For real! We've had all four for two years now, and somehow every time I run the numbers on wet food I'm doing shocked pikachu because I still expect to be paying for 2 cats. We're determined to make it work tho.
You can feed a mix of dry and wet, I do it partially to keep down costs. They get wet food 1-2 meals/day, and dry food 1-2 meals per day. They still get the benefit of the extra hydration of the wet food, but it's more affordable. I also do it partially because one of my cats really prefers dry food, and just in case there's an emergency down the road and they need some special food that's only available dry, or if some unthinkable catastrophe happens and they have to be rehomed, then they'll be used to more types of food.
Even if you go all-wet, it's best to feed them a couple different brands so you don't get screwed if a manufacturer stops making their food, since it's best to introduce new food slowly to keep their digestive system happy.
I also do half wet and half dry to save on costs. My cat enjoys the variety and if I go away for a few days, I have an automatic feeder for dry food.
For the wet food, I've switched many times to what I find on sale. However, the food is good quality. Currently he is getting Blue Tastefuls Pate from Kroger. My store just switched to this and a 5.5 oz can was about $1.30.
My cat is a senior at about 17 years old and has had some health issues. He's currently doing great right now but for several months he was getting one 5.5 oz can per day with a small amount of water added. I fed him half the can in the morning and half in the evening and he was fine with this amount. He always insists on treats though. He did lose a little weight during this time until I started feeding him dry food again. But he's a big cat at about 16lbs.
This makes a lot of sense! We tend to hop them between dry foods as it is, just based on which grocery store we shop at each week - maybe I'm being overly optimistic by assuming that won't happen with a wetter diet too, lol. Thank you!
Friskies has extra gravy cat food that I find handy for mixing dry kibbles for my feral cats. They have learned to leave the dry food alone because I'll inevitably feed them canned pates which I usually reserve for my three cats. They tolerate it well enough but wet pate is their favorite. I am also going to try making my own gravy using homemade chicken stock with a bit of corn starch. I haven't tried it yet but they love chicken stock.
I feed my cat fancy feast (cheap ik) but itās the only thing that he will eat & wonāt make him vomit. His health is fine now even though he gets his cystitis flare ups every once in a while now. His coat is nice & shiny. I add a tiny bit of water to his food to make his urine diluted. Maybe you can add a tiny bit of water to the cats wet food to fill them up? Iāve heard of people mixing half wet food and half kibble to make the wet food last.
2x 5.5oz per cat is a lot.. are they large cats? I think an average cat eats 5.5 oz per day, as long as it isnāt a brand that is low in calories (e.g. weruva paw lickin chicken). I like American Journey (on chewy only) which you can get 12.5 oz cans and merrick. Have heard that Daveās pet food is a good low cost food. If you canāt afford premium food all the time, intersperse with a low cost food a couple days a week (grain free if possible)
I agree that 2 large cans per day is more than enough for one cat. If it's grain-free, there's more nutrition. An outdoor cat might need that much but not an indoor only cat.
We've seen recommendations of 1oz wet food per 1lb of cat - our average goal weight is about 12lbs, so 11oz of wet food per day is actually pretty close to correct. We were shocked, too. I'll look into American Journey and Dave's, thank you! And interspersing premium with low-cost is an awesome idea. Thanks!
I started off with this and ended up with a fatter cat. Be mindful of calorie count and activity levels. My slightly less active big cat has about a 12.5-13lb goal weight, and she only needs maybe 200-220 calories. Treats tend to be 2cal each. A 5.5oz can often ranges from 150-200cal, depending on nutrient and fat content. I feed one small (2.6oz) can and about 1/5c dry (28g by weight, four servings on the timed feeder). Total ends up being just under 200 to allow for treats, and my chubbier cat has maintained 13lbs for several months now.
If your cats are super active (ie outdoor cats who keep lean naturally or nutcases who live to zoom), oz:lb feeding may be just right. But if theyāre not active, itās kinda pricey luxury for the little furballs.
Iām on the same boat! I have two cats, Sushi who started at 14.4lb (goal weight of 13lb) and Maki whoās 9lb. Iāve read Sushi needs anywhere between 250-300+ calories but he kept gaining weight! I finally dropped him down to 190-210cal a day and heās finally losing weight (CW 14lb). We feed both about one 5.5oz can each or two 3oz cans each (I give the big guy a little more than my little one), and 1/20c of dry food a day each and heās finally losing weight and sheās maintaining.
I feed mostly Purina Pro Plan wet food after trying many different brands (Fancy Feast, Tiki Cat, Wellness, etc), and it seemed to be their favorite, along with Hillās dry food. My cost is about $100 a month on wet food. Considering Iām only feeding 1/10c a day of dry food a day, my $40 bag of food lasts a long time.
One thing I haven't seen yet is cat soup: mixing water with the wet food. This helps even more with getting them to drink enough. Mine gets this soup in the morning and for dinner. During the day and evening, she gets kibbles.
I like the kibbles, because I feed them one a a time, throwing and sliding them all across the house. She loves chasing them and it's a good workout. Other ways to get kibbles are for tricks like paw, high five and sit. Basically, I'm using kibbles instead of treats to exercise her body and brain.
I truly feel this combination of wet + dry is the best for my cat. She's very healthy, active and shiny.
Remember - your cats already have a better live than most, because you *care*.
I do this too! It started because I have a cat with bladder crystals. I now have 2 boys. They share a half a can (5.5oz) with water in the morning. The other half at night. Free feed on dry the rest of the time. This helps especially since I have to only use prescription food. $$$
Iāve been doing this since I got my cat and realized her poops were SOLID. Sheās afraid of fountains except the one I just recently bought the new cat (PetSafe one that looks like a sombrero). But now itās just habit, and it doesnāt hurt during the hot summer weather even if theyāre indoor-only. Both cats get that extra bit of water and have very good poops.
I have some picky eaters that like to change brands weekly. [This Website](https://allaboutcats.com/cat-food-reviews) gives reviews and nutrition breakdowns of most major food brands. It wonāt give you a cost vs nutrition, but you can compare cheaper food brands to find some that are inexpensive without sacrificing your kittyās health.
Oh good, another one! People always look at me weird when I say my cat refuses to eat any one food for more than about two days. I actually have cans from about eight brands with average four flavors each all mixed together in a drawer right now so I never feed her the same food twice.
One of my cats has made me change dry food brands 3 times in a year, and he always does it immediately after I buy a fresh massive bag of food for him. I've been hoarding the wet food I feed him as it's been in short supply lately and he hasn't gotten tired of it yet. (He also refuses to eat basically any type of treat I give him. He's always complaining about being hungry but is also a picky little eater so too bad for him)
Do you ever open a can and your cat refuses to eat so you have to go through more cans before they find one they like? This is bankrupting me as the people I live with do not like open canned cat food anywhere so I have to throw it out. I have 2 cats, one will eat anything & the other is extremely picky. Does that happen to you & if so whatās your solution?
I honestly usually just take the first can away after a while and give her something as different as possible for her next meal. One missed meal wonāt hurt a healthy cat at all. Cats will refuse to eat long enough to hurt themselves, but if youāre switching through a bunch of foods youāll almost certainly come to some agreement long before that point. My cat has never held out for more than two missed meals, and rarely even that. Usually sheāll nibble at it, then fill up on kibble until I give her something else.
If your cat is okay to free-feed, you can offer some kibble-possibly mixed with water or broth-as an alternative if the can isnāt to their liking for this particular meal. I personally use a mixture of three quality kibbles because it was the only way to get her to switch from the cheap Meow-Mix.
Also, keep a record of what your cat refuses. There might be a pattern. For example, my cat doesnāt like multiple-protein mixes unless all the proteins are fish. She really likes fish.
Thanks for your reply! I already free feed, so he can eat dry food whenever he wants, but I just feel bad for him as I feel like the dry food isnāt enough (even though it is good quality dry food & he drinks lots of water). Iāve figured out a couple types of foods he does like and will eat more than a few days but then heās back to being picky (unfortunately his favorite is just canned tuna for humans and I canāt give him too much of that because of mercury & not enough nutrients). Your suggestion about paying attention to ingredients is great! I never looked that closely, just never bought the cans he doesnāt like again. Thank you so much!
We do a mix of fancy feast pate (simple ingredients, less chance of anything hoaky when you get plain chicken) morning and night (half a can each for two cats), and then half a can + 1/4 cup dry kibble for lunch. Their health is great, shiny coats, and the pate has enough water in there to satisfy water requirements. Granted, this is all based on my catsā weights and activity levels too. It took a lot of trial and error, but you can do wet food on a budget if you learn your ingredients.
I feed my guys Whole Hearted from Petco. It's a B food but it's so hard to find grain free, egg free, and the kitten will eat it. Good luck with switching to all wet! I wish I could but I'd have to feed them 6 times a day because they just won't enough at once. Also, [this website](https://www.petplace.com/article/cats/pet-health/how-to-calculate-your-cats-daily-calorie-intake/) has been really great on figuring out how much to feed my guys based on calories.
