Question on Food (location: UK)

' morning!

A question for UK people and what they feed their furbabies.
I'm desperately trying to get Rasmus off his Felix "As Good As It Looks" (as it contains various sugars and vegetable protein extract) but he is one hooked kitty. Basically, he doesn't like anything that is a pate, or a mousse, or a ground texture, or loaf. He likes stuff he can chew, but it can't be reformatted chunks/loaf. So far all my attempts to change his wet food have been futile.

I've been scouring the list with appropriate foods and so far he has turned his nose up at Simpsons Premium and Nature's Menu - I didn't realise they were both ground mushed texture so I'me sat here with quite a few cans and pouches to get rid off, but that's another matter.

Can anyone recommend a wet food that is flakey, similar to the Felix consistency? I don't really care about cost right now. It's hard to tell from the document and I could spend hours googling, but you lot would be a much better source of information

If there's none, I think I'll put him onto Felix Senior (he's approaching 12 after all), at least it doesn't seem to contain the vegetable protein extract.

Btw, does anyone have any success stories when it comes to coming OFF Felix "As Good As It Looks"? Did you notice a considerable lowering of bg?

Thanking you,
Kris

 

Hi Kris
Yes, the AGAIL can raise bg in some cats. Various sugars can crop up unexpectedly in other foods too - gravy-based varieties, for example.

As far as flaky foods go, you could try Sainsbury's Delicious range - I always recommend this to UKers because it's good quality nutrition and actually looks good too. You buy six pouches in a box for around £3.30 I think which is dearer than Felix but cheaper than Natures Menu. Higher cost doesn't always mean "better" but the cheap mainstream supermarket UK brands like Felix and Whiskas contain pitifully small amounts of real meat, so if you're looking at other options I'd avoid those.

Feline nutrition is quite a science and we have all spent sleepless nights looking online for "perfect" foods. At the end of the day it's what your cat will eat at a price you're willing to pay. As well as looking at the food list, you could go to the Fetch website, search for wet cat food, and look at the results - there is usually good info there including nutritional data and customer reviews. www.fetch.co.uk

Good luck!

 

Hello,

Felix AGAIL does seem to raise blood glucose in a minority of cases (probably the 'vegetable protein extract'). My own cat is one of those affected by it, and I ended up keeping some in the cupboard to raise his blood glucose in an emergency. I only stopped doing that when it occurred to me that it may be a food intolerance (to the veg protein extract) that was actually raising his blood glucose, and that exposing him to foods he was intolerant to probably wasn't a good idea...
There was also a cat in remission here whose blood glucose went up to something like 30 after eating a pouch of Felix AGAIL. Fortunately it came down again...
Many cats seem to be just fine on the food though...

Eliz

 

Maybe it would be worth trying to transition him to other foods by mixing a tiny amount of the new food into the Felix AGAIL and then increasing..?
The food Diana mentions in her post above (Sainsbury's Delicious) looks like a good bet, certainly worth taking a punt on I'd have thought... It has a bit of tapioca but this is quite possibly a tiny weeny amount. And it doesn't seem to have any other nasties like sugars for example...

 

Looking at the Fetch website, I see a brand called Edgard & Cooper which is a new one on me (@Elizabeth and Bertie do you know of it?). At a glance it looks a good bet so you could try a few different varieties of those and let us know what your cat thinks (everyone's input helps!)

 

Thank you, Diana! I will get some of the Sainsbury's Delicious range and try to transition him

 

Oh, yes. I won't let him go cold turkey off the Felix AGAIL, it will be mixing it in and increasing it slowly. This is what I've tried with the other foods too, but it's the texture that's gotten him every single time.

 

This is the one, Kris. There are also single pouches available, 65p, you may want to try a couple of those first! Mix it in as you've said - and do let us know!

https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/shop/gb/groceries/sainsburys-tdc-chicken-collection-6x85g

 

Looks like that might be paté like?

 

I'm off to Sainsbury's right now! Is it just the chicken that's recommended, or is there a fishy variety too?

 

There is a fishy variety yes, and both come in single pouches!

 

Possibly, hard to say... Eliz says she has tried it... @Elizabeth and Bertie ?

