I expect nothing less than comedy genius and hopefully a useful answer or two.

Got an old cat with Thyroid trouble, on tablets and doing OK but needs to bulk up a bit. Vets advice was to get a quality, high protein, cat food that isn’t the typical cerial based brand rubbish.

There’s a whole confusing range of options out there, including some stuff that sounds like it should be sold in Holland and Barrat to Hipsters who like raw craft food served on an old draining board.

Help.

Depends how fussy the cat is. You could try a high protein dry food from Royal Canin, but if the bugger won’t eat it, it’s not going to help much.

My cats seem to get pretty fat on Hills. The just chicken and rice one goes down well.

My cats seem to get pretty fat on Hills.

Not pedalling hard enough. 😉

Not sure whether you’re looking for dry or wet food but if the latter then Waitrose tins like this one actually seem to be made of real meat and fish. Not exactly a cheap option though.

We tried the hipsterish Lilys organic stuff when our cat was ill, which also claims to be made from real animals. It stinks; don’t go there unless you feed your cat outside.

Kitten food might be a good idea – it is generally higher in calories.

Otherwise, Orijen has been good for my two.

Ultimately, however, there is only one “person” who will decide what cat food gets eaten.

Your cat is hoping to kill and eat you so be careful it doesn’t get a taste for human flesh.

My vet practice has special high-calorie food – can’t remember the brand and it is expensive, but she scoffed it all, so was good for a couple of weeks recovery. Smells vile ! I am surprised they didn’t flog you something.

My cat has just gone onto a high protein diet currently we’re trying royal canin pouches wet food and tins of Hills meat. the royal canin is winning at the moment. Haven’t tried dry food yet.

Contact the pet food companies with an “enquiry” on nutrition and I bet they will send you some samples you can then see what works and what doesn’t…

Our cat suffered with kidney disease and each week was a different product….

With that in mind… we have a lot of Renal Support food going free to a new home…

+1 for Royal Canin, (stoopid cats and their expensive tastes!)

mrs rocket cooks the cat a small chicken every week

Tuna

Been through this with a couple of older cats. One I ended up buying chicken thighs, boiling it all until the bones pulled out easily and then chopping up all the meat, adding some of the reduced juices and fats from the saucepan and pouring over the meat in a glass dish and refrigerate once cooled. Sounds a lot of work but used to last her a week towards the end of her life.

If we’re talking dried food then James Wellbeloved or Applaws would be my recommendations, Applaws Senior I would guess. Currently one of our cats is very food intolerant and is on Hill’s Prescription D/D….or Venison and Green Pea to the rest of you……venison ffs…

Fetch or Zooplus are usually a good place to start price wise. HTH

Go raw – we use Natural Instinct – the main cat eats Venison and the kitten is on organic chicken.

Our old cat was on special diets but still had terrible digestion and number 2s, in his final months we just feed him raw chicken (not specific cat food) and his digestion and toilet improved massively to the point of no problem, and he also bulked back up a bit.

Even that waitrose stuff is only 14% meat whereas the chicken we feed the kitten is 98% human grade meat. Even Serena Williams could eat it.

And the hipster stuff is probably not much better.

It’s also not that expensive as a 500g tub lasts 4 or 5 days and costs about £2.50. You just can’t leave it down, so portion so they eat it all, and then give them seconds if required.

http://www.naturalinstinct.com/raw-cat-food

The Pure foods are not complete foods so you need to mix them up a bit, the complete ones have taurine and other stuff cats need.

Cheers, Vets normally sell Hills stuff, but I was in the small branch office and they hadn’t had stock from the main site, they’ve probably made enough out of me with blood tests 🙁

rocketman, misread that as mrs rocket cooks the cat at first!!!

Will give the Royal Canin stuff a go, seemed to be a common one. She does get the odd bit of chicken and tuna but being a cat will very often leave it if she thinks it’s been provided too often.

Surprised the fussy buggers survive in the wild. Don’t see lions turning down a Zebra because they’ve had it for the past two days running.

Edit: Will look at that NaturalInstinct site too.

🙂

The animal is also fond of tinned sardines/tuna

Look for comments on the cat sites about the royal canin stuff, it is not that great and vets push it because they get good deals on it.

Probably the same with Hills.

I looked around a lot when I got my first cat and the raw options seemed by far the best. And applaws meat biscuits as well, or similar, as you don’t want any grain.

Delicious, lean and gamey. If you are trying to up your protein intake by eating cats, they are a good choice – and bang on trend for the new felineio diet everyone is raving about.

I’d recommend ginger cats as food. Their meat has a finer grain structure and – some say – a delicate gingery taste.

Bozita.

Surprised the fussy buggers survive in the wild. Don’t see lions turning down a Zebra because they’ve had it for the past two days running.

Generally, they’ll demand what they’re used to. So whether they have a varied diet or the same thing every day, they’ll get fussy if you suddenly change that.