Hi all,

We have two cats, one of which will only exclusively biscuits and loves them, and the other is a bit more fussy, he'll happily eat certain types of biscuits but with meat he'll change his mind often, we'll get him tins of whiska, felix etc and sometimes he absolutely loves them and eats every last bit, but more often than not he'll just leave it, and he also has a terrible habbit of throwing food from his bowl onto the floor to eat it, which makes a huge mess, probably one or two times a day I need to clear the utility room floor

So anyway, I was wondering if there would be any problems feeding the cats exclusively cat biscuits? Things like whiskas, go-cat but also mixing that in with IAMs, Hills science and we've just stocked up on Purely too

Will giving the cats this kind of diet be okay for them? Or should we persist with meat?

Thanks

well firstly your gonna get it from a lot on here as they have issues with dry but personally i have raised cats on dry as long as they are keen water drinkers otherwise a host of issues can start like UTI but i would also suggest a decent brand of dry like Applaws or JWB

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Dry food is inherently BAD for cats - it is mainly carbs and feeding carbs to an obligate carnivore is not a good way to go AND it is excessively dehydrating and cats have NO thirst drive having evolved to get 99% of their moisture from their prey. For every 50g of dry food fed cats need to drink around 1/2 pint of water to counteract the dehydrating effects. Very, very few cats manage this. ~Being in a constant state of dehydration can lead to urine infections and potentially renal failure, neutered boys especially seem prone and also can become crystal formers where little stones keep blocking their urethras and so they become unable to pass urine.

Have a look in the health section Feeding cats for beginners (and more seasoned cat owners alike) and A-Z of wet food for cats and have a good read. Basically if you really MUST feed a dry food go for Acana, Orijen or Applaws as these are grain free (cats can't digest grains so you pay for them to poop it out the other end and it can irritate their gut on the way through. These three avoid grains but do use potato instead which also isn't good for cats but . . . go-cat, tescos and other cheap dry foods are also full of sugars which your cat will become addicted too and are a great cause of obesity in cats. Once you realise HOW dry food is made you certainly realise it is a completely UN-NATURAL food. This book is a very good book about how to feed your cat well Your Cat: A Revolutionary Approach to Feline Health and Happiness: Amazon.co.uk: Elizabeth M. Hodgkins: Books



Whiskas, and Felix etc are not the best cat foods and while easily obtainable are actually quite expensive for what they are - it is easily possible to buy much better quality foods off the web Pet Supplies, Pet Food, Dog Food, Cat Food and Pet Accessories at Zooplus cheaper and they eat less of it because they aren't consuming vast quantities of fillers. A lot of us on here feed Smilla, Bozita, Aminonda Carny and Grau (all but Grau are cheaper per 100g than WHiskas etc AND you need about 1/3 less of it. SO it's a win win situation)

Re the cat throwing his food out of the bowl - why not feed him on the floor anyway? Maybe he doesn't feel safe up on the side and so throws in down to where he does feel able to defend his food.
HTH

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please look at my website - www.finesthourcats.webs.com - for gorgeous GCCF registered RagaMuffins and Selkirk Rex

My two have both wet and dry. Wet is for their main meals and the dry is like a supplement and I give the Applaws dry. I wish I could give them better food than Felix but Shadow will walk away from the better food. Puss Puss will eat anything that you give her.

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Black Tortoiseshell




R.I.P Patch my well behaved boy dog
R.I.P. Abby and Rebel my beautifull litter sister cats

For very good reason - though I don't like to think of it as 'getting it', more 'educating' and 'passing on information'. My very good friends raised 4 cats solely on dry - ALL four died of CRF. It's like raising children on Maccy Dees - it might not kill them but the risks are greatly increased. It's our job to educate ourselves and make up our own minds, for the sake of our cats.

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please look at my website - www.finesthourcats.webs.com - for gorgeous GCCF registered RagaMuffins and Selkirk Rex

sometimes you can't argue with them lol my bella who died of a nasa l tumour 4 yrs ago wanted Go-cat and whiskas occasionally she wanted a pouch once a week but only whiskas chicken flavour lol rest of the time it was go cat and if i tried to force her she would refuse to eat for days

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Sometimes you do have to go with the cat but you make those choices based on the info you have. Something is always going to be better than nothing, rubbish wet is always going to better than dry, good dry better than bad dry, good wet better than bad wet etc. We do what we can as well as we can - but that decision has to be informed.

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please look at my website - www.finesthourcats.webs.com - for gorgeous GCCF registered RagaMuffins and Selkirk Rex

Lets face it, they can be so stubborn when they are in that mood

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Black with white around his private area



Black Tortoiseshell




R.I.P Patch my well behaved boy dog
R.I.P. Abby and Rebel my beautifull litter sister cats

yep there is no dealing with them when they are like that i think this is why people prefer dogs lol
Not my dads JRT though he is just like a cat

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Many thanks guys, I've tried to look for a lot of these brands before (basically Googled them, and they had good reviews) but it's seemingly impossible to find any in a store near here?

It's odd that cats don't feel dehydration too, one of our cats in particular drinks fairly often, although it is never from the plastic bowl that we re-fill each day, always from a puddle sometimes, or annoyingly he occasionally jumps up to drink from taps :/ Maybe a cat water fountain could help with this.

Regarding the cat throwing the food onto the bowl - the food is on the floor anyway, just in a bowl. He picks it up in his mouth and throws it onto the floor before eating it. Feeding him directly onto the floor obviously isn't an option because that's pretty damn gross.

Anyhow, can anyone please recommend me a good assortment for me to try from Zooplus? I don't want to spend loads in case they won't eat it, but I figured it'd be good to try some different things, thank you!