 

Edgard & Cooper? I got all the flavours for my lot to try. (I aim to try everything that goes on the UK list, but there are over 300 foods now, haha!)
It's a sort of coarse pate, pate with chunkier bits in, if that makes sense... My lot ate it but weren't exactly wowed by it...

 

Just thought, a popular food with UKers on other groups at the moment is Sheba 'fine flakes'. It is an 'in jelly' type food. However the Sainsbury's one does seem to have better quality ingredients.

 

Let's face it, cats are contrary creatures. Sometimes we give them something new and they gobble it up. Sometimes they give it a quick sniff then walk away. Added to which, ECID. A good way to find if a cat will eat a new food long-term is to sprinkle a few treats on top - the cat is so busy scoffing them that they'll probably go on to eat the food as well. Then, gradually reduce the amount of treats on top until it's all "new" food... and see what happens...

 

A quick thought about the Sainbury's Delicious range, it's quite low fat and low calorie. So it might not be suitable for a skinny kitty if it's the only food being fed...

 

Yes Sheba is popular but it's in the same category as Whiskas, Felix etc - very low meat content, around 4 per cent. I think it also contains the dreaded various sugars.

At the end of the day, you get what you pay for. I'm sure the majority of people around the world feed supermarket brands, thinking they were fine and better than dry food - I did for years until I learnt otherwise. Now, I'd rather spend a bit more and get more meaty brands. Readily available in the UK brands such as Natures Menu (and the Counry Hunter variety) is good, similarly Cheshire Cat and a couple of other brands in that category. There are many more to choose from on Zooplus.

 

Could supplement with some fresh flaked chicken perhaps?

 

It does indeed list 'various sugars' in the ingredients. ...I think the 4% refers to the named flavour (if it's turkey flavour it definitely contains 4% turkey, for example) and it also has 40% of something else... But yes, it is one of the many foods made by the big global corporation, Mars. I thought it worth mentioning though just because it is popular. ...And also because I don't want my personal distaste for the big international corporations to limit the information I give, haha!

 

The food we give our pets is a very emotive issue, I think. I fed my cats good old Whiskas for years thinking it was great - it was only through what I learned over the years that made me realise it was ****. But, as I said earlier, most people do feed their cats these supermarket foods, maybe because they know no different, or because they're readily available, or they're cheap. That was me.

When I started looking for better foods I was flabbergasted at the range available from places like Zooplus, and how expensive better-quality foods are. That's enough to put many people off, I'm sure. Not everyone can afford these prices. I guess it also depends on priorities. I still think non -supermarket cat food is expensive but I personally prefer to find the money to buy it because I like to think I'm doing my best for my cats. For some people, their best will be supermarket brands, and that's fine. The cats will survive, and quite possibly thrive. Not all parents of human children can afford to feed top-quality food, and the children seem to grow up just fine. Anyway, as I said earlier, when it comes to feeding our cats it's a matter of giving them what they will eat at a price we can afford... and if we are doing our personal best, that's all we can do.

 

Right, I'm back with some Sainsbury's Delicious range pouches (various flavours) and I will try them on him. It did hit me when I looked at the wonderful spreadsheet of UK foods that it is quite low calorie. How can I make this more calorific? I don't want him to loose anymore weight as I think he's quite skinny now. Another option would also be to cook for him, I guess. I don't mind.

 

You could add some extra chicken, or turkey, or a little ham or cheese. Or look at some of the complementary (ie not complete) foods such as Encore and Applaws, which are usually popular but can't be fed as a complete diet because they don't have all the nutritional ingredients cats need.

 

It 'may' be that you can just feed more of that food, if he has the appetite to eat more of it. If he needs to actually put on some weight and won't eat enough of this food to do that, then you may want to consider including some higher calorie food in his diet. (I'll have a look through the UK list for you in a mo...)

You could also, as Diana suggests above, try adding a little extra plain meat to his food, or feeding him some snacks of that in addition to his meals.

 

OK, so this evening I introduced a bit of Sainsbury's Delicious Tuna with his Felix AGAIL. He LOVED IT!!!! I'm crossing fingers for an easy transition.