I have recently brought my cat over from Southern Africa to Switzerland and I am struggling to find solid info on the best cat food to buy.

I am currently feeding him Purina Pro Plan (Derma Plus Hairball Control) & Purina Gourmet Mon Petit, however I have read so many horrible cases of pets falling ill and even fatalities directly related to the brand.

I have also been reading up on balancing a cats diet and the misinformation most cat food brands put on their packaging.

Does anyone have a good recommendation? I would be happy with a Swiss brand as the food hasn't been imported from afar and I trust Switzerland would have pretty strict standards when it comes to product quality, packing etc.

He is a 3 year old rescue cat (feral). An outdoor/very active cat, however due to the cold he will be indoors for a while.

Any recommendations on good vets in Vaud would also be greatly appreciated.

I have to change my cats' food because they get fed-up with eating the same thing. At the moment they're eating the Purina dry food. They also eat Hills or Royal Canine.

For wet food I found that Almo Natura was very good, there's a BIO, cooked from raw option that even I would actually eat.

Now I cook my own cat food. I make chicken stock out of wings and carcasses with veggies. I keep the stock and then I strip the meat off, chop it up with the veg, add a little juice and vacpack it into portions. They love it.

I am not a cat owner (I only know the dog food industry), so cannot give you any food recommendations - but I have to address this point.

Please do not rely on a 'Swiss' label as an indicator of quality when it comes to pet food. It's pretty much a meaningless marketing phrase. Rather do your own research into what makes a good food, what the label actually means - this is not as easy to decipher as one might think - and judge an individual brand from there.

Be aware that many brands labeled as being made in one country actually source raw materials from other countries where there is no regulation (remember the melamine scandal?).

Now over to the cat people...

Thank you. So no problems with Purina?

Thank you Meloncollie.

I do agree however it so overwhelming going through the research. I usually rely on personal feedback from others but there are so many different opinions.

I'll do some digging though and maybe consult a vet.

I think the only 'research' you will find is opinion on brands so not really reliable unless something serious has happened.
I feed my cats a no name brand from Landi (dry food) and they love it, cats are pretty finicky about food but mine at least love it, for wet food we get the Prix Garantie from Coop which is also quite cheap.

The cats prefer the gelee while Audrey (eldest cat) prefers in sauce...go figure...

One thing I was never aware of, is that there is cat food specially formulated for lads with their bits lopped off (castrated), and the vet recommended that I should use it.

Unfortunately, I've only found it in dried biscuit form in our local Landi (which is more convenient that having to go to the pet multiples in town), and our boy had already started to turn his nose up at dried biscuits, and had moved onto pots of meat.

So now he gets a half and half mix of both.

AFAIK, Purina is a tried and trusted quality brand.

Hi everyone! Thanks for the post on this topic. My cat eats a Canadian brand called Orijen, it's highly regarded by every vet I've seen in the US. I have to buy it online from Germany, which is not a problem as it's delivered right to my door.

The bag takes 5+ moths to go through and sometimes I think he gets bored with it. But he dislikes wet food, probably the only cat in history. So I was also wondering what the good brands are. I just am skeptical of store bought stuff, since there were a couple cases of mass cat/dog death in the US from store bought cat food. There's a Bio Almo Natura that is good? Where can i buy that? I wonder if he'd eat it...

Thank you Angela!

"One thing I was never aware of, is that there is cat food specially formulated for lads with their bits lopped off (castrated), and the vet recommended that I should use it."

My little guy has been castrated, however nothing changed in his behaviour, he eats exactly the same and is just as active so I haven't really put too much thought into buying him food specifically for that.

However feedback on the food/brand would be great

My cat too Robby Sue. He has been on a dry food spell for quite some time. I am slowly trying to get him to eat some wet food as I read it's a dietary necessity?

However I am also struggling with store bought food. Have also heard Bio Alma is very good.

Our Moggy gets IAMS dry food or equivalent (Royal Canine etc) and is perfectly happy with it. We always make sure she has plenty of water to go with it though (if my lazy teenage daughters remember to fill her bowl, that is).
She's been on this diet since we got her 9 years ago and hasn't been to the vet since she was spayed.

I have not had any problems with Purina. I have a cat with kidney problems and a cat with a sensitive stomach. They both eat it and it results in least number of surprise vomits.

Like I said though, it's what they will eat, there are some that they just refuse to eat, even from the same brand. Mine only like Purina for adult cats (dark red pack). Otherwise Hills, Royal Canine.

a little far from leysin but dr gagnebin in pully is great.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Mr...0b8aa6c9b5bd70

Adi wet food " Shah" in the morning + 1 medium portion Purina One at night
(don't give too much or the cat will go fat very quickly), I didn't belive in expensive brands having had cats for 25 years or so but

1) you can give a little, the pack streches further (more nutrients in a small portion seems true) + if you by in a bulk in France or Germany, quite affordable

2) and for the first time my cat has a so much much nicer breath since I give him Purina (I don't work there but must be good for his teeth)

but buying cat food at the vet's is a bit much

Thank you everyone! I do not know how or why I do not have the thank you button :P
Your comments and advice are very appreciated!

