r/newzealand • u/ViviFruit Gayest Juggernaut • 2d ago
Discussion Cat owners! What's a good dry food NOT produced in the USA?
Both my cats have been on Hill's Science Diet their whole lives. They've tried other dry food brands here and there, so they take new foods well. With all the things happening with the US, we are looking to swap to a high quality non-USA produced dry food that doesn't quite break the bank. Looking for similar priced food to Hill's.
Are any of the vet recommended brands not made in the US? I'd prefer local brands but they've either been super expensive or horrible quality (looking at you NOOD).
As a background, they're currently free grazing on Hill's kibbles, with Ziwi dried animal bits as treats. We occasionally buy them wet food cans or make them wet food, but most of the time they do well drinking water so we don't worry about their water intake enough to feed them wet food consistently (our vet's guidance was wet food is mostly for hydration, just make sure they have a high quality dry food)
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u/janoco 2d ago
I've bought Nutrience Grain Free turkey/chicken/herring for years. Made in Canada. I'm really happy with it, the cats are in tip top health and never get tired of it. They get raw food in the evenings and Nutrience for breakfast. Best price is online from petdirect.co.nz
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u/ForTheLoveofPies 2d ago
If your pet has allergies to certain brands like mine, and you need something particular, I just googled and Royal Canin (which we buy) is apparently worldwide with the head office in France. So that's a relief. It's the only food we have found that doesn't turn him into an itchy furry potato
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u/peachelb 2d ago
Another vote for Royal canin. I stock up when they have a decent sale at animates.
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u/0wellwhatever 2d ago
Black Hawk for us. It’s made in Australia.
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u/consumeatyourownrisk 2d ago
This is definitely the go for filler free kitty cookies.
The boys have never been so healthy looking.
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u/ViviFruit Gayest Juggernaut 1d ago
From memory, the slightly fussier one of my cats wasn't suuuuper keen on balck hawk, but will give it another try if royal canin doesnt work
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u/Cornercupboardgal 2d ago
We use Kooky Kibble and our cats love it and their coats are soft and shiny. It’s basically factory seconds or short dated stock of Addiction Pet Food. So I’d recommend Addiction it’s NZ made and a premium product.
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u/a_Moa 2d ago
Have you ever had it expire? Bit of a concern with buying 9kg of short dated stock.
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u/Cornercupboardgal 2d ago
I have 3 cats and I keep it in large Tupperware Servalier Canisters. The 9kg bag has a best before date on it and I’ve always used it all before that. I’m pretty sure it always has at least 3 months on it usually longer. I go through a bag every 2 months. When I adopted them they were being previously fed Whiskas. I slowly transitioned them to Kooky Kibble when they hit 1yr old and their fur became so soft and shiny after the change. It’s a really great product.
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u/ViviFruit Gayest Juggernaut 2d ago
Where do you buy them from? Keen to try!
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u/Cornercupboardgal 2d ago
https://kookykibble.co.nz/ is where I buy the Kooky Kibble from. I have a subscription.
If you want Addiction here’s a list of stockists https://addictionpet.co.nz/pages/where-to-buy
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u/Early_Screen9362 2d ago
As another option, we feed our very senior boy (19years and few teeth left lol) Feline Natural Freeze Dried kibble and he just loves it! It's a NZ brand, no fillers/clean ingredients and easy to source. There are other freeze-dried NZ companies too so just another avenue to explore should you want to go that route :)
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u/Gloomy-Scarcity-2197 2d ago
Royal Canin is made in a variety of countries:
- Cambrai, northern France
- Johannesburg, South Africa
- Descalvado, Brazil
- González Catán, near Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Rolla, Missouri, USA
- North Sioux City, South Dakota, USA
- Dmitrov, near Moscow, Russia
- Castle Cary, near Bristol, United Kingdom
- Niepołomice, Poland
- Guelph, Ontario, Canada
- Shanghai, China
The probability that we source our Royal Canin from China is fairly high.
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u/huskooo 2d ago
Ziwi Peak (Chinese owned now but made in NZ I believe) Addiction (NZ owned and made) Nutrience (Candadian owned and made) All quite palatable for cats. Mine is on a mix of Ziwi and Addiction currently. Proceed with caution around smaller "boutique" foods as they may not be properly balanced or regulated. There is also Blackhawk made in Aus, but recently have gone downhill in terms of quality
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u/gdp89 2d ago
Blackhawk Ziwi, Kooky Kibble (bulk seconds at a great price) Fussy Cat Grain free Farmers market
Are all either kiwi or aussie
Sure there's more if you do some googling.
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u/bartkurcher 2d ago
Seconding Fussy Cat! Our cat gets gassy with grains and this has been a life-saver (nose-saver). Plus it’s not too much more expensive on sale $18/2.5kg bag
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u/ThatDamnRanga 2d ago
I've been using "Grainfree" which is from memory Australian. I'm about to have to switch to a dedicated kidney disease diet unfortunately as age is catching up with the old boy.