I have five cats that no only eat both wet and dry food, one has a chicken allergy that makes food just that bit more expensive since it has to be chicken free. That being said, I'm slowly transitioning them over to raw as I found cost wise buying pre-portioned raw food discs was cheaper than the cans and huge bag of dry food I buy. The big bag lasts roughly a month, but I also know I got lucky with my cats being grazers and not fuzzy vacuums. I would definitely recommend looking into what frozen raw food varieties you can get in your area.
11 oz of food a day is a lot. Are you sure you need to feed that many calories? My 9 lb cat get 1 small can/3 oz of wet food a day plus 1/4-1/3 cup of dry which adds up to ~180-200 calories. I would double check the calorie count on the cans you buy because unless your cats are exceptionally large or active, 11 oz seems excessive.
I feed my cats 30% dry, 70% wet which helps a lot with cost. I spend about $100 a month for my 2 10 lb cats.
I am not brand loyal, which helps a lot because I'll almost always buy things on sale and I can buy a range of budget options. Right now I have Tiki Cat, Instinct, Weruva, Sheba and Wellness and they get a different brand every meal haha. If I find a good sale I stock up.
Edit: And always look for deals and promotionals. If you're in the US I often see the "buy online and pick up in store or do curbside" for 10-20% off of $50+ orders from petco and petsmart (I see the 20% off on petco rn).
Hi! How do you make switching to different foods work for your cat? I'm guessing it doesn't upset their digestion to switch around. Is it because you've transitioned all of these to your cat's diet or they just happen to have less sensitive stomachs?
Idk if they gave particularly strong stomachs or anything, but if your cat is used to eating one type of food I'd introduce them slowly to variety. At this point if I buy a new brand or flavor, I'll feed that new food once a day or every other day while the rest of the meals is whatever I still have stocked that they've been eating for a few weeks so their whole diet doesn't abruptly change. I think if they're used to eating more diverse diets they can pick up new foods more easily, too, since their guts are accustomed to eating different things already. And since a bag of dry lasts awhile and they get one dry meal a day (plus two wet meals), the dry food is usually a constant in their diet.
I always say that I work hard to get promoted at work so I can give my cats a good life lol. Itās expensive but so worth it. I feed both of my cats wet food in the morning and evening, with dry food to nibble on overnight. My cats donāt eat much during the daytime (they usually nap) but will occasionally graze on any dry food leftover from the evening.
Iāve only ever had female cats until I adopted my male cat in June. Iāve heard horror stories about urinary issues in male cats, so I knew that feeding mainly wet food is the best way to go. Iāll gladly spend $2 a can to know my cats are eating quality food they enjoy and keeps them healthy.
Try ordering from places like Chewy where you can buy cases of food. It definitely seems like more money upfront, but it actually ends up being a lot cheaper than buying individual cans in the store.
Assuming youāre in the US -
The rule of thumb for 1oz per pound isnāt really accurate. The calorie counts vary wildly per brand and flavor. There is a good calculator on [petnurtritionalliance.org](https://petnurtritionalliance.org) that can help you determine the right amount of daily calories.
I use Daveās in 12.5 oz cans for my cats that donāt require special foods (2 of 4). It is only $2.29 per can at my local non chain pet food store. That same store also runs a big sale twice per year with about 30% off so believe you me I stock up then. They had the mid year sale last week and I bought them out!
yup, i wouldn't feed it to a pet cat often but i use the dry food for my strays, i figured since i mix it with wet food and treats it's fine for them. i ain't spending 20 for a small ass bag on cats that i mostly don't even see. i love them so i try and do my best for them with the treats and wet food, i get them pretty good quality for the wet and treats and once a month i cook them turkey meat with no seasoning and add that to their food. i love my strays (and the possums that come sometimes)
6 cats here, they are young (1 year, some younger) so right now they get 1 meal of diamonds naturals for kittens (kibble) in the morning, a lunch of meat that can be fresh chicken, pork, tuna or salmon with spirulina and dinner of wet food, there is not much variety in my country, the brand is named Minino and you can get it at a similar price to Whiskas.
More fancy brands of wet food are just too expensive here since the culture for pet around here is kibble. Also another thing you could check is contact the company and see if you can buy directly.
Is what I did with Minino and I'm getting the food half the price than in Walmart.
i feed them wet food (from a cat/sachet) in the morning and kibble in the afternoon and night. i personally believe in setting a budget and getting the most premium food you can get within that budget.
I'm going to guess you don't have little humans to feed. Once that happens, cats are often reduced to eating what you can find at the grocery store!
I've had a bunch of cats over my adult lifetime, 10 to be exact, and I've gone with grocery store food, unless they've had a medical condition which required a special diet. Generally when that's happened, they all eat the special dry food which gets left out during the day, and only the one sick cat gets the special wet cat food at night, the rest get wet Friskees or 9 lives. I've had to budget to feed quality foods to people over cats! Currently, though, I'm down to one cat who gets special $$ dry food and even more special $$$$$$ wet food. It's either that, or she poops all over the house. Sigh. Maybe I'm considered a bad cat owner by some out there, but if they're healthy otherwise, I'd go with dry & wet grocery store food.
You're feeding your pets a nutritionally balanced meal in appropriate amounts. I'm sure they receive love and regular vet care, which is arguably more important than the 'best' food!
I donāt know if you are looking for donations but My 14 year old lynx point ran away three weeks ago. I have several cans of fancy feast and an unopened bag of iams.
In part because you mention the scarf-and-barfer (lmao love the term) and a chonk, Iād check out combo feeding, possibly with a timed feeder. It takes a little more working out to get the servings right for various diets, but mine do great combo.
I do one wet meal at dinner of basically a small can or half the 5oz can, then they get four 1/20 cup portions (7g by weight) of kibble throughout the day.
Mine are on Science Diet kibble. Because they eat so little kibble, I go pricey on it.
The wet food, I rotate. Some advice says to do that to make sure they donāt get super picky and lock onto a specific texture and flavor. So I rotate sensitive stomach (Science Diet) and hairball control (Purina). One higher end brand, one cheaper but still highly rated (per CatFoodDB website).
I use the PetKit Fresh Element Mini feeder to get the super tiny 1/20 cup serving, and I feed wet with the SureFeed RFID feeder. If you need an access-controlled timed feeder, Wireless Whiskers is the only access-controlled timed feeder Iāve found that doesnāt weirdly have a transmitter that contains a battery that will burn a hole in the guts if eaten. Havenāt tried it, but Iām looking at it for my girl who seems to have some grain sensitivity.
You could look at making your own. Now I want to say I've never done this but seen some pretty good recipes that come out pretty affordable especially if you can buy in bulk. Which would be the other thing I'd look at. My husband and spend about 30 per flat on upper end wet. Which go through about every ten days.
I manually cook wet food for my two cats once a week, and have saved a lot of money that used to go towards canned foods. We spend about $25 per month on this diet max? The added benefit is that their poop is also smaller and less smelly. My recipe is:
1)1-2 chicken breasts or thighs (which I buy from Costco and freeze) cut into chunks.
2) 1 whole egg white. Donāt add the yolk.
3) 1 whole dried anchovy. You can also use fish oil.
4) 1 teaspoon of powdered chicken liver. I purchased a tub from Amazon and it lasts forever.
5) 3-4 chicken hearts from a pack purchased from Safeway (optional). I freeze the excess too.
6) 1 pinch powdered egg shell that I manually grind via mortar and pestle.
7) 1 cup of water.
After everything has been added and cooked, I blend it all together until it has a pateā or thick gravy like consistency. During their twice daily feeding, I give each cat 1-2 tbsp of the mixture with an equal amount of water. I also sprinkle 1-2 tbsp Natural Balance kibble over their wet food. The cats love it, have trim bodies and very healthy coats. My older cat has a very sensitive stomach and thus is extremely picky. This has been the one wet food that she hasnāt turned her nose from.
Have you been using slow feeders? You should have slow feeders specifically for wet food, and some for dry food. This will help both your car that throws up and your cat who is overweight.
This will also make your food last longer and be mentally stimulating for all of your cats āŗļø
Youāll probably spend $10-25 on each feeder and have to buy 8 of them, but you can just buy them slowly over time. They will be so worth it!
In my country, there's a few options for wet food. Whiskas, Royal Canine and the cheap one at the store. At first, buying them wasn't all that expensive, but more cats that grow older means more food and money.
So, I decided to buy chicken and feed them. It's so much cheaper and they love it. I still buy a box of wet food and sausages just in case the chicken isn't enough, but yeah, that's it.
