Fancy feast or equivalent in uk?

TO ALL UK PARENTS - IN THE PROCESS OF TRYING TO SOURCE RECCOMMENDED WET FOOD FOR MADAM FUSSPOT...

FANCY FEAST IS MENTIONED A LOT BY OUR AMERICAN FRIENDS BUT YOU CAN ONLY GET IT IN HUGE QUANTITIES ON AMAZON ETC.

AS SOMEONE WHO’S THROWN AWAY MASSES OF REJECTED FOOD I WD LIKE TO BE ABLE TO TRY A CAN/SACHET AT A TIME...

SUGGESTIONS?.

 

I'm not from the UK, but through my routing around on the forum I have found that there are a couple of great resources on the board to help you out with options for food!
HERE is a link to a spreadsheet with a list of low carb foods that can be found in the UK, I'm not sure how up to date that it is but it definitely would be a great starting point

There is also a great calculating tool that I JUST found out about the other day, this enables you to input values yourself so that you can calculate the % carbs of foods that may not be on your list. you can find the calculator (excel spreadsheet) as a link in question 2 HERE. I'm not sure what your comfort level is with a smart phone, but you could download the google sheets app to your phone and store this excel file in there so that you can open the calculator on your phone at the store. This way if there is a food that isn't on the list at your local grocery store you can determine if it will be a good fit for your cat!

If you need help setting something like that up I could definitely advise

 

Ah thank you Amanda... you wouldn’t believe how hard I’ve tried with all sorts of wet food only to throw away when BOTH my cats turned their nose up...

 

I definitely believe it! While one of my cats is a little piggy and will eat anything (my diabetic cat thankfully), I have really struggled getting my other cat transitioned to wet... I'm pretty nervous that Mowgli will get into her dry food. Lately I have had a lot of success with feeding my pickier cat Nyx wet food when I mix the food with water and make kind of a mush out of it. But yeah, wet food can be so pricey... I cringe if even a third of the can is left behind

 

Yup.. horrified at the waste but hoping to hit on something they’ll bot eat.. embarrassed to say my cats are better fed than some third world country kids... sad ...

 

LOL!!

Have you considered a raw diet? quite a few people on the forum do make their cats food themselves and it seems fairly cost friendly. If your kitties have such bougie tastes maybe they could love it!

 

Already on it... Madam likes raw pork which isn’t that recommended - Eric not so much - just mixed three types of raw mince with supplement.. see how we go... problem is as you well know when it comes to injection time making sure there’s food on board is a priority...

 

Especially when you use Caninsulin! That's what Mowgli started on but I had to switch to Lantus because of my timeline getting ready and leaving for work, I was worried he wouldn't eat before I left. I'm not into force feeding so - insulin switch it was!

I'm really intrigued by making my own food but honestly I'm so worried I wouldn't prepare it in a sanitary enough manner, and the last thing I need are a couple cats with incontinence issues running around the house

 

Understood.. if your two are managing on ‘normal’ wet cat food I’d be content with that..
I’m only doing it cos I haven’t managed to find cat food that Madam will eat .. I do despair ..
She was 12.5 when she came to me and had always eaten dry food only... so hard to persuade.. she will eat some cooked chicken and was very partial to prawns..

I do wonder tho.. I have a friend who’s cats were brought solely on dry food - now 15...

 

Would love to have ‘easy’ cats...

 

I hope you find something that works!!

 

Thank you... we all seem to be battling through best we can...

 

Hey I used butcher's classic for my kitties in the UK and they all seem to get on ok with that.

 

Have you seen the UK foods list...? There are loads of varieties there to keep you busy! But yes, I agree that it would be good to be able to try a couple of tins/pouches to see if they suit, before buying half a warehouse full and seeing it go to waste...

I'm not sure what our equivalent to Fancy Feast would be but I'm guessing it (FF) is a readily available supermarket brand so it may be equivalent to something like Whiskas, Felix or Sheba. I'm sure you've tried these. Some of our bigger supermarkets sell single pouches of other foods - if you live near a big Sainsbury's or Tesco, take a look (an hour in the pet food aisle is great use of your time!). Sainsbury's also sells a brand called Delicious - chicken and fish flavours - in both single pouches and boxes of six. I often recommend this to UKers as it's a good-quality low-carb food and easily available (ie as opposed to having to buy online). I think Tesco has something similar, the name escapes me but should be easy to find.

A lot of food choices depend on budget. The above-mentioned brands and supermarket own brands are cheap, but if you can spend more, have you tried Nature's Menu or Cheshire Cat, for example? Both are high-quality foods but probably twice as much as Whiskas etc.

