# Best cat food



## Britt (May 18, 2014)

Just wondering what you all feed your cats. I adopted Pooh three weeks ago and had noticed that he likes dry food. The vet that I saw for advice recommended Hills Vet Essentials (good for weight control, digestion, teeth, urinary tract). Now I'm stuck to a big bag that my cat refuses to eat. I bought Hair Ball Intense from Royal Canin and he likes them ..... I tried to feed him some Sheba and Whiskas but he never finished his (small) bowl.


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## chillminx (Nov 22, 2010)

Hi, at a rough guess I would say that probably 90% of forum members feed their cats a wet food diet or a raw food diet. I doubt there is anyone here who feeds their cat exclusively on dry food as there are so many reasons why it is bad for cats health, causing illnesses that are basically due to the fact dry food is dehydrating.

It is well nigh impossible for a cat to drink enough water a day to keep themselves fully hydrated on a dry food diet.

It is best not to take dietary advice from vets, as their training does not include diets that are suitable for cats & dogs. They are only taught what diets are best for farm animals. So when vets recommend dry food to you it is only what they have been told, or read, in the marketing blurb from the manufacturers. Vets sell dry food because they get good commission for doing so.

Here is a good article explaining why dry food is bad for cats.

Why Cats Need Canned Food | Little Big Cat

There are also plenty of well-known reputable cat experts who deplore cats being fed a dry food diet - Elizabeth M. Hodgkins for one.

Your Cat: Simple New Secrets to a Longer, Stronger Life by Elizabeth M. Hodgkins: Amazon.co.uk: by Elizabeth M. Hodgkins: Books

So, my advice would be to wean your cat off the dry food and onto a wet food diet. Start by not leaving dry food down all day for him to graze on as it is this that is spoiling his appetite for wet food. Dry food should be weighed out, as per the instructions on the packet, and fed at mealtimes (say 3 times a day) and nothing in between.

As you make the transition to wet food, you gradually reduce the amount of dry food you put down. Don't mix the dry food with the wet, as the dry is laden with bacteria which once it gets wet multiplies rapidly.

Good quality high meat protein wet foods can be found at Zooplus.uk, or at The Happy Kitty Company. Buy in bulk to save on shipping costs.

Or from [email protected] buy Hilife Natures Essentials, Natures Menu, Wainwrights pots (not pouches), Hilife Just Chopped Jelly, and Sheba Fine Flakes. These are all grain free foods.

Best dry foods are all grain free, e.g. Applaws, Wainwrights, Orijen, Arcana, Porta21.


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## Polski (Mar 16, 2014)

Lot of debate on here about what is best and I guess there is no single "best" as surely what is truly best is the best you can afford AND what your cat will actually eat. No point providing one of the highly regarded foods if your cat simply wont eat it. 

I have seven cats, six are fed predominantly wet food but one will touch NO wet food, no meat, no fish. I have tried many many times but he wont budge. He will only eat two brands of dry food and only one flavour from each brand. I bought him a new brand today, Harringtons chicken and rice and after my four female cats literally mugged me and drank them down I was very hopeful...he came running, sniffed them and walked off...the harringtons has been down for 12 hours now and I've just had to feed him some of his food as I think 12 hours more than proves his point that he isn't going to touch it!


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## Treaclesmum (Sep 26, 2011)

Polski said:


> Lot of debate on here about what is best and I guess there is no single "best" as surely what is truly best is the best you can afford AND what your cat will actually eat. No point providing one of the highly regarded foods if your cat simply wont eat it.
> 
> I have seven cats, six are fed predominantly wet food but one will touch NO wet food, no meat, no fish. I have tried many many times but he wont budge. He will only eat two brands of dry food and only one flavour from each brand. I bought him a new brand today, Harringtons chicken and rice and after my four female cats literally mugged me and drank them down I was very hopeful...he came running, sniffed them and walked off...the harringtons has been down for 12 hours now and I've just had to feed him some of his food as I think 12 hours more than proves his point that he isn't going to touch it!


