Frugality & cat food

Post by Mo » 25 Jan 2016, 11:08

This is a topic that might go in either category.
My daughter gave me a book for Christmas with advice for Meanies.
Most of it so obvious that it was not worth reading but she said don't buy cheap cat food - your cat will eat more of it as it has more carbohydrates & less protein.
Now
a) I always do buy cheap cat food, the dry sort as Pat doesn't like tinned. I always thought that it was silly paying for a 'name' and all the advertising when it was not obvious that it was different
b) I have vague recollections of reading somewhere that some brands have too much protein as hunting cats would naturally eat their prey whole.

Any thoughts (I'm sure someone will have researched this)

nicklincs · Post by **nicklincs** » 26 Jan 2016, 21:14

I feed my cats a diet of raw meat,they love it and my vet said its much healthier for them. It works out quite cheap,about 50 p a day for 3 cats.

chookmike · Post by **chookmike** » 05 Feb 2016, 19:24

This is very interesting as Pip the cat has a problem - we were looking forward to a period of simplicity after the hens went the way of all living things...

I noticed Pip was getting a wee bit bulky around the abdomen and this has just got worse and worse - he is now a little barrel although all other vital signs are normal and behaviour is unchanged allowing for miserable weather.

We called our mobile vet of course, who is brilliant and carried out a full hands on exam of the distended belly and found nothing.

He asked to see his food and said it was mainly cereal and little protein - the food was one of the big two names in the supermarket. He said that Pip may even have become gluten intolerant like me!

Straight out to get cereal-free food from one of the pet warehouses springing up all over the place. Some of these feeds are £35 for a reasonable sized bag! Found one at £6 for about 10 days.

Sad to say no improvement.

I will speak with the vet about trying meat - would be interested to know what Nicklincs feeds?

Vet a bit stumped and suggests bloods and Xray at £250 which is a bit rich considering his normal behaviour.

Cheers

Chookmike

Post by **wendy** » 05 Feb 2016, 20:11

Can't really comment, as I have always fed my animals on raw food.
But I think you really have to read the labels nowadays.

nicklincs · Post by **nicklincs** » 13 Feb 2016, 00:21

I feed a mixture of raw tripe and chicken mince made by natures menu. I get mine from a feed store who are very reasonable in price. It can be ordered direct from the company and they will deliver it to your home. My cats love it and they no longer get tummy upsets on the raw diet. 'Ive tried very exspensive cat biscuits and cheaper ones, and they still had tummy troubles. My vet told me cats are designed to eat fur and feather, not biscuits.
I do still give them cat treats though,and a few biscuits now and then.

Freeranger · Post by **Freeranger** » 16 Feb 2016, 22:08

We gave our cats a mix of canned and dry food, but one ate mostly biscuits and the other mostly tinned. The 'tinned' one developed dental problems, stomatitis (ulcers on soft mouth tissue) and diabetes. The vet told us this was because of the sugar content in the jelly. At worst, we should have given gravy. At best, they should have both had the dry food. He managed to cure himself of the diabetes by being a genius cat and having a change of diet, but I wish I'd known that at the beginning. We lost him before his time, and I will only ever give dry food and 'gushy' treats. The jellied meat was one that several owners preferred.