Cat Chat Feline Forum

Hi Everyone! I'm new here but I've had my cat Poppy since July 2016.

She's just about to turn 1 so I'm weaning her off kitten food and onto adult food and I've decided to go with Lily's Kitchen. I wondered what people's experience and thoughts were with this brand?

Since I got her last summer at 12 weeks old she's been on a variety of foods. The person I got her from was only feeding her dry food so I introduced wet food but I have to admit, I'm a first time cat owner and was not that clued up on the best and worst foods. She's had a variety of brands including Asda Tiger, Whiskas, Co-op and Pets at Home. Recently I've made the decision to go fully cruelty free in my life and that includes her food so any brands that are owned by companies like Proctor and Gamble or Purina are totally off the list. I also want to make sure she's actually eating a decent, healthy diet which it turns out I haven't been feeding her so far (was totally unaware of this, I was going off my vet's advice and that of friends who have cats).

My local shop stocked Applaws and Lily's Kitchen but the latter was on offer so I went with that. Has anyone used this? Just wanted to get some feedback Thanks in advance!

I tried Lily's Kitchen wet food once, but neither of my cats liked it. Maybe if I'd persisted they would have got used to it, but I just switched to something else. (Mainly Felix and Whiskas, which they do eat.)

If you're referring to their wet cat food, we tried it. It has pork in it which I think is weird and it gave them huge smelly stools - the biggest and smelliest ever! When little cats have such enormous stools, I wonder how much of the food is being digested.

We really like Natures Menu Country Hunter Chicken which is 96% free range chicken.

Thanks guys.

Marla - yeah I mean the wet food. I know some flavours have pork in them but not all so I'll try to stick to the pork free recipes if she ends up with massive smelly stools. It can't be as bad as when I got her though, she was very flatulent due to being badly constipated and that stunk!
I'm not aware if Nature's Menu is cruelty free or not but I'll have a look and see if it's stocked locally

Natures Menu Country Hunter is quite hard to find. Our local Pets at Home used to stock it but now they only offer it online. It contains rosemary and smells quite strong of it which I'm surprised doesn't put the cats off, but they love it.

I've never used it, but if she isn't keen and you swap to Applaws, do make sure you check the packaging, the majority of their wet food isn't complete, so can't be fed on it's own

Thank you all for the tips!

I feed Poppy a mixture of wet and dry (since she loves dry food but the vet insisted she must have wet food as well) but I haven't looked into dry food yet. I thought it would be better to slowly change her wet food and once that was settled to change her dry food. I'll look into the brands you've mentioned

I tried my cat with Applaws and she will not eat it nor will she entertain the 'soups' that seem to be dominating the market. She does enjoy 'Hi Life' the tuna variety. But mostly she eats Wiskas and Gourmet Perle Jelly or gravy.

I think you will find that in any battle between ethics and what Poppy wants to eat, Poppy will win! (Its part of being a cat slave.) On a more serious note, Tilly likes Lilly's Kitchen once in a while, so I always have a few trays around. Whilst appearing to enjoy one tray, she never seems to want to have two or another one for the rest of the week.

Cat food is such a minefield - I think I must have bought every wet food on Zooplus over the past 6 years, and the result is two rather fat strays

The only food my two invariably eat up is Gourmet pate, and a couple of the Gold varieties, and I've learned to be grateful Zooplus sell a wider variety than UK supermarkets

What fascinates me though is why the two of them will and won't eat the same food - I haven't found a single one just one of them will eat - it makes life easier, of course, but defies logic.

Hi all!

Just wanted to give a quick update: Poppy has been eating the Lily's Kitchen wet food and she loves it! She's just started having full portions of that instead of mixing it with her old whiskas food and I've never seen her bowl so clean. So far so good! Last night I gave her a sprinkling of the dry food to see what she thought and this morning she'd eaten all of the Lily's Kitchen biscuits and left her usual ones. Seems like a good sign to me.

Thanks to all the advice. I'm going to leave her on Lily's Kitchen since she seems to be eating it but I've made a note of all your recommendations so if Poppy goes off that food (which is bound to happen at some point) I have other brands to try out.

My lot love Applaws Ocean Fish, but won't touch anything else in the range.

That's interesting about the pork in different mixes. I'd not noticed that - not that they all EAT the pork ones. But Willow LOVES 'soggage', (we get ours from a butcher who raises his own pigs free range and are excellent quality). I can never eat them in peace, she has to have some. Never gets an upset tummy from them.

What a very cute avatar, Sophie 77.
You'll spend weeks researching the best options and agonising over the ethics of the cat food, and you'll make a responsible decision... only to find that once day she'll wolf it down but the next will turn up her feline little nose, and give you one of those 'what were you thinking?' looks. Then she'll only eat the very best (i.e. most expensive ) kind, only to raid next-door's bowl of unmentionables, 4 tins for a pound, the day after that. If she's eating, and thriving, I wouldn't agonise too much. But then, I do appreciate that you're a first-time parent and want to do the very best for her.
'Twisting' and 'little paws' come to mind....

Poppy most definitely has me wrapped round her little paws. But look at that cute face! Cannot say no to her (must grow a backbone lol).

She's an indoor cat so I know she's not getting fed anywhere else but you're definitely right about cats eating what they want and being finicky. Before I got her last summer I'd spoken to a vet and friends and they all suggested Asda Tiger which she was fine on for a few weeks then she wouldn't eat it at all and I had to change her food. Then the dry food she liked was discontinued and for a while she wouldn't eat anything else. Fussy little madam.

But for now at least she's eating the Lily's Kitchen food and like you said, that's all that matters. As long as she's eating and in good health it doesn't matter too much what food she's on

Tilly had one of her "I want Lill'y's Kitchen" days yesterday. Ate most of a tray and won't touch it today!