Best cat food?

[Nudibranch]

I have to admit to feeding our last cat on Whiskas and the odd portion of the dog's raw, or tinned fish. To be fair he did well on it. Since we have a new kitten I feel obliged to try a bit harder - if it's good enough for the dog it should be good enough for the cat.
This is my understanding so far:

Raw is not ideal unless you put a lot of effort in as you risk insufficient taurine.
Dried these days is fine - but I think I'd still rather feed wet, at least while she's small (and she really is a very small beast).
As per dogs, a lot of the "science" diets are pretty rubbish.
KatKin and Lily's Kitchen seem to be pretty good, meat content wise, but are both rather pricey.
There doesn't seem to be a comprehensive, independent comparison of foods like there is for dogs.

So - any suggestions or am I looking at KitKat/Lily's Kitchen?

 

[PurBee]

I now feed Animonda Carny grain-free tinned wet food to mine. I get it from zooplus and its a lot cheaper than the other brands grain-free. My cats love it, didnt need to transition…they went for it happily!
Once i delved into the supermarket animal food ingredients, and absolute lack of substantial real meat content, i was determined to get grain and saitan out of their diet, and real meat into them. Their health, both cats and dogs, really has improved. My cat died recently age 20…the 13yrs old is still like a kitten, the medium size parsons JRXstaffy dog died age 18 - he caused me to switch due to lymphomas developing, and he should have only lived 2 more years but went on to live 9 more! My large dog is 12 and very agile/fit still……im very glad i switched.

 

[fetlock]

Mine gets Royal Canin dry and Felix pouches. That's what she got as a kitten too and has always thrived on this. She'll get Lily's kitchen or similar occasionally but otherwise I stick to what I know she likes, having spent an absolutely fortune with my previous fussier than fussy cat.

I did see a really good comparison for cat food on a web site a few years ago. Unfortunately can't remember where.

 

[Highmileagecob]

Whatever you choose, all the above posts are good examples of cats needing meat! Cats are carnivores and are designed to eat the kill, entrails, cartilage, yucky bits and all. Not sure I would go with a list of ingredients that sound like a three course meal for us humans - including peas and carrots, or grain is not what cats are designed to digest.

 

[smolmaus]

I also feed animonda carny, but one of mine has food sensitivities to chicken so I chose that for the single protein options they have.

Previously, I fed bozita wet food in the tetra paks, which is also from zooplus. High meat content, grain free and more affordable than AC. They all contain chicken though, VERY unfortunately for our cats as they both love it.

 

[Nudibranch]

Thanks all, I've just ordered 4 cases of Animonda kitten so hopefully she will eat it!

 

[daydreamer]

I'm tempted to say "the food that they will eat". We did try ours on fancy German cat food a few years ago but ended up throwing most of it away. At the moment we give them Felix, I'm sure it isn't the best but at least they (mainly) eat it.

 

[fiwen30]

We did Lily’s kitchen for a while, but couldn’t afford it long term. We feed pets at home brand ‘Seriously Good’, which has one of the highest meat contents to affordability ratio. For wet food, they get Sheba in gravy twice a day, because they’re both picky and have no taste! They would prefer Lily’s kitchen, but it’s too expensive to feed as often as I’d want to.

 

[HappyHollyDays]

My girls are ancient, 16 and 17 so need a bit of TLC and Sebastian has colitis. They wouldn’t touch Lilly’s Kitchen so I have Sebastian on Purina Pro Plan and the girls are on Purina Gold. It’s the only thing that stops them throwing up and having nasty poos. It took a lot of trying various foods but we got there in the end.

 

[SussexbytheXmasTree]

I'm tempted to say "the food that they will eat". We did try ours on fancy German cat food a few years ago but ended up throwing most of it away. At the moment we give them Felix, I'm sure it isn't the best but at least they (mainly) eat it.

This they never eat what you want them to! I would prefer to feed wet food as I worry about urinary tract blockages but one of mine the 9 month old will only eat dry unless absolutely desperate. He did eat some of the wet kitten food at first but then he wouldn’t eat it any more no matter how expensive or good for him it is. He’s currently on Purina One Bifensis. My older cat who’s 6 likes his Felix pouches as well as dried kibble.

Neither of them like Lily’s Kitchen or Science Plan.
My last two female cats lived to 16 and 18 on a mixed diet of popular mid-range brands.