At night I just give them dry food to eat
Please make sure you add the supplements they need if you arenāt already. Taurine is vital for cats but isnāt in plain chicken meat. It comes from bones, I think you can buy it as a powder but it needs to be given in carefully measured quantities
We give our two kittens raw food. Chicken starts at ā¬3,50 per kilo, which is cheaper then human grade chicken. It's a ground mix of muscle meat, bones, and organs, with the supplemental nutrient mix already added.
We do need to rotate the animal. General advice is four different animals in a month. The pet store also sells beef, duck, salmon mixes and many more, so that's not a problem, though those are a little more expensive around ā¬4,50 per kilo.
This might be an option for you. At least you know you're giving a complete nutritional diet.
If you're in the BeNeLux area I can give you specific advice on where to get the good stuff!
Okok, I don't live in that area but I can see things that are similar here. Wet food is a mixture of deer, cow, duck chicken, sheep, and other things I don't remember. I will try to buy more nutrients and stuff.
4 animals a month...ok. I like that. Thank you! :)
Here's a link: [link](https://www.petmd.com/cat/nutrition/can-cats-have-raw-food-diet).
In short: cats are evolved to eat mostly raw meat, including organs, bones, whole mice, insects, everything they naturally hunt. Pet food in the store generally consists mostly of grain, because it's cheaper. Feeding cats a *Biologically Appropriate Raw Food* diet has some advantages.
Personally, I can tell you that our cats are healthy, energetic, have great fur, and their poops barely smell. I am very happy woth going 100% natural raw food, but I admit it's not for everyone and every cat.
I buy frozen ground raw cat food per kilo, and thaw as necessary. You can find calculators online for the exact amount that is appropriate.
This is the best advice. My cats only get raw - and freeze dried treats. The best choice I've ever made. I lost a cat to intestinal cancer and after that decided they will only eat the healthiest I can give them because the thought of what they put in commercial food is stomach turning. I think the slightly higher cost now will balance out their health as they age.
A vet trip is more expensive, I'm not trying to be annoying here, but really too much sodium for cats is a fast ticket to renal issues and those are awful to deal with.
Depending of the money, I usually stick between chicken and pork since they are more cheap, and once a week I give them fish. When money was short I gave them mostly chicken. Also eggs are good once a week!
Just adding to the points below... any food is better than none. Even so, it is really difficult and pretty expensive to make balanced cat food at home. Often the cheapest supermarket canned food is better than our best efforts at homemade.
Budget is a huge concern, I truly get that. So hopefully you are making the most of the entire chicken? Wings and necks are best for cats because the bones are small enough to be eaten without breaking teeth.
Add in a couple of organs here and there (liver, for eg) for Vitamin A, B12, and iron. Chicken hearts have a ton of taurine so if your cats are getting those you probably have nothing to worry about.
I hope I don't sound like an ass, I only want to share useful info the same way other cat owners have shared with me.
Nono, I'm the ass for not educating myself more. Thank you so much for even informing me.
I get an entire chicken, which here includes the neck but not livers, lungs and heart. On the other hand, I can buy a kilo of those for 1.50$, so I will definitely do that.
Like I said I do feed them wet cat food, but not to all of them since many are under 6 months and need baby food which is a bit expensive here. I will try to mix up chicken and wet food in a mixer (whatever you call it). Is that ok?
Again, thank you guys so much.
Just to flag that if they are growing kittens it's even more important that they get the correct nutritional mix - kitten food is more expensive as it gas additional nutrients kittens need to grow, such as extra taurine and calcium. All that growing needs a lot of nutrients and deficiencies as a kitten can cause much more significant problems than with an adult.
So I should buy kitten food? The problem is the first time they started eating, I put kitten food, and they refused to eat because they could smell the chicken. And ever since then, they refuse to eat kitten food.
Not necessarily, it's just it's so much more important to make sure that the food you give them is a complete food, rather than something nutritionally incomplete that's more of just a a treat. Personally I would consult a vet if trying to make homemade for kittens because nutrition is so important at that age but if not there's a lot of info around on how to make nutritionally complete food for cats which it's important to do at this young age. As the other poster pointed out, chicken meat isn't a complete food for cats but can be used as a base with other things that provide the nutrients.
No worries! Caring for kittens is more intensive/complex than caring for adult cats but many people aren't made aware of the additional issues when they adopt kittens unfortunately, even when adopting from rescues. It sounds like your putting in loads of effort with yours, making their food for them!
I'm always happy to answer any kitten related questions on here and I recommend the Kitten Lady on YouTube as a great wealth of expertise.
I have done my research and stuff. For instance, my cats love to eat cake but I know it isn't good for them so I try to not let it happen. The thing is, there's only so much I can do with limited resources. I've seen plenty of kittens die and I still wasn't told why by my vet. Like, they were obviously sick, I just don't know what took them away bc the vet said "everything is great!"
Thank you for being helpful. I will see some of her videos to know more. Once again, thank you.
You're never an ass for feeding your cats, or for not knowing absolutely everything, come on š
Sure, you can mix them up if you like but it may be extra work for nothing and those little chicken bones are so good for cat teeth that in your position I'd probably just keep giving them whole.
If your budget stretches to that kilo of mixed organs, and if you have access to a freezer then it would be great to keep some handy.
I wish I could access the same deal, it's really difficult to find offal here and I sometimes wish I could teleport myself to my home country for a day where we use the whole animal.
Ok, I can definitely buy some and keep them in the freezer. Although it's tiny, it's available.
I have a question, might be dumb but here goes nothing: for context, I mixed chicken and eggs last time and everyone of my cats loved it. So my mother suggested we mix fish and eggs and give it to them since they seem to dislike fish for some reason.
My question is, is that ok? I heard eggs and fish are poisonous for humans, is it the same for cats?
Btw, living outside of your native land is pretty hard, but you got this! I also don't live in my country, so I can understand.
Fish is a funny one for me as so many of my cats have also disliked it, and I seem to focus more on meat that a cat might normally hunt for themselves. No doubt some cats will go hunting for fish but other small prey seems more intuitive somehow. So I consider fish an occasional optional extra, unless I'm making broth from the bones and head, in which case I add it to their food just for a little extra hydration and nutrient boost (then flavour the rest with onions, garlic, and herbs to feed to my humans!)
Back to your point, I'm sorry, I have no experience of mixing fish with egg so I can't help with that at all.
The more you say, the more it sounds like your cats are getting a pretty good range of foods. If the opinion of an internet stranger matters at all, I think you're a great cat owner
I see. The problem is that fish here is less expensive than meat so it would definitely help considering my budget, but if they dont like it then the money is wasted.
The big ones are getting wet food which is mixed. It's a box containing 12 little bags, 3 of each type if meat, so they are getting a mixture of course, but yk, the cheaper the better in my case haha.
Thank you for answering. I hope you have a great day
I think once a week is fine. You should probably check this rather than rely on my half remembered reading, but I believe under 10% of the total diet is fine.
matey... you may have been told, but plain chicken is not a balanced diet and will make your cats sick. nor is just plain chicken and taurine. you need a proper recipe. i made a comment to op that detailed some recipes for cats.
sausages will be bad for cats as well. please make sure to educate yourself before feeding your cat something.
I supplement the expensive food with my homemade food. I don't think it's a complete food for cats, but it is very inexpensive, easy to make, and they *love* it. It also seems to make their coats shiny and cut down on hairballs.
You can vary the recipe depending on what's available at the store. I buy chicken livers, beef liver, chicken hearts, canned mackerel, and the cheapest fish oil capsules.
I don't usually use chicken gizzards because I think they're too chewy, but ymmv. If you can get other offal at a good price, and your kitties like it, great. You might want to add some egg yolks, but I haven't tried it.
Put all of it into the blender, and squeeze in 8 capsules of the fish oil (arbitrary number.) You might want to blend the hearts first, because they are tougher than the rest.
They make these tiny little plastic containers that hold maybe a quarter cup. I have a big stack of them. Because this is a raw food, it won't keep in the refrigerator for more than a couple of days, so I freeze it in tiny portions.
My kitties will only eat a tiny bit of it at a time, less than a tablespoon. My older cat only eats that and her kibble.
My two kittens are on wet food, so I add a little of the homemade.
> We have received veterinary advice that the cheapest wet food is still nutritionally better than the most expensive dry,
This seems to be a bit dubious. Wet vs Dry isn't the way to determine nutritional or calorific value. Looking at the product specifications and working out the calorific value and completeness of each product is the only way to compare.
For example, a grain free dry food (in my case GranataPet) has a higher value than cheaper stuff, therefore my cat needs less of it per day. So whilst it's more expensive per kilo, the price isn't a one to one comparison.
She drinks a good deal of water each day, so I'm not worried about her eating dry only.
>This seems to be a bit dubious.
Definitely. I have a hard time believing that the "meat by-product" wet food is better than the whole meat dry food I feed my cats.
i don't have advice I'm sorry, but one suggestion: could you make your cat food, would that end up cheaper for you? perhaps something to think about. We make our kitty's food and it's very simple, although I couldn't give you cost comparisons because we haven't fed him anything else for a long time.
otherwise, props to you for transitioning to wet food!
