[Jannor]

Agree with all the people posting about Butchers. My cats eat this, in fact Butchers Classic for Cats is the only one I give them from the supermarket as its cereal free and one of mine has allergy to cereal.

Be careful if its not Butchers Classic. Not sure the other one I've seen in the pound shop/Home Bargains is cereal free or not.

Apart from what others have said about Go Cat which I agree with, you might find he wolfed the sample down but will decide he doesn't like it when you buy a full box! That's quite a common thing for cats to do unfortunately

When you go to the cheaper brands you sometimes find they end up with dire rear and its just not worth the hassle

 

[Jannor]

Forgot to say Butchers Classic costs £5 for 12 tins at Morrisons. It's slightly more expensive at Tesco but not much, and Asda didn't have much of it in when I went this morning

 

[Lilylass]

Be careful if its not Butchers Classic. Not sure the other one I've seen in the pound shop/Home Bargains is cereal free or not.

Apart from what others have said about Go Cat which I agree with, you might find he wolfed the sample down but will decide he doesn't like it when you buy a full box! That's quite a common thing for cats to do unfortunately

The thing is they generally will like it as it's full of additives to make it tasty - a bit like human junk food - but that sadly doesn't mean it's good for them

Re Butchers - would 2nd that.

Maisie gets the Butchers Tripe Loaf tins on rotation with several other high quality brands - and it's also grain free & fantastic value for money :thumbsup: BUT it is only that one, the other Butchers ones aren't as good & I wouldn't feed them

 

[JoeyTheCat]

I feed my cat a mixture of wet and dry. I buy a 10kg bag of Sanabelle from Zooplus and supplement this with a bit of Butcher's Classic as I have read that a dry food diet doesn't give cats enough fluid as they also have a low thirst drive. The 10kg bag lasts 7 or 8 months so, saying it lasts 7 months, works out at costing 96p a week. I have to buy the wet cat food too of course but that isn't too expensive, as others have mentioned. I believe Pets at Home sell a 24 pack of Butcher's Classic for about £12.

 

[CoCoTrio]

I have read that a dry food diet doesn't give cats enough fluid as they also have a low thirst drive.

That is so true. Ideally you'd be better to ditch the dry altogether. Dry food is always worse than any wet food, regardless of the brand, even to the extent of being dangerous where kidney damage is the result of chronic dehydration.

 

[Wiz201]

That is so true. Ideally you'd be better to ditch the dry altogether. Dry food is always worse than any wet food, regardless of the brand, even to the extent of being dangerous where kidney damage is the result of chronic dehydration.

I just leave my cats a big bowl of water down every day, they're always drinking from it so I've never spotted a low thirst drive.

 

[RachJeremy]

Jeremy does get wet and dry food. But the wet food he gets is expensive, however i'm happy to try butchers, i'm just worrying how much salt it contains. So i will look into it. If not i'll buy Felix because he actually eats it... For the meantime anyway. I'm just looking for a cheaper alternative biscuits that aren't bad for him either, but something he'll eat. As Go Cat he does eat.

 

[Julie100uk]

Just feed your cat the best you can afford and when things are back to normal, go back to your original regime. I can't imagine it would do any harm in the short term. I know plenty of cats that are living to a ripe old age on cheaper brands of both wet and dry.

 

[buffie]

I just leave my cats a big bowl of water down every day, they're always drinking from it so I've never spotted a low thirst drive.

If your cats were fed on a "wet only" diet there would be little need to drink water , this is the reason that they have a low thirst drive.When dry food is introduced they have to compensate for the lack of natural moisture so are forced to drink,but many are unable to drink enough to make up for that lack............

Animal Endocrine Clinic: Daily Water Requirements and Needs for Cats

 

[CoCoTrio]

I just leave my cats a big bowl of water down every day, they're always drinking from it so I've never spotted a low thirst drive.

Just for info...

"Why Your Cat's Food Should Be Loaded with Moisture:

Your cat doesn't have a strong thirst drive compared to other species. Kitties are designed to get almost all the water they need from the food they eat.

Healthy cats don't lap up water like other animals do. Many kitties are obsessed with moving water, of course, but they're more interested in watching it or playing in it than drinking it.

With very few exceptions, only cats with underlying disease will drink a lot of water. Often the disease involves their lower urinary tract, especially if they are suffering from chronic, moderate dehydration thanks to a primarily dry food diet.

Cats in the wild hunt prey, and prey consists of about 75 percent water. Canned cat food contains at least that much moisture. Dry food, on the other hand, contains only about one tenth of that amount.

If you're feeding your kitty mostly dry food, he's probably drinking more water than he would if his diet was high in moisture content. But as a general rule, cats on dry food diets consume only about half the water cats on moisture-rich diets consume.

Now think for a minute about your cat's lower urinary tract – specifically the bladder and kidneys, which need to be flushed constantly with adequate quantities of urine.

It's easy to imagine the growing stress on those vital organs when your kitty's body is operating on half the amount of water it requires to function normally – day in and day out, for months, years, or a lifetime."

The above is quoted from: Why Dry Pet Food is Really Bad Nutrition for Your Cat! ... an interesting short article which cites the results of a recent study:

"The Jerusalem study, published last year in the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery, took another look at risk factors for urethral obstruction, clinical signs, outcomes and recurrence rates in 82 cats with UO and 82 control cats.

