what do you feed your cats?

portgirl123

I have 3 cats who are all rescue. Tinka is 6, Teddy 2 and hydee who is around 3. I find that they cost me more to feed a week than my 3 dogs. A staff, a boxer and the new addition Sally the shih tzu.

I fed them pouch or tins mixed with dry food. they go through 3 x 12 pouches plus dry, add the cost of litter and the bill is sky high. Not giving out(well maybe a little), just wondering about others cat costs

alanajane

Hi, we have two adult cats and I feed them twice a day with a mixture of wet food (1tin) and some dry food. The dry food I buy in Aldi for €2.49 and the tins I buy in Supervalu 12 tins of Felix there for €6. I would get almost 2 weeks from this, they both healthy happy cats. Pouches are way toooo expensive.

Blueprint

I've got one dog and three cats and the cats do cost more to feed than the dog, he's only a small guy though. The cats are fed Bozita cat food, two tetra packs a day between the three of them and Orijen dry food to graze on. I buy it all from Zooplus and find it doesn't cost more than feeding tinned suprmarket food bought locally, but it's much better quality food.

http://www.zooplus.ie/shop/cats/canned_cat_food_pouches/bozita

I usually buy two of the multi-packs at a time, which lasts around 2 months. My postman loves me!

Shanao

I feed my two cats on select gold from Maxi Zoo, dried food only and it costs 16.99 for a bag that lasts over two weeks. The problem is the wet food, tins and pouches cost far more to feed because they're 80% water and you need to feed three times as much as you would of dry food. Its only costing me .84 cent to feed my two cats a day because they only get dried stuff. Granted, they get the odd tin of sardines or tuna as well maybe once or twice a week, but it still doesn't cost as much as the tinned stuff would. Not to mention that its a high quality food so they've lovely shiny coats.

Ever2010

we buy the Hills Science plan stuff - a huge bag costs about 38 euro - lasts our two the month. I'd give them a pouch of wet food to share once or twice a week as a treat.

Blueprint

Dry food only diets can be a bit of a problem for cats though, as they don't drink enough. I used to feed mostly Orijen kibble and then a bit of wet, but one of my cats has UTI issues and the wet is much better for that.

flower tattoo

i get tins of dog food from Lidl. the big cans are .99 cent and 3/4 does 2 cats and a small dog once a day. i throw dry cat food on top - box from lidl last a week and a bit and costs €2 something. The cats are strays and are still hanging around over a year later so they must be fairly happy with the dog food!!

sex panther

my two are so picky ive tried loads of things :rolleyes: but they seem to like the whiskas pouchs, 1 pouch between them morning and evening, I always have a bowl of dried food available, and i give some cat milk as a treat every now and then. My tom cat is still skinny compared to my girl, he just isnt interested in food!

Shanao

Never had a problem with them drinking; they've been drinking it since they were kittens and they absolutely love water. They drink about a two litre bottle of water between them in a day and if there's none in their bowl, they'll sit in the sink until they get some.

Also, flower tattoo, you really, really shouldn't feed cats dog food because the protein levels aren't high enough to maintain a cats needs, and dogs, like us can make an essential amino acid called taurine that cats cant. Cat food has taurine in it, whereas dog food doesn't. Unless they're getting that taurine from somewhere else, they will get sick and probably wont live as long as they should

anniehoo

I feed mine Royal Canin male neutered..only because i get it cheap in work.

Blueprint wrote: »

as they don't drink enough.

Ive no problem here. Beanie drinks alot of water...permanently has his head stuck down my glass of water.

Ran out of RC so hes eating Purina One Adult this week. I find the pouches messy,too much waste and hes not mad about them.

If you are buying tins, remember Lidl has tins of tuna and fish in oils for less than a euro if you want to substitute every now and then.

