Dog Chat

Hello everyone,

After doing much research on the various cat foods available, I decided to start stocking both Burns dry food, for those who really want to feed a dry biscuit to their cats, and Applaws wet food. I feed my own cat on Applaws, and would absolutely recommend it to everyone, but would like to get your thoughts.

I have purposely stayed away from choosing what I feel are poor quality, cheap and highly processed foods, particular brands such as Science Plan, Whiskas, Felix etc.

I would really like to get your feedback as to what you think of these 2 foods, and what you feed your cats and the reaons behind it. Is it just 'easy' to buy your food from the supermarket? If so, we have implemented a recurring transaction facility on our site, so you can have food automatically re-ordered on a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly basis - would this help you?

All your thoughts are more than welcome!
Chris Jones
http://www.petclubuk.com

I would absolutely love to feed my cats on Burns or JWB but after doing the calculations it will cost over £35 PER WEEK!!!  :o
So unfortunately I have to stick to tinned Whiskas or Kitekat as it costs just £15 per week.
I get Tesco orders fortnightly for their food & litter and Skylars food.  :( I hate Tesco  :(

I really like natures:menu wet cat food, but burns and jwb are good dries. I just prefer wet. I've never heard of applaws, i might google the ingredients.

Yeah just looked up applaws, it looks very good, similar to natures:menu :)

Hello,

You can see the full applaws range here:

http://www.petclubuk.com/view/category.do?id=275 (http://www.petclubuk.com/view/category.do?id=275)

Also, with regards to cost, £35 a week is an awful lot of money if you were just feeding Burns - can I ask how many cats you have??

We feed our own cat on Applaws, giving him 2 tins a day. Although we do regularly give him 1 tin a day, but split in half and mixed in with a few Burns biscuits. The only reason I do this is to help his teeth a little more.

The cost of this though, basically amounts to about £7 a week. £1 a day is not the cheapest of foods - but not too bad considering the superior quality.

Patchouli has 15 cats ;D

Only problem with Applaws is that although it is a really good food, it isnt actually a complete food.

I feed Kiara Royal Canin Fit 32 and Sensible 33

My lot are on Royal Canin Fit 32. All of them have been on it since a year old and are doing great. There are probably better foods out there but its good enough and works for my lot.

It saves me £48 per month on tins. I'd need 56 tins a week for my eight cats.

Whiskers and Felix etc are just the cat version of Pal and Pedigree Chum in my opinion.

 ;D

i have 3 big male cats & they all have to be .on hills hair ball as they are free fed & one has a gastro-intestinal problem, however they still only cost me abut £5 a month each.
 doing the maths i cant work out how tinned is cheaper than dried.
mine would eat 1 can a day each = 55p each per day = £17.05 a month each !
over 3 times what i pay for them at the moment on a premium, special (& costly) diet

p.s although i agree that whiskas, felix, go cat. etc are poor quality, i think science plan (hills) is a premium food

Science Plan dry is a good food, but the wet is the same as pedigree. Its derivatives, and lots of salts and sugars.

I switch between burns,royal canin and JWB......I try to avoid feeding wet because it seems to send them wild and they just wont leave me alone begging for more and more plus the smell makes me gag.

I'm going to give this one a go though because they sell it in sainsbury's now and it's just down the road http://www.petskitchen.co.uk/product-lists.asp?productTypeID=1&productCatName=Joe+%26+Jill%26%2339%3Bs+Dry+Foods    ;D

Hmm well I feel like s**t now. All my cats are in peak condition, fed 3 times a day and want for nothing but apparently I'm feeding them c**p.
I would love to feed them a better quality food but just can't afford to. They eat better than us mind you!
I'm slowly changing Skylar's diet to BARF and would like to with the cats but as their weights differ greatly (from a few lbs to 17lbs!) it would be near impossible to make sure they get the right amount each day... plus I don't have the room!

I'm doing my hardest to give my cats the best I possibly can, and they're all fit and healthy for it.

patchouli, i am sorry dont thimk anyone was trying to make you feel bad :(
personally i think that if an animal is doing well on ANY diet then that is a good diet for that animal.
if at the vets i check a cat & it has good muscle tone , isnt overweight, has a nice shiny coat, no dandruff, not an oily or dry skin, has good teeth & is active & well , then even if the owners say it is on aldis own (just for example) im not going to say its on a 'bad' diet.
however if i see the opposite, then i would recommend that the owners change to a better quality food.
i have to feed mine on the premium foods because of their different needs, the cats i have alraedy explained.
clara was bought up on eukanuba giant puppy ( the only giant breed food 9 yrs ago) she then was put on hills performance due to her nervousness & activity levels. my vet then suggested to help my finances i tried her on a lower premium dry food. on paper it had the same levels of minerals, vitamins etc. but within a week she had lost her shiny coat, her energy levels had depleted & she had lost weight, so we switched back to hills.
different courses for different horses.

Yeah, what Claraclogs said. Not trying to make anyone feel pants. Just giving my opinion on cat food.

I also worked out the price for my lot to give people an idea  ;D

On tins I'd need one tin a day per cat. I have 8 cats so thats 8 tins per day = 56 tins per week.

If each tin cost me 50p then it would be £28 a week or £112 a month. Even if I gave them 6 tins a day = 42 tins per week. At the same price its still £21 per week or £84 a month.

A bag of Royal Canin costs me about £40 and lasts for a month. At those rates its a saving of between £44-72 unless I'm completely stupid...dont answer that  :D

Obviously tins are not 50p but its still a huge saving, and it stops me having to find room for 56 tins of catfood each week.

Thanks you guys, I feel a bit better now  :-[

Vase how do you figure all that out?!
I weighed a bowl of dry & it came to 35g so...

35g x 15 x 3 meals a day = 1575g per day/11025g per week which is 11kg.
The good food comes in 10kg bags at £36.

They have 9 tins a day between them. Kitekat is 35p a tin in the multipacks so...

9 x 7 x .35p = £22.05

Also we have to buy over £10's worth of litter each week, plus my oldest boy gets posher food because he's 4 years older than the rest and that comes to roughly £3.

So, in summary (  ;D ) the whole cat food & litter bill for one week comes to at least £35. Whereas if we had the nice posh food it would come to at least £46 a week!  :o

I'm not noted for my maths skills, if anyone can see a mistake please tell me!!!


(I've been working out percentages for Sky's BARF diet this morning, so now my head is totally fuddled!)

My cat, Malcolm, is nearly 18 years old and has Felix and GoCat biscuits. He is still playfull when he is not asleep, a good weight and has never (touch wood) had to go to the vet other than for his annual booster and checkup.