The kitties diagnosed with urethral obstruction had some interesting things in common, including:
•They were significantly younger than the control cats; 82 percent were between 1 and 7 years old.
•They were significantly heavier.
•More were indoor-only cats than in the control group.
•And… most were fed dry food only (68 out of 82, or 83 percent)… 14 ate a combination of wet and dry food… and exactly none were fed a diet of wet food only."

 

[Wiz201]

I don't feed them 100% dry, they get a mixture of wet food and dry.

 

[1287325]

Go Cat has been referred to as Gone Cat because of the poor quality and the effect it has had on cats, ie: dead. This is not my opinion, this is something I read which is no longer showing online. Neither is the page from the lady whose cats were reported to have died from melamine poisoning from using Applaws dry some years back, this was removed, as far as I am aware, due to legal action pending.

It is cheap for a reason. Before I knew about such things I bought some and Bob did eat it but he would eat any dry food, we hadn't long adopted him and I had a lot to learn. He now gets maybe 4 kibbles a couple of times a day, alternated with actual cat treats. As long as they are crunchy he is happy but never cheap dry food, only a better one.

I would also suggest Butchers, or even a supermarket wet food if you are really stuck but in this house the cats get their preferred food and I give up my treats, and shopping instead, they are my priority

 

[BunksMum]

I used to feed Bunk go cat but over the short time that I did, probably a couple of months, he threw up more often, and he got a UTI. So I would never feed him GoCat (or any other dry food actually!) again. He did love it though!

 

[londongal796]

Go Cat has been referred to as Gone Cat because of the poor quality and the effect it has had on cats, ie: dead.

Let's be careful about how we phrase our responses.

Sadly, all cats, as all humans, will pass away at some point. If you have a study that conclusively proves that this specific brand of food is leading to an abnormally high death rate among felines then please, by all means, share that with us.

But suggesting that anyone who feeds their cat this particular brand of food is dooming their cat to an early and untimely death is uncalled for. Don't scare monger. Don't insinuate that anyone feeding their cats this food is killing their cats.

**Opinions based on facts only please.

**Edited: To clarify what I meant. I don't believe claiming a food kills cats is an opinion unless there are facts supporting it.

 

[CoCoTrio]

Facts only please.

Facts are great but this forum would be a very dull place if we weren't also able to share opinions.

 

[londongal796]

Facts are great but this forum would be a very dull place if we weren't also able to share opinions.

I apologise. Opinions are fine, but when your opinion includes saying a food kills cats, that isn't an opinion any more, unless you have facts to back it up.

 

[RachJeremy]

I apologise. Opinions are fine, but when your opinion includes saying a food kills cats, that isn't an opinion any more, unless you have facts to back it up.

I agree. Unless a post mortem has been done on said cat to prove it was put in an early grave because of it, then i don't know.
Just another little fact to add on. My old boy Ben, who's technically my mum's, but he's mine really, just in my mum's name since i got him when i was 4... I'm now 22. He's still going. He hasn't lived off natural food or expensive stuff. He's lived off stuff like tesco value cat food and other cheap brand, my mum buys the cheapest she can everytime she goes shopping, he gobbles it up, they get cheap biscuits too. My mum's grey who is 3 or 4 now, is plump and her coat is glossy enough, she's perfectly healthy, as is my mum's newer cat. And Ben, now 18-19 years of age, is still going. He's old and it's showing, but he can still clean, his coat is shiny and he's still moving around as much as he can. He went out about half hour ago for a little mooch around. He has only been fed Encore cat food once when my mum ran out of food. LOL

Anyway... Opinions are opinions, everyone is entitled to them. However like said, claiming a food killed a cat, maybe contacting the company, post mortem on the cat? Prove it and get the food off the market if it's as bad as that!

 

[1287325]

I actually can't find the article any more, it was some time ago so no, I can no longer back it up, and the reason I stopped using it, I was still feeding him what he liked at the time and reading that made me think again.

However, it is still my opinion that it is not a good 'food' so I won't be changing my opinion. As with most, if not all dry, it can cause blockages and vomiting, and if the quality is poor then it can do other things too, however, what I read might have been a similar incidence to the MPM/Applaws dry one a few years back which was publicised as killing someone's cats and was subsequently removed from the internet as legal action was going on.

I have not bought Applaws dry since that happened either, and doubt I would be able to find any proof of that now.

It is possible it was another case of melamine in dry food or another contaminant, but the articles were actually re-naming it as Gone Cat.

So, because the articles are no longer searchable I must be quiet.

In that case, I would suggest reading about the ingredients and possible effects of feeding a low quality and cheap dry food on the health of your cat.

 

[carly87]

If your finances are so tight that you are compromising his food and feeding him one of the cheapest brands on the market, do you really think it's a good idea to be taking on his brother?

 

[CoCoTrio]

I believe dry food kills cats, in the sense that a 100% dry fed cat will likely die sooner than a 100% wet fed cat, all else being equal.

I base this opinion on what I've read about the dangers of chronic dehydration from experts online and from my own personal experience. Years ago I had a cat who died aged 5 years old of kidney failure after a lifetime of dry food. My opinion is that her otherwise inexplicable death was the result of her diet. The vet who attended her could offer no other explanation.