Buy in bulk, itll definitely be cheaper for a multiple pet household.

planetX

I feed mine on gocat dry food, which I have to buy in the smaller packs cos they only like it fresh!!!! And a couple of whiskas pouches a day which they don't like much anymore, and certain flavours get left until I throw them out. I spend a fortune on cat food, and my cats say 'Meh'
They prefer fresh mice:eek:

lubie76

Ever2010 wrote: »

we buy the Hills Science plan stuff - a huge bag costs about 38 euro - lasts our two the month. I'd give them a pouch of wet food to share once or twice a week as a treat.

I buy the Feline Hills Science too and it really does seem to be the best as I have tried others and they seem to be constantly hungry no matter how much I feed them with the exception of the dry food by James Wellbeloved (can be expensive). The Hills can work out cheap if you buy in bulk online and as I have 3 hungry mouths to feed I buy the massive 15kg bags which last them 15 weeks. I get the best deal on the UK version of Zooplus and recently bought 30kgs (2 x 15) for about 105 euro and free delivery. That is over 6 months of quality food for my 3 which I think is great value. it pays to shop around and in bulk. Its 150 euro on the Irish Zooplus site

They do share the occasional pouch of whiskas wet food as a treat but they stink after it. I'm convinced its the cat version of heroin. They go mental for it!

Heroditas

planetX wrote: »

I feed mine on gocat dry food, which I have to buy in the smaller packs cos they only like it fresh!!!! And a couple of whiskas pouches a day which they don't like much anymore, and certain flavours get left until I throw them out. I spend a fortune on cat food, and my cats say 'Meh'
They prefer fresh mice:eek:

We also feed our two the Gocat dry food and I've definitely found we need to buy the 2kg bag because they turn their noses up if we use a larger bag after a while.
They then get a pouch of Felix between them for dinner in the evening.

We had to cut down on their dry food recently because we brought them to the vet and he said they could do with going on a diet.

I felt like a bad parent

sambuka41

flower tattoo wrote: »

i get tins of dog food from Lidl. the big cans are .99 cent and 3/4 does 2 cats and a small dog once a day. i throw dry cat food on top - box from lidl last a week and a bit and costs €2 something. The cats are strays and are still hanging around over a year later so they must be fairly happy with the dog food!!

Its not good for cats to eat dog food, its lacking in taurine (i think thats what its called?;)). It helps with eyesight as far as i know.

My guy is mad for Kitekat and Go Cat for the dry. I only feed 1 or 2 ouched a day then the rest in dry. Trying to keep the teeth sorted with dry and kidneys sorted with wet!!! With the occasional bit if chicken!!!:D

anniehoo

sambuka41 wrote: »

Its not good for cats to eat dog food, its lacking in taurine !

You're correct there, taurine is an essential amino acid needed by cats as they cant synthesise it by themselves. Cats are classed as "obligate carnivores" and need this nutrient to prevent a whole host of problems.

Thats why a cat fed a vegetarian diet needs to be carefully planned to ensure this is added. But, seeing as they're strays (probably feeding off mice,birds etc) and are also getting a mix of cat food in there its not too bad. Cats should not be fed solely on dog food (dogs synthesise taurine themselves) or a veg diet without it being added.

Shanao

Heroditas wrote: »

We also feed our two the Gocat dry food and I've definitely found we need to buy the 2kg bag because they turn their noses up if we use a larger bag after a while.
They then get a pouch of Felix between them for dinner in the evening.

We had to cut down on their dry food recently because we brought them to the vet and he said they could do with going on a diet.

I felt like a bad parent

You would actually be far better off giving them less of the wet food than the dry food. The wet food, nutritionally speaking, is basically like throwing a cheese burger in with their dinner, unless its a really high quality wet food. And even then, they tend to have too much sugar and fat in them. You'd be better off switching the cats to a light dry food- makes them feel full but has a lot less fat

Manach

OP reply: Whiskas pouches and Dunne's dry food. The mice/shrews/rats they catch themselves.

mymo

I feed my two a mixture, dry struvite management food(one has had these bladder stones so food is preventative, and can't stop the other eating it too), some wet food(bozita was last one, whatever is on offer when ordering) which I add water too, and some raw meat(mainly trimmings or chicken wings etc).
The rescue cat we got about 18 months ago will try and eat anything left lying around, bread seems to be a favourite, so we have to be careful.

