Cat Chat Feline Forum

I have been feeding Bella Burns dry food, chicken & brown rice since I got her along with sachets of wet food, I looked on the packet today & it seems to have a low chicken content, 37% also maize, I am not sure with cats but when I had my German Shepherd, I found out that dogs can't digest cereal of any kind, my question is.....is Burns a good make for cats & if not, what would you all recommend ? I am finding it difficult to find so I would change if needed.

Marg.

Hi Marg, I don't recommend it. We feed wet food now but when the girls were little we fed Burns dry food. Because it was marketed as hypoallergenic, I thought it couldn't be the cause of Flo's digestion problems. She was scrawny and frequently had bloody stools. I called the company and they were adamant that it couldn't be the food. Spent hundreds of pounds worth on tests at the vet - they didn't have a clue what was wrong. We switched to a wet grain-free diet and she got better literally overnight and grew into a strong, healthy cat.

Hi Marg, I looked this up because I too thought, whaat?? 37% maize, might as well give them rabbit food. But it's the misleading way the ingredients list is written I think - http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/dry_ ... rns/174303

I think it's meant to read, brown rice 46%, chicken 37%, THEN maize etc ... someone just forgot about commas. Even so that's an awful lot of rice for an animal that doesn't generally bother about hunting down a bowl of rice lol!

I find it's a total jungle, this cat biscuit business. I do try to feed my lot on middle of the range foods not bulked out by carbs, but all the same I expect they get them ... worse still is the dreadful ploy of adding vegetables in the hope that this will appeal to some owners as 'healthy' (and let the manufacturer cut down on protein for an animal that needs meat and doesn't generally go hunting for carrots either!)

Well I once did have a strange Siamese who pinched lettuces out of the garden and once nicked the cauliflower in preference to the roast lamb ...

Yeah, I used to own dogs and of course they (rightly or wrongly) relished plate-scrapings and leftovers but I noticed sweetcorn came out the other end intact.

Hopefully other people with more knowledge than me can advise further re the Burns. (Just seen Marla's post.)

You do right to check out and question these ingredients, love to the lovely Bella

you'll find a fair bit about dogs losing weight on Burns if you google, and I wouldn't touch it myself

there are quite a few grain-free dry foods out there now - Applaws is probably the easiest to track down

I wasn't keen on Burns last time I tried it, but that is years ago. I couldn't understand how they claimed one food could help 20 or so different things

Thanks for the replies & info also the advice.
So.....if not Burns, what would you all recommend?
I feed her a small amount of Burns, she has 1 sachet of wet food & enough to cover the bottom of a bowl about 3.5/4 inch dish a day.

Marg.

I used to feed Canagan dry to Badger as it was cereal free and he was slightly allergic to cereal. He liked it very much, but I haven't bought any since Badger died 2.5 years ago as Tilly won't touch it.

I've always been a fan of James Wellbeloved