Anotehr what food thread.- want to learn

[Amy-manycats]

Hi all, I have 4 cats who I am ashamed to say have a terrible diet. I want to improve this. I currently feed my dog raw and have done quite a bit of reasearch into dry/wet dog food and and now ready to embark on the cats.

I have looked on zoo plus and read about grau, bozita wets etc, however I could do with some guidance on what is a good complete dry only really knwo Orijen and applaws ( is applaws even complete?). I understand some of you will not agree with dry ( only the same as on the dog boards etc) nor the way I feed (free feeding) but my first step is to get all of the boys happily eating a better quality food that is not made up of all cereal and 4% derivatives

Cost is a factor i'm affraid. Not sure what is a reasonable cost but if how does up to £35 per 10kg sound? Not sure if like dog food, as you go up in quality feeding amount reduces making it more economical anyway sometimes.

Anyway, please educate me, i'm struggling a little particularly with the sites like zooplus who don't list the ingredients.

( I should add I have tried the cats on raw, but this is not for us just now)

Many thanks to anyone who can help

Amy

[PolkaDotty]

These threads are a good starting point:

Feeding cats for beginners (and more seasoned cat owners alike)

A-Z of wet food for cats

Thinking about raw feeding - a basic guide

[Amy-manycats]

Thanks I had missed the a to z of dry. Not looking into the wet just yet, and read loads about raw, and although undoubtedly good it is not for us just now.

[Chewie39]

Orijen and Applaws (dry) are both complete foods and are both cereal free so will likely be much better than the dry you currently feed. I believe Orijen is generally thought better than Applaws - something to do with the dry analysis but I can't remember exactly why, sorry.

Unfortunately Orijen is more expensive than you are looking at paying - 7kg costs £42.49 (Zooplus), Applaws is £37.99 for 7.5kg. Like you say they may eat less if it's good quality though.

There's info re Orijen ingredients and dry analysis here:
Orijen Cat | Orijen Pet Foods .co.uk

Applaws ingredients are not so easy to track down but here's a bit about them:
Applaws Natural Pet Food - Natural Dry Cat Food

I don't know of any other good quality dry foods, I'm trying to reduce the dry I feed and have almost got my lot off it.

[spid]

Could you explain why raw isn't right for you now when you feed your dog raw? It's just I feed my dog raw and the 2 cats that will eat it and it is so easy. So I just don't get why it isn't any good for you.

Acana is grain free and cheaper than the other two.

[Amy-manycats]

Having tried the cats on it previously, they will not eat it without a fight. Time and space and freezer contrtraints for now mean that if I can improve their diet a bit and reasses when its a better time I will do. I'm not anti but when you have to babysit each cat seperately 3 times a day as they won't eat it just drag it round/ turn their nose up and genrally cause merry hell. Then wake you crying all night as they are hungry because they didn't eat the stuff you fed them etc, it just means for now I am not ready to go down that route. The dog is all set and now easy. We made the change as she would not eat dog food kibble or wet mostly.

[Amy-manycats]

Oh and thanks i will go and look at Acana

[Amy-manycats]

Thanks guys off looking. I have just found Smilla, which looks 100s time better than what they are on but by no means top quality. Not sure what Greaves is, but reading up it could easily also be referred to as "meal" or "by products" not great but I guess there is worse

ingredients

22% poultry meal, 13% greaves, rice meal, maize, maize meal, barley, poultry fat, beef fat, beet molasses, liver hydrolysate, apple pulp, dried liver, linseed, sodium chloride, yeast (dried), 0.05% yucca (dried).
Proportion of animal protein in total protein content: 83.5 %

still alot of grain 36% meat based instead of 4% The ones that look great are quite a bit out of budget.

Am I missing some good foods from small manufacturers, like you can do unless you are in the know?

No decisions made, I have bought more rubbish for now so I will be able to do the changeover gently and things were getting a little desperate.