Best WET cat food?

BengaLover

I have looked at all the brands you can get in the supermarkets, Whiskas, Kitekat and Felix. They all have no more than 4% actual meat.
YES I KNOW dried food is best, I do give mine Hills or IAMS dried food too, but they love wet food as well and I like to vary the diet.
Even the vets and pet shops dont seem to sell wet cat food, at least not here anyway.
I am looking for one with a high meat content.
Plus, does anyone know if its ok to give cats cooked liver or kidneys from time to time?

mymo

If you are going to give them liver and kidneys, give them raw, although not too much in one go, also chicken wings are good too.

As for the meat content in the wet food, try looking online for a wider range.
I use zooplus, they deliver quick enough (5-7 days) and have a good range.
The ingredients and meat content are listed for each food.

Just remember that wet food has a very high moisture content so 25% meat would be quite a lot.
Supermarket stuff is mostly crap.

Shanao

Have you tried almo nature? Its made of human grade meat; the stuff in the tin is actually real fish and chicken that we could eat ourselves, none of the processed brown meat stuck together. I get it in my local Maxi Zoo, but you can get it delivered from Zooplus as well. I mostly feed RC cat dry cat food, but have started to give them a bit of this as well, along with giving it to my ferrets. The lot eat together and absolutely adore it; though the small kitten tends to growl at the rest of them:rolleyes: even though they've all got about two kilos on her easily.

Zapperzy

In fact for cats I wouldn't recommend dry food at all, especially not just dry food on it's own. Cat's aren't big drinkers so if there eating just dry food their not getting enough water into them, this can lead to the formation of painful struvite crystals which can lodge in the urethra and become potentially life threatening.

Good brands of cat food are very hard to find in actual shops in Ireland. There's a few like applaws and almo nature but they are very expensive (for what they are which is actually just rice, chicken and water, some have added fruit & veg), those 2 brands aren't actually complete foods so you would have to feed them alongside some other complete food.
I think Tesco are doing a similar type of food which actually I think is complete (from what I remember it's in a black tin), but Im not sure so you'd have to look to make sure it is.

The only place your going to get complete, good value and high quality wet cat foods is online. Zooplus (both .co.uk & .ie) have a brilliant selection. Smilla, bozita, animonda carny and grau are all very high quality brands. I used smilla and animonda carny to put weight on an underweight kitten and they worked wonders, my own cat is currently on smilla but was on bozita and her coat is in great condition (unfortunately she is extremely fussy and I have to change foods often :rolleyes:).

Stay away from any supermarket brands like whiskas, kitekat, felix etc. There's a reason why cats become whiskas junkies, get smelly litter trays and bad breath. :eek:

mymo

I'm currently trying the Bozita from zooplus, have to say the cats love it. It smells great too, not like normal cat food.
Mine are mad for the Reindeer flavour, my daughter thinks thats hilarious and keeps asking them if they want some Rudolf.
They also like the rabbit one, although sometimes leave a bit.
My cats have both had issues with the struvite crystals Zapperzy mentioned, I feed a mix of wet, raw and some special dry food for the condition.

Blueprint

Bozita is a great food for the price and I used to feed it and some Orijen or Acana kibble on the side to all three of my cats and they do great on it. However, one of my cats has been diagnosed with a heart condition and it's a good idea to feed a low salt food for that, so I did some serious ingredient reading and am now feeding her mostly the Grau (all from Zooplus), as it actually has less sodium than most of the low salt ones! The vet had recommended a kidney diet (mainy because they only stock that I suspect), but I didn't feel it was appropriate for her as her kidneys are working fine and she doesn't need a low protein food, especially as she's a skinny thing already.

She loves it and it really looks good - her mother and brother are feeling really left out too!

They've discovered in recent years that high blood pressure is involved with kidney failure in cats, so I'm going to seriously consider switching to Grau for all of them as they get older. Just need to win the Lotto first!