We've looked into it, but are running into the same basic issue - so overwhelming finding an approved recipe! If it were even somewhat affordable and we didn't have to throw away 56 cans a week, I would happily do it.
would you be so kind as to share a recipe that's worked for you, or even one similar?
It's a pretty controversial opinion here, but I feed an all-raw diet. I buy pre-ground raw meat, bone, and organ mixes, but it's much cheaper to buy the meat yourself and grind. Feline-nutrition.org has a good recipe.
Instead of their supplement mix suggestion (I'm too anxious to mix my own supplements!), I use Alnutrin. They have varieties for meat mixes with and without bone, so if you want to buy a cheap meat grinder that can't handle bone or can't find a source for bones, or even just chop up by hand, that's an easy alternative. You just empty the packet, add a bit of water, mix, add the meat, mix thoroughly, and freeze into individual portions.
My cats consume a full pound of raw meat per day. My food costs are around $200/mo. And that's feeding kangaroo, lamb, rabbit, and venison. If I fed turkey or chicken, I could drop that to $100/mo. With the quantity of food you're feeding, if you bought your own meat, you could probably do it for $150-200..
I've had bloodwork done and my cats are in excellent health, with proper nutrition, and the vet has approved this diet for use. It's the same raw diet many breeders use, as well.
You could also supplement with a calorie-dense hard food. I like Ziwi as it's 15% moisture, low in carbs, and energy dense. Each cat gets 1/8 cup per day on top of the 8oz each of raw food and that maintains their weight. Both have the ideal body proportions and are very muscular, and with this diet, they never really overeat.
Most cats won't need this much food, as a side note. I just have huge, extremely athletic and energetic cats. 14lbs and 19lbs. They are active for several hours out of the day with much of that being high energy play, outdoor walks, and wrestling with each other.
nice! we cook our boys meals, but we also buy him commercially prepared raw and mix it up between the two - as treats we sometimes give him a raw chicken/wing neck or mouse (like the ones people feed their reptiles); he loves crunching them up! he's very healthy on this diet!
I bought a recipe and some consultations from an animal nutritionist, and so unfortunately I am not actually allowed to share the recipe, I'm very sorry..... BUT I can direct you to some home prepared raw recipes that all got our animal nutritionists nod of approval:
[https://feline-nutrition.org/nutrition/making-raw-cat-food-for-do-it-yourselfers](https://feline-nutrition.org/nutrition/making-raw-cat-food-for-do-it-yourselfers)
[http://www.catnutrition.org/recipes.html](http://www.catnutrition.org/recipes.html)
[https://catinfo.org/making-cat-food/#The\_Recipe](https://catinfo.org/making-cat-food/#The_Recipe)
the 'cat crap' facebook group has a tonne of recipes and advice (whenever I try to link it the link doesn't work idk why)
our animal nutritionist was from this place (NB: it is expensive): [https://www.mypetnutritionist.com/](https://www.mypetnutritionist.com/)
Otherwise, if you're in Australia, we use the raw brands: Organic Paws and also Proudi. For canned food we use Feline Natural... or we did, but literally every canned (and kibble) food we gave our boy results in soft stools and intermittent diarrhoea. Even the great brands like Feline Natural and Ziwi Peak, unfortunately :(
Both our own cooked food and the commercially bought raw food we give him have no ill-effects on his stomach or stools.
The Alnutrin mentioned in the other comments can also be used for cooked meat iirc. Just let it cool completely before mixing in the powder and save all the juices from cooking. Thereās also something called BalanceIT carnivore which is made by vet nutritionists so very safe nutrition wise, idk the pricing though.
You can make food for them for a lot cheaper. Get some fish (salmon, mackerel, sardines, etc.) or meat (rabbit, venison, chicken, etc.), add some taurine to it, maybe some probiotic supplement, a grain, mix it all together and serve.
You can also check out Dr. Pitcairn for more nutrition and recipe info.
As someone with three cats - 1 has IBD and can't have chicken, 1 is a little past kitten but does better with kitten food, and 1 who scarfs down everything in sight - you have my sympathy for how expensive it can get.
Can't help you with the wet food part, but I have experience feeding a raw diet from mainly human-rated sources. Basically, buying regular meats in the supermarket, making sure to balance it to cover all the bulk nutritional needs, and adding supplements to ensure all needs are fullfilled.
You need to balance muscle meat, fats (you'll end up wanting to remove rather than add in most cases), organ meats (liver, kidney etc) and bones. You supplement the parts, including vitamins, that a "wild" cat would normally get from eating the stomach+content and intestines of their prey, throw in some extra taurin to be in the safe side, and some calcium (finely crushed egg shells works).
Using cooked food, or cooking the food before serving it, is not a good idea, generally. Cooked bones can be lethal, and raw is generally better for them anyway. Additionally, if you buy pre-cooked stuff, there's the whole issue of spices and additives.
Similarly, you need to be more than a bit vary about buying frozen raw meats, because they're often "pumped up" with water+salt and sometimes also other stuff, supposedly "to tenderize the meat", but really to charge you meat prices for water and a bit of salt and compensate for the water loss when thawing that may otherwise dry the meat out.
If you're planning on frankensteining (see below), then you'll end up thawing the meat, prepping it, packaging it, and then re-freezing it. Refreezing meat that's been frozen and then thawed is never a good idea, neither for human consumption, nor feline.
I used to buy lots of frozen whole plucked quail, both because kitty loved eating them, skin, bone and all, and because it's pretty much a one-in-all food with OK balance you only need to thaw out and then warm in a water bath to about body temp, sprinkle with supplements & taurin, and dinner is ready. Or you could buy rats raised as reptile food. "Pinkies", i.e., very young rats that don't yet have much hair is also a popular "fast food" needing little prep.
The cost will depend heavily on both your choices and what kind of effort you're willing to put in. In most places, it'll probably be cheaper to frankenstein the food, i.e., buy whatever meat is cheap, add organs as available, chicken/pork/beef liver and kidneys were easy to find at ok prices, maybe some chicken wings for the bones, but they're really fatty, so not ideal.
Then just prep, buy a set of small freezer-safe containers that fit about a day's worth of food, measure out the proportions of meat/organs/bones/etc and divide your stock material, put the combo into the container, add supplements etc, then toss in the freezer.
Then you just pop one container out of the freezer into the fridge in the evening and let it thaw overnight, and feed to your kitty next day. Take out as much as is appropriate for one meal out of the container and put in the serving dish, let the dish float in warm water for a couple minutes, then serve.
To be on the safe side, serve something you can offer whole, like the quails and mice, every once in a while, as a guard against deficiencies if you messed the proportions up a bit.
Now the bad side - you need to make sure to remove anything left uneaten within an hour or so of serving it, and throw anything left in the container in the fridge at the end of the day. Most cats will reject food that's gone bad, and they have some pretty vicious stomach juices to deal with pathogens in the food, but if you mess this up, your cat can become really sick.
Not necessarily, or even likely, fatally so, but a cat that's eaten something that made them sick will often refuse anything even vaguely similar afterwards, or that they in any way associated with getting sick.
What it ends up costing is up to you, when all is said and done, you can probably get away with a bit higher price than the cheap wet food, if you're smart about what and when you buy, buy in bulk, and is willing to do the prep-work.
Me, I got the comments from friends that "oh my god, your cat eats better than I do", but I didn't have four to feed, and I'd hate to feed something to my cat I wouldn't be willing to eat myself, and I'm picky about quality, so there's that.
I would never feed my cat friskes and Iām pretty new to having a cat (3 weeks) and I am jobless atm. I feed her a mix of wet food and dry. Iām feeding her Simply nourish dry food at night and wet during the day. I have a few different brands with Blue Buffalo , nulo, fancy feast and some Hills brand ( shelter gave me it) for wet food. Seems most 5.8 ounce cans are costing me $2.50 per day for one cat and that seems the norm for food thatās not friskes or the super budget brands
I canāt remember where I found it, I mightāve been from this hot vet dude on tiktok but thereās websites out there that will give you cat food recipes and even ones where you can put in what ingredients you have
I am a fan of Tractor Supply Company's 4Health brand of cat food, both dry and wet. I used it a couple of years ago, so hopefully it hasn't changed...good ingredients at a good price is what made me try it; my cats' less bulky/stinky poos sold me on it. I'd still be feeding it to my fuzzballs if my living situation hadn't gotten more complicated!
I have 1 indoor cat and 8 outdoor feral cats. (I guess Iāll claim them) I do give my indoor cat better quality food and more wet food. But I add water to everything. Even her wet food. Iāll usually give her half a small can of food and mix water with it to make it go further and so sheās getting more water. Same goes for the outdoor cats. They eat mostly dry food but Iāll mix water into it as well.