The other thing you could try, if you haven't already, is getting some little tins of Encore or Applaws (both from www.fetch.co.uk or some supermarkets) and just add a little of this on top of other foods you'd like your cats to eat. These tins are expensive too, but easier if you don't want to faff about with shredding real chicken every few days for the same purpose... same principle as adding tuna or Parmesan, ie once a cat gets a sniff of those on their food, they might go on to gobble the rest up. And still on that theme - I've been buying little sachets of cat soup to add to my kitty's food to try to up her liquid intake (she won't drink water or water added to her food, but she loves these soups, so you could add some of that to other stuff too).

If none of this works you may just have to accept that your cats have got you wrapped round their little paws and that half your life will be spent trying to please them and their very refined palates...

 

Ah Diana. You’re an angel.. I’ll revive in spirit and have another go.. or I might just leave home..

 

Haha yes, if you leave home they would have to fend for themselves and jolly well eat whatever's in the cupboard (assuming they are clever enough to open cupboards, or maybe they are extra-clever and can search online for their own choices)... oh dear none of that makes any sense at all but you just have to keep trying really and try every trick in the book (in fact some of us could probably write our own book on the subject!)

 

@Zee How are you, Mum and Eric? I have been wondering but you haven't posted recently. I hope all is well. Give us a shout please and updates.

 

Hi Lou. How kind you are to think of us... haven’t posted as things are relatively calm. Madam mum is eating raw food in the mornings whilst still ‘shouting’ for dry food in the afternoons. Haven’t done a spread sheet... sorry ... I’m working on trying to move to Lantus or Levemir as I believe she’ll be much more stable on these than on Caninsulin.. she isn’t loosing weight tho I do try.. Eric is VERY entertaining... I attach photos to demonstrate the hardship they endure... and you? How was your trip?

 

Omigosh, hardship indeed! If only, right?
I am glad you are considering Lantus or Levemir, as I have read that they work so well with cats, much better than the Caninsulin which was developed for dogs. Regarding the spreadsheet, we have members that can set that up for you, if you would like. I had a hard time with it and a very kind member set Idjit's up for me. Now all I have to do is plug in numbers.
Are you using a supplement with the raw food? And is Eric more compliant at all? I know Mum loves that dry food, but reducing further or eliminating it is going to really help with the BG. I don't know about lower carb dry food alternatives there in the UK, but maybe @Elizabeth and Bertie would have some input there. And it would all depend on what dear Mum would like and eat. (And Eric the Sod) I don't want to see you spending more money and wasting food. She will probably lose weight when you can reduce the carbs, at least that is what my doctor tells me , so more lettuce for me and hopefully more meat for Mum. It all takes time.
My trip and time spent with our daughter was wonderful. It's always so much fun and I always feel energized and loving life more when spending time with her. She is a remarkable person and seems to enjoy my company as much as I enjoy hers. Am grateful for that.
Please keep in touch, even if you think nothing exciting is happening.

 

Hi Lou. I do indeed add supplement. I’m using Fellini and some wild Salmon oil. Eric is decidedly still a sod but is highly entertaining ... I’m reducing dry food best I can and followed advise on this wonderful site. Xxxxx

 

Zee, there are dry foods in the UK that are lower in carbs than the Hill's diabetic food. The lowest carb is Thrive 'premium plus' chicken and turkey flavours. There are a few others on the UK food list in my signature (scroll down almost to the bottom, to the 'kibble' food section). While these dry foods are not 'recommended' for diabetic kitties, they are on the list at the request of members who needed a lower carb alternative while transitioning to wet food.

However, when reducing carb content of the diet it is extremely important to be hometesting. That's because lowering carb content of the diet can reduce blood glucose significantly, and the insulin dose may need to be reduced so as to avoid hypoglycemia.

I see that your kitty is overweight. The diabetic I adopted in Feb was also overweight (and was on Hill's M/D and W/D at the rescue centre). Switching her to wet food has helped immensely in enabling her to lose weight gradually. And she's actually started to move around a bit, haha!
Also, in her case, switching to wet food immediately reduced her insulin requirement by half. She'd come here on 4 units of Caninsulin. After the diet change her requirement dropped to 2 units. Since then it's reduced further and is mostly less than one unit, usually between 0.25 and 0.5 of a unit...

Oh, Re the 'Fancy Feast' cat food (your original post), our nearest equivalent in the UK is Gourmet Gold pates. They're all made by Purina.

Eliz

 

Thank you again. She’s on raw food for breakfast but gets a bit of dry food here and there - PORTA 21 sensible carefully measured.. SHE WILL NOT EAT ‘NORMAL’ WET CAT FOOD..

SHE GETS SOME ROAST CHICKEN WITH SKIN REMOVED IN THE EVENING...
SHE’S MORE ACTIVE BUT WEIGHT JUST SITS THERE... GRRRR...