Redlegend7

Both of these options @ Maxi Zoo are vastly superior to your normal supermarket/industrial brands.... It's like comparing fillet steak and Mcdonalds , you don't !!!! My cats love both the Real Nature with it's superb ingredients and they love Select Gold ,they look fantastic too.

digitaldolf

I feed our cat real nature and select gold from Maxi Zoo as well and I'm quite happy with it. Both have a high meat content. I would consider feeding him the Grau without grains. That looks good too.

planetX

BengaLover wrote: »

I have looked at all the brands you can get in the supermarkets, Whiskas, Kitekat and Felix. They all have no more than 4% actual meat.YES I KNOW dried food is best, I do give mine Hills or IAMS dried food too, but they love wet food as well and I like to vary the diet.
Even the vets and pet shops dont seem to sell wet cat food, at least not here anyway.
I am looking for one with a high meat content.
Plus, does anyone know if its ok to give cats cooked liver or kidneys from time to time?

That's not correct, they have 4% of the meat specified - so chicken flavour has 4% chicken. The first ingredient on the list, and so the greatest proportion, is meat and animal derivatives. I feed both dry and supermarket pouches and my cats are in top condition.
Don't overdo the liver - too much of it can cause vitamin A poisoning, but small amounts are fine.

digitaldolf

BengaLover wrote: »

I have looked at all the brands you can get in the supermarkets, Whiskas, Kitekat and Felix. They all have no more than 4% actual meat.
YES I KNOW dried food is best, I do give mine Hills or IAMS dried food too, but they love wet food as well and I like to vary the diet.
Even the vets and pet shops dont seem to sell wet cat food, at least not here anyway.
I am looking for one with a high meat content.
Plus, does anyone know if its ok to give cats cooked liver or kidneys from time to time?

Eh, excuse me? Dried food is best????
Dried food is the worst food you can give a cat. It contains only about 7% moisture. Cats already have concentrated urine and don't have a thirst drive. They won't drink enough to compensate.
Because of all the indigestible byproducts that dry food contains (maize and other crap) the kidneys have to work harder to clean it all out again. If you want a cat with an increased risk of renal failure, give it dried food only.
And the claim that it is good for the teeth is ridiculous as the stuff is brittle and just breaks up. There is no cleaning action worth mentioning. A cat doesn't chew anyway so most of it is swallowed without even coming in contact with the teeth. Cats' teeth are made for tearing, not chewing. The jaw only goes up and down.
Read the info in the following links if you would like to know more. The video shows the result of an all dry food diet.

http://youtu.be/BfJAJfp2WhI

http://www.blakkatz.com/dryfood.html
http://www.catinfo.org/
http://maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.htm#Dry_Food_vs_Canned_Food.__Which_is_reall
http://cats.about.com/cs/catfood/a/canned_food.htm
http://www.bornfreeusa.org/facts.php?more=1&p=359

Kash

Are there any symptoms of struvite crystals that we can look out for?

My 8 year old cat has been eating dry food twice a day all his life and is as healthy as can be, but he does supplement it with random beasties, and also drinks quite a lot (in comparison to other cats I've owned).

I'm not about to change his diet as it does seem to be working well for him, but would love to know any signs to look out for that would indicate an issue.

digitaldolf

Kash wrote: »

Are there any symptoms of struvite crystals that we can look out for?

My 8 year old cat has been eating dry food twice a day all his life and is as healthy as can be, but he does supplement it with random beasties, and also drinks quite a lot (in comparison to other cats I've owned).

I'm not about to change his diet as it does seem to be working well for him, but would love to know any signs to look out for that would indicate an issue.

I was told by the vet that when a cat (tomcat in my case) makes noise while peeing, you're in trouble. Also when a cat goes very frequently, it is also an indication that there is something wrong. A stronger smell than usual off the urine is also not good.

More information here: http://www.knowbetterpetfood.com/feline_struvite_crystals

Kash

Thanks for that - from their site:

Signs to watch for; very frequent litter box use, licking urethral area excessively, straining to urinate, crying in pain while urinating, urinating in various areas of the home, blood in the urine, depression, lack of appetite

So mine is displaying no symptoms. He pees 3-4 times a day (as far as I can tell at least - it's not a litterbox, so I can't be exact) but definitely has no issues in doing so.

I suppose his supplemental diet of raw beasties are keeping things running smoothly. But I may start treating him with a some kitty crack a little more regularly to be on the safe side especially as he is getting older.