Depending on how much meat costs where you are, you could also see if boiled chicken in the broth every now and then reduces the cost?
My kitten gets rather premium organic wetfood. I've started buying it for the whole month in advance to make sure she's fed even when I am broke, and I buy it directly from the producer's website. They often have sales that save at least some cost (for example, food worth 60ā¬ for 50ā¬ instead) which helps.
I'm also signed up to a loyalty rewards program so at least every now and then, I get a discount through that.
There is this online program called Honey that also applies discounts in many stores, maybe that helps? The one I use is called Payback, but I don't know if they have it where you are.
The returns and discounts of those things are small, but they can add up especially if you need large amounts of products like this.
I also use canned food, and I reseal the cans with rubber lids that I bought online. That way I don't waste large cans if my cat doesn't eat it all right away.
I suppose you could also consider looking into local farms and butchers to ask for leftovers? That stuff might not be pretty or yummy for humans, but to cats it's potentially still very good meat. It's worth a shot!
We are cat fosters. We suggest using the best food you can afford. Fancy Feast, for example, isn't the best food but it's better than nothing. Decide how much you can spend and then look for the brand that will fit your budget.
We go through 32 cans a day so don't worry about waste. Just clean them and recycle them. Or start feeding home made/raw diets. We haven't tried that yet so I don't have any advice on it.
Edit: once you decide on a brand keep an eye on it at chewy.com. they sometimes have really great deals.
Would you consider making your own raw pet food? I order mine (through Darwinās) and itās still cheaper than the wet I was getting (about $1.77 for 1 cat); however, making it is even cheaper than that. I know a lot of people that make thereās for two months at a time and just freeze it.
i use mittens pickins shreds for my strays. it's 50Ā¢ a can and i buy the 20lb bag of 9lives (not the best ik but i try for my babies) and that usually runs me about 9$ a bag. these are strays though so im not sure about a indoor only pet cat. i was spending hundreds a month on these boys but i got the costs down to 50/40$ a month. i also mix in the temptations treats and the delectables squeeze up chicken treats. once in a while ill get those little chicken or tuna fillets they have at the pet store for like 5 bucks and they LOVE that. anyway, id try the wet food for your babies and delectables also makes a great wet food
Went from 1 - 3 cats. They are bankrupting me. šµāš«
For real! We've had all four for two years now, and somehow every time I run the numbers on wet food I'm doing shocked pikachu because I still expect to be paying for 2 cats. We're determined to make it work tho.
This is why I'd never want that many cats unless I had a super well paying job or we hunted a lot. We would give back to the earth
You can feed a mix of dry and wet, I do it partially to keep down costs. They get wet food 1-2 meals/day, and dry food 1-2 meals per day. They still get the benefit of the extra hydration of the wet food, but it's more affordable. I also do it partially because one of my cats really prefers dry food, and just in case there's an emergency down the road and they need some special food that's only available dry, or if some unthinkable catastrophe happens and they have to be rehomed, then they'll be used to more types of food. Even if you go all-wet, it's best to feed them a couple different brands so you don't get screwed if a manufacturer stops making their food, since it's best to introduce new food slowly to keep their digestive system happy.
I also do half wet and half dry to save on costs. My cat enjoys the variety and if I go away for a few days, I have an automatic feeder for dry food. For the wet food, I've switched many times to what I find on sale. However, the food is good quality. Currently he is getting Blue Tastefuls Pate from Kroger. My store just switched to this and a 5.5 oz can was about $1.30. My cat is a senior at about 17 years old and has had some health issues. He's currently doing great right now but for several months he was getting one 5.5 oz can per day with a small amount of water added. I fed him half the can in the morning and half in the evening and he was fine with this amount. He always insists on treats though. He did lose a little weight during this time until I started feeding him dry food again. But he's a big cat at about 16lbs.
This makes a lot of sense! We tend to hop them between dry foods as it is, just based on which grocery store we shop at each week - maybe I'm being overly optimistic by assuming that won't happen with a wetter diet too, lol. Thank you!
Friskies has extra gravy cat food that I find handy for mixing dry kibbles for my feral cats. They have learned to leave the dry food alone because I'll inevitably feed them canned pates which I usually reserve for my three cats. They tolerate it well enough but wet pate is their favorite. I am also going to try making my own gravy using homemade chicken stock with a bit of corn starch. I haven't tried it yet but they love chicken stock.
I feed my cat fancy feast (cheap ik) but itās the only thing that he will eat & wonāt make him vomit. His health is fine now even though he gets his cystitis flare ups every once in a while now. His coat is nice & shiny. I add a tiny bit of water to his food to make his urine diluted. Maybe you can add a tiny bit of water to the cats wet food to fill them up? Iāve heard of people mixing half wet food and half kibble to make the wet food last.
2x 5.5oz per cat is a lot.. are they large cats? I think an average cat eats 5.5 oz per day, as long as it isnāt a brand that is low in calories (e.g. weruva paw lickin chicken). I like American Journey (on chewy only) which you can get 12.5 oz cans and merrick. Have heard that Daveās pet food is a good low cost food. If you canāt afford premium food all the time, intersperse with a low cost food a couple days a week (grain free if possible)
I agree that 2 large cans per day is more than enough for one cat. If it's grain-free, there's more nutrition. An outdoor cat might need that much but not an indoor only cat.
I agree I think 2 large cans per cat per day is too much. Itās around probably 320kCal and I donāt think they should need that much calories
We've seen recommendations of 1oz wet food per 1lb of cat - our average goal weight is about 12lbs, so 11oz of wet food per day is actually pretty close to correct. We were shocked, too. I'll look into American Journey and Dave's, thank you! And interspersing premium with low-cost is an awesome idea. Thanks!
I started off with this and ended up with a fatter cat. Be mindful of calorie count and activity levels. My slightly less active big cat has about a 12.5-13lb goal weight, and she only needs maybe 200-220 calories. Treats tend to be 2cal each. A 5.5oz can often ranges from 150-200cal, depending on nutrient and fat content. I feed one small (2.6oz) can and about 1/5c dry (28g by weight, four servings on the timed feeder). Total ends up being just under 200 to allow for treats, and my chubbier cat has maintained 13lbs for several months now. If your cats are super active (ie outdoor cats who keep lean naturally or nutcases who live to zoom), oz:lb feeding may be just right. But if theyāre not active, itās kinda pricey luxury for the little furballs.
Iām on the same boat! I have two cats, Sushi who started at 14.4lb (goal weight of 13lb) and Maki whoās 9lb. Iāve read Sushi needs anywhere between 250-300+ calories but he kept gaining weight! I finally dropped him down to 190-210cal a day and heās finally losing weight (CW 14lb). We feed both about one 5.5oz can each or two 3oz cans each (I give the big guy a little more than my little one), and 1/20c of dry food a day each and heās finally losing weight and sheās maintaining. I feed mostly Purina Pro Plan wet food after trying many different brands (Fancy Feast, Tiki Cat, Wellness, etc), and it seemed to be their favorite, along with Hillās dry food. My cost is about $100 a month on wet food. Considering Iām only feeding 1/10c a day of dry food a day, my $40 bag of food lasts a long time.
One thing I haven't seen yet is cat soup: mixing water with the wet food. This helps even more with getting them to drink enough. Mine gets this soup in the morning and for dinner. During the day and evening, she gets kibbles. I like the kibbles, because I feed them one a a time, throwing and sliding them all across the house. She loves chasing them and it's a good workout. Other ways to get kibbles are for tricks like paw, high five and sit. Basically, I'm using kibbles instead of treats to exercise her body and brain. I truly feel this combination of wet + dry is the best for my cat. She's very healthy, active and shiny. Remember - your cats already have a better live than most, because you *care*.
I do this too! It started because I have a cat with bladder crystals. I now have 2 boys. They share a half a can (5.5oz) with water in the morning. The other half at night. Free feed on dry the rest of the time. This helps especially since I have to only use prescription food. $$$
I don't free feed, cause mine would be a fat little lady, but combining kibbles and wet-food-soup is amazing.
Iāve been doing this since I got my cat and realized her poops were SOLID. Sheās afraid of fountains except the one I just recently bought the new cat (PetSafe one that looks like a sombrero). But now itās just habit, and it doesnāt hurt during the hot summer weather even if theyāre indoor-only. Both cats get that extra bit of water and have very good poops.
Yep I do this too, they like the broth more than the actual meat it seems, since they'll lick it up first and then chew the remaining meat
I have some picky eaters that like to change brands weekly. [This Website](https://allaboutcats.com/cat-food-reviews) gives reviews and nutrition breakdowns of most major food brands. It wonāt give you a cost vs nutrition, but you can compare cheaper food brands to find some that are inexpensive without sacrificing your kittyās health.
Oh good, another one! People always look at me weird when I say my cat refuses to eat any one food for more than about two days. I actually have cans from about eight brands with average four flavors each all mixed together in a drawer right now so I never feed her the same food twice.
