Sorry - I think there has already been a thread but I am typing this at work whilst trying not to get caught online so haven't got time to search

We use Science Plan but recently I had a very interesting conversation about how Sciene Plan fund a lot of vetinary colleges etc and that is why some vet's recommend them?? Not because it's actually the best food

Is there any unbaised way of finding out what type of food is 'best' for my cat???

Of course all opinions are welcome. What does everyone else use?

Amber is on dry food, but with a few pouches of wet a week.

Forget dried foods. They're all awful. Buy her chicken wings, offal, and other meat including bones. My cat was on dried biscuits when he got him from the breeder and his poop reeked the house out. Now he's on raw meat and bones, he's healthier (he used to have a really bloated gut) and his poop is virtually smell-free, to the point that I have to check his tray rather than being alerted by the stench.

Vets often don't get proper training in animal nutrition and as you say, many are sponsored/commisioned by the pet food companies. I don't how many vets there must be which tout Science Plan but almost every surgery I've been in sells the stuff. The dogs I used to know who were fed on it always had poo like mustard. Not healthy.

Be very careful feeding a raw diet - it's awful easy for it to be incomplete or unbalanced. The natural diet of a cat is small rodents and birds, and they don't just eat the lean cuts and bones. If you want to change to a pure raw diet then research it first - you are looking for BARF and similar.

Who did you have the conversation with and what was their proof?

I do feed one of my cats a raw chicken wing each day - she goes nuts for them and is a very messy eater. However she eats some wet food as well and possibly (when I'm not looking) some biscuits.

I've also found that not all cats will eat raw food - one of mine will, the outdoor one will if he catches it (so he has to be wormed regularly), the other clenches his teeth shut.

There are lots of opinions about the 'best' dry food from 'never ever feed it' onwards. One that I've seen people say is 'the best' (again no proof) is Orijen as it doesn't contain any cereals - in the UK you can buy it online. (and it does contain 'russet potatos' - presumably red-skinned potatos, or possibly sweet potato)

However I have no idea why they make a fuss over their meat & fish being 'fresh never frozen' though - freezing is an excellent way of preserving nutritional value and extending shelf life especially for fish.

http://www.orijenpetfoods.co.uk/acatalog/cat_food.html

Yes research is needed when switiching to BARF but there is probably less room for error than with dogs. Dogs need added vegetables more so than cats, and cats should only really have vegetables that grow above the ground (though carrots are OK). The vegetables should be pulped to mimic what they would eat within the digestive system of a small rodent for example. Small amounts of herbs can also be added, such as parsley. There are also many supplements on the market which can be added to their diet to be more certain it's balanced.

I've read on more than one occassion that you shouldn't mix the diets, i.e. raw and cooked, as the digestive system processes them differently.

Dried foods were really only invented for our convenience, not for the nutritional welfare of our pets. And almost all contain some sort of cereal, which especially for cats, is not good for them.

Our Rex was raised on Pro Plan. He was addicted to them (as many biscuits give cats a glucose rush) but he relishes everything we now give him and has done as soon as we switched his diet. He does however, incesantly miaow for more!

Thanks guys.

I don't think we'll feed Amber a BARF diet to be honest? Even as a tiny kitten she has shown zero interest in any 'human' food??? I'd be too worried she wouldn't eat?

As we both work I also like the idea of dry food because we can leave it out for her etc....

I know it's subjective but I just wanted some opinions - so cheers.

Hercules tries to eat something off my plate every single day! Whether it's breakfast, lunch or tea! He 'helps' me cook in the evening, last night he 'sampled' a bit of the beef, just to let me know it was ok to eat, he likes to help out like that

He has kitten Science Plan (all previous pets of ours have eaten SP) and I've always found it to be ok. Coats are always in good condition etc. I'd be interested in hearing about other alternatives though.

Oh bless Hercules

Amber has never shown the slightest interest in anything 'human' - which I have alway found odd? My childhood cat loved human food. In fact she once ate half our Christmas turkey

We have tried Amber with various meats / fish over the years and she just isn't interested.

My tabby loves Purina One and she looks very good on it. She likes it so much she'll eat it out of my hand.


The only human food mine will eat is tuna, she won't eat any other type of fish. Sometimes she'll eat plain chicken, but only the meat not the skin. Her sister would eat anything, she was always trying to steal food off our plates - she was very partial to licking the lid of Dominos garlic dip

Aw, I guess it's their little quirks and differences which make them so interesting and special At least you don't have someone coverting your meals and you get to enjoy it all to yourself!

Raw meat and bones aren't really human food though. Maybe just try her with a chicken wing one day and see if she likes it.

Cats shouldn't really need their food left down for them. I've never had a cat we've done that with. Mine has two meals a day, morning and evening which he eats straight away.

