal Canin has everything that a cat needs naturally and more to enhance life. With very best intentions for our cats. x


What a very strange first post indeed! Do you work for Royal Canin by any chance?! :Hilarious :Hilarious :Shifty


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## anachronism

moggie14 said:


> What a very strange first post indeed! Do you work for Royal Canin by any chance?! :Hilarious :Hilarious :Shifty


Does make you laugh both Royal Canin and Sheba are owned by Mars :Hilarious


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## QOTN

I am not sure that Royal Canin requires a Business Generation Consultancy! I have never known another company with such aggressive marketing techniques. They already seem the have the GCCF in total submission.


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## moggie14

QOTN said:


> If you believe that, you will believe anything. I would not try to defend Sheba but why would RC be better?


I would defend Sheba in this context  I wonder if @Michellemillsporter has actually compared the ingredients?


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## MiloandTazzy

Chances are your cats are just bored of the royal canin and would of reacted the same way to any wet food you gave them.


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## QOTN

moggie14 said:


> I would defend Sheba in this context  I wonder if @Michellemillsporter has actually compared the ingredients?


I am a bit cross with Sheba for suddenly adding various sugars to their terrine without telling anybody. They changed the label before they changed the ingredients which seems a bit sneaky to me but I agree that Sheba is much better than RC biscuits.


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## Lilylass

QOTN said:


> I am a bit cross with Sheba for suddenly adding various sugars to their terrine without telling anybody. They changed the label before they changed the ingredients which seems a bit sneaky to me but I agree that Sheba is much better than RC biscuits.


According to several sources at Sheba there was no change to the actual ingredients - they just changed the way they worded it to make it clearer. There are no added sugars except those occurring in the various fruits / veg that are added


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## moggie14

Lilylass said:


> According to several sources at Sheba there was no change to the actual ingredients - they just changed the way they worded it to make it clearer. There are no added sugars except those occurring in the various fruits / veg that are added


I read that too. So does this mean that all commercial cat food contains sugars (that naturally occur in ingredients) just not 'added' sugar? It did confuse me.


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## Lilylass

moggie14 said:


> I read that too. So does this mean that all commercial cat food contains sugars (that naturally occur in ingredients) just not 'added' sugar? It did confuse me.


I guess so  I also found it very confusing but got absolutely nowhere trying to get a better answer as they just kept quoting the above and saying nothing had changed, except the wording - I did say that I felt very betrayed as I'd bought / fed it believing it was sugar free, but they didn't seem to 'get' that they'd done anything wrong as they just kept repeating that it's naturally occurring sugars and there will be some in all foods to one extent or another


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## QOTN

The classics terrine only contained meat and animal derivatives and minerals before the change (no fruit or veg,) and I believe the cassia gum is still listed as a technological additive.


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## Lilylass

QOTN said:


> The classics terrine only contained meat and animal derivatives and minerals before the change (no fruit or veg,) and I believe the cassia gum is still listed as a technological additive.


Not according to Sheba - they said there were no changes to the ingredients, only the labelling - and that everything listed was in the previous version as well (they didn't list fruit & veg on the other products either)


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## PetloverJo

Seems strange that someone would answer a thread that is 5 years old


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## Lilylass

PetloverJo said:


> Seems strange that someone would answer a thread that is 5 years old


There's been loads today (and others recently) - I think when newbie's search for something there's a list of threads comes up and it's not immediately obvious to them that they're really old


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