The Sweeper

Six cats.

I buy Royal Canin in 15kg bags, which I decant into a sealed tub to keep the air out between shovelfuls. They get one meal of dry food as half of their daily calorie intake.

The other half is either commercial wet food or raw food, or a mixture - the raw includes chicken necks, liver, heart, muscle meat - the organs and meat all cut into chunks for chewing - beef, lamb, chicken are the three main protein sources, plus kangaroo (though I appreciate the lack of availability of that in Ireland!)

I'd change mine to all raw but they just won't eat the bones - some will, some baulk at it. With seven animals in total I just don't have time to separately feed and monitor 14 meals a day to ensure everyone gets the appropriate bit of everything, but this way is working pretty well for me at the moment.

Zapperzy

Dry james wellbeloved and bozita tetra packs, 3 meals of each a day. 1 tetrapack would last about 5 days (kept in the fridge to stay fresh) and a 2kg bag of JWB would last about 3 months. Thats just to feed 1 indoor cat who eats hardly anything yet is still a little pudgy (constant battle to keep her weight down). A bag of JWB is about €18 I think and a 6 pack of bozita pate is €7. A teaspoon of salmon oil in her food each day too, about €10 a bottle which lasts about 2-3 months (shared with the dog also). Overall quite cheap to feed her very high quality food.

Cats ideally need some form of wet food in their diet, your average cat doesn't drink enough water which will result in the cat forming crystals in it's bladder after a while. If the cat is an outdoor cat then at least it's probably getting it's water from eating mice/birds and drinking from places more interesting than a water bowl, but with an indoor cat it is vital that it has some form of wet food in it's diet. Providing a water fountain is also a good idea as cats tend not to like drinking from boring water bowls and much prefer running water.

Heroditas

Shanao wrote: »

You would actually be far better off giving them less of the wet food than the dry food. The wet food, nutritionally speaking, is basically like throwing a cheese burger in with their dinner, unless its a really high quality wet food. And even then, they tend to have too much sugar and fat in them. You'd be better off switching the cats to a light dry food- makes them feel full but has a lot less fat

I have a feeling the main issue might be that one of them is just plain greedy!
He seems to spend his life trying to figure out how to source food.
Also, I had a habit of putting too much dry food in the bowl. The greedy gut spends his time scoffing it down

The wet food must be a form of kitty heroin/crack cocaine.
Both of our cats have figured out how to open the press where the pouches are stored and have often robbed pouches and torn them open and gorged themselves on the wet food.

Zapperzy

Heroditas wrote: »

I have a feeling the main issue might be that one of them is just plain greedy!
He seems to spend his life trying to figure out how to source food.
Also, I had a habit of putting too much dry food in the bowl. The greedy gut spends his time scoffing it down

The wet food must be a form of kitty heroin/crack cocaine.
Both of our cats have figured out how to open the press where the pouches are stored and have often robbed pouches and torn them open and gorged themselves on the wet food.

Iv found the same thing with my cat when Iv given her whiskas and other supermarket brands, personally I think it has something to do with the sugar in them although I don't think it's been proven yet. She'd cry the house down when she seen the purple pouch/tin coming and scoff the lot down, now with better quality brands that don't contain sugar (bozita, applaws, cosma) she'l still eat them but they don't have quite the same effect.

Shanao

Yeah one of ours is like that as well- managed to get into a press and ate his way into one of those dog food trays when we had a rescue dog staying with us. Of course, it smells and tastes lovely to them, as cheeseburgers do to us, but unfortunately, that doesn't mean its good for them. In a way, I think it might be like crack cocaine for them alright. With the wet food, only about twenty percent of the actual food gets absorbed into the gut and the rest of it is waste: hence why they still feel hungry after them.
You can get a diet form of the wet food though if they wont eat only dry, we only used the diet dry food of the same brand but our guy lost half a kilo and now he's perfect weight again. With higher quality foods like select gold, royal canin and science plan you feed way less than the other foods so you get much longer out of the bag.