I did have a thought though regarding water intake, I wonder if the studies you posted would get the same results if run in our climate? ie. are Irish cats with access to the great outdoors as likely to get so dehydrated? Loki often comes home drenched from the rain/dew and spends a long time licking all of that water away - which has to contribute to increasing his fluid intake... it would be interesting to find out.

BengaLover

I started this thread 2 years ago.
Since then I have found wet food to be highly addictive no matter what the brand, and feed all 3 cats on Go-Cat - having tried the Hills, the science plans, the so called prescription plans, so I guess its all about finding out what suits your cats individual needs and tastes.

digitaldolf

BengaLover wrote: »

I started this thread 2 years ago.
Since then I have found wet food to be highly addictive no matter what the brand, and feed all 3 cats on Go-Cat - having tried the Hills, the science plans, the so called prescription plans, so I guess its all about finding out what suits your cats individual needs and tastes.

Don't know what you mean by addictive. If you mean that your cats like it, be glad. It's better for them than dry food, even the grain free ones.
Don't let yourself be fooled by all the fancy names and claims. Look at the ingredients. When it contains corn (maize) and rice or other grains or a lot of other vegetable or grain fillers, then there is nothing scientific about it. Moneymakers. And all the claims on dry food that it is good for the urinary tract would make me laugh if it wasn't so sad. I really wish they would prohibit companies from doing that.
A lot of vets don't know much about catfood either. They get their information from the food industry itself. Thanks be, some of them copped on and did some research of their own and did a write-up about it. It all boils down to common sense in my opinion.

Cats' individual tastes, I agree. Not every cat likes the same food. As regards to needs: if we're talking about normal healthy cats, they all have the same need for moisture and they all don't drink enough to substitute for an all dry diet. No cats need corn (maize) or rice. So for all cats grain free commercial food would be better. Unfortunately it's not always that easy to get.
zooplus.ie do grain free cat food. Wet food from Grau: http://www.zooplus.ie/shop/cats/canned_cat_food_pouches/grau/grau_gourmet_grainfree/221833

And dry food from Applaws:
http://www.zooplus.ie/shop/cats/dry_cat_food/applaws/127062

The wet food from Applaws doesn't seem to have any added vitamins or taurine so I wouldn't use that myself for our cat.
All this special food is not that cheap but I see my cat as a family member. I don't eat crap. He doesn't get crap to eat. And it might save you on vet bills in the long run. The higher meat content also means that you often have to feed less so it doesn't turn out that much more expensive then.
Everybody has to make up their own minds though about their own cats.
Our furry family members don't have much choice in the matter.

@ Kash > a cat that can roam outside will probably also catch mice etc. So they would be better off in that sense. Ours catches mice on a regular basis and brings some home for us as well. He probably thinks we eat funny stuff. If it makes much of a difference living in Ireland compared to America, I don't know. I don't think the amount of water licked of his fur would be an awful lot but every little bit helps. Would be interesting to see if geography would make any difference.

BengaLover

By addictive I mean that when I gave it as a treat or as something different, they literally screamed for it and hung around wailing for days after..
Now their treat is a tin of tuna rinsed off, and a beaten egg once a week. I spent so much money trying to give them what I thought was the best food money could buy but they refused it point blank every time.:rolleyes:

suziwalsh

Dont know if it has already been recommended but I recommend natures menu wet cat food. http://www.foodforpets.ie/naturesmenu/products/Pouches_for_Cats/Cat_Food_Pouches

nala2012

My cat only eats dry food and drinks plenty of water. I find though that she will only drink it if its very fresh so we have pint glass beside sink and I'd say she drink half a pint a day. If I was changing from dry I'd go for raw before tins/pouches

War Machine 539

My cats go ape**** for Whiskas Oh So Meaty! I mean gaga! There is also these stick lick treats we buy in Lidl that one of them goes insane for! Just keep trying something different every week until you find something they really like! Thats what we did!

sparkle_23

I give my cats dry food. I always have fresh water out for them and they seem to drink a good bit! Should I give them a mixed diet with both dry and wet?

cycocycle

wet food is better for cats, most dried foods cause crystals / kidney stones, cats get more water from wet food and less carbs, far better for your cat.

anniehoo

Old thread.

/closed