Yes, that sounds like a clever move! Not sure about Romania but you can get a whiskas range in Germany now that contains min 60% meat. Cannot remember whether it also contains grains and sugars but that is perhaps better than some other ranges. Do they eat Whiskas pate or only the chunks?

Yes, here too, chicken and liver, or beef and heart. It doesn't contain grains or sugars, and, apparently, no artificial flavourings or colourants.
The ingredients are:
-meat and derivatives of animal origin (min 60% meat, 4% chicken, 4% liver)
-minerals
-derivatives of vegetable origin
The additives are:
-anhydrous calcium iodate 0.3mg
-iron sulphate monohydrate 33mg
-manganese sulphate monohydrate 6.3mg
-zinc sulphate monohydrate 44mg
-cassia gum 2100mg
Analysis:
-crude protein 11%
-fat 3.5%
-inorganic material 2% (is this ash?)
-crude fibre 0.2%
-humidity 82%
-vitamin A 10000 IU/kg

It seems that fat is a little low, plus no mention of taurine. And if only 60% is 'meat', then 40% is vegetable derivatives? I have emailed them for more info, but I never heard back the last time I emailed, so I'm not holding my breath.

It's a very smooth pate, and they love it. Which is why I initially ruled out consistency as an issue, although having said that now, it is a lot smoother than Mac's or Grau or Granatapet. Gosh, do you think if I bought a blender, I could make Mac's smoother, or do you think it's as smooth as it gets?

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Well, once their Whiskas indulgance is deemed to be over you could simply add some more water to the macs, granatapet to make it smoother. Don't think you need to have a blender, just a bowl and a fork but it is certainly worth a try.

Ah, thanks for posting that Whiskas stuff. It will also contain water and the emulsifier cassia gum. True, it contains vegetable derivatives but at least weightwise they come after the minerals; so their proportion must be rather small. Could be anything though but possibly refers to inulin, which often appears in pet food now as something to aid digestion.

Out of interest, is Vitamin A the only vitamin that is added?


PS: I have found Whiskas quite helpful in the past; well within reason and without giving too much away. Let me know if they again fail to get back to you and I can pm you the email address of the person who was quite helpful there.

Hmmm, I've tried adding water and mixing it in before, to no avail. Ah well. Maybe that was going too far to pander to their needs anyway. Oh, who am I kidding???!

Oh, then that's good news about the vegetable derivatives level. As far as the label is concerned, vit A is under the analysis section, not the additives section, so not sure if it's added or present? I typed out the label exactly. What else should be added? Aside from taurine?

I've been trying to email Whiskas Romania, my Romanian is OK but not perfect, didn't try Whiskas UK as this range isn't over there, but if I don't hear anything again, it's worth a try, thanks!

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I typed out the label exactly, so according to the label Vitamin A isn't added, simply present, as the Vit A value is listed under the analysis section. However, I'm not sure I'd trust the label further than I could throw it.

On the chicken and liver variety (whose label I typed out) it does say on the side of the tray "Liver - a natural source of Vitamin A". Could all that vitamin A (10000 IU/kg) have come from the liver ingredient?

Interestingly, the beef and heart variety, on the side of the tray it says "Heart - a natural source of choline" then in the analysis it doesn't say how much Vit A but it does say how much choline (450mg/kg).

I'd never heard of choline so I googled it - it's a B vitamin? Not heard it mentioned before in relation to cats, not like you hear of taurine or vitamin A, so is it something to keep an eye on in a cat's diet?

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Yes, liver is rich in Vitamin A. Not sure about choline but found this, which looked quite interesting: DSM Nutritional Products North America - Animal Nutrition & Health - Companion Animals: Choline. It all comes down to PR at the end of the day, doesn't it.

But most importantly, are they all eating?

Interesting link, thanks.

Well, Lucky and Paddy managed about 125g of the Whiskas each today, the recommended amount is 300g. They had 10g of dry each too. My plan is to try to reduce the dry all together while they are on Whiskas, before reintroducing them to Mac's and co. So they didn't eat as much of the Whiskas as I was hoping, but maybe since they haven't been eating loads recently, it will take a while to get their appetites back up. Mr M and Guinness, of course, think all their Christmases have come at once, with the extra Mac's and co, and the Whiskas left overs.

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