Melbourne

Pfft tell that to Mickey, he's a fickle fae. Sometimes he loves dine, sometimes he's not interested, hence why I have both Dine and Fancy Feast, keeps it fresh for him hahaha

And I wouldn't be surprised at all if the Vet has tried it hahah but more likely they've just gathered that data from their clients lol

It’s really hard to work out what food is good. The high protein grain free ‘paleo’ ones are decent though, as the carbs from grain fillers can mean cats get hungry again fast (like us with Chinese food) and it makes them chunky.

It’s expensive especially on such a low income but I always make sure there’s enough money budgeted to keep Melbcat on Taste Of The Wild for her allergies, and lucked into a fairly decent homebrand wet food she can eat.

Edit: Here’s the Taste Of The Wild which the vet agreed is pretty good. I get the non chicken one.

More wet food is great idea as it hydrates and keeps them fuller and more nourished. I give Melbcat the Smitten tuna mince wet food which is AAFCO certified but I can’t find the nutritional info.

Note - Feeding her such high protein food is bad for her kidney disease/CKD but she’s allergic to the prescription foods and refuses other low phosphorus options so I just feed what she can eat. Feeding her so much fish (almost exclusively) is also not good but I am doing the best I can in the circumstances.

Edit: I use https://www.petfoodreviews.com.au/ to check options out but unfortunately it only seems to review dry foods

Phew okay, so I literally just wrote out and took photos of all the food Mickey gets:

Dine wet food is the worst: it does not indicate at all what the Crude Ash % NOR Crude Fibre % is, so difficult to determine whether it has all vitamins and minerals, however the ingredient list, while small, does contain Taurine. And the ingredients are easy enough to Google.

Fancy Feast/Purina wet food is way more transparent, with crude ash, crude fat, crude fibre, and crude protein % listed, as well as having a detailed ingredient list that can be googled as well.

Fussy Cat Grain Free Dry Food (salmon, whitefish, olive oil flavour, 2.5kg bag) is okay, but also does not list crude ash % either, and while they do have an ingredient list it is quite vague (e.g. it lists Meat Meal but it could be poultry, fish, or beef derived). However, this brand does contain Omega Fatty Acids 3 and 6, which is not recognised as essential nutrients for cats by the AAFCO Cat Food Nutrient Profiles.

I think the better brands would be Hills Science Diet, however Mickey did not like it.

Trying to provide a well balance diet for cats is difficult due to each cat being very individual (same with humans, some can eat heaps of junk food and be fine, whereas other humans would get sick). It involves heaps of research to work out the best diet your cat can handle, which can be assisted by vet recommendations.

Contrary to popular belief, Vets are not paid by the cat food companies to shill food, they get maybe a branded notepad and pen, or merch. So a vet who specialises in cat diets, based on blood work, is almost essential for cats with diet issues (be it over or under weight, emesis, diarrhea, lethargy, etc).

I do not recommend a raw food diet, as it's basically inviting in salmonella. If you wish to cook your own food for your cat, first consult a holistic vet who will do blood work and assessments to determine what would be best nutritionally, and get human-grade meat cooked up to at least 60C to kill off salmonella, bacteria and pathogens.

Wet food is essential for hydration as well.