I am a proud owner of 2 beautiful cats. Last weekend we picked up Ellie (5 years - Torby) and Maisy (1 year - Silver Tabby) from our local cat home in Sussex. Photo's attached. I've been learning lots about feeding cats since and have found this forum excellent.

They were fed - Felix As Good As It Gets Pouches (Wet) & Purina Pro Plan (Dry) at the cat home. I have continued with these foods and have added in Orijen dry & Applaws complementary wet. They are not fussy and no probs with their poo! All is well and my intentions is to give our cats propper food.

I have gaps in my knowledge - I havent found specific answers to these 3 questions, many thanks for any help!

(1) Is Orijen Dry worse than Felix Wet?

I have read that "The best dry food is worse than the worse wet." However, these articles make this argument referencing to the unhealthy dry foods as the norm. There's isnt a comparison with quality dry food V's 4% by-product wet food in these articles. Looking at the ingredients between Orijen and Felix, can the Felix really be a more healthy choice?!


(2) Is "dried" meat the same as "cooked" meat?

Can I assume Wet Cat Food contains cooked meat only?
Natural Instinct Cat Treats - Heart and Liver says it's "Naturally dehydrated at 160 degrees over 26 hours" - is this marketing speak for cooked? see: naturalinstinct.com/products/Cat-Treats.html


(3) Whats the best quality complete wet food?

Best - I mean in terms of Hobbs description on AtoZ of Cat food. I've started looking at this question and realise it's going to take a while, reading all the ingredients of each often with websites that dont include breakdowns. Any help gratefully recieved!


James

Attached Images

	Macey.jpg (34.8 KB, 29 views)
	Ellie.jpg (39.2 KB, 27 views)

Hi, can I just say first congrats on your new cats they look beautiful and you did a good thing rescuing them and giving them a second chance.
As to your food the best thing you could do with this is book an appointment with your the nurse at your registered vets and discuss the questions you have with them due to the fact they will be able to give you all the right answers and advise you on what is best for your cats specifically.
:-)

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Hi James welcome to the forum and congrats on your new cats. They are absolutely gorgeous.

Actually booking them in to see the vet nurse is possibly not the best way forward as vets receive commission on the food they sell and the training they and staff receive are sponsored by companies such as Hills/RC whose foods do not get a good press around here. Don't get me wrong many people do feed their cats these foods and they are fine but there better foods.

Origen and Applaws are reckoned to be the best dry foods on the market as they are grain free. Acana is another good one. its not a good idea to feed all dry as this can cause health problems, especially serious for boys. Cats are not natural drinkers and lack of moisture in their diets can cause health problems despite what the Iam cat says!!!!! Neither does dry food help with their teeth!!!!!

I feed a mixture of origen and Bozita, Grau and Smilla all from zooplus. Other better quality foods I get from Floyds such as Macs and Tigercat. Its really easy to order from there but you may not wish to do that. Its mainly wet food plus a bit of dry for convenience. These foods are much better quality than Feliz and because of this you need less

Hobbs sticky's are the best place to start she is the food guru around here but as you say there is a lot to digest.

Who knows in time you may even decide your kitties might fancy a bit of raw food. There are plenty of people on here who feed their cats raw and they thrive on it

hope that helps a bit

^^^^^^^ Definitely what she said

My vet advises me to feed the Hill's dry - that they sell, funnily enough. Fortunately, thanks to the good folks here, I know better!

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Harry: Ginger & White b. September 2002
Oscar: Black b. 7th May 2011
Kitty: Grey Tabby b. 7th May 2011

Our lovely cat family

Basically - yes - the worst wet is better than the best dry. It's true - this is all because cats are obligate carnivores and have evolved to get 99% of their moisture from their food, they don't have a natural thirst drive and so dry food being dry is incredibly dehydrating for them and they struggle to drink enough to compensate. This can lead to kidney problems, UTIs, the forming of crystals which block the urethra etc. Because of boys' longer urethral tracts they are more susceptible to the later. (Also can't digest the grains, rice, or potatoes or veg that companies add to their food to fill up our cats. It does fill them up but briefly as cats can't digest these substances properly and so they poop it all back out again.) So because of this wet is better. As far as I am concerned Iams is using false advertising! However, if you HAVE TO feed dry then feed the better quality ones, yes.

Good foods to start off with are Grau, Bozita (especially the pate ones) Smilla, and aminonda Carny - from Pet Supplies, Pet Food, Dog Food, Cat Food and Pet Accessories at Zooplus and Hi-life, Purely, Yummy Scrummy and Nature's Menu from the supermarkets or pets@home.

For raw try Natural Instinct.

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

Hi James,

Congratulations, your new cats are both gorgeous

There probably isn't really a right and wrong answer to your questions but I will answer them as best I can:

1. If I was forced to choose to feed just felix wet or just Orijen dry I would prefer to feed just Felix wet primarily just for the moisture content and that I would expect (without checking) that it contains lower carbs. That said personally I wouldn't feed Felix but would be happy to feed a small amount of Orijen in conjunction with a good quality wet food either as a treat or left down if I'm out all day. The crucial part is that as far as wet food goes then there is far better avaialable than Felix but Orijen is about as good as dry food gets.

2. Dried doesn't necessarily mean cooked, there are both dried raw and dried cooked treats available. In my opinion as far as treats go the difference in nutritional value is insignificant, the best treats are probably 100% meat no fillers or preservatives etc.

3. This is a difficult one to answer because it's subjective but it's considered best to feed a variety of brands and flavours (of similar quality) in rotation. Many of the better ones are only available to import but this is very easy and not overly expensive. Amongst these there is Macs, Granatapet, Petnatur, Tiger, Pfotenliebe, Ropocat, Power of Nature, Catz, Om Nom Nom, Herrmanns etc. The best foods available in the UK either online or in shops include Natures Menu, Grau and Ziwipeak. Other decent foods available over here are Animonda Carny, Smilla, Bozita Pate etc. I've probably missed some off but I suppose what i'm trying to say is that there is a very big choice of decent food out there, your best bet would be to have a read around and pick 3 or 4 that you like the sounds of and suits you best in terms of price, availability, ingredients etc then try your cats on them to check they agree with them. Your lucky they aren't fussy buggers as that's when it becomes a struggle

thanks for all your responses, really helpful!

A further thought on dry food, "If I soaked dried food in water, would this help?"

Ali82 - So I can get "dried raw" food - sounds like a contradiction in terms! Great, that's where I'll start with raw food & take it from there.

any reason why you are quoting me?

and yes James soaking the dry food would help, although mine would turn their noses up at it!

Personally, I wouldn't soak kibble - just encourages bacteria to grow. If you worry about your cat and moisture, then just feed a good quality wet food - which Ali82 has all mentioned (there is also a lot of info re ingredients etc in the link that is on the A-Z sticky)!

And yes, dehydrated raw is a little odd - again, if you want to feed raw, feed raw. Why pay good money for something that has the moisture level removed?