Cat Food Help, please - Thailand thinks cats only eat seafood!

[Tapster]

We've just brought our two cats over from South Africa and they're loving it, although finding the heat a bit much as evidenced by even more time spent lying around on the furniture!

Anyway, all we can find in the way of cat food is fish, fish, fish and they really don't like fish all the time.

I'm sure we can't be the only people whose cats like a bit of meat, so please, where does one get meaty cat food?

Thanks in advance.

[Brit_Doggie]

Go to a vendor that sells chicken or chicken livers my cat loves it or even pork etc easy on the expense sheet also.

[Tapster]

OK, noob here..................so, a chicken vendor?

Do you mean a local Thai market? We have several near us.

Chicken breasts will be more expensive so what are the best cuts in terms of cost per kilo of actual meat 'recovered'?

And then, I'm presumably cooking this up into some version of Whiskas 'Chunky chicken in Gravy'.....in bulk amounts and then freezing it?

If you have time, please lead me through this pocket-, though not time-saving process.

[konying]

Depending on your location, but look for brand like bellotta, they have a range including chicken and shrimps.

Also other premium brands like royal canine or chicken soup has canned meats, but not cheap.

Cheapest is to cook on slow burning fire chicken breast for 15-20 mins, then mince it up and cats love it

[KayCee]

there are supplements you have to feed cats to keep them neurologically healthy if they aren't eating prepared cat food (google taurine for cats - I learned this when I lived in a country with no prepared cat food available). I had the same problem as you when we first moved here. I finally found that some specialty pet stores around various Central or Robinsons malls often sell more (and more expensive) brands of cat food, some of which are chicken flavored, not fish. My cat also liked the Royal Canin pouches that you can buy at those stores, or at a vet shop typically. Of course, now that I found all that, my silly cat has decided she really prefers tuna! Best of luck!

[MrBanks]

Our cat loves the dried pork that looks like light brown hair. It is sold in 7 - 11 and supermarkets, in Thai it is called moo yong (phonetic spelling).

[attrayant]

I give the cats a few bits of chicken from the table (they love the scraps that I consider to be garbage, like cartilage and fat), but I make sure to give them some brand name dry food to make sure they get taurine and other essential feline nutrients. But like the OP, I have also never seen non-fish flavors of canned cat food at any of my local supermarkets or pet shops.

[MDS]

We have also recently moved from SA to Thailand (Hua Hin) with two cats that have been raised on Hills and Royal Canin but we could not find the flavors they liked.

We found though that if you can find a pet store that sells at least the brand your cats like they will order their

favorite flavor for you.

We went to three different stores and ordered the food and all three eventually phoned to say that it had arrived but over a period of two weeks.

We went and paid for all of the orders and now the stores know we are serious we don't have a problem.

[CapeThai]

Try Big C for the Whiskas Cat pallets. They simply love these.

[hugocnx]

'Friskies' have chicken as dry cat food. Big C etc.

Give this as every day food as it contains taurine (mentioned above) and once a day give them chicken offal. Not always offal here in Thailand as Thais do like chicken stomach and feet very much. Cooked or uncooked. Cats are equiped to eat raw meats.

Oops, just one # too late.

[Guest]

They should eat what i have for breakfast which is Chiken Liver hot off the grill.

Sold pretty much everywhere in BKK, (and Isaan for sure 555 !!) it is really excellant.

Try asking for (phonetic spelling) "Top"

and when they ask if you want (phonetic spelling) "Cow neow" just say "(phonetic spelling) "My Ow" (do not want)

or you could get the cow neow (sticky rice) and have an excellent breakfast !!!

Best of luck to you and the cats here in the Kingdom.

[Familyonthemove]

Tops and Gourmet market - part of Central and Mall Groups - have a big range of cat food. But buying chicken locally will cost less.

[Eaglekott]

Our cats dosent like seafood at all, They eat Hills dry food, and occasionally for luxury we give them dog food with chicken liver and beef.

I have not found any wet cat food in thailand based on chicken, pork or beef.

[cornishcarlos]

Steamed fish for my cat, 30 baht a kg fresh from the market.

Mixed with a small amount of boiled rice and some dry "friskie" on top... He loves it and is healthy.

Of course he supplements this diet with fresh snake, squirrel and rat

[shaurene]

Taster, just use your head, buy the cat biscuits, try some dog foods tins, give them chicken mixed with rice, lots of things you can try and you will get to what they like. Pork chopped up very fine, get some beef from the supermarket minced and boil it a little if they do not like it raw. Minced chicken, minced pork minced anything.

[Dustdevil]

I don't know where you are in Thailand, but Bangkok has western-oriented supermarkets such as Village. Chiang Mai's Rimping supermarkets have a great selection of American, European and British goods including pet food.. There are Tesco stores there as well, but I don't shop there so I don't know how good their pet food selection is.

[CharlieH]

Racial remark removed

[1sickpuppy]

seriously i have 2 cats the female frefers the tuna you buy at locol market for 100 baht is enough for 3 days, the male cat will eat it as well but prefers babeqed chicken which costs me 120 baht for a huge chicken & my better half eats half of it & dried food is the rest, you do not want the canned shit unless you would eat it yourself, im am a vegitarian i eat cheaper than they do, all i can say is thank _uck they dont drink beer

[Tapster]

Wow, lots of replies!

Many thanks to all for the suggestions. It sounds like I should mix it up a bit, with fishy food sometimes and home made chicken etc. as well to give them a change. Obviously it takes a bit more effort to get cats properly fed in Thailand. No worries, we like a challenge!

I'll check out the taurine thing as well, in fact cat nutrition in general so that, whatever I'm feeding them, they'll be getting the things they need.

Thanks again )

[wump]

You do realize the "fish" varieties have only like 1% of fish in it, right?

[attrayant]

That's incorrect. If you've ever opened a can of cat food you can clearly see several large hunks of fish, perhaps sardines. It's way more than 1% of the total volume.

But even if it were, why is that relevant? They are still fish flavored and the OP wants an option that is not fish flavored.

[wump]

Okay, I only know the ones from back home and while 1% may be an understatement the actual variety still makes up a very small chunk.

I don't know about Thailand but if they are mixing sewage sludge into the pet food back in Europe (go google it if you don't believe) I don't even wanna know what goes into it over here. Chicken parts etc. are so cheap in Thailand, why not feed your cat the real deal? I also get the impression that in Big C/Tesco pet food is almost more expensive than real food?