What's healthiest cat food

Royal Canin is very good
My aunty was a top breeder and she really rates it
It's what my Maine coon eats (the kibble). I mix it with Whiskas dry as it's pricey.

Our senior cat has Royal Canin kibble food too - 1 meal a day, and 1 meal of Sheba Craft slices in gravy (chicken or duck).
The vet approves and the cat is fairly healthy for her age (13 years).

Thank so much for the advice on the healthiest food to feed my senior cat.Much appreciated.

My elderly cat became diabetic and the vet said to feed her a pure protein so I fed her tinned sardines and tuna fish which she loved. Now her younger friend eats the same but also has a decent kibble and biscuits. I bought 30 tins of sardines today at Lidl and I always say "They are for the cat" as I get some strange looks!

Never give them anything from a supermarket. It's cruel, equivalent to feeding your children on pot noodles!

The vet in our family says that cats should not be fed fish. It causes painful conditions in later life. They are carnivores, after all, so should be on a natural raw-food diet.

Try www.nutriment.co.uk/raw-cat-food/. If you have to feed kibble, at least get something decent, such as AATU (available online).

They really don't need much - and there's no harmful crap in it. You'll spend more on cat food - and save a fortune on vet bills.

Avoid chemical flea control too (use DE) and they live in good health into their twenties!

Hetty raw food feeding is a very controversial subject indeed. It can carry salmonella and other nasties. I'm not going into detail as we can all use Google. I definitely would not feed my cat or my dog on a raw food diet.

I haven't heard that before fish - I will look into it. You say cats are 'carnivorous', surely fish counts as meat?

Not all supermarket food is 'crap' as you put it. I'm sure that the manufacturers employ nutritionists - it is a massive market after all; and pet owners are discerning and not stupid.

Your post comes across as very judgemental and unpleasant to be perfectly honest. As for calling everyone 'cruel' who buys their pet food from supermarkets, well that's just daft.

I don't normally make comments on others' opinions, but your post really got my goat Hetty!

My cats do very well on Felix varieties with veggies/ doubles etc, never the same thing. Whiskas biccies with tasty filled pockets, varieties of those too. Boxes of Sheba on occasion as well when they're on offer. Unless the cats are pedigrees or on special diets, Felix is ideal. They have the odd tin of mackerel too as they like the tomato/ oily sauce. I have 3 cats who are very healthy.

The old stray Tom is 20 years of age at the very least and loves his dinners. He has a Sunday dinner too 2 pouches mixed with bits of meat potato veg and gravy, whatever I have on a Sunday. He had plenty of bits of chicken yesterday when I stripped it mixed with 1 pouch as there was quite a lot.

What are vet bills ??

What an interesting variety your cats enjoy, EllanVannin! I was particularly tickled by the Sunday dinner served to old Tom! Delightful!

Ashcombe I thought that too!
You also have to bear in mind that cats decide themselves what they are going to eat.
Mine will not eat any type of wet food at all. Only kibble.
I was delighted when I found that she will eat those Lick e Lix squeezy tube things (but only two flavours).
They are widely available at supermarkets ?

Purina 1. Pelletised dry food that crunches and may help clean teeth. They don't need much, and produce fewer litter-tray solids as a result. Plenty of fresh water needs to be close by.

Elderly fat ginger bruiser (soppy as can be but bullies his sister) has kidney deterioration so vet recommended special food which costs a fortune. At nearly 16 it is keeping him going.

His motto is "I am, therefore I eat!" Apparently asleep on my bed, two rooms away, I hoped he wouldn't hear me start preparing a meal. I put on loud music to mask the fridge-door sounds etc. A minute later he appeared, to supervise....

One of my cats, aged 16, has kidney disease so was recommended a special diet with reduced protein and phosphorus. When I told the vet that he didn't like any of the special foods, he recommended trying tuna. This surprised me as I would have thought fish was high in protein! I mix it with the pouches/tins of Royal Canin Renal or Concept for life, which now get eaten. I leave down Royal Canin Renal dry as well but it is rarely touched.

I feed ours on raw food from a specialist supplier, they are carnivores, so is what they need. They also get a vitamin supplement, they don't need calcium as there are crushed bones in the mix. The food is human food quality, so perfectly safe. Unfortunately our fussy pair will only eat wood pigeon, they would rather starve than eat anything else! Raw food does have the advantage that the poos are firmer and don't smell.

But it is a very different texture, and I would not advocate changing an elderly cat over to raw food. There have been some good suggestions up thread, but your vet will probably give a few suggestions too? Good luck!

Ours just licks the jelly off the Kitten Whiskers and leaves the meat! He also has biscuits and won't eat other food we have bought. We give him chicken a couple of days a week when we have some ourselves.

Our pussy cat lived to be more than 20 years old. We are not sure how old he was because he arrived as an adult stray we kept for the 20 years. We fed him a lot of raw meat which he loved, chicken wings because we didn’t like them and we would throw them out otherwise, fish skin, same reason. Sometimes a little piece of cheese, lactose free long life milk. He didn’t like tinned food very much and would only eat fishy ones. Same applied to hard cat food though he was offered it. He would rather crunch up a bone or two. He loved pork, lamb end of our joints but would never eat offal. What he really, really liked was a live possum but we discouraged that! He would eat most of them but leave the offal on the front lawn. He would drink water quite often, too.

I fed both my cats on fresh white fish, fresh chicken (both cooked), tinned fish such as tuna (but only if I could get it in spring water,) sardines or pilchards (both in oil.)

They also had access to cat biscuits and fresh water.

You could see the difference in them from eating tinned cat food. Their eyes were brighter, their fur softer, and both lived long lives, one was 18, the other just a couple of months shy of 20.

Have a look at "Zooplus UK" it's a pet food company on line.
They do lots of bands for all types ailments and fussy cats. Some the vet would recommend are cheaper as well. My old cat had renal issues I got all her food via this site and if you order over a certain amount free delivery.
No doubt someone on this site will comment about this information but your obviously a caring pet owner. Good luck

Another Zooplus fan here!

Thank you for the Zooplus recommendations
I'd love to widen Rosie's culinary horizons!

My rescue cats both have kidney disease so they’re fed on either Hills Science Diet Prescription or Royal Canin Prescription kidney dry food. Neither is very keen on wet food, they mostly just lick the gravy/jelly and leave the rest.

I get our supplies from Zooplus, too. It’s considerably cheaper than from the vet and I go to Zooplus via Topcashback and earn a bit of money back too.

My friends daughter successfully breeds Maine Coon cats, they have raw food.

Nothing from the supermarket for my two I’m afraid! Full of fillers! Totally agree with Hetty58! Nor milk or tuna, very little fish! Meat, meat , Meat, mine are very spoilt and are given a variety , not just one or two different brands, Canagan! Carnilove pheasant Quail wild boar etc etc Thrive .The proof is in the pudding ! Raw food is also very very good for them! Mine wouldn’t eat it though

I did say that raw food diets were controversial!

Trendienanny you can buy Carnilove and Thrive at supermarkets

Jaxjacky

My friends daughter successfully breeds Maine Coon cats, they have raw food.

So do my friend’s two Maine Coons. In summer they are more or less self-sufficient, hauling home a variety of rabbits, ducks and pheasant and the occasional weasel or two.