cat food help...

Hi...

For anyone who has brought their pets over to the UK - were you able to bring pet food with you?? I can't find a straight answer for this online at all. My google-fu is failing me.

I would like to bring over cans and dry food at least a few weeks worth to transition them gradually.

I'm not sure what kind of food you feed them, but if it's Hill's you'll be able to get that in the UK. My cats eat prescription, so I made sure I could get it at my local vet. I also used the website www.nutrecare.co.uk which I found was cheaper than purchasing it at the vet. The airline let me attach a large ziploc bag to their crate, but wouldn't let me do two. I think I had another ziploc bag in my suitcase. A few weeks worth for 4 cats is a lot of food. I'd look if you can get it in the UK before you use up all that suitcase space!

This doesnt really answer your questions, but I bought some food here in the UK and brought it back to the US with me to see if my dog would like it and didnt have a problem with that at all.  It was dry food if that matters.  I cant imagine why it would be a problem, but as Bmore said, thats a lot of food!  What kind of food are you looking for?

This doesnt really answer your questions, but I bought some food here in the UK and brought it back to the US with me to see if my dog would like it and didnt have a problem with that at all.  It was dry food if that matters.  I cant imagine why it would be a problem, but as Bmore said, thats a lot of food!  What kind of food are you looking for?

 
Three of my cats are on Hills w/d (canned and dry) and the other one is on dry i/d and gets canned a/d for extra calories.
 
Food for four cats for a few weeks is an awful lot of food I know, but while I was a vet student I got loads of extremely reduced cost Hill's food - so that I have quite a big cache of it at the moment. I plan on shipping some of it in my container (I have too much to bring with me in one go!) and I was going to bring a box'o cat stuff (including some canned and dry food and kitty beds) along with my luggage when we move. I'm just concerned because cat food does has meat/animal byproducts in it and I think meat isn't allowed into the UK? I might just bring the box and hope that its OK.

We're arriving on a Saturday and I think by the time we get into Cambridge most vets may be closed and w/d - i/d are prescription only diets - and they need to have something to eat!
 
My biggest concern is my one older kitty that has chronic pancreatitis and possible IBD issues :-(.

I would contact a local vet ahead of time and let them know what you're going to need. They should be able to get it for you to pick up on that Monday. Alternatively, if you have a place (like a friend or family member) where you can have some food shipped, you could use that website I posted. My two cats were on prescription c/d (dry) and it was no problem getting the food from the vet that first week I was there (I didn't need appointments for them and they weren't even that interested in their paperwork). I then started using the nutrecare website because it was so much cheaper.

I think that you can get i/d without a prescription in the UK. My (now sadly departed) furball had pancreatic issues too, and I used to buy this in bulk for her. It was a couple of years ago now though - try

http://www.petmeds.co.uk/nsearch.aspx?keywords=HILLS+PRESCRIPTION+ID&gclid=CJX86LCehKICFYNs4wodAQtKFQ

as a possibility? Just in case you can't get sorted with a vet soon enough (and you'll find its usually more expensive from the vet too). Best of luck

Flibbertigibbet is right. Most of the Hill's prescription foods are now available just about anywhere. My cat is on the weight-management Hill's prescription stuff, and we get it from www.petplanet.co.uk. Or is it .com? Either way, you know what I mean. 

Just third-ing that you can definitely get Hills Prescription Diet without a prescription in the UK.  Our cats are on D/D wet and dry.  It's significantly cheaper to order it online, rather than get it from the vet.

We alternate between petplanet and VioVet for ordering -- depending on who has the better deal at the time.

We threw several cans of food into our checked luggage for the same reason. 

Despite being labeled as the same thing, the UK version of dry D/D is definitely different than the US version.  The dry food is dramatically different in shape, consistency and smell.  I didn't taste it to do a complete comparison.  BUT we lucked out and the cats liked it.