Felix And Whiskas Pouches

Hut27Hut27 Posts: 1,673
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Hi, perhaps I am guilty of duplicating post. Not posted on here before, any thoughts on possible/probable Horsemeat content in these products.
Not saying its wrong in all aspects but we should be told what we're buying and feeding to our Cats.

Comments

  • GamerGirlGamerGirl Posts: 623
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    I for one don't really want to know for certain what comprises the 'meat and animal derivatives' listed on cat food packaging, but I have a pretty good idea :eek: (can anyone say mechanically recovered nostrils and a*seholes?).
    Given that, plus the fact that cats should naturally be eating rodents etc, I would think that horse meat would be a quality ingredient IMHO :D . Especially given that the two brand-names mentioned in the thread title often contain cereals, which cats cannot digest.
  • MuzeMuze Posts: 2,225
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    In all honesty, I doubt anyone could be 100% certain that horsemeat doesn't find it's way into pet foods anyway.

    These brands aren't the best in the world, tbh.

    If you are concerned about the possibility of horse in the food, you could always switch to a high quality, fish-based kibble/wet food.
  • GeowitchGeowitch Posts: 341
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    I personally am not concerned about the possibility of horsemeat in these products, It would have a lot more nutrition than the majority of the ingredients. We do feed our three cats on Whiskas and Felix but what else do people recommend as being higher quality food?On the other hand our three cats do seem very healthy on it.
  • dollymariedollymarie Posts: 3,562
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    Mine mostly live on the Whiskas kitten steamed variety, James Wellbeloved dry and wet food and natures menu kitten food.

    They also have access to Whiskas kitten biscuits.

    I wish they'd eat the cheaper stuff but the gits won't :D
  • ShrikeShrike Posts: 16,590
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    Time was when horsemeat was accepted as being for pet food. I haven't had a cat for 25 years and was quite suprised at the stuff we pamper our pets with now - Brooke is currently feasting on Felix Lamb with game jelly, Duck with spinach, Trout with spinach and Mackeral with tomato. On the face of it she eats better than me :D

    However looking at the breakdown its only 4% lamb etc so I'd expect the rest to be random meat including horse. Frankly I'm cool with that so long as its not going to poison her.
  • MarellaKMarellaK Posts: 5,781
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    I rarely buy boxes of Whiskas or Felix anymore because my cats are so fussy they disregard certain flavours and I end up throwing lots of food away. I tend to buy the odd individual sachet of those brands in flavours that I know Bernard will eat - even though this appears more expensive it's probably more cost effective for me and certainly less wasteful. My 2 females mainly eat science plan dry food (which I am assured by my vet provides excellent nutrition) but they will also eat the odd sachet of applaws or some of the individual 'gourmet' tins or sachets priced at up to 85p for a single portion. The females like tinned tuna as an occasional treat - not sure if tuna is a female thing because my late Tabitha also loved it and would come running from wherever she was in the house if she heard the sound of a tin opener, whereas my male cat doesn't like it at all.

    I do spend a lot on cat food but I like to give my cats what they like and what I know they will probably eat. I would hope that the more expensive foods provide a higher nutritional quality and contain what they say on the label - but I may be fooling myself and succumbing to clever marketing in pet stores. I agree that in the case of pets it probably doesn't matter too much if the products contain horse meat as long as the meat is still nutritional. I'm lucky in that I haven't eaten meat since I was a teenager so I've not being eating horse meat myself, it's been a good time to be a vegetarian.
  • BadcatBadcat Posts: 3,684
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    Horsemeat isn't going to hurt the cat, in fact I'd rather my cats actually eat something containing a high meat content (including horsemeat) than one that is mainly made up of fillers and other rubbish.

    They catch and eat birds and mice that we have NO idea of whether they aren't riddled with disease.

    The meat and fish that goes into EU petfood is almost on par with what humans can eat so I wouldn't be concerned.
  • misha06misha06 Posts: 3,378
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    The beast, at the mo, gets the the Felix foil tins as his staple diet.

    We quite often get various sliced/packet meats, massively discounted late in the day; we have some, and the Beast gets the leftovers - Which he snarfs down with great pleasure.:D

    Just because we spend a lot of time in the kitchen, preparing dinner, chatting and listening to R4 we fished out the packets of remainder slices and Felix cat food.

    The slices had between 60% and 88% of the meat/fish content(of what it alleged to be;)) and Felix had 4% meat/fish content.

    Given that his 'cat food' contains very little actual creature, and that he quite happy to kill and snarf down random small creatures and birds, I'm not too worried about him gobbling down a bit of horse.

