Hello All!

The OH and I have decided to get Raggie kittens instead of Maine Coons and for the life of me, I am so excited!
After reading, re-reading, and re-re-reading the A-Z wet and dry foods list, I'm still trying to come to a decision about their food.
They are just over 2months old and currently on Royal Canin - something that I am not keen on and believe its overly hyped and not as good as some brands.
The popular ones people seem to like are Smilla (wet), Orijen (dry), Applaws (dry), Bozita (wet...I think). My aunt-in-law feeds her cockerpoodle Lily's Kitchen and tbf, the dog is absolutely gorgeous, very lively, bright eyed and crazy-tailed. Lily's appeals because its organic and seems to tick the right boxes.
I'm really concerned about making the right choice with a decent budget and so far thought Smilla wet/Applaws Dry or Smilla wet/ Orijen Dry was a good choice, with the occasional fresh tuna or chicken thrown in. I've read about TigerCat and not quite sure where I'd get this.

Any advice would be really helpful.

And yes, once we've gotten pictures, they will be up everywhere!

Musie

Sorry, can't offer you any advice whatsoever really but just wanted to share in your excitement

We are getting two new kittens next week and the foods we have ended up investing in for them to try are...

• Smilla
• Grau Gourmet
• Bozita
• Animonda Carny
• Orijen (dry)

We bought all of these from Zooplus.co.uk and I made the decision to choose those brands based on advice from this board.

We're going to keep our kittens on their current diet of Felix and Purina Pro Plan for a week or two before trying to integrate some of the above into their diet. What we actually end up feeding them will of course depend on what they like! They may turn their noses up at it all.

I also have a few tins of Mac's, TigerCat, Granatapet and Petnatur from a kind PF member which we will also be trying on our cats. These are all available as import-only from Germany so you would have to order from a German site. The ones I have specified in the list above are all available from Zooplus.co.uk

One great bit of advice I have picked up is not to necessarily stick to one brand of food but to rotate through various different brands/flavours if your cats enjoy more than one. This means that your cats will not get bored (well, hopefully not!) and also that if one particular brand is ever unavailable or discontinued, you will not be stuck.

Good luck and can't wait to see pics!

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Bonnie and the gang xxx

Yeah i totally agree with not just giving one type of food, get a few different foods and chop and change them that way they will be happy to have variety. It means that you can take advantage of special offers on zoo plus when they come up and not have to worry about your cats not eating the food. Cant wait to see pics when you bring them home

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Very little add to what has already been said. Just to say though. If you like the sound of Lily's Kitchen then why don't you try it? It is a great food though personally I think it is overpriced for what it is. But it is organic and made by a small business within the UK.

Going by the offer on zooplus, I rate Grau most highly as a wet food and if you need to feed dry food (but don't think for a minute that kittens/cats need dry food in their diet...) then I personally would choose Orijen or Acana.

Rotation of wet (and dry) foods is key as has already been mentioned for several reasons

1) there is no food that is perfect nutritionally (well, there are some but you don't get them easily in this country and even with them I would rotate them for the reasons below) so by feeding more than one brand you make sure that all the bases are covered and IF there are any nasties in the food their impact is minimised because it isn't the only food that is being fed

2) your cat will not get bored

3) you are not left up the creek scrambling around for a new food for your cat to eat when the manufacturer changes the recipe (which your cat doesn't like) and discontinues a certain food, which happens more often than you would think.

You should not have any problems with upset stomachs if the brands in the rotation are of equal quality. But before you start on a rotation make sure that they are ok with eating one of the foods first. So, when you get them slowly introduce one of the brands you would like to feed and keep that as their main food for a short while before introducing other brands of the same quality.

Hope that helps

Very true about boredom! A former cat of mine (he died of cancer ) was a fussy eater per se. Would eat all kinds of brands and occasionally the dog's as well!
I will try a few trial packs of Bozita, Grau, Smilla and Orijen simply because they look and sound better. I will of course wean them gradually when they are at 6months onto different food (unless you think sooner is the key). Royal Canin is just expensive and over priced for what it is.

They're from a rescue (the rescue lady deserves an award tenfold!) and waiting for their first jabs today and then the second lot in 3 weeks or so, so we've got a good time to prepare and get everything in! I just want to make sure they've got a good diet in place and fear that RC isn't quite right.

Plus hopefully, when I go to the Ragdoll show later this year and to the Supreme show, I can pick up some treats and toys! They are going to be so spoilt!

Would like to add, I think the lady did say they are on wet and dry, 4 meals a day. Dry is left out all the time, they're on kitty milk.
With Lily's Kitchen - although many of you (especially the mighty - and modest - Hobbs) will have a better knowledge of high quality food, most of it is abroad and its nice to see a small company, on Blighty shores providing such quality food. If I had my way, I'd purely use wet food, but being at work and not preventing bacteria build-up on food, I'd have to settle for a mixture of both!

All our Ragdolls have James Wellbeloved dried food and its certainly done them well, they are big boned and strong lads with gorgeous coats, they all love it, good luck in your choice......Chris

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Well I think Orijen will be in there, I'll check out Grau, it was one I clearly missed on the food list!

Wellbeloved...I don't think I've read a review on that - I have seen it advertised a few times in Your Cat though.

In terms of grooming - I've had short hair cats all my life - it doesn't bother me doing the grooming, but how often should I groom? Amazingly, the rescue lady has gotten the babies all used to grooming, they think its all fun and games. I don't want to over/under groom and want to invest in the right tools, so if anyone knows of any tips (also, do I need to shampoo very often, or are they fans of water anyway?) that'd be great!

you don't need to wait until they are 6 months. You can change their food once they have settled in into their new loving home.

As I said, I also like Lily's Kitchen and why don't you make that a brand within your rotation? The only gripe I have with it is the price - for what it is.

Re the dry food - have you considered getting an automatic feeder. Some have cooling elements or can be plugged in so keep wet food fresh. I personally don't think that having a professional life (gosh that sounds lewd but you know what I mean - i hope) means that you need to feed dry, or a lot of dry.

Dizzy has james wellbeloved,so did Smokey when he was here. they seemed fine on it, but it is a worry when you read that it isnt as good for them as you thought.

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