Food for cats

Re: Food for cats

Mark Holmes — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 20:08:40 GMT

And I was under the impression that Vet's Pets were fed anything sufficiently past it's use by date it could not really be used for the inpatients.

Re: Food for cats

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 19:56:04 GMT

Just to be really boring, but several people have introduced this point. Dental plaque does not derive from leftover food.

Interesting new development in this thread. If people sell food, do they only recommend the food they stock?

Re: Food for cats

Rajat — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 19:43:26 GMT

Thanks for you replies everyone! We stock all kinds of food (prob far too many brands!), and often wondered what other vets recommend...

Re: Food for cats

Martin Atkinson — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 11:12:09 GMT

I tell clients that a natural diet is of course best but it is impractical. The the debate then is not wet v dry, there is no reason why one should be better than the other, the 'dry food is better for teeth' argument is negated by the fact that they only chew on the crown of their teeth although there may be a bit more residual food around to adhere to the sides of the teeth for future plaque but it is marginal, but because of the economics of manufacturing dry food at the same price point will always be better that moist food. I also say you get what you pay for and that there is nothing to choose between the top brands. Royal Canin, Iams, Eukanuba and Hills are the Man Utd, Man City, Arsenal and Chelsea of the pet food world, James Wellbeloved, Burns, Arden Grange etc are mid Premier League, Whiskas/Chum are League One, Bakers and and Butchers are non-league! We're a Royal Canin practice so we promote that, we've sold all the top 4 but find Royal Canin give the best back-up but that has slipped somewhat recently. My cats are fed on whatever RCW life-stage diet is appropriate plus a few table scraps. They are 13, have perfect coats, perfect teeth and never had a day's illness in their lives apart from when the neighbour was feeding them non-league cat food!

Re: Food for cats

Bob Russell — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 10:57:20 GMT

We should all be recommending pets be fed on the old formula Pedigree Chum. It was great for keeping a regular stream (pun?) of patients coming through the doors with tummy upsets!

Royal Canin dental for the cats but I am bu**ered if I am going to pay the stupid price for the dog version.

Bog standard RC lifestage for the dogs!

Re: Food for cats

Utlendigur — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 10:41:02 GMT

I usually say any good commercial food. If a cat is prone to cystitis I usually recommend mainly wet food (presc diet if crystals), but otherwise not convinced there any merits to feeding completely dry or completely wet. My own cat gets felix/whiskas pouches (whichever is on offer) plus various dry foods (hills, james wellbeloved, whiskas, purina) depending on what is on offer/convenient. He also has a liking for a variety of odd foods cheesecake, christmas cake, mayonnaise, pesto sauce, Previous cat lived until nearly 20 so it seemed to suit her - she was also partial to winalot mixer fro0m the dog's dinner so she had quite good teeth!

Re: Food for cats

Lorna McHardy — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 10:02:18 GMT

Pretty much what everyone else has said... I'd recommend dry rather than wet food because it's cleaner, easier, and possibly better for the teeth. My own dog got Pedigree for years simply because she wouldn't eat anything else (yes, I did try. I tried about six different brands, all good quality, and not one of them would she touch. I put the food down, dog comes running up all excited, realizes it's not Pedigree, puts her tail between her legs, her head down, and makes her ears droopy, and creeps into bed. I'd persist for about a week of this and then give up). I've finally managed to get her off the stuff, and she's now happily eating Autarky, mainly because it's convenient for me. However, it also appears to have made a difference to her weight and her motions. I can now feed her more treats with impunity, which makes both of us happy

So I'd qualify the "you can feed adult healthy dogs pretty much anything and they'll thrive on it" with "provided they'll actually eat it"

My cats get Hills because a)it's what I've always fed my cats, b)it's convenient because most vets stock it, and c)they've always done well on it. I suspect the latter would be true for all other decent quality cat foods.

To clients, I say something like "There are advantages to feeding dry rather than tinned food, and as for the brand, pick a good quality one that suits your convenience, your pocket, and your dog's taste buds. Occasionally a diet won't agree with a particular individual, so if he is forever getting diarrhoea, or wind, or anything else that's disagreeable, try a different one." Seems to work ok.

Re: Food for cats

Sarah Keir — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 09:45:56 GMT

I am not sure what makes up the bulk of my cats diet because he is never around! I haven't sussed out which neighbour/s he is visiting. The food I leave down is James Wellbeloved biscuits and I sometimes find bits of animal around the house.

I agree that a healthy adult animal can be fed just about anything and survive but you get benefits of less farts, less shit to scoop etc with better quality brands.

Sarah

Re: Food for cats

Thomas Johnson — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 09:28:41 GMT

My cats are 9 years old and are fed Royal Canin Dental, which they seem very happy with, and they have lovely teeth.

Re: Food for cats

CatherineThomas — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 08:55:10 GMT

I feed both my cat and dog Hills Vet Essentials. If people ask for a recommendation of a particular brand I will usually recommend Hills, otherwise I'll tell them any of the good quality brands such as royal canin, hills, iams etc.

Re: Food for cats

MeeraM — Sat, 21 Jul 2012 00:33:38 GMT

I've done very little SA work in general, so haven't recommended any food in particular.

However, I do have two cats of my own. I used to feed them the Waitrose own brand of cat-food (pouches) and Iams-biscuits-for-porky-cats - purely from a price aspect . In the last month, Waitrose have created an "economy" wet cat-food and a "comparative with other standard wet-food" pouch - and raised the prices of both. The cheap food now being more expensive than the previous Waitrose branded food (the Waitrose branded wet cat food used to cost £2.65 for 12 pouches and now the "economy Waitrose" pouches are £2.99 and the "Waitrose selection" ones are £3.99). The Waitrose economy cat-food is lower in protein than its similarly priced compatriots and more importantly my cats turn their noses up at it - so now I feed Whiskas/Felix wet food whichever is cheaper and a Purina Low-fat biscuit alongside...

Re: Food for cats

Michael Woodhouse — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 22:56:21 GMT

Unless a specific reason I tell people (for both cats and dogs):

"All commercial pet food is balanced for your pet's needs. The more money you spend the better quality ingredients. If you want to spend some money on a quality food do so as a puppy when growing fast and possibly as the dog ages. You can feed an average adult dog/cat on pretty much anything."

We used to feed our cat Iams as it was all it would eat. Our dogs used to get Dr John's Silver @ <£10/20kg sack! They did very well. (my dog is on restricted calorie as she's got a little porky, due to an eye problem*!)

*they are just too brown and appealing, I feel compelled to save her a little of what I am having!