Arden Grange is quite a decent dry food and grain free


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## Polski (Mar 16, 2014)

Treaclesmum said:


> Arden Grange is quite a decent dry food and grain free


Tried it...didnt like it. (Jasper that is) I've tried many, the only other one he liked was James Wellbeloved kitten (it was the first food I EVER managed to get him to eat)...vet said to take it off him since he was no longer a kitten and hes not exactly skinny


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## ALR (Apr 16, 2014)

What about one of these trial bags of Applaws dry? It's only 400g. If you know your cat likes a dry food you can slowly mix small portions of the new dry into the one he likes. Hopefully he will not notice

Also wait until he's very hungry (may be 15 mins past feeding time) and give him one small spoonful of wet and wait until he eats it. Once he does, serve him the dry food. He'll learn if he eats the wet, you'll give him dry food. 

Just do that every day until you increase the amount of wet. It might be worth serving the wet lukewarm (but not hot) so that he can smell it better.


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## Britt (May 18, 2014)

I wish there were trial bags of every dry food available. The one the vet recommended (he had given me a sample to try out) was a bit too rich for my neutered cat. The other vet told me to order the variety for neutered cats, I did and now I'm stuck with a bag that he won't touch (cost 25£). I will bring the bag to the shelter later this week.

I fed him some tuna in brine earlier and he loved it!


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## Polski (Mar 16, 2014)

Believe me I have tried all methods...it resulted in going without food for about 16 hours and a case if cystitis. He suffers with idiopathic cystitis and just sending him to coventry for bad behaviour has resulted in it. I tried a new food yesterday and hes possibly showing early signs although he was peeing like a trooper last night to mark all 8 clean litter boxes. Giving him lots of one on one today to see if I can prevent a vet trip.


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## Britt (May 18, 2014)

Polski said:


> Believe me I have tried all methods...it resulted in going without food for about 16 hours and a case if cystitis. He suffers with idiopathic cystitis and just sending him to coventry for bad behaviour has resulted in it. I tried a new food yesterday and hes possibly showing early signs although he was peeing like a trooper last night to mark all 8 clean litter boxes. Giving him lots of one on one today to see if I can prevent a vet trip.


That's why I trusted the vet when he told me that Vet Essentials was good dry food. After all he is supposed to have the knowledge. I should have asked for more samples to try. Soon I will have more cat food than human food at the house


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## Jellypi3 (Jan 3, 2014)

GranataPet do a trial bag when you order from the Happy Kitty Company, their food is meant to be quite good as a dry variety. But as Chillminx said, ideally you want to get your cat on to a wet food diet, and ideally a good quality wet food


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## Britt (May 18, 2014)

Jellypi3 said:


> But as Chillminx said, ideally you want to get your cat on to a wet food diet, and ideally a good quality wet food


Is there a brand that you recommend? Not sure I can find everything you have there but I can try.


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## CoCoTrio (Jan 3, 2013)

You're in Belgium? Should be easy to get the good German brands.  

Favourites with ours are Granatapet, Grau, Macs, Ropocat, Omnomnom (and Bozita - tho' that's from Sweden really).


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## Cazzer (Feb 1, 2010)

Britt said:


> I fed him some tuna in brine earlier and he loved it!


I wouldn't give him too much tuna, as it's not good for them due to the mercury also if you do make sure it's the one in spring water as brine isn't good for their kidneys either!

Another good brand is Catz again German


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## kategod (Feb 13, 2014)

I'm another convert to wet food - primarily because one of my kittens became quite ill a few months ago, with a high temperature and swollen glands - we never found out the cause but the vet thought it was inflammation and I had noticed he appeared to be in pain after eating as he sat hunched up. Someone on this forum suggested that he could be grain-intolerant so I immediately cut out all foods containing cereals - and then moved him to wet food as well. He has been so much better, with only the occasional flare-up if he eats too many treats. It needn't be expensive to feed a wet diet - we have a rotation of Butcher's Classic, Hi Life Tempt Me (both available widely in supermarkets), Animonda vom Feinstein and Miamor in Jelly (both of which I get from Zooplus.

Another reason I decided to abandon dry food is that my previous cat died from kidney failure, having had a dry diet all her life (recommended by the vet) - I"m positive that this was partly responsible. It isn't natural for a cat to eat nothing but little dried pellets, when you think about it - ideally I would feed a raw diet but it just isn't practical for me, so good quality wet food, with as high a percentage of meat as possible, is the next best option.