    Given his general attitude to other creatures I wouldn't be surprised his if he wanted to 'bring one down' and snarf it anyway :p

    But it has, maybe moving slightly OT, wonder about what is in pet food.

    The Beast is not really a picky eater, and quite often we will pick up some livers or kidney or some discounted chicken or fish and boil it up for him.

    Can be just as cheap as cat food, and it isn't much of an effort to boil a bit of chicken, or rattle some liver in a pan for a few mins.

    And it has made me think, that is the 96% of non meat/fish stuff in a tin for the benefit of the cat or the manufacturers?
  • xdowxdow Posts: 2,388
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    why the big hubub over horse meat anyway?

    i'd eat a horse. it'd be wasteful not to.
    and infact, disrespectful to the slaughtered animal not to do so. it has been killed for a purpose already, wasting its body is literally the most disrespectful thing i could think of to happen in that situation where an otherwise healthy animal has been killed in such a way.

    the main thing bothering me about this "scandal" is the amount of perfectly edible food being wasted.

    i'd be quite happy for these products to end up in the bargain food shops with a sticker on them saying "may contain horse meat" and i'd buy them.
    i don;t actually buy ready meals and such, but wouldn;t throw one out because it might have once gone neigh!

    you never actually know what exactly is in dog and cat food anyway, the flavour on the packet is just that, a flavour.
    if it says "with" that's what it is, "meat" with about 4% named ingredient, like chicken, or tuna.
    probably is some horse in there (especially considering the price of it) but it won't harm the cat, to be honest it won't harm a human either. we're just picky.

    about 80% of wet food is just water anyway.
  • towerstowers Posts: 12,183
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    Shrike wrote: »
    Time was when horsemeat was accepted as being for pet food. I haven't had a cat for 25 years and was quite suprised at the stuff we pamper our pets with now - Brooke is currently feasting on Felix Lamb with game jelly, Duck with spinach, Trout with spinach and Mackeral with tomato. On the face of it she eats better than me :D

    However looking at the breakdown its only 4% lamb etc so I'd expect the rest to be random meat including horse. Frankly I'm cool with that so long as its not going to poison her.

    Having learned about pet food whilst working in a pet shop for 9 years, a vegetarian can eat 80% of what's in cheap tins and foils. I believe a man working for Whiskas ate a can of pet food on tv some years ago.
  • towerstowers Posts: 12,183
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    xdow wrote: »
    why the big hubub over horse meat anyway?

    i'd eat a horse. it'd be wasteful not to.
    and infact, disrespectful to the slaughtered animal not to do so. it has been killed for a purpose already, wasting its body is literally the most disrespectful thing i could think of to happen in that situation where an otherwise healthy animal has been killed in such a way.

    the main thing bothering me about this "scandal" is the amount of perfectly edible food being wasted.

    i'd be quite happy for these products to end up in the bargain food shops with a sticker on them saying "may contain horse meat" and i'd buy them.
    i don;t actually buy ready meals and such, but wouldn;t throw one out because it might have once gone neigh!

    you never actually know what exactly is in dog and cat food anyway, the flavour on the packet is just that, a flavour.
    if it says "with" that's what it is, "meat" with about 4% named ingredient, like chicken, or tuna.
    probably is some horse in there (especially considering the price of it) but it won't harm the cat, to be honest it won't harm a human either. we're just picky.

    about 80% of wet food is just water anyway.

    Traces of Bute - a pain killer for animals - has been found in some sources of horse meat, not knowing where meat has come from is about more that just the animal being used. There's also the issue of animal welfare to consider, many countries have poorer standards than our own, such as they are.
  • SandgrownunSandgrownun Posts: 5,024
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    To be honest. I've always assumed that the flavours of cat and dog meat were just that - flavours, rather than actually 100% beef, chicken, salmon etc.
    xdow wrote: »
    why the big hubub over horse meat anyway?
    For me it's more that if they're sneaking horse into ready meals and mince, what else are they putting in it?
  • towerstowers Posts: 12,183
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    To be honest. I've always assumed that the flavours of cat and dog meat were just that - flavours, rather than actually 100% beef, chicken, salmon etc.?

    Soya plays a large part in cheap dog and cat food, the same thing that goes into vegetarian meat. :)

    Cats can't eat dog food because the non-meat parts of the food ( soya etc ) are the parts that have the nutrients required for each specific animal.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 17,060
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    Tbh I always assumed catfood WAS horsemeat, with a speck of chicken carcass thrown in to give it a name.
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