The Sweeper

Cats can't taste sugar.

The biggest influence on what a cat eats is its sense of smell. Whiskas put a lot of money into researching appetising smells and conducting kitty taste tests to see what smells are most attractive to cats. That's why your cat reacts like it's kitty crack when you open a pouch of whiskas - because of how it smells. That's also why many cats will go mad for wet food over dry - the smell is more intense.

It's also the reason Whiskas fish flavours are my secret weapon in times of illness - my cats never, ever get those pouches, but if they're ill and off their food, Whiskas fish varieties can be what I need to get them eating again, a sneaky trick I've used with my own and with foster cats.

I find whiskas meat variety pouches very useful for feeding the cats any supplements I want them to eat - L-lysine in particular, medications, worm meds and taurine, but the litter boxes would be a total nightmare if they got the RDA of whiskas every day and nothing else.

salsagal

I've got 2 adult cats. They'll eat practically any dry foodstuffs I've tried on them. Now trying to get them on a more 'wet' diet and eventually (when I've got it figured out in my own head) a more raw diet.

But for the moment, I buy the dry in bulk from Zooplus. I order approx 30-35kg every 6 months (or less now they're eating wet foods).
As another poster mentioned - it goes in sealed containers to keep fresh (but my guys aren't too fussy in that respect).

I never buy pouches (unless I'm down to the last tin & the shop has no tins in stock) as they're way too dear.

From experience (and living on v little money) I squirrel away about €5 p/wk into savings, and over course of 6 months I've got enough for the next Zooplus order. Sometimes if the order is large enuf I get discounted, or at least points 2wards free toys:-) - They both love chewing the plastic casing off the stick which dangles something on the end of elastic...the toy stays intact, but the plastic casing is in shreds!! go figure.

So yeah, OP, it ain't cheap but u can use ur experience to figure out the best source of food - online or local, and ur buying habits may show u a decent way to save for the costs?!

Rockery Woman

I feed mine tinned catfood from lidl mixed with dry food (mix it up really well) from Aldi - they love it!

Zapperzy

The Sweeper wrote: »

Cats can't taste sugar.

The biggest influence on what a cat eats is its sense of smell. Whiskas put a lot of money into researching appetising smells and conducting kitty taste tests to see what smells are most attractive to cats. That's why your cat reacts like it's kitty crack when you open a pouch of whiskas - because of how it smells. That's also why many cats will go mad for wet food over dry - the smell is more intense.

It's also the reason Whiskas fish flavours are my secret weapon in times of illness - my cats never, ever get those pouches, but if they're ill and off their food, Whiskas fish varieties can be what I need to get them eating again, a sneaky trick I've used with my own and with foster cats.

I find whiskas meat variety pouches very useful for feeding the cats any supplements I want them to eat - L-lysine in particular, medications, worm meds and taurine, but the litter boxes would be a total nightmare if they got the RDA of whiskas every day and nothing else.

But could it be possible that they are becoming addicted to the sugar and craving it, a bit like how people can become addicted to eating sweets. They may not be able to taste it but Im sure it has some effect on them. Isin't it the bacteria in human's guts that can become hooked on sugar because they breed better in sugary foods so when your low on sugar you get a chocolate craving? Could the same apply to cats I wonder?

Surprisingly my cat shows no preferences towards any flavours even fishy flavours. My cousin's cat also refuses to eat any fishy flavour. Maybe my family just has weird cats!

Edited: Just to add there's a huge difference in the litter tray when I have to feed the likes of whiskas. The smell would nearly clear the room and even my sense of smell is practicaly non-existant. Anyone that ever says to me that cats smell I always tell them that what they are putting into the cat = what comes out of the cat. sh*t = sh*t!

biddywiddy

Hi everyone.

