Hi Everyone,

Would first like to start off by saying hope you & your kittys are all fine and well. I have a query about food!! I dont earn alot of money but have always chosen Whiskas Kitten Food to feed Alfie and Millie as I thought it was one of the best high street brands. A recent thread made me doubt what I was feeding them even though stubborn me swore by it. I made a few queries into the food myself and Im not sure whether I should keep them on this??? I most definatly cannot afford Royal Canine, however I would like to think I could give them a little bit better than what they are getting, despite them LOVING it!!

I have recently looked at Applaws, and although they do not have a huge variety on Kitten flavours, I have decided that maybe this is the way to go. But Alfie and Millie love a variety, so I dont just want to give them chicken as this is the only variety I can find for the kitten range. Will it do them too much harm if I put them on the Cat Applaws or should I stick to giving them kitten???

All opinions are welcome...I just need a little help!!! I dont want this thread to cause any upset.

It's good to see more people taking an interest in what they feed their cats

Applaws - the kitten version - is a great food to give them, and as it's a complete food there's no need to feed anything else.

However, as you know cats like variety. Other great complete wet foods are: HiLife pouches, Bozita, Porta21... there are some others too but I can't think of them - I'm sure someone will come along soon and add to the list!

The adult Applaws versions are all complementary, which means that it doesn't contain all the nutrients a cat needs. Basically it's meant to be fed as a treat, once in a while.

Oh, and if you're feeding dry food you will be fine to cut that out and just feed wet - in fact this will be better for your cats, and probably work out cheaper for you.

Hope that helps

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Nature's Menu, Tesco's finest, raw, etc

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Do they do all these in kitten ranges?

IMHO if the food is good enough (and these are) you don't need kitten food - it is a manufacturing gimmick. Birds and mice in the wild don't come in kitten or adult variety. Dry food sort of needs a kitten variety as the chunks are smaller. I think some of these brands do do kitten food, but I really don't believe it is necessary. Try zooplus.com and pets@home for some of these brands.

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I agree with Spid (and thank you for listing those I forgot!) that as long as you feed one of these it doesn't matter if it's listed as 'kitten' or not. The only reason I specifically mentioned Applaws kitten, is because that's the only Applaws version that's complete. The other foods mentioned by myself and Spid are complete too.

Kitten food is just a gimmick

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You really think it is a scam?? Id hate to think im not giving them the supplements they need. What do you all feed your cats just out of interest??

Not a scam as such - just clever marketing - and it does depend on what you are feeding them. In a previous thread I compared Felix kitten and adult foods and the kitten food had very slightly more vits etc but up to HALF the meat content. The adult food actually looked better. The 60%+ meat varieties are just so much better anyway in all aspects that I really personally don't think you need the kitten varieties.

When my two get to weaning the only kitten variety they have will be the JWB (for the smaller size) and Applaws (because it is complete and the adult version isn't), I'll also be giving them raw and MAY consider the 'W' and 'F' words just in case that is what the new owners want to give to them.

In the end it is your choice, if you like the security kitten food gives youthen go for it - both Natures Menu (Pets@home), Applaws (Zooplus, pets@home) and Hi-life (Tesco's, Acorns, Pets@home) do kitten versions.

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Think of it like this: Cats are designed by nature to eat meat, and only meat. It then makes sense that they are designed to get all the nutrients they need from the meat. So, if you give them a food that's high in meat (and because this is cooked meat it will have vitamins and such added back in - hence the 'complete' label) they will be fine, because it contains all they need.

On the other hand, if you were feeding cheap food like Whiskas (4% meat) then the kitten version would be better, but only because it has more meat in it.

So, basically, kitten food is higher quality food, but it's completely unneccessary to buy if you're already feeding them the highest quality food - which would be the brands Spid and I listed.

I have gone a bit further and am feeding a raw diet to my cat - basically I am trying to replicate what a cat would eat in the wild. I feed him chunks of meat, mixed with a little liver or other organ meat, plus some bones - all raw. If you're interested in knowing more there's a lot of information on this forum, just do a search on 'raw diet'.

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Basically im looking for a cat food with the highest meat quantity as i think this is the best way to go, but obviously at a reasonable price as i do not earn millions lol

I refuse to feed them raw as it makes me ill dealing with it lol