What Do You Feed Your British Shorthair Cat?

[Mari88]

Hi fellow British shorthair owners

I would love to know what everyone is feeding their british shorthair adult cat besides raw food.
What wet/dry food brands are yours thriving on?
I don’t want to start trial and error myself because it will upset my cats tummy so would love to hear what everyone else is feeding?

 

[daisyd]

Hello, I feed my very fussy and spoilt tabby Thrive wet cat food . I struggled when I first got her as a tiny kitten as she had a sensitive tummy and would be sick after feeding her superstore brands (whiskers; Felex etc ). She would only keep down royal canine gastro food (which looked dull) of boiled chicken . Somebody on here from the UK (are you Birmingham UK?) told me to try Thrive. I wrote to thrive head office and they sent me a massive box with every flavour food to try for free. Gracie loves it ! They are made out of 90% meat and breast chicken and tuna looks lovely (i.e not like cat food). I buy from zoo plus or amazon .

 

[Columbine]

I used to have BSH boys (the last one passed almost a year ago now). He adored Thrive Complete wet food, and also liked Catz Finefood, Bozita, Nature's Menu pouches, and Purely Holistic. He'd sometimes eat Meowing Heads wet food too.

Before I learned more about kitty nutrition, he ate Sheba Fresh Choice in gravy and Gourmet Mon Petit in gravy. The only dry food he'd eat was the Royal Canin Urinary prescription food (prescribed after he totally blocked from crystals), but after learning more about dry food not being great for crystals kitties, he only got very small amounts of that.

I'm in the UK btw, so these are all UK/European foods The first three I mention come from Zooplus - they have tons of good quality foods, and I get the majority of my cat supplies from them. The others I get at Pets at Home (I think the Purely is one of their own brands). Other brands I feed are Smilla, Animonda Carny, some Animonda vom Feinstein (paté trays only), Tesco Finest trays (the jelly ones, not the gravy one), Tesco trays (paté only), Catessy pate trays, GranataPet, MyStar, Miamor pate, and Miamor Ragout (in jelly only). That's all I can think of right now. There may be others! (I have 3 cats currently, and they're all fussy in different ways, hence the huge rotation list ).

There's no need to feed a BSH any differently from any other cat - they don't have special need just because they're a certain breed. Breed-specific cat foods are nothing more than a marketing trick

 

[Mari88]

Hello, I feed my very fussy and spoilt tabby Thrive wet cat food . I struggled when I first got her as a tiny kitten as she had a sensitive tummy and would be sick after feeding her superstore brands (whiskers; Felex etc ). She would only keep down royal canine gastro food (which looked dull) of boiled chicken . Somebody on here from the UK (are you Birmingham UK?) told me to try Thrive. I wrote to thrive head office and they sent me a massive box with every flavour food to try for free. Gracie loves it ! They are made out of 90% meat and breast chicken and tuna looks lovely (i.e not like cat food). I buy from zoo plus or amazon .

Yes I’m from Birmingham UK. I only have the one car possibly pregnant. I would like to continue giving my cat raw food once a day but want a healthier alternative to the dry food I leave out for her to eat as she pleases. At the moment she is fine eating whiskas kitten food but I noticed she is always shedding hair so maybe changing her diet would help with that. I just want her to have a nice healthy coat so I’m happy to try her on something more nutritionally better than whiskas.

 

[Mari88]

I used to have BSH boys (the last one passed almost a year ago now). He adored Thrive Complete wet food, and also liked Catz Finefood, Bozita, Nature's Menu pouches, and Purely Holistic. He'd sometimes eat Meowing Heads wet food too.

Before I learned more about kitty nutrition, he ate Sheba Fresh Choice in gravy and Gourmet Mon Petit in gravy. The only dry food he'd eat was the Royal Canin Urinary prescription food (prescribed after he totally blocked from crystals), but after learning more about dry food not being great for crystals kitties, he only got very small amounts of

What is crystals?
There is a huge variety to choose from I find it overwhelming.
I think I’m looking for a good quality dry food. Anything to keep her coat nice and less of the hair loss.

 

[daisyd]

I’ve never fed Gracie raw food so can’t come comment on that , if you want to try wet I would definitely try out Thrive .

If she is pregnant update that in the title as many on here are experienced with nursing and pregnant cats as she may require a different diet !

 

[Columbine]

What is crystals?
There is a huge variety to choose from I find it overwhelming.
I think I’m looking for a good quality dry food. Anything to keep her coat nice and less of the hair loss.

My boy had struvite crystals form in his bladder. This explains it better than I can - Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease (flutd)

Ah, it's dry food you're looking for. Some of the better brands out there (imo, anyway) are Purizon, Aatu, Applaws, Orijin, and Eden Holistic. Thrive dry food looks great, but its very expensive compared to the others I mentioned. There are other good brands out there too, though. These articles should help you with food choices too:-
How To Choose The Best Dry Cat Food?
Grain-free Cat Food – What Does It Mean?
How To Choose The Right Food For Your Cat

 

[Mari88]

I’ve never fed Gracie raw food so can’t come comment on that , if you want to try wet I would definitely try out Thrive .