Sorry for the possible thread hijack, OP, but I figure this is sorta related. We have just adopted a rescue kitten - the vet reckons he's about 5-6 weeks old. He might just be the cutest thing I've ever seen

We're thinking about putting in an order online for some wet food - is it important to get kitten food, or are regular wet pouches ok (mashed up a bit to make the bits smaller)? We've been looking at the Bozita tetra paks:
http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/canned_cat_food_pouches/bozita/bozita_saver_packs/48832
We've been feeding him whiskas kitten pouches over the weekend and he has been wolfing them down!

Edit: Found Bozita kitten food, but it's listed as a 'supplement' - should it be given along with some wet food?

Any advice here would be appreciated

planetX

Zapperzy wrote: »

But could it be possible that they are becoming addicted to the sugar and craving it, a bit like how people can become addicted to eating sweets. They may not be able to taste it but Im sure it has some effect on them. Isin't it the bacteria in human's guts that can become hooked on sugar because they breed better in sugary foods so when your low on sugar you get a chocolate craving? Could the same apply to cats I wonder?

Surprisingly my cat shows no preferences towards any flavours even fishy flavours. My cousin's cat also refuses to eat any fishy flavour. Maybe my family just has weird cats!

Edited: Just to add there's a huge difference in the litter tray when I have to feed the likes of whiskas. The smell would nearly clear the room and even my sense of smell is practicaly non-existant. Anyone that ever says to me that cats smell I always tell them that what they are putting into the cat = what comes out of the cat. sh*t = sh*t!

My cats won't touch the fishy flavours either, or any 'real' fish that I buy as a treat. And they certainly aren't hooked on whiskas pouches, in fact the more I give them, the less they like them.

The Sweeper

There's been a bunch of interesting research that shows cats can apparently taste the amino acids in food - basically they can taste the nutrition in food and will eat what they really need for their health.

I think I feed, at most, four whiskas pouches per day between six cats, and that's four out of seven days of the week. Raw is just cheaper and they appear to relish it!

I don't like the link between dry food and painful bladder syndrome (which appears to be the latest term encompassing FLUTD / FIC etc.) and would never feed an all-dry diet to a cat. Dry-diet-related problems in domestic cats are RIFE. I'm almost evangelical about this now.

Two of my cats are litter mates. A relative owns a third of the same litter. All cats have anxious tendencies. My male was the first to be diagnosed with FIC. We treated with antibiotics and anti-spasmodics - not much effect.

We then went on to treat with metacam, an anti inflammatory painkiller. It's not suitable for long term use in cats, or for use in cats with kidney trouble from their issues.

We used metacam, a feliway diffuser, a mixed diet with lots of raw and wet food, water fountains and a particular focus on play and cuddles for the male cat. His FIC resolved. The female has only shown signs of difficulty urinating once - we gave her one dose of metacam and spoiled her for two days - problem resolved.

The relative with the other litter mate, also male, feeds Hills S/D original dry, but maintains her cat won't eat anything else. He eats an all-dry diet. He has struvite and oxalate crystals, and had a urethral blockage two weeks ago that needed emergency catheterisation. He's on antibiotics and kitty Valium now.

After full blood and urine tests showed no struvite or oxalate crystals, and no kidney or liver damage, we switched to an as-needed dose of metacam for our male. Again it's not suitable in cats for long-term use and it's hard on the kidneys, so not suitable for cats whose bladder problems have damaged their kidneys. If our male becomes stressed and strains to urinate, it sometimes only takes one dose of metacam to help him. That takes away the pain and the inflammation which in turn reduces the stress, which again reduces the symptoms. We've probably had to use the metacam three times in the seven months since he was first diagnosed, encompassing five doses in total - which I'm confident doesn't count as long term use!

Feeding cats is actually a bloody minefield, but it only becomes evident if you either read up about it, or have contact with a lot of cats...

planetX

The Sweeper wrote: »

We've probably had to use the metacam three times in the seven months since he was first diagnosed, encompassing five doses in total - which I'm confident doesn't count as long term use!

I'm glad to see you stressing the care needed with metacam. My cat was on it for a joint problem and it nearly finished her off. It affected her stomach and she couldn't keep any food or water down.