I guess some kitty food tasting is in order.

It will appear once you've made the requisite number of posts
We have four moggies at the moment, all stray/rescue/rehomed and all with full-time access to the great outdoors. As such, vets' advice has always been to feed them bog-standard dried food most of the time, with wet food only used as a treat.

We mostly get the Friskies brand crunchy food, as it's available in big 15kg sacks for convenience and economy, and have it permanently available in a basic hopper/feeder, and Whiskas crunchy in a smaller one for variety (they eat much more of the Friskies). They can and do supplement their diet from the wild as well.

The dried food has a perfectly good nutritional balance and we've always been advised that it's not worth going for expensive stuff unless there's a specific problem to be addressed. So for permanently indoor, castrated, lazy, fat, ill or old cats they may be a good idea, but healthy animals in a normal environment shouldn't need it.

For example one of ours sometimes suffers from a dry itchy coat, so we give him a handful of https://www.whiskas.fr/nos-produits/...un-pelage-sain now and then, or each day if we notice it getting irritable, when it clears up in a week or two.

Our cat only eats dry food (Friskies and Felix). Not the expensive stuff; he is now 12 years old and very healthy. I once bought him dry Kitekat, he didn't like it though. Once you start with the wet food they seem to get addicted and only want that. Dry food is better for their teeth too.

I was browsing through zooplus (as we're waiting to adopt two kittens from a wonderful association and I'm in full cat-lady mode ) and I thought this might interest you: dry food from Almo Nature Holistic in three different flavors, 12 kg for 58,5 CHF at zooplus.ch (free shipping in CH from 59 CHF, you need to buy a tiny something to reach it :P).

As the site is in German only, I also wandered to the french equivalent where there is an offer of 2x12 kg (!) for 87.99 € (no idea about the shipping costs from this site though). From what I read they don't declare to be bio but "high quality natural food" with no artificial flavors or additives. The price is unbeatable too! I'm very tempted but I guess it will take a while before the kittens can eat adult cat food.

This is not true. Both wet food and dry food are equally bad for their teeth, the only difference is that wet food can help prevent kidney issues in the future. But often, wet food is not 'complete', so you should always give it in combination with dry food.

To answer the main question... You want to buy food that is high in meat (so meat, not only animal by-products) and low in grains (or better yet: no grains at all). This is the best (processed) food, end of.
So when looking at the ingredients of your pet food, make sure that meat is an ingredient that's specified at the beginning of the list, not all the way at the end. Because the ingredient that makes up for the biggest part, goes first on the list.

Even though you think it might be cheaper to buy low quality food, the cat will actually eat more of it, so you end up buying more food in the end. And a lot of expensive supermarket brands are not even that much cheaper than a quality brand. (Like Purina is not that much cheaper than premium brands.)

Premium brands for dry food:

• Orijen
• Arcana
• Applaws
• Porta 21 (without grains)
• Taste of the Wild
• Almo Holistic
• Cat lovers gold
• Wildcat

Premium brands for wet food:

• Feline Porta 21
• Almo Nature (but please check ingredients, since they started producing less healthy varieties too)
• Animonda carni
• Applaws
• Schesir
• Cosma
• Shiny cat

Because most of these brands are not readily available in Switzerland, we give our cats a combination of Hill's (dry food) and Almo Nature (wet food), but I'm still looking for an alternative for the dry food. (Preferably a brand that I can buy in a pet store though.)

If in any way possible for you, OP, I'd go raw with the cat food.

My thread: Giving pets raw food


Links for canned/dry cat food are:
www.katzengesundheit.ch (also offers supplements for feeding raw)
www.zooplus.ch
www.qualipet.ch

Links for raw food:
www.goldenway.ch
http://www.futtershop-enea.ch/?page_id=135
http://www.carnivora.ch/
and of course the butcher you trust in your neighborhood (if there is one).

[QUOTE=iPinky;2328150]This is not true. Both wet food and dry food are equally bad for their teeth,


That is what several vets have told me, dry food is better for their teeth.
They look at the teeth of the cat and ask if I give dry food as they can see the cat does not have much tartar.
As for the price of one kilo purina in Coop : 4,75 Fr. approximately. In Germany : 2,70 Euro.

[QUOTE=kittekat;2328511] I fully subscribe to iPinkys declaration, neither of these benefit a cats teeth. I only give wet food (Bozita) and once a week or so buy them chicken gullets,wings, thighs if on special and even get frozen hearts as a treat ( extra Taurin that all cats really must have). They both go outside and one is a real hunter, but mostly seems to pick on the shrews around here when they are not hibernating and these cats don't eat. I give them these as the sinews in the chicken products I give them acts like dental floss for them, helping to keep the plaque problem down.
Here is one of many many links that explains why I do this. 5 reasons why dry food doesn't clean and remove plaque from cats teeth.