My cat has struvite crystals in his urine and vet advised royal canin s/o.
I would like to to try a non prescrption alternative so has anyone any recommendations for a wet diet? I have read a grain free, fish free heavy meat content helps.
Currently I feed him part wet - Bozita chunks and part dry - James Wellbeloved.

I am due to place a new zooplus order soon and was thinking of trying the Bozita pate.

Did the vet give you any Cystaid as well? I give one of ours the RC S/O dry food but he also has any other wet that the others get I did try him on other urinary foods but he had another blockage

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All my children have paws!

No - just the royal canin s/o wet pouches.
Does the cystaid dissolve struvite crystals?

I would stick to the prescription diet as these are formulated to prevent formation/dissolve the crystals. This entails altering the PH of the urine so you could risk a recurrence by feeding alternatives. Increasing water intake is also very important.

I found the only thing that helped was the Royal Canin urinary s/o food, as I had the same thoughts as you originally. However nothing worked until I went with the RC.

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It just helps keep the bladder heathy I think

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All my children have paws!

My friend's cat has this condition - when he was diagnosed she swapped him over to mainly raw diet and Bozita - touch wood 18 months on and he hasn't had a recurrence and his coat and overall condition is much much better than when he was on the dry RC diet.

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Kaz

For kittens, joy is for the asking and smiles are for the giving

I would really say that depends on two things

1) how bad the crystalisation was, whether it was a one-off occurence of cystitis that threw up the crystals in your cat's urine and whether that cat is male or female.

2) how much you know about doing it yourself.

As Ianthi said, these special urinary diets are formulated to work on many levels. They not only include a lower mineral load (Bozita, by comparison, has quite a high mineral load, as have many other foods) but they also control the ph of the urine.

If you don't know a lot about feline nutrition and available foods then for the health of your cat I would say just stick to the S/O food for now and revisit the food issue in 6 months to a year's time.

If you still want to do it differently, then research the available foods, choose wisely and perhaps also test your cat's ph periodically with ph strips to see whether that side at least is being controlled.

You could also look into a raw diet.

Thanks for your answers, there are those who champion a wet diet and say the prescription foods are not necessary but I guess it is too big a risk to take when crystals are actually present and I need the royal canin urinary s/o to get the job done. Even switching down the line entails risks I guess unless it is carefully monitored.

Oh, wet is definitely best, particularly for cats with a FLUTD history.