Pet food brands in UK

I have dogs and cats moving to the UK with me by ship. The dogs eat a veterinary food and Orijen, and I think both are available in the UK. The cats eat Nature's Variety Instinct. The cats need to be on canned food, and we liked that these ones were grain free and high protein.

I was wondering if anyone has suggestions for high protein, high-quality canned cat food brands in the UK, and also what the best site is to order pet food from? Like an equivalent of chewy.com, which has the best customer service and good selection?

We are just a little worried about changing brands because both cats and one of the dogs have specific veterinary issues, and these foods have been working out for them!

Also is it correct you can't bring pet food into the UK? I know the US is very weird about meats (haggis and lungs, etc), haven't tried the other way-- but it would be great to be able to bring enough to transition them over. 

Thanks!

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I think you can bring pet food, which I would recommend doing.  At least with them during travel (mine flew but had several Ziploc baggies of food attached to their crates).

Not to alarm you, but the food was different here for my cats.  While it was the same brand and name, it was a different formula due to the difference in US and U.K. regulations.  One cat had a really bad reaction to the food but we quickly found one that worked for him.  So you may want to compare ingredient lists.

Mine have dry food only so no help with canned food.  I order from Pets at Home.

We've been getting our food from Jollye's (not delivery though so I can't comment on that). My cats don't generally get wet food, though. For dry food I stuck with Purina One, and as KFdancer says the formulation is a bit different. My cats haven't had any trouble with it.

On the other hand, finding treats to give them has been a nightmare! They'd had Temptations in the US before no problem, but the UK version called Dreamies makes one of them violently ill. No idea why, but we just ended up trying different brands.

We use Zooplus for our kitties and they carry similar brands (but not their very favorite wet food BFF - I brought some packets back from the US and one of them sucked the whole packet down in about a minute flat). Ours like Taste of the Wild and have found it similar, but they also have developed an appreciation for Applaws and Orijin.

You can get little 600g taster/trial bags for a lot of these brands on zooplus, you may want to get a few of those and see how they do.

We use Zooplus for our kitties and they carry similar brands (but not their very favorite wet food BFF - I brought some packets back from the US and one of them sucked the whole packet down in about a minute flat). Ours like Taste of the Wild and have found it similar, but they also have developed an appreciation for Applaws and Orijin.

You can get little 600g taster/trial bags for a lot of these brands on zooplus, you may want to get a few of those and see how they do.

Where do you get Orijen for cats? Most sites seem to be sold out. I think we might start by blitzing up dry food with water (one of our cats has bladder stone issues and needs lots of extra water).

One of our cats is allergic (or something--very bad reactions) to lamb and so I'm concerned to try beef--lots of the canned foods on Zooplus have beef. It also seems weird to feed cats beef, lamb or pork--and I personally don't eat mammals anyway because they are cute and it makes me feel sad.

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For the last three years we were ordering zooplus out of Germany for delivery to Sweden (where the cats were living) and they had Orijen stock (at least as of February when we made the last order). We did just put in a huge order for UK zooplus this week because they are moving back to us next weekend, but didn't get Orijen this time so not sure if its currently not available in this market? (update: looks like supply issues)

Re: wet food - ours are super picky and wont eat anything unless its gravy and practically a liquid so we are limited to pouches. They refuse anything beef related so like you I tend to stick to stuff with wings (evolutionary or not)  - chicken, turkey, duck (oh man they love the duck), one or two things with fish (but not too much). It seriously cuts down on our options so we either feed raw if we are also making chicken for ourselves that night OR they get a pouch of "junk food" - Gourmet Perle they seem to like. I dont like feeding 100% dry because of the water issue, so at least it gets some liquid into them.

For this next order we are going to try them on:

1) Meowing Heads dry food - got a sample bag as it has good reviews (but does have some cereals/starch added)

2) James Wellbeloved pouches - so far they have turned up their noses at Cosma, Animonda Carny, Bozita, and Applaws wet food even though it was gravy-style loose in a can. WTF guys.

I also got one packet of Lillys Kitchen that is supposedly loose but it looks like they only do pate style so... its only 90p if they dont eat it.

Oh! Have you tried Purizon dry? Ours love that one as well and its 0% added grain. Could be a good substitute for Orijen? (also, its a smidge cheaper)

I can also recommend the freeze dried Cosma snackies - 100% chicken or fish. They like those as a treat.

For the last three years we were ordering zooplus out of Germany for delivery to Sweden (where the cats were living) and they had Orijen stock (at least as of February when we made the last order). We did just put in a huge order for UK zooplus this week because they are moving back to us next weekend, but didn't get Orijen this time so not sure if its currently not available in this market? (update: looks like supply issues)

Re: wet food - ours are super picky and wont eat anything unless its gravy and practically a liquid so we are limited to pouches. They refuse anything beef related so like you I tend to stick to stuff with wings (evolutionary or not)  - chicken, turkey, duck (oh man they love the duck), one or two things with fish (but not too much). It seriously cuts down on our options so we either feed raw if we are also making chicken for ourselves that night OR they get a pouch of "junk food" - Gourmet Perle they seem to like. I dont like feeding 100% dry because of the water issue, so at least it gets some liquid into them.