It's your choice of course but I really don't feel dried biscuits are proper food for a cat. It's not natural and the only reason they love them so much is the flavourings and the glucose rush they get from them. It's a bit like feeding a child/adult pot noodles for its entire life.

When a cat catches a small mammal he eats first the head, then he breaks through the rib cage to get to the organs like heart and liver. They are less interested in eating the bits we'd prefer like the leg meat as it doesn't contain the nutrients they need.

RG I couldn't be doing with the kerfuffle of a raw diet either, anyway (as you can see from my description) my cats catch all the small mammals they fancy so I leave them to it. But personally I would switch to a higher percentage of wet food, at least 50%. And preferably buy a brand of dried food like Orijen or Applaws which is much lower in carbs than brands like Hills.

I give my cats Purina one which they love, they also have wet food as well. They also love 'human food' and drive me mad when I am making packed lunches especially if it involves ham,chicken or tuna, I have to remove them from the kitchen and shut the door, yet if I have roasted a chicken and there is a bit left over that I put in their bowls for their supper they won't touch it!

Thank you (and everyone else as always!). Amber is mainly indoor and she has only ever bought us in a few insects, bless her!

I will look into the other brands of dry food and will up her wet food - any particular brand people can recommend? We try her on all different pouches (she doesn't 'do' fish though - she is a right weirdo )

I do appreciate that some posters support the BARF diet but for me it's not feasible really.

Applaws do wet food as well as dry, you could try that (available in various chicken flavours as well as fish!). It's quite expensive, and not as easily available as the mainstream brands (some petshops have it, or you can buy online but that's a bit of a faff if you have to be in for delivery). More here:

http://www.applaws.co.uk/

I give my cats Felix pouches, either regular in jelly, or As Good As It Looks. One of my girls really likes Whiskas pouches but I find the smell absolutely rank so she doesn't get them very often!

Are you a vegetarian?

Errol my Havana used to try to steal my meat if I had a steak, they all clustered round giving me pleading eyes the first time I cooked a pheasent, and Rufus turns up whenever I get the Chorizo out of the fridge - especially the rather good one I've got at present! He also tries to steal it out of my hand...

Nope - we're meat eaters. I used to put down some bits of meat when I cook (steak, chicken etc beofre anything has been added) cat will have a sniff and then leave it

Maybe she is a veggie

I try not too feed them human food but with my lot it doesnt always work. There favourite is mackeral in tomatoe sauce. They have 1 tin between all of them so do realy get a lot. They eat tuna . They do love tuna steaks as well. Guinness likes prawns but only ones from asda. I do buy them a cooked chicken every so often but it has too go around them all and last them all day. I did find stalker the kitten in the bin the other day eating a roast potatoe. They older ones have whiska's and the 3 kittens have wet kitten food and iams biscuits(its the only brand that i know i can get localy) I have used Purina One but i will never use it again it made 6 of my cats very ill. The big ones also eat go-cat biscuits. I couldnt not feed them all dry all of the time as it is so noisy when they all eat it.

IAMS.

The only dry food my cat will eat, he loves them.

I guess you don't want to start feeding raw chicken wings either if noise is a problem. Minnie makes horrible crunching noises with hers, not to mention the pleading noises and the attempts to get in the fridge to help herself.

I just hope she never confuses my finger with a raw wing - I reckon she could just about bite through my little finger.

However the upshot is she has wonderful white clean healthy teeth.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/s....php?t=1374167

I cannot believe the difference in the smell of the litter tray since switching from Hills to Orijen - it hardly smells at all!

With me having 15 which i am happy about. When they all eat dry food at the same time it sounds like a heard of elephants. You realy do need ear plugs.

James Wellbeloved always goes down well, I like the ingredients too, very natural.
Also we sell Purina Pro Plan which is a vey good food, and different ones for different needs such as house cats etc.

I always thought that you were not supposed to give these to cats as they splinter But of course birds, mice etc don't seem to do them any harm

That's only cooked bones.

I give my cats Hills science plan oral care in the morning, sometimes accompanied by another type of dried food such as Whiskas or Iams. They are all healthy and have lovely teeth. In the evening I give them soft food, sometimes cat food, or fish, or raw meat - one cat in particular likes raw meat and another loves fish.

I had one cat that used to go barmy over lasagne. She would not settle until I gave her a bit. She didn't eat it but loved to spend ages just licking it. She was the same with bacon.

All our cats like a little bit of ham, if it is fresh. One particularly likes any type of roast dinner - meat with gravy on. He sits politely waiting for us to give him some. He only eats a little but enjoys it. However a bit of fish, whether specially cooked or out of a tin, is his favourite.