You may get some resistance at first as you switch from dry to wet - we certainly did - but don't give up. Henry steadfastly refused to eat Animonda for a number of days - but then decided it was the best thing since sliced bread (literally overnight), and now it's his favourite. At first, with new varieties, I crumbled up a couple of Thrive dried shrimp treats and sprinkled them on top to encourage him to eat, but I don't need to do that now.


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## korrok (Sep 4, 2013)

Britt said:


> Is there a brand that you recommend? Not sure I can find everything you have there but I can try.


Assuming you can get the same stuff as we do in the Netherlands, you can get the Sheba Fine Flakes (or Delicato) or indeed other Sheba which is a good bet. Whiskas "Oh So" or Purely (different names between UK and the continent) is the best Whiskas option. Overall though I really recommend ordering from Zooplus.be. It has the most options and is way cheaper than using pet stores or supermarkets. You will find most of the brands mentioned in the thread there.


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## chillminx (Nov 22, 2010)

Just to echo Cazzer's comment - definitely do not give your cat tuna in brine, because of the risk to his kidneys. 

Tuna in Spring Water is Ok for a very occasional treat, e.g. no more than once a month. This is because of the contamination levels of pesticides etc in deep sea fish.


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## Britt (May 18, 2014)

korrok said:


> Assuming you can get the same stuff as we do in the Netherlands, you can get the Sheba Fine Flakes (or Delicato) or indeed other Sheba which is a good bet. Whiskas "Oh So" or Purely (different names between UK and the continent) is the best Whiskas option. Overall though I really recommend ordering from Zooplus.be. It has the most options and is way cheaper than using pet stores or supermarkets. You will find most of the brands mentioned in the thread there.


I order everything on Zooplus actually. I tried Sheba, Whiskas, Almo Nature, he eats a few bites and that's it. I'm gonna cook some chicken for him and see how that works.


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## korrok (Sep 4, 2013)

Britt said:


> I order everything on Zooplus actually. I tried Sheba, Whiskas, Almo Nature, he eats a few bites and that's it. I'm gonna cook some chicken for him and see how that works.


Keep in mind the Almo is not complete food, so it's best to skip it (unless your cat loves it, then it's an ok treat).

The thing is that it's very hard to get them to try new wet food while they are eating the dry food, as the dry fills them right up. Cut the dry way way way down, and they will be more willing to try the wet food.

Also if the cats aren't keen on food in jelly, you could try pate food or gravy food? Mine are really fussy sods so I've had to buy a lot and donate it away to the shelter when they don't eat it. Some other popular ones to give a go are Miamor Ragout Royale in jelly, Animonda Carny, Schmusy Nature, or perhaps the Animonda Vom Feinsten for castrated cats (it's unusual in that it's turkey based, so very different from most other foods).

But yeah, it's well worth it in the end since dry food is a big health hazard. The only people I know who feed it have ended up with cats with urinary problems (crystals). Dry is just fine for putting a little in a treat ball, or giving once in a while if you know you have to be out, but feeding it full-time is not the best idea.


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## Britt (May 18, 2014)

I feed stray cats near the precinct I work at and I give them Pooh's leftovers (and that's quite a lot since he only takes a few bites if anything wet). 
I'm gonna keep trying though but I wonder why vets recommend dry food that's bad for my cat's health


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## CoCoTrio (Jan 3, 2013)

Vets get paid for recommending certain foods... 



Britt said:


> I'm gonna cook some chicken for him and see how that works.


Get yourself some Felini Complete and you can try all kinds of meat, cooked or raw. You'll need it to make the meat into a complete meal.


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## Ely01 (May 14, 2014)

As others say it depends on the cat and what you can afford. 
I feed my cat 80% wet food and give him a little bit of dry food as a snack after his meals. 
He was on Nature's Menu for a little while but then stopped eating a couple of the flavours so I am currently exploring other high meat content food/brands.
Sainsbury's Delicious Collection, he's on this for now, it's 50% meat and not too expensive. 
I have some Hi Life Indulge me! stuff and some Encore stuff in the cupboard for him to try.

I'd say, the best food is the food that smells and looks like meat/fish etc up close too.

All the best,


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## Britt (May 18, 2014)

He eats a bit of wet food first thing in the morning (breakfast ) but later in he day he prefers dry food. I'm gonna cook some white fish and some chicken this week-end and see if he likes my cooking.
I don't mind buying expensive wet food as long as he eats it.


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