Changing the cats diet

after switching the dogs onto raw, i then started to think about what my cats get, and how unhealthy their food is.

they were previously fed on whiskas, both wet and dry (they have biscuits down all day, but share a pouch in the morning)

i have switched their meat last week, as whiskas only had 2% meat in and that was animal deraritives (sp?) and not actual meat, which i decided just wasnt good enough. they are now on hi-life meat, which is minimum 60% meat, and its actually meat not the gammy stuff... and they seem to like it, they eat it all and there is six flavours so enough variety for them.

biscuit wise i cant afford to feed £16 a bag food, and i dont like the idea of feeding royal canin or james wellbeloved, as i wouldnt feed that food to my dogs. ive found a biscuit called "purely" which is a pets at home own i think? but after looking in it, there are no additives, no colourings like whiskas etc, and is only £7 a bag, so its not too bad i dont think....

do you fellow cat owners think this is ok?

what do you feed your cats?

also both the brands do kitten food, just in case i decide to get my new arrival

I tried Purely - didnt agree. Just err on side caution as im sure you know

Kitten wise you couldnt do better than Natures Menu. Its fab & very high meat content. Pro Plan dry kitten food is also fab however i wouldnt worry too much re dry until kitten is around 6 months or so

We ran out of Natures Menu at Christmas - snow etc & had to get what village store sold which was Felix & they wont change back

Dry - Amber at 10 months is still on Pro Plan kitten sensitive. Tim is on Hill sensitive. He has very sensitive digestion so it was a case of finding what suited him & Hills filled the need. He certainly does well on what he gets

I have fed my cat on raw previously with some degree of success. It took her some time to get used to it, but cats being cats they often turn their nose up at food if it doesn't smell right - they are not carrion eaters so if it has a smell we can't detect, they will reject it.

There were only a couple of Prize Choice minces she would eat, mainly the beef one. I found she much preferred fresh mince from the butchers, or fresh heart/kidney.

It's not so easy to get bone into cats unless you do feed a mince that contains ground bone or mince it yourself. This is an issue as you don't get the teeth-cleaning benefits that you would with raw chicken wings etc - but having said that, many cats do like chicken wings. I notice more & more cat breeders these days are raw feeding, just as with dogs.

Possibly a 50/50 diet will be one way to go - a good quality kibble plus raw as well.

A least if cats refuse to eat their raw food, you can give it to the dogs instead! Quite handy really

I'm getting a delivery of raw from TPMS next week hopefully and I have included a few things I think my cat will eat.

One reason I went with TPMS is that they do cooked sterilised poultry roll - years ago when I bred cats this is what I used a lot and so did other breeders. OK so it's not raw, but it is somethign that cats really do like and it's not supermarket food, or brand name, nor full of additives, and it's very reasonably priced. I could wean kittens straight on to this, if I minced it up and they loved it!

It costs me so little to feed my dog raw, and he's 26kg.... it costs my little 4kg cat twice as much to feed her on proprietary cat food.... There has to be a better way.

My cats eat 50% raw and 50% various other foods, I offer them whatever the dogs are having and some things they love and others end up in the bin but it's a learning curve. They love chicken wings and carcasses and are partial to heart and beef chunks, not so keen on some of the other stuff and wont touch the minces. I also feed them things like pilchards and sardines which they adore. Actual cat food is a back up.

Mine has Felix pouches, JWB dry, pilchards and sardines in tomato sauce, tuna, and whatever fresh meat we are cooking for the dogs.

Mine eat Dry (whatever I get for that month, I chop and change all the time) and on top of that they get chicks, rats, mice (various sizes) wings, minced beef/lamb/turkey and eggs

see they wont eat raw food, ive tried, they just turn their noses up at it.

i have had a look at natures menu actually and the price doesnt differ too much from the highlife meat, it works out about 5p more a pouch.. so could give that a try.

i really think the new kitten maybe appearing in 3 weeks but hes a boy, and all my cats have pink stuff havent told nana yet, but this kitten is a present and its rude to give back presents

Ours wont contemplate raw either. Used to have a stray cat that would eat chicken wings (now rehomed) he ate his cat food & then the wing. Think ours are too spoilt! Tho Amber on occasion has eaten a little nibble of raw (human standard) red mince

also forgot to ask how do you feed your cats? do they get fed at certain times during the day? or is it left down?

im just thinking about what im going to do if i end up getting this kitten, and he will be on kitten food, and the girls on adult.

Ours are free fed - told you they were spoilt guess what i would do was keep offering kitten the food & then remove unless hes a greedy boy & gobbles it up at once which some do, but not ours it has to be up high tho as dogs would eat it - cat food soooooo tasty