Selfsufficientish.com

Can anyone recommend an alternative to the grim, minced battery hen/cow brain catfood sold in the supermarkets?

I have already decided that I am going to use tins (those sachets are so wasteful and can't be recycled) but am not entirely comfortable about using Whiskas or Felix etc.

Any ideas? Am soo excited, I am going to pick up my little kitten after work today! Aww...

I did some googling a while back, because I made a similar decision. According to what I found, a cat's natural diet is raw meat (of course ) - the interesting bit was that if you can get them on to a raw food diet, they only eat a couple of ounces or so a day. Even a full-grown tom, which surprised me. They get any vegetation they need outside - so I don't know how this would work for house-cats.

I tried my cats (I had two at the time) the female lapped up the raw minced chicken but the tom (who we inherited from my mother when she moved in) sniffed and turned away. The literature said this might happen and to part cook it in the microwave, and over a few days to cook it less and less until he's willing to eat it raw.

So all that went well until I realised the price! If you're not going to feed your cat on battery farm cheap chickens, or pet mince ( and god knows what gets put in that!) it's considerably more expensive than tins or sachets. Plus it takes up a lot of time and effort, that at the time I didn't have.

My beloved Dora has since died and Jack loves his Whiskas + anything we leave, so I've not gone back to it - but let us know how you get on.

If you google homemade catfood, you'll find loads of stuff.

Oh and give the kitten a cuddle for me

Lucky you, I think kittens are one of the joys of life! but as for feeding them, they know what they like! I have tried all sorts, but usually come back to the sachets, as there is no waste with them. We would like to see him or her! pbf.

Biscuits are better for their teeth/gums and I'd recommend getting a sack of the better stuff from the vets.

I've just been told that my older cat has kidney disease and will need to go on a special diet for the rest of her life. I picked up three sachets (argggh) from the vet which cost me 2.25 pounds and will supposedly last her the weekend. Grrrr.

Still it's better than the alternative.

I agree with the sachets though. I hate using them as they can't be recycled.

I think dried food is better, less mess and it doesn't attract flies the same way in summer.

Enjoy your new youngster and don't let it ruin the wallpaper.

Zoe

Burns Pet Food have both wet (unfortunately in sachets) and dry food and they have registered with Peta to say they do not test on animals. The fish is apparently from a sustainable source. There's also Applaws (in tins) who have also signed up with Peta - the same company make Encore which is available at Sainsburys. Hope that helps

Edited to say that these are the only ones I've found to both not have loads of weird ingredients, or tested on animals. It's a shame Burns dry food has chicken liver in it because I'd prefer it to just have fish, but the dry food is good, a bag lasts for ages!!

Thomzo wrote:I've just been told that my older cat has kidney disease and will need to go on a special diet for the rest of her life. I picked up three sachets (argggh) from the vet which cost me 2.25 pounds and will supposedly last her the weekend. Grrrr.

Still it's better than the alternative.

I agree with the sachets though. I hate using them as they can't be recycled.

I think dried food is better, less mess and it doesn't attract flies the same way in summer.

Enjoy your new youngster and don't let it ruin the wallpaper.

Zoe

Sorry to hear that, hope she's ok

lovelygreenleaves wrote:Burns Pet Food have both wet (unfortunately in sachets) and dry food and they have registered with Peta to say they do not test on animals. The fish is apparently from a sustainable source. There's also Applaws (in tins) who have also signed up with Peta - the same company make Encore which is available at Sainsburys. Hope that helps

Edited to say that these are the only ones I've found to both not have loads of weird ingredients, or tested on animals. It's a shame Burns dry food has chicken liver in it because I'd prefer it to just have fish, but the dry food is good, a bag lasts for ages!!

Now let me see if I've got this right - they're making pet food, but it isn't tested on animals? Isn't there something a bit illogical about that?

Mike

MKG wrote:

lovelygreenleaves wrote:Burns Pet Food have both wet (unfortunately in sachets) and dry food and they have registered with Peta to say they do not test on animals. The fish is apparently from a sustainable source. There's also Applaws (in tins) who have also signed up with Peta - the same company make Encore which is available at Sainsburys. Hope that helps

Edited to say that these are the only ones I've found to both not have loads of weird ingredients, or tested on animals. It's a shame Burns dry food has chicken liver in it because I'd prefer it to just have fish, but the dry food is good, a bag lasts for ages!!

Now let me see if I've got this right - they're making pet food, but it isn't tested on animals? Isn't there something a bit illogical about that?

Mike

There are certain well known manufacturers that perform cruel long-term tests on animals which I refuse to fund. I won't go into it on this thread as it's not very nice, but Burns have a good reputation.

lovelygreenleaves wrote:

Thomzo wrote:I've just been told that my older cat has kidney disease

Sorry to hear that, hope she's ok

Thanks, she was vomiting all the time but seems to have calmed a bit since starting on the new food. As I suspected, she ate the three sachets within a day (and that's using it half and half with her normal food) so she's gonna be expensive to feed from now on. Oh well, as long as she's better.

Zoe

That's good news Zoe and I hope she makes a full recovery. Our cat has been on sensitive stomach biccies from the vet for years, and they do cost a fortune, not to mention his many medical problems and now it seems he has some sort of hayfever like allergy, which means him taking expensive tablets for possibly 6 months or more of the year. But the alternative is to watch him suffer (and sneeze all over my window panes and drip splots all over the floor from runny eyes - making more housework for me!).

Oh and he's a pure breed - never, ever again!

When & where I can over the years, the dogs have followed a BARF diet - bones and raw food....

But that means that by begging 'free' meat from the butchers, I feel obligated to buy my meat there... and then I buy too much, because we really don't eat a lot of meat usually.

So, for the last year, the boys have been on a mix of tinned & biscuits - and now we have the little kitty, who gets tinned stuff.....
But the good news is that our butcher friend who gave up his shop last year is opening a new one in January - yay!!
So now we're looking forward to feeding the boys on beef hearts, livers, and lots of bones - and the cat will be expected to follow suit - no more processed muck for them - and long may it last!

Seems they are all little tinkers ... mine would only take the gravy for a long time and we had to keep throwing out the meat now she tells us what she wants ... somtimes biscuit but not many as they make her sick... somtimes Whiskas in gravy nowt else ... raw meat of what ever I am preparing for hubby... my fish man lets me have trimmings for her that I part cook so I can check for bones.... then theres the times when I have to stand with my sardines, tuna etc as she howls to get mine... ha and smokies... but thats not often as I dont like parting with them...even a tiny bit for her

Thanks for these we went for Applaws in the end, but they don't do kitten stuff, so she will have to wait until she is bigger for those (a cousin is a vet and said it does make a difference - I was always skeptical).

Hand't thought of begging scraps though Julie, will try that but again not for a while, the leftover scraps of turkey meat at Christmas didn't go down too well. Well, not at all actually

We use Burns food for our cats and dogs. It is more easily digested; we have one elderly cat and one elderly dog who improved when fed Burns food. Of course, this means we have to feed it to the rest of the brood as well. No, we don't have any shares in Burns, but another advantage is that there is less "you know what" to clear up !