# encore cat food any good?



## Jem121 (May 6, 2012)

Was in sainsburys last night and saw 'encore' pouches
Are they a decent meat? I was always under the impression supermarket food was all crap so I didn't pick any up. It's only because I've never seen it before and the meat on the front of the box looked pretty decent. 
X


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## lymorelynn (Oct 4, 2008)

Encore is not complete so should only be fed as an occasional treat


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## ALR (Apr 16, 2014)

I personally really like Encore but it's a complementary food not complete.

It's a shame because it has a high meat content and looks very good when you open the pack. I use it once in a while just for variety. 

I did a Fetch.co.uk order. It's free for orders over £10 and you can choose individual cans of Encore, Applaws and Thrive (Thrive is the only complete food on that list), which is less wasteful than buying a month's worth of food.


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## Charity (Apr 17, 2013)

Encore is Applaws packaged under a different name for sale in supermarkets so a lot better than most of their other cat foods.


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## Jem121 (May 6, 2012)

Oh that's a shame. Suppose it will be ok for a treat for him


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## Ely01 (May 14, 2014)

Yes saw these too, I got some to try out. 
There seems to be small cans which are said to be complementary, and then the pouches. 

Dunno really. 

Looking for healthy enough food for Oleg myself, I find he likes the Sainsbury's Delicious collection, which looks fine, only 50 percent meat tho, but it's not too bad compared with other things I suppose.


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## CoCoTrio (Jan 3, 2013)

But over £6/kg so more expensive than even the very best canned foods.


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## Jem121 (May 6, 2012)

So is wainwrights cat food any good? Wet or dry? 
I know its a fairly decent dog food


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## CoCoTrio (Jan 3, 2013)

There's a thread on Wainwright's here -

http://www.petforums.co.uk/cat-health-nutrition/331899-wainwrights-cat-food.html


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## Jem121 (May 6, 2012)

Thanks cocotrio!
That was an interesting read:biggrin: it seems the majority of cats didn't like it, Toby is a gannet I've never seen him turn down food. I wonder if he would this? 
Maybe I'll get 2 trays to try.
Everyone was saying the ingredients look good, and everyone was saying there cats hate it haha!


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## Satori (Apr 7, 2013)

^ mine continued to turn their noses up at it, but they eat Lily's which has a similar look. Shame really, it could have been a good addition to the retail food options.


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## Torin. (May 18, 2014)

When Encore first came out (4yrs ago maybe?) there were worries that while they were more or less the same as Applaws, that the ingredients were of a lower quality. Specifically chicken from Thailand, and the risk of hormone things that go with non-EU poultry. That was some time ago though, and they may well have improved things. And it may also be something that's more of a worry with rats (easy way to give them fresh protein as a vegetarian) and their predisposition to hormone-based ill health than cats.


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## Giiiiiina (Dec 11, 2018)

lymorelynn said:


> Encore is not complete so should only be fed as an occasional treat


Hi there, when you say encore is not complete.... if eaten with a good quality dry such as royal canine and plenty of water, then that's a pretty good diet surely? My cat will not eat any but the Encore range, and only the fish collection... I tried him on the sainsburys range and he literally turned his nose up.... he's sooo fussy... he's never like chicken bizarrely, or any meat.. only fish... crazy.....


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## Charity (Apr 17, 2013)

If you want to try something very similar to Encore which is complete, try Thrive.


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## sandy-cat (Feb 24, 2018)

Giiiiiina said:


> Hi there, when you say encore is not complete.... if eaten with a good quality dry such as royal canine and plenty of water, then that's a pretty good diet surely? My cat will not eat any but the Encore range, and only the fish collection... I tried him on the sainsburys range and he literally turned his nose up.... he's sooo fussy... he's never like chicken bizarrely, or any meat.. only fish... crazy.....


I would recommend a 100% wet diet over dry food any day. My cat was on dry food when I was fostering him for the Blue Cross. Once I adopted him I got him onto wet food and he is so much healthier. He's a healthy weight, his coat is gorgeous and his allergies have reduced.

Royal Canin isn't a good quality dry food either...Applaws dry is better, or Thrive. If you must feed dry food those are the better choices.

So I'd look to feed say 80% complete wet food and 20% complementary at most. Cats tend to prefer the taste of complementary food as far as I can tell (at least mine does!) but it doesn't contain all the nutrients that they need - taurine in particular, but also other vitamins and minerals.

There are lots of great suggestions for good quality wet food in the sticky here: https://www.petforums.co.uk/threads...-just-the-good-stuff-work-in-progress.440844/

Hope that helps


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## chillminx (Nov 22, 2010)

Good advice from sandy-cat.  I agree that Royal Canin dry is not a good quality food. These are the kind of ingredients found in RC Kibble :

"Corn, poultry protein (dried), rice, vegetable protein isolate, wheat, animal fat, animal protein (hydrolysed), lignocellulose, minerals, beet pulp, soya oil, fructo-oligosaccharides, yeast, fish oil."

The RC dry foods contain grains (corn, rice, wheat) and are therefore high in carbs, which makes them unhealthy for cats because they can't process carbs in the way that e.g. humans and dogs can. So the result is cats on this kind of dry food have a consistently high glycemic index. The food also contains vegetable protein which is difficult for cats to digest as they lack the necessary enzyme to break it down, so it passes out of the body un-utilised. And the food contains soya oil, which some cats are sensitive to.


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