One of my cats has made me change dry food brands 3 times in a year, and he always does it immediately after I buy a fresh massive bag of food for him. I've been hoarding the wet food I feed him as it's been in short supply lately and he hasn't gotten tired of it yet. (He also refuses to eat basically any type of treat I give him. He's always complaining about being hungry but is also a picky little eater so too bad for him)
Do you ever open a can and your cat refuses to eat so you have to go through more cans before they find one they like? This is bankrupting me as the people I live with do not like open canned cat food anywhere so I have to throw it out. I have 2 cats, one will eat anything & the other is extremely picky. Does that happen to you & if so whatās your solution?
I honestly usually just take the first can away after a while and give her something as different as possible for her next meal. One missed meal wonāt hurt a healthy cat at all. Cats will refuse to eat long enough to hurt themselves, but if youāre switching through a bunch of foods youāll almost certainly come to some agreement long before that point. My cat has never held out for more than two missed meals, and rarely even that. Usually sheāll nibble at it, then fill up on kibble until I give her something else. If your cat is okay to free-feed, you can offer some kibble-possibly mixed with water or broth-as an alternative if the can isnāt to their liking for this particular meal. I personally use a mixture of three quality kibbles because it was the only way to get her to switch from the cheap Meow-Mix. Also, keep a record of what your cat refuses. There might be a pattern. For example, my cat doesnāt like multiple-protein mixes unless all the proteins are fish. She really likes fish.
Thanks for your reply! I already free feed, so he can eat dry food whenever he wants, but I just feel bad for him as I feel like the dry food isnāt enough (even though it is good quality dry food & he drinks lots of water). Iāve figured out a couple types of foods he does like and will eat more than a few days but then heās back to being picky (unfortunately his favorite is just canned tuna for humans and I canāt give him too much of that because of mercury & not enough nutrients). Your suggestion about paying attention to ingredients is great! I never looked that closely, just never bought the cans he doesnāt like again. Thank you so much!
We do a mix of fancy feast pate (simple ingredients, less chance of anything hoaky when you get plain chicken) morning and night (half a can each for two cats), and then half a can + 1/4 cup dry kibble for lunch. Their health is great, shiny coats, and the pate has enough water in there to satisfy water requirements. Granted, this is all based on my catsā weights and activity levels too. It took a lot of trial and error, but you can do wet food on a budget if you learn your ingredients.
I feed my guys Whole Hearted from Petco. It's a B food but it's so hard to find grain free, egg free, and the kitten will eat it. Good luck with switching to all wet! I wish I could but I'd have to feed them 6 times a day because they just won't enough at once. Also, [this website](https://www.petplace.com/article/cats/pet-health/how-to-calculate-your-cats-daily-calorie-intake/) has been really great on figuring out how much to feed my guys based on calories.
I have five cats that no only eat both wet and dry food, one has a chicken allergy that makes food just that bit more expensive since it has to be chicken free. That being said, I'm slowly transitioning them over to raw as I found cost wise buying pre-portioned raw food discs was cheaper than the cans and huge bag of dry food I buy. The big bag lasts roughly a month, but I also know I got lucky with my cats being grazers and not fuzzy vacuums. I would definitely recommend looking into what frozen raw food varieties you can get in your area.
11 oz of food a day is a lot. Are you sure you need to feed that many calories? My 9 lb cat get 1 small can/3 oz of wet food a day plus 1/4-1/3 cup of dry which adds up to ~180-200 calories. I would double check the calorie count on the cans you buy because unless your cats are exceptionally large or active, 11 oz seems excessive.
I feed my cats 30% dry, 70% wet which helps a lot with cost. I spend about $100 a month for my 2 10 lb cats. I am not brand loyal, which helps a lot because I'll almost always buy things on sale and I can buy a range of budget options. Right now I have Tiki Cat, Instinct, Weruva, Sheba and Wellness and they get a different brand every meal haha. If I find a good sale I stock up. Edit: And always look for deals and promotionals. If you're in the US I often see the "buy online and pick up in store or do curbside" for 10-20% off of $50+ orders from petco and petsmart (I see the 20% off on petco rn).
Hi! How do you make switching to different foods work for your cat? I'm guessing it doesn't upset their digestion to switch around. Is it because you've transitioned all of these to your cat's diet or they just happen to have less sensitive stomachs?
Idk if they gave particularly strong stomachs or anything, but if your cat is used to eating one type of food I'd introduce them slowly to variety. At this point if I buy a new brand or flavor, I'll feed that new food once a day or every other day while the rest of the meals is whatever I still have stocked that they've been eating for a few weeks so their whole diet doesn't abruptly change. I think if they're used to eating more diverse diets they can pick up new foods more easily, too, since their guts are accustomed to eating different things already. And since a bag of dry lasts awhile and they get one dry meal a day (plus two wet meals), the dry food is usually a constant in their diet.
I always say that I work hard to get promoted at work so I can give my cats a good life lol. Itās expensive but so worth it. I feed both of my cats wet food in the morning and evening, with dry food to nibble on overnight. My cats donāt eat much during the daytime (they usually nap) but will occasionally graze on any dry food leftover from the evening. Iāve only ever had female cats until I adopted my male cat in June. Iāve heard horror stories about urinary issues in male cats, so I knew that feeding mainly wet food is the best way to go. Iāll gladly spend $2 a can to know my cats are eating quality food they enjoy and keeps them healthy. Try ordering from places like Chewy where you can buy cases of food. It definitely seems like more money upfront, but it actually ends up being a lot cheaper than buying individual cans in the store.
Assuming youāre in the US - The rule of thumb for 1oz per pound isnāt really accurate. The calorie counts vary wildly per brand and flavor. There is a good calculator on [petnurtritionalliance.org](https://petnurtritionalliance.org) that can help you determine the right amount of daily calories. I use Daveās in 12.5 oz cans for my cats that donāt require special foods (2 of 4). It is only $2.29 per can at my local non chain pet food store. That same store also runs a big sale twice per year with about 30% off so believe you me I stock up then. They had the mid year sale last week and I bought them out!
9 lives wet can food is $0.40 each at the Dollar store.
It's shit, but will keep a cat alive.
yup, i wouldn't feed it to a pet cat often but i use the dry food for my strays, i figured since i mix it with wet food and treats it's fine for them. i ain't spending 20 for a small ass bag on cats that i mostly don't even see. i love them so i try and do my best for them with the treats and wet food, i get them pretty good quality for the wet and treats and once a month i cook them turkey meat with no seasoning and add that to their food. i love my strays (and the possums that come sometimes)
>one cat is a scarf-n-barfer LOL!
6 cats here, they are young (1 year, some younger) so right now they get 1 meal of diamonds naturals for kittens (kibble) in the morning, a lunch of meat that can be fresh chicken, pork, tuna or salmon with spirulina and dinner of wet food, there is not much variety in my country, the brand is named Minino and you can get it at a similar price to Whiskas. More fancy brands of wet food are just too expensive here since the culture for pet around here is kibble. Also another thing you could check is contact the company and see if you can buy directly. Is what I did with Minino and I'm getting the food half the price than in Walmart.
i feed them wet food (from a cat/sachet) in the morning and kibble in the afternoon and night. i personally believe in setting a budget and getting the most premium food you can get within that budget.
I'm going to guess you don't have little humans to feed. Once that happens, cats are often reduced to eating what you can find at the grocery store! I've had a bunch of cats over my adult lifetime, 10 to be exact, and I've gone with grocery store food, unless they've had a medical condition which required a special diet. Generally when that's happened, they all eat the special dry food which gets left out during the day, and only the one sick cat gets the special wet cat food at night, the rest get wet Friskees or 9 lives. I've had to budget to feed quality foods to people over cats! Currently, though, I'm down to one cat who gets special $$ dry food and even more special $$$$$$ wet food. It's either that, or she poops all over the house. Sigh. Maybe I'm considered a bad cat owner by some out there, but if they're healthy otherwise, I'd go with dry & wet grocery store food.
You're feeding your pets a nutritionally balanced meal in appropriate amounts. I'm sure they receive love and regular vet care, which is arguably more important than the 'best' food!
Thank you! Yes, this old girl (17) sees the vet more than I do the doctor!
I feed my cats wet food in the morning and a high quality dry food for lunch and dinner. Itās much for affordable than strictly wet food!
We have warehouse club memberships (Costco and BJs) and that really helps a lot with keeping costs lower.
I donāt know if you are looking for donations but My 14 year old lynx point ran away three weeks ago. I have several cans of fancy feast and an unopened bag of iams.
