They rang me back and I found out sme stuff that I didn't know - all their food (not just Whiskas but all Mars petfoods) are made of meat for human consumption. ie no horse/whale/roadkill/etc.
The tuna is dolphin friendly, all the fish is from sustainable sources, the chicken is from welfare monitored farms.

But here is the bit that really surprised me -
the total meat content in Whiskas is minimum 85%.

Their packaging will change later this year apparently as consumers want to know total meat. So, if you bought chicken variety, it would be total meat of 85% minimum and 4% chicken minimum. They do use tripe and offal (heart etc) which is what the meat derivatives is, Natures Menu etc does have a higher % of named meat like beef/chicken etc, but the derivatives that Whiskas contains is more akin to natural feeding, as in the wild the cat would not just eat the flesh of an animal, it would eat heart, liver, kidneys, lungs.

Hmmm well i guess we will see, i still think min 4% of the actual meat is not enough, natures menu is a balanced food, contains everything they need, no canned food will ever be a cats 'natural' food.

Betula was on Felix which has basically the same ingredients and suffered from sn upset tum regulary where-as now she doesnt, thats proof enough for me. Until they change the packaging i am not convinced they will tell you what you want to hear in my opinion.

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hmmm why am I not convinced?

Hmmm well its the pouches I use not the cans but as I said before I use all the different brands, including Whiskas, Natures Menu, Sheba, Applaws, Almo Nature... Whiskas is just one of them, and I was just interested enough to ring them.
Well if you say that they are lying about meat content, that goes for Natures Menu too? Can't see a HUGE company lying to just one customer

Anyway, just putting it up here for anyone who does feed Whiskas, so they now know!

No I'm not saying they are lying.. just that the pouches made Alfie throw up all the time..

Applaw is good as you can actually see it's meat.. there's prawns in one of them! lol

My cats love Whiskas and it has never made them sick but they only get it as a VERY last resort as it is all I can get hold of at times. I do not like their ethos and find it hard to trust super companies - plus in the long run it only works out a tinsy bit cheaper than the top brands!

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Emily



Star.


"Cat people are different to the extent that they generally are not conformists - How could they be with a cat running their lives?"

What I'm saying is they have to list the right ingredients on the back legally correctly. So natures menu is 70% meat thats correct, whiskas at the moment is min 4% and you can only go on word of mouth that the other contents are decent. Its great that you rung them though and very interesting what they say. Id like to see what they put on the ingredients list when its changed

I know that bengal tums are especially sensitive and Betulas was very upset on felix, now i have no problems on natures menu, it doesnt work out that much more expensive for a better quality balanced food.

Oh and i found another brand... they are only sold in seperate little tubs, called natures harvest, they have it as a treat with their natures menu, its 90% fresh chicken

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If tears could build a stairway, And memories a lane,
I'd walk right up to Heaven, And bring you home again.

Yes Applaws is good, its just not a complete food.

I do agree with you about the Natures Menu not being a lot dearer, well it is now they put it up by £1 but still, £2.50 dearer is not too bad. Its just my cats get bored and there are only so many complete foods like Whiskas/Natures Menu so I like to alternate frequently and its good to know there is a higher % of meat than I thought. Plus they actually love Whiskas. Apparently the legalality of labelling say they only need to state the % of the 'variety' that is on the front, not the total other meat.

Forgot to say, I saw that natures harvest too, I think its a complementary feed like Applaws but going to get one to try from PAH.

Just be careful, its only a person that works for whiskas telling you that, i still dont trust them or think its a good food. It smells and looks horrid to me.

I buy the value pack of natures menu, works out cheaper and they have 3 flavours, i add natures harvest as a supplement now and then to make it more interesting.

Let me know what your cats think of natures harvest

__________________
There are 33,000 bunnies young, middle aged, old, large and small all looking for a second chance and loving home, can you help? www.rabbitrehome.org.uk



If tears could build a stairway, And memories a lane,
I'd walk right up to Heaven, And bring you home again.