Do you feed your cats cheap food?

So, when buying cat food, do you tend to buy the cheap food or the more expensive food? My two boys will not eat the cheapo stuff but I cannot say that I blame them, I buy Science Diet for my cats because I know that they are getting the nutrition that they need. So much of the cheap stuff is made with byproducts and my cats deserve better than that. What do you feed yours?

 

both mine are on go cat kitten dry food

 

My cats never get "cheap" food. In the USA they are only fed Nature's Variety "Instinct" wet and kibble. If you desire for your cat to live a long and healthy life, free of food allergies and organ issues, then only the best should be fed. Cat's can have their "junk" food in the form of "treats".

 

I usually buy my cats Meow mix, the purina brand and I make sure it is the inside formula kind. I have bought my cat's cheap cat food before and they ended up throwing it all back up, and there were times where they would not even touch it at all. If you go to Walmart you can get the big bag of the name brand cat food for about $12 dollars.

 

I feed a relatively expensive food, but it's much better quality than pretty much anything but the most expensive brands. It's called 4Health and it has much less filler and grains than other foods. It's $20 for a 15 lb bag, which isn't that bad.

 

I have tried different cat foods to see what they like and which keeps them healthy (shiny fur, active, doesn't make them too fat, etc). For my Hills works the best and they like it the most. I tried loads of different kinds of food though. For wet food I use cosma which has no additional flavorings, coloring, etc. which I think is very important. Whenever possible I avoid food that has a lot or artificial and additional goo in it.

 

We give our cats premium food. One has bladder stones, so he needs special prescription food. We used to do a raw food diet, but it became difficult, so we had to go back to store-bought food.

 

The best diet is of course a well-balanced raw diet, but not everyone has the time or inclination to do that (I understand). I work at home so it's a little easier for me, although I think a good raw diet can be done fairly easily with commercial raw food such as RadCat or Primal. I use Primal and my cat loves it, and it's balanced (bone, meat, organs, etc.). The only downside is there's no real texture to it and the cat much prefers either raw meat or meat on the bone, and real organs (kidneys, liver, hearts, etc.).

Kibble is the worst food you can feed your cat (as far as cat food goes) just because it's usually full of grains (which cats weren't evolved to digest) and they can't get the nutrients they need from it in the quantities they need. Canned food is a good happy medium, and at least cats will get the moisture they're used to getting from meat (since cats have a low thirst drive). Bladder infections and blockages are common in cats mainly because of the reliance on dry kibble and a lack of hydration.

So, I suggest experimenting. If you're feeding your cat kibble, switch to canned food. If you're already on canned, try a few pieces of real 'meat', say, that steak you saw in the store on manager's special or past it's sell-by date (cats can handle it). Toss some raw meat in the bowl and see what happens. Your cat might just love it like most cats do once they realize it's food (they're often used to the smelly canned stuff).

I started out feeding my little guy kibble and canned too, but he really didn't like any canned food and kibble long term is just not good for cats (obesity, diabetes, urinary blockages or infections). When I switched to raw I had a much happier cat with a strong food drive and now he gets to exercise his little jaw muscles...and this biting action will help when he's teething as well.

There are some fantastic sites explaining a raw food diet for cats. Start with this site here (written by a doctor of veterinary medicine). http://www.catinfo.org/

 

My cats definitely supplement their own diets with raw - they eat, on average, 2-3 large mice per day each. We live in a very rural area so the mice are healthy and there's no chance of them having eaten rat poison like in the city. One of my cats even caught a wild flying squirrel and ate it. They also eat lots of large grasshoppers.

 

Grasshoppers are good too. I've heard of people putting live grasshoppers in a bathtub for indoor cats to 'hunt' and eat.

 

I do not feed my cats cheap food. They probably would not eat it anyway. I like Iams. I realize this is not the top of the line catfood but they don't seem to have any problems with it. After the big scare a few years ago about all of the cats dying from renal failure because of the cheap catfood I am very leary of it.

 

Dry food or kibble has issues with mold spores, salmonella and impurities in the food due to how its prepared (suspicious meats, non-meat parts which get caught and ground, etc.) Plus, dry food sits in storage for a long time and often has grain to make the extrusion possible. Best avoided.

 

Why anyone would buy the cheap food for their cats in my opinion is asking for problems in the future. I'm seeing right now what feeding cheap stuff will do to a cat. My mother in law whose got a cat that's 14 or 15 and he has major health issues. She bought the cheap stuff for his whole life and is now paying for it. On the other hand my husbands cat who is 18 is in way better health than my mother in laws cat. All due in part I believe to the better nutrition she is getting.

 

Mine will only eat Friskies cat food, they will not eat the cheaper stuff and I have not tried to buy anything more expensive that Friskies. I have 6 cats and that gets really expensive, but I love my cats!

 

My cats never have any idea of how much I pay for their food. All they care is that they get to eat what I eat. So I end up eating cat food. No, I don't mean the cat food that's sold in the stores. I mean fish and other things which make up a cat's diet.

 

I have had my cats on a few different foods but my one has stomach issues so I had to move them to a more expensive but better quality food. She still has some issues, but not nearly to the degree she had before so it is well worth the extra money. Plus, the pet store where I buy it has a rewards program where you can earn free bags of food after spending so much money with them.

 

Your pet store owner is a very smart businessman. That's a great way of keeping repeat customers. However I feel the best food for cats would be something cooked fresh. Fried fish is always a favorite with my cats. Especially fried salted fish.

 

I have kept cats for many years and always fed on standard tinned food and biscuits and they have all lived long healthy lives. I supplement their diets with treats and other meat, fish etc and I know they like to get their own snacks of mice and birds! They say cats are finnicky eaters but I have not really seen this with my pets, there are very few foods that they will not eat at all.

 

My cat only eats name brand foods. I have tried to feed him the cheaper brands before when we were on a budget but he refused also. I am sure it has a lot to do with the fact that he is used to the expensive brand. If I were to give him a cheaper brand to start with he probably wouldn't mind since he wouldn't know what he was missing out on.

 

I have just got a new cat. It's a white female. And absolutely indubitably pregnant. This is where eating habits of cats becomes an interesting subject to study. Green Seven doesn't like cat food. He only likes what I eat. The new cat is a stray but she likes cat food. I don't think she acquired her taste for cat food as a stray, though.