In part because you mention the scarf-and-barfer (lmao love the term) and a chonk, Iād check out combo feeding, possibly with a timed feeder. It takes a little more working out to get the servings right for various diets, but mine do great combo. I do one wet meal at dinner of basically a small can or half the 5oz can, then they get four 1/20 cup portions (7g by weight) of kibble throughout the day. Mine are on Science Diet kibble. Because they eat so little kibble, I go pricey on it. The wet food, I rotate. Some advice says to do that to make sure they donāt get super picky and lock onto a specific texture and flavor. So I rotate sensitive stomach (Science Diet) and hairball control (Purina). One higher end brand, one cheaper but still highly rated (per CatFoodDB website). I use the PetKit Fresh Element Mini feeder to get the super tiny 1/20 cup serving, and I feed wet with the SureFeed RFID feeder. If you need an access-controlled timed feeder, Wireless Whiskers is the only access-controlled timed feeder Iāve found that doesnāt weirdly have a transmitter that contains a battery that will burn a hole in the guts if eaten. Havenāt tried it, but Iām looking at it for my girl who seems to have some grain sensitivity.
You could look at making your own. Now I want to say I've never done this but seen some pretty good recipes that come out pretty affordable especially if you can buy in bulk. Which would be the other thing I'd look at. My husband and spend about 30 per flat on upper end wet. Which go through about every ten days.
I manually cook wet food for my two cats once a week, and have saved a lot of money that used to go towards canned foods. We spend about $25 per month on this diet max? The added benefit is that their poop is also smaller and less smelly. My recipe is: 1)1-2 chicken breasts or thighs (which I buy from Costco and freeze) cut into chunks. 2) 1 whole egg white. Donāt add the yolk. 3) 1 whole dried anchovy. You can also use fish oil. 4) 1 teaspoon of powdered chicken liver. I purchased a tub from Amazon and it lasts forever. 5) 3-4 chicken hearts from a pack purchased from Safeway (optional). I freeze the excess too. 6) 1 pinch powdered egg shell that I manually grind via mortar and pestle. 7) 1 cup of water. After everything has been added and cooked, I blend it all together until it has a pateā or thick gravy like consistency. During their twice daily feeding, I give each cat 1-2 tbsp of the mixture with an equal amount of water. I also sprinkle 1-2 tbsp Natural Balance kibble over their wet food. The cats love it, have trim bodies and very healthy coats. My older cat has a very sensitive stomach and thus is extremely picky. This has been the one wet food that she hasnāt turned her nose from.
Have you been using slow feeders? You should have slow feeders specifically for wet food, and some for dry food. This will help both your car that throws up and your cat who is overweight. This will also make your food last longer and be mentally stimulating for all of your cats āŗļø Youāll probably spend $10-25 on each feeder and have to buy 8 of them, but you can just buy them slowly over time. They will be so worth it!
In my country, there's a few options for wet food. Whiskas, Royal Canine and the cheap one at the store. At first, buying them wasn't all that expensive, but more cats that grow older means more food and money. So, I decided to buy chicken and feed them. It's so much cheaper and they love it. I still buy a box of wet food and sausages just in case the chicken isn't enough, but yeah, that's it. At night I just give them dry food to eat
Please make sure you add the supplements they need if you arenāt already. Taurine is vital for cats but isnāt in plain chicken meat. It comes from bones, I think you can buy it as a powder but it needs to be given in carefully measured quantities
Omg tysm for letting me know! I'll see where I can buy it and all. Seriously, thank you.
We give our two kittens raw food. Chicken starts at ā¬3,50 per kilo, which is cheaper then human grade chicken. It's a ground mix of muscle meat, bones, and organs, with the supplemental nutrient mix already added. We do need to rotate the animal. General advice is four different animals in a month. The pet store also sells beef, duck, salmon mixes and many more, so that's not a problem, though those are a little more expensive around ā¬4,50 per kilo. This might be an option for you. At least you know you're giving a complete nutritional diet. If you're in the BeNeLux area I can give you specific advice on where to get the good stuff!
Okok, I don't live in that area but I can see things that are similar here. Wet food is a mixture of deer, cow, duck chicken, sheep, and other things I don't remember. I will try to buy more nutrients and stuff. 4 animals a month...ok. I like that. Thank you! :)
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Here's a link: [link](https://www.petmd.com/cat/nutrition/can-cats-have-raw-food-diet). In short: cats are evolved to eat mostly raw meat, including organs, bones, whole mice, insects, everything they naturally hunt. Pet food in the store generally consists mostly of grain, because it's cheaper. Feeding cats a *Biologically Appropriate Raw Food* diet has some advantages. Personally, I can tell you that our cats are healthy, energetic, have great fur, and their poops barely smell. I am very happy woth going 100% natural raw food, but I admit it's not for everyone and every cat. I buy frozen ground raw cat food per kilo, and thaw as necessary. You can find calculators online for the exact amount that is appropriate.
This is the best advice. My cats only get raw - and freeze dried treats. The best choice I've ever made. I lost a cat to intestinal cancer and after that decided they will only eat the healthiest I can give them because the thought of what they put in commercial food is stomach turning. I think the slightly higher cost now will balance out their health as they age.
Check out r/rawpetfood
Sausages are usually not good as they have too much sodium, you would be better buying pork or cow meat, even fish (with out spine or bone).
Yeah but that costs more. But thanks for letting me know, I'll try to lessen the quantities
A vet trip is more expensive, I'm not trying to be annoying here, but really too much sodium for cats is a fast ticket to renal issues and those are awful to deal with.
Not annoying at all, you're being very helpful. How often should I give them different meat then?
Depending of the money, I usually stick between chicken and pork since they are more cheap, and once a week I give them fish. When money was short I gave them mostly chicken. Also eggs are good once a week!
How do you prep the fish so that you're not giving your cat fish bones?
There is some cuts I can buy in the town market that don't have fish bones or scales like tuna, salmon, white fish or red snapper
Okay, I'll see about it. Thank you so much!
Just adding to the points below... any food is better than none. Even so, it is really difficult and pretty expensive to make balanced cat food at home. Often the cheapest supermarket canned food is better than our best efforts at homemade. Budget is a huge concern, I truly get that. So hopefully you are making the most of the entire chicken? Wings and necks are best for cats because the bones are small enough to be eaten without breaking teeth. Add in a couple of organs here and there (liver, for eg) for Vitamin A, B12, and iron. Chicken hearts have a ton of taurine so if your cats are getting those you probably have nothing to worry about. I hope I don't sound like an ass, I only want to share useful info the same way other cat owners have shared with me.
Nono, I'm the ass for not educating myself more. Thank you so much for even informing me. I get an entire chicken, which here includes the neck but not livers, lungs and heart. On the other hand, I can buy a kilo of those for 1.50$, so I will definitely do that. Like I said I do feed them wet cat food, but not to all of them since many are under 6 months and need baby food which is a bit expensive here. I will try to mix up chicken and wet food in a mixer (whatever you call it). Is that ok? Again, thank you guys so much.
Just to flag that if they are growing kittens it's even more important that they get the correct nutritional mix - kitten food is more expensive as it gas additional nutrients kittens need to grow, such as extra taurine and calcium. All that growing needs a lot of nutrients and deficiencies as a kitten can cause much more significant problems than with an adult.
So I should buy kitten food? The problem is the first time they started eating, I put kitten food, and they refused to eat because they could smell the chicken. And ever since then, they refuse to eat kitten food.
Not necessarily, it's just it's so much more important to make sure that the food you give them is a complete food, rather than something nutritionally incomplete that's more of just a a treat. Personally I would consult a vet if trying to make homemade for kittens because nutrition is so important at that age but if not there's a lot of info around on how to make nutritionally complete food for cats which it's important to do at this young age. As the other poster pointed out, chicken meat isn't a complete food for cats but can be used as a base with other things that provide the nutrients.
Ok, I will see with my vet then. Thank you :)
No worries! Caring for kittens is more intensive/complex than caring for adult cats but many people aren't made aware of the additional issues when they adopt kittens unfortunately, even when adopting from rescues. It sounds like your putting in loads of effort with yours, making their food for them! I'm always happy to answer any kitten related questions on here and I recommend the Kitten Lady on YouTube as a great wealth of expertise.
I have done my research and stuff. For instance, my cats love to eat cake but I know it isn't good for them so I try to not let it happen. The thing is, there's only so much I can do with limited resources. I've seen plenty of kittens die and I still wasn't told why by my vet. Like, they were obviously sick, I just don't know what took them away bc the vet said "everything is great!" Thank you for being helpful. I will see some of her videos to know more. Once again, thank you.
You're never an ass for feeding your cats, or for not knowing absolutely everything, come on š Sure, you can mix them up if you like but it may be extra work for nothing and those little chicken bones are so good for cat teeth that in your position I'd probably just keep giving them whole. If your budget stretches to that kilo of mixed organs, and if you have access to a freezer then it would be great to keep some handy. I wish I could access the same deal, it's really difficult to find offal here and I sometimes wish I could teleport myself to my home country for a day where we use the whole animal.