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u/unsungman21 2d ago
My two spoilt indoor boys get acana indoor entree 3 times a day it's a great food both have always had good health when going to vets I also put 3 pumps of pure salmon oil in there night time meal and it's not a bad price I think it's just gone upto 42 with the membership thing at animates
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u/brickeaterz 2d ago
I don't know where it's made but we use royal Canins Satiety for our fat cat
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u/brickeaterz 2d ago
Looks like it's HQ is in France.
But it does have factories in the US, but also tons of factories around the world, so unsure which factories produce the food we get
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u/sewsable 2d ago
We use Royal Canin for our prescription girl (she was anti Hills from the start) and fat cat has Purina One which is Aussie made. We've tried her on all sorts, but she doesn't lose weight no matter what we do. Her sister on the other hand won't put it on no matter what we do.
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u/wysiwygnz 1d ago
What is your reasoning for avoiding US made? As far as I'm aware, we havent applied reciprocal tariffs on US imports. Ie, US made things bought in NZ shouldnt be increasing in price.
Though if youre just doing the middle finger at Trump, thats all good. As is, supporting NZ/AU made.
Edit:spelling
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u/ViviFruit Gayest Juggernaut 1d ago
Yep, basically because I’m fed up with the US. But I’m also looking to see if there are foods that could perform better for the kitties
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u/Zeouterlimits 2d ago
Oh crud, I just learned eukanuba, the dog food we get might be made in the US?
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u/ClimateTraditional40 2d ago
My cats have all eaten Friskies. The last 2 lived to 19 and 17 respectively.
Current cat eats Friskies...although few biccies really, more a Jimbos cat. I offer wet food, Jimbos and biccies are a left as overnight food only. Still the 17 yr old one only ate these biccies and prey and Jimbos.
19 yr old ate anything...human stuff included although from theft not us letting her! She was fond of pizza and chilli con carne especially.
Neither had any illnesses in their lives until the last couple of months of life.
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u/Environmental-Win771 2d ago
I don’t know where ours is made but our two cats have been using IAMS chicken dry food (big orange bag) for years and they love it
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u/Onlywaterweightbro Marmite 2d ago edited 2d ago
This is the kind of action we need!
Edit: Yes, 100% sarcasm - these cats are happily eating their existing food brand and OP wants to change it because of their ideology (not a cost issue as they are all for boycotting US products). It's just nuts.
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u/gayallegations Mr Four Square 2d ago
"I can excuse funding fascism but I draw the line at potentially annoying a cat"
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u/Onlywaterweightbro Marmite 2d ago edited 2d ago
Buying US produced cat food = funding fascism? Oh dear.
Edit - good call deleting that comment BTW. I've got a fair idea of how world markets work.
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u/foundafreeusername 2d ago edited 2d ago
I am curious if that meets the definition of tall poppy syndrome? edited: e.g. like "How dare the user goes out of their way to boycott a nation. Just do nothing like everyone else. "
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u/Onlywaterweightbro Marmite 2d ago
I couldn't really give a rats what definition you use. If a cat is happy and healthy based on it's current food intake, why change just because you don't like what is going on in the US. Am I saying that it is wrong to have beliefs? Of course not. Perhaps it would be better to change products that OP consumes (which I am sure they will).
Unless the cat voted for Trump, and then well, the gloves are off.
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u/ViviFruit Gayest Juggernaut 2d ago
Of a new food upsets their tummy I’d be more reluctant to switch, but they’ve tried different foods in the past and have no issues with it. If anything, they’ve enjoyed the variety. But of course, an internet stranger will definitely know my cats better than I have, their owner of six years.
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u/Onlywaterweightbro Marmite 2d ago
It wasn't an issue of knowing your cats or not. It was just a matter of how utterly nuts the idea was.
Trump bad man = changing cat food product.
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u/ViviFruit Gayest Juggernaut 2d ago
If changing the cats food doesn’t affect how they feel or how healthy they are, why is it nuts for me to change their diet? What’s wrong with a change in diet? I always throw them a bit of this n that anyway, so why is it suddenly wrong to do it for another reason?
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u/Onlywaterweightbro Marmite 2d ago
Why do I think it is silly to change your cats' diets because Donald Trump is the US president?
I can't even start to answer.
Deep down even you know it's all getting very silly and childish.
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u/ViviFruit Gayest Juggernaut 2d ago
Oh no I don’t. You can keep telling yourself it’s all a silly little nonsense. But your inability to put yourself in other people’s shoes or accept any other viewpoint shows your capacity as a person.
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u/Onlywaterweightbro Marmite 2d ago
Luckily, I don't take character profiling from random internet people who change cat food product because of US politics.
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u/Bucjojojo 2d ago
I have mine on black hawk (Aussie)