If she is pregnant update that in the title as many on here are experienced with nursing and pregnant cats as she may require a different diet !

I have dogs and my cat is always pinching my dogs raw chicken so I let her have it. Iv read cats are meat eaters so I allow it. With wet and dry food they have lots of other ingredients and preservatives so in this case I’m
Being fussy on what to move her on.

I also have two mentors and this lovely group to help with her pregnancy and I understand it’s kitten food I move her to throughout pregnancy and nursing.

Do you find the cats poo changes with different brands?

 

[Mari88]

My boy had struvite crystals form in his bladder. This explains it better than I can - Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease (flutd)

Ah, it's dry food you're looking for. Some of the better brands out there (imo, anyway) are Purizon, Aatu, Applaws, Orijin, and Eden Holistic. Thrive dry food looks great, but its very expensive compared to the others I mentioned. There are other good brands out there too, though. These articles should help you with food choices too:-
How To Choose The Best Dry Cat Food?
Grain-free Cat Food – What Does It Mean?
How To Choose The Right Food For Your Cat

Thank you for the links. Will read up tonight and hopefully come to a decision.

 

[Columbine]

Fyi, the wet foods I mention are all pure meat, without any 'nasties'

With dry food, you need to do the switch gradually, over maybe a month or so. Dry foods vary in their ingredients much more than wet foods do (especially in terms of fillers and sometimes fat content), so abrupt changes can cause mild stomach upsets for a few days. The dry foods I linked to are all (I believe) pretty similar in quality, despite varying price ranges.

It's fine to feed cats a raw diet, but it must be a balanced or complete raw diet, NOT just straight raw chicken. Unlike dogs, cats can't produce taurine in their bodies, so any cat food must be properly balanced/supplemented to ensure they get enough. Taurine is vital for several major bodily functions, including heart health, so this must be taken into account.
Homemade Food For Cats: Consider Your Recipe!
Unbalanced Diets - Are You Killing Your Cat With Kindness?

 

[Neo_23]

I used to have BSH boys (the last one passed almost a year ago now). He adored Thrive Complete wet food, and also liked Catz Finefood, Bozita, Nature's Menu pouches, and Purely Holistic. He'd sometimes eat Meowing Heads wet food too.

Before I learned more about kitty nutrition, he ate Sheba Fresh Choice in gravy and Gourmet Mon Petit in gravy. The only dry food he'd eat was the Royal Canin Urinary prescription food (prescribed after he totally blocked from crystals), but after learning more about dry food not being great for crystals kitties, he only got very small amounts of that.

I'm in the UK btw, so these are all UK/European foods The first three I mention come from Zooplus - they have tons of good quality foods, and I get the majority of my cat supplies from them. The others I get at Pets at Home (I think the Purely is one of their own brands). Other brands I feed are Smilla, Animonda Carny, some Animonda vom Feinstein (paté trays only), Tesco Finest trays (the jelly ones, not the gravy one), Tesco trays (paté only), Catessy pate trays, GranataPet, MyStar, Miamor pate, and Miamor Ragout (in jelly only). That's all I can think of right now. There may be others! (I have 3 cats currently, and they're all fussy in different ways, hence the huge rotation list ).

There's no need to feed a BSH any differently from any other cat - they don't have special need just because they're a certain breed. Breed-specific cat foods are nothing more than a marketing trick

I'm so jealous of some of the European brands! Just looking at them online they seem to be quite good.

 

[Mari88]

Fyi, the wet foods I mention are all pure meat, without any 'nasties'

With dry food, you need to do the switch gradually, over maybe a month or so. Dry foods vary in their ingredients much more than wet foods do (especially in terms of fillers and sometimes fat content), so abrupt changes can cause mild stomach upsets for a few days. The dry foods I linked to are all (I believe) pretty similar in quality, despite varying price ranges.

It's fine to feed cats a raw diet, but it must be a balanced or complete raw diet, NOT just straight raw chicken. Unlike dogs, cats can't produce taurine in their bodies, so any cat food must be properly balanced/supplemented to ensure they get enough. Taurine is vital for several major bodily functions, including heart health, so this must be taken into account.
Homemade Food For Cats: Consider Your Recipe!
Unbalanced Diets - Are You Killing Your Cat With Kindness?

Thank you. I just prefer dry food because then I won’t have to worry about the food being left out all day or it going to waste.
Onto Zooplus now to consider my options.

 

[Neo_23]

Thank you. I just prefer dry food because then I won’t have to worry about the food being left out all day or it going to waste.
Onto Zooplus now to consider my options.

Dry feed is definitely more convenient for owners, but wet food is much healthier if you're willing to incorporate some into the diet. The cons of dry food is that it has no moisture and is very high in carbs. Two things that aren't good for cats (can lead to problems like kidney disease or urinary infections down the road). A lot of people feed all wet diets because it's much healthier, but even if you combine a bit of wet food into the diet (replacing some dry) it will benefit your cat.