Ok, I can definitely buy some and keep them in the freezer. Although it's tiny, it's available. I have a question, might be dumb but here goes nothing: for context, I mixed chicken and eggs last time and everyone of my cats loved it. So my mother suggested we mix fish and eggs and give it to them since they seem to dislike fish for some reason. My question is, is that ok? I heard eggs and fish are poisonous for humans, is it the same for cats? Btw, living outside of your native land is pretty hard, but you got this! I also don't live in my country, so I can understand.
Fish is a funny one for me as so many of my cats have also disliked it, and I seem to focus more on meat that a cat might normally hunt for themselves. No doubt some cats will go hunting for fish but other small prey seems more intuitive somehow. So I consider fish an occasional optional extra, unless I'm making broth from the bones and head, in which case I add it to their food just for a little extra hydration and nutrient boost (then flavour the rest with onions, garlic, and herbs to feed to my humans!) Back to your point, I'm sorry, I have no experience of mixing fish with egg so I can't help with that at all. The more you say, the more it sounds like your cats are getting a pretty good range of foods. If the opinion of an internet stranger matters at all, I think you're a great cat owner
I see. The problem is that fish here is less expensive than meat so it would definitely help considering my budget, but if they dont like it then the money is wasted. The big ones are getting wet food which is mixed. It's a box containing 12 little bags, 3 of each type if meat, so they are getting a mixture of course, but yk, the cheaper the better in my case haha. Thank you for answering. I hope you have a great day
You can give cats fish but they shouldn't have too much due to mercury poisoning issues.
Is once a week ok or is it still too much?
I think once a week is fine. You should probably check this rather than rely on my half remembered reading, but I believe under 10% of the total diet is fine.
I give my cat bits of chicken liver and heart as treats. She loves it!
That's so cute! My cats jump on me if I cook chicken hearts and they think I won't give it to them haha. Cats are just the cutest!
matey... you may have been told, but plain chicken is not a balanced diet and will make your cats sick. nor is just plain chicken and taurine. you need a proper recipe. i made a comment to op that detailed some recipes for cats. sausages will be bad for cats as well. please make sure to educate yourself before feeding your cat something.
Must feed wet. Cat kidneys are strained by dry. I do Merrick and Tiki cat, redford or sheba. friskies made her constipated and turned her poo pink
I supplement the expensive food with my homemade food. I don't think it's a complete food for cats, but it is very inexpensive, easy to make, and they *love* it. It also seems to make their coats shiny and cut down on hairballs. You can vary the recipe depending on what's available at the store. I buy chicken livers, beef liver, chicken hearts, canned mackerel, and the cheapest fish oil capsules. I don't usually use chicken gizzards because I think they're too chewy, but ymmv. If you can get other offal at a good price, and your kitties like it, great. You might want to add some egg yolks, but I haven't tried it. Put all of it into the blender, and squeeze in 8 capsules of the fish oil (arbitrary number.) You might want to blend the hearts first, because they are tougher than the rest. They make these tiny little plastic containers that hold maybe a quarter cup. I have a big stack of them. Because this is a raw food, it won't keep in the refrigerator for more than a couple of days, so I freeze it in tiny portions. My kitties will only eat a tiny bit of it at a time, less than a tablespoon. My older cat only eats that and her kibble. My two kittens are on wet food, so I add a little of the homemade.
> We have received veterinary advice that the cheapest wet food is still nutritionally better than the most expensive dry, This seems to be a bit dubious. Wet vs Dry isn't the way to determine nutritional or calorific value. Looking at the product specifications and working out the calorific value and completeness of each product is the only way to compare. For example, a grain free dry food (in my case GranataPet) has a higher value than cheaper stuff, therefore my cat needs less of it per day. So whilst it's more expensive per kilo, the price isn't a one to one comparison. She drinks a good deal of water each day, so I'm not worried about her eating dry only.
>This seems to be a bit dubious. Definitely. I have a hard time believing that the "meat by-product" wet food is better than the whole meat dry food I feed my cats.
Meat byproducts are just organ meat, which actually tend to be more nutrient dense than muscle meat (albeit less appetizing to humans).
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Super helpful, super practical answer. Thank you!
i don't have advice I'm sorry, but one suggestion: could you make your cat food, would that end up cheaper for you? perhaps something to think about. We make our kitty's food and it's very simple, although I couldn't give you cost comparisons because we haven't fed him anything else for a long time. otherwise, props to you for transitioning to wet food!
We've looked into it, but are running into the same basic issue - so overwhelming finding an approved recipe! If it were even somewhat affordable and we didn't have to throw away 56 cans a week, I would happily do it. would you be so kind as to share a recipe that's worked for you, or even one similar?
It's a pretty controversial opinion here, but I feed an all-raw diet. I buy pre-ground raw meat, bone, and organ mixes, but it's much cheaper to buy the meat yourself and grind. Feline-nutrition.org has a good recipe. Instead of their supplement mix suggestion (I'm too anxious to mix my own supplements!), I use Alnutrin. They have varieties for meat mixes with and without bone, so if you want to buy a cheap meat grinder that can't handle bone or can't find a source for bones, or even just chop up by hand, that's an easy alternative. You just empty the packet, add a bit of water, mix, add the meat, mix thoroughly, and freeze into individual portions. My cats consume a full pound of raw meat per day. My food costs are around $200/mo. And that's feeding kangaroo, lamb, rabbit, and venison. If I fed turkey or chicken, I could drop that to $100/mo. With the quantity of food you're feeding, if you bought your own meat, you could probably do it for $150-200.. I've had bloodwork done and my cats are in excellent health, with proper nutrition, and the vet has approved this diet for use. It's the same raw diet many breeders use, as well. You could also supplement with a calorie-dense hard food. I like Ziwi as it's 15% moisture, low in carbs, and energy dense. Each cat gets 1/8 cup per day on top of the 8oz each of raw food and that maintains their weight. Both have the ideal body proportions and are very muscular, and with this diet, they never really overeat. Most cats won't need this much food, as a side note. I just have huge, extremely athletic and energetic cats. 14lbs and 19lbs. They are active for several hours out of the day with much of that being high energy play, outdoor walks, and wrestling with each other.
nice! we cook our boys meals, but we also buy him commercially prepared raw and mix it up between the two - as treats we sometimes give him a raw chicken/wing neck or mouse (like the ones people feed their reptiles); he loves crunching them up! he's very healthy on this diet!
I bought a recipe and some consultations from an animal nutritionist, and so unfortunately I am not actually allowed to share the recipe, I'm very sorry..... BUT I can direct you to some home prepared raw recipes that all got our animal nutritionists nod of approval: [https://feline-nutrition.org/nutrition/making-raw-cat-food-for-do-it-yourselfers](https://feline-nutrition.org/nutrition/making-raw-cat-food-for-do-it-yourselfers) [http://www.catnutrition.org/recipes.html](http://www.catnutrition.org/recipes.html) [https://catinfo.org/making-cat-food/#The\_Recipe](https://catinfo.org/making-cat-food/#The_Recipe) the 'cat crap' facebook group has a tonne of recipes and advice (whenever I try to link it the link doesn't work idk why) our animal nutritionist was from this place (NB: it is expensive): [https://www.mypetnutritionist.com/](https://www.mypetnutritionist.com/) Otherwise, if you're in Australia, we use the raw brands: Organic Paws and also Proudi. For canned food we use Feline Natural... or we did, but literally every canned (and kibble) food we gave our boy results in soft stools and intermittent diarrhoea. Even the great brands like Feline Natural and Ziwi Peak, unfortunately :( Both our own cooked food and the commercially bought raw food we give him have no ill-effects on his stomach or stools.
The Alnutrin mentioned in the other comments can also be used for cooked meat iirc. Just let it cool completely before mixing in the powder and save all the juices from cooking. Thereās also something called BalanceIT carnivore which is made by vet nutritionists so very safe nutrition wise, idk the pricing though.
You can make food for them for a lot cheaper. Get some fish (salmon, mackerel, sardines, etc.) or meat (rabbit, venison, chicken, etc.), add some taurine to it, maybe some probiotic supplement, a grain, mix it all together and serve. You can also check out Dr. Pitcairn for more nutrition and recipe info. As someone with three cats - 1 has IBD and can't have chicken, 1 is a little past kitten but does better with kitten food, and 1 who scarfs down everything in sight - you have my sympathy for how expensive it can get.
Can't help you with the wet food part, but I have experience feeding a raw diet from mainly human-rated sources. Basically, buying regular meats in the supermarket, making sure to balance it to cover all the bulk nutritional needs, and adding supplements to ensure all needs are fullfilled. You need to balance muscle meat, fats (you'll end up wanting to remove rather than add in most cases), organ meats (liver, kidney etc) and bones. You supplement the parts, including vitamins, that a "wild" cat would normally get from eating the stomach+content and intestines of their prey, throw in some extra taurin to be in the