For this next order we are going to try them on:

1) Meowing Heads dry food - got a sample bag as it has good reviews (but does have some cereals/starch added)

2) James Wellbeloved pouches - so far they have turned up their noses at Cosma, Animonda Carny, Bozita, and Applaws wet food even though it was gravy-style loose in a can. WTF guys.

I also got one packet of Lillys Kitchen that is supposedly loose but it looks like they only do pate style so... its only 90p if they dont eat it.

Oh! Have you tried Purizon dry? Ours love that one as well and its 0% added grain. Could be a good substitute for Orijen? (also, its a smidge cheaper)

I can also recommend the freeze dried Cosma snackies - 100% chicken or fish. They like those as a treat.

Thanks, I just saw this and it is really helpful! I haven't tried most things. They have tried some PetSmart-available foods in the past (mostly Nature's Variety Instinct) but not much else, since that has worked out okay. One of the cats will eat anything--she just sniffed out a banana from my handbag and dragged it under a chair to feast on before I caught  her--and her food- craziness means both of them will eat pretty much any food in 3min flat, twice a day or the other cat starves (but he attacks her all the time, so it's pretty much even).

So we are kind of lucky with how easy they are to please, other than the stress and vet bills from the time she broke into the kitchen while beef stock was cooling. She ate like a cup of beef fat and got pancreatitis. She's a tiny little tortoiseshell cat who is ridiculously sweet, but I'm pretty sure if I died, she'd start eating me within three minutes.

Luckily that means we can pick food based on nutrition instead of tastiness so these suggestions will come in handy!

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She's a tiny little tortoiseshell cat who is ridiculously sweet, but I'm pretty sure if I died, she'd start eating me within three minutes.

That is the funniest thing I've read in a long, long time! Awesome Jess! 

That is the funniest thing I've read in a long, long time! Awesome Jess! 

Lol, thank you. I'm barely exaggerating. Here is the monster Twiglet--we installed hook and eye closures on a door with a broken latch, and within one day she figured out how to rock the door open. We installed a cabinet-style latch first, and she got on her back, reached her arms under the door, and pulled it toward herself. She may actually be a (really lovable) demon-genius.

When she gets the food (e.g., entire loaf of bread) she drags it under our bed and growls loudly while she eats. It is very scary reaching your hand into there. But she is otherwise the best cat ever!

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So pretty! 

I wonder if there is an inverse relationship between body size and intelligence in cats? We have 3 but the smartest one by far is a tiny little girl.
She also has a tiny appetite though so no chance of being eaten alive/dead by her!   Her sister on the other hand... 

So pretty! 

I wonder if there is an inverse relationship between body size and intelligence in cats? We have 3 but the smartest one by far is a tiny little girl.
She also has a tiny appetite though so no chance of being eaten alive/dead by her!   Her sister on the other hand... 

I don't know... I think Maine Coons are supposed to be pretty smart, but our larger cat is also not a scholar. Twiglet has a really similar personality to a runt cat I had as a kid, so maybe some kind of developmental thing? I don't know if she is a runt (got her around age three--when all the food-crazy had already developed we assume).

Your cats sound fun!! I wish my cats got along.

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If your pets are very sensitive / sensitive stomachs, have you considered making their food?

We have a very dog who has a very sensitive stomach. So, we now cook for him and it has worked brilliant and is actually cheaper. I will try and get the recipie web site from my wife and post it if anyone is interested, but the basic one we do is 450g of turkey mince, a medium carrot grated, a handful of green bean finely chopped, a cup of rice, an egg. He loves it and has been very healthy on it. He is only a small Chihuahua and that gives him about 5 days of food.

If your pets are very sensitive / sensitive stomachs, have you considered making their food?

We have a very dog who has a very sensitive stomach. So, we now cook for him and it has worked brilliant and is actually cheaper. I will try and get the recipie web site from my wife and post it if anyone is interested, but the basic one we do is 450g of turkey mince, a medium carrot grated, a handful of green bean finely chopped, a cup of rice, an egg. He loves it and has been very healthy on it. He is only a small Chihuahua and that gives him about 5 days of food.

We cook supplementary food for them, but they still need the balanced micronutrients you get in commercial pet food. Some places sell a powder you can add to home-cooked food to balance it. Basically we don't want to home cook for them long term without checking with a veterinary nutritionist, but yeah I think that's a good option for making sure they get fresh healthy ingredients! I would like to find a nutritionist who can help us get the nutrients from fresh food too.

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So pretty! 

I wonder if there is an inverse relationship between body size and intelligence in cats? We have 3 but the smartest one by far is a tiny little girl.
She also has a tiny appetite though so no chance of being eaten alive/dead by her!   Her sister on the other hand... 

Our girl Midge is smart as a whip but she was a TINY kitten. We had to set up a box for her for the first few weeks in order to jump up onto the bed. Now she understands door handles, home improvement projects, and I swear that cat can tell time somehow. She also used to wait by the window in our old house for our car to drive down the street in front. They would see the car (how they knew it was us OR what the outside of the car even looked like I dont know because we had a front yard and bushes in front of the street) turn and run to the backdoor where we would come in. Amazing)

Her dumb brother is bigger but seems more sensitive - he likes to make sure his toy mice are fed and watered (how many I have picked out of the water bowl!)

Her dumb brother is bigger but seems more sensitive - he likes to make sure his toy mice are fed and watered (how many I have picked out of the water bowl!)

Ha, I always assumed mine were drowning their mousies!