CAT FEEDING UPDATE

Ruby being sick

Since my blog post just after we bought a puzzle bowl for Ruby, to slow her down as she eats, she has not been sick once. This bowl is really working, so we are very pleased. They are now eating at the same speed and finishing together, which also means that Ruby isn’t nudging her sister out of the way before she’s had a chance to finish, and eating it herself.

Republic of Cats

As we were coming to the end of our kitties’ existing food, I signed up with a company called Republic of Cats, who provide tailor-made food which they deliver to your door on a regular basis.

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I was fed up with the supermarket food suddenly being reduced from 100g pouches to 85g. I went on Tesco’s website today to check the nutritional value of the food we’ve been buying (more later) and read several customer reviews of this food – ratings: 1 star!! This is not surprising because everybody is as fed up as I was, to discover that they had arbitrarily reduced the portion size by 15 percent!

To sign up to Republic of Cats, you have to answer a considerable questionnaire about your cats’ age, weight, health issues, whether they are inside or outside cats, etc., and whether you want to increase, decrease or maintain their current weight. This way they are able to tailor-make a feeding plan for each individual cat.

When you sign up, you buy a taster pack which lasts a couple of weeks, with both wet and dry food (or either, according to your choice). The wet food comes in small 85g tins, which is much better than the awful plastic pouches. Awful because a) they are single-use, unrecyclable plastic, and b) they are a pain to open. I was a bit concerned initially that the tins were also 85g, the same as the now reduced size of the pouches, and I thought our kitties were going to go extremely hungry on so little food, especially as they are to have only one tin each per day, when they were previously having 2 100g pouches each per day.

To begin with, you feed them with a mixture of their current food and the new food, gradually reducing the former and increasing the latter, to acclimatise them to the change. Many cats are very fussy (ours are not), and they can also have delicate tummies which might react to a sudden change.

The arrival of our taster pack

This arrived on Wednesday 17th July. I love how it shows that the parcel was delivered by a cat, and it has the names of our kitties on it! Lily and Ruby are also now official citizens of the Republic of Cats, and we, presumably, are honourary members, by kind permission!

Here we are, unboxing it, with a little help from Ruby.

And here are Lily and Ruby, noses deep in their bowls, relishing the deliciousness of the new blend of old and new food.

Correspondence with Republic of Cats

I sent them an email, expressing my concern about the smallness of the portions, and have had some fantastic correspondence with them today. They are so friendly and helpful. Cameron told me that the food is much more nutritious and satisfying than regular supermarket food, and after a few weeks they will slip into the new routine and not mind the smaller portions. He suggested I look up the nutritional value and Kcal energy value of the existing supermarket food and compare it with theirs, and there is a considerable difference. He said he thought we were managing the transition very well, and in answer to my question as to how to manage the portions, he said that most people gave their cat half a tin in the morning and the second half in the evening, and either mixed the dry food in with it, or served it separately – they need two tablespoons each per day. This is what we are going to do once we’ve phased out the old food. We’ve still got a lot of their original dry food and we can supplement them with that to get over any post-prandial hunger pangs due to small portions in the initial stages!

I asked whether the food would change as they got older, to meet any different nutritional needs they might have as seniors, and he said they would never change anything without our permission, but might advise us that it was time for some change in due course. I said that likewise, if they developed any health problems, we would let them know, and they could make any necessary adjustments.

Cameron’s final email today was so sweet – he thanked me for my lovely emails and said they all agreed they had brightened up rather a grey Friday! Wasn’t that nice.

A professional service

This is a very personal service, conducted by charming, helpful and friendly people. It is also very professional, with qualified animal nutritionists on the staff, and they make the food themselves. The tinned food comes in quite a few different flavours and consistencies, and we’ve got a chart to fill in, to let them know which ones the cats like or dislike – although in our case, I think everything will go down a treat as they are not fussy eaters. The wet food is not tailor-made to individual cats, but the dry food is specially prepared according to what we have told them. Part of the questionnaire asked what in particular we wanted for our cats – we chose healthy coats with less shedding, and healthy teeth and gums. Cats often get problems with their teeth and if we can keep them healthy, it will mean fewer vet visits. The wet food is designed to keep their kidneys healthy, which is another common area where problems can develop, particularly in older cats.

On their website, some customers have reported that their cats’ poo is a lot less smelly since transitioning to this food. I have to say the same about myself, since transitioning to whole-food plant-based!!

What happens next

So far we are extremely pleased. We’ll be contacted in just under a fortnight’s time for an update on how they are doing with the taster pack, and which foods they prefer or otherwise, and then they can make up our first monthly pack. It will be delivered and billed on a regular monthly basis so we will never worry about running out. We can change the ratio of wet to dry food, or the portion sizes, whenever we want, if what they first recommend isn’t suitable – they know that cats are all different, and they are prepared to be very flexible to fit in with our needs.

Glad to be leaving the supermarket variety

One thing I discovered in my researches into the nutritional value of the existing food, compared with the new food, is that their existing food is made by Purina, which is a subsidiary of Nestle. I am very glad to be coming away from this as Nestle has a terrible ethical reputation historically over many decades, especially where the introduction of baby formula into Third World countries is concerned. I am happy not to buy anything from them if I can avoid it. Certainly the nutritional value and quality of ingredients is far better with the new food, and suited to our cats too.

I think we are going to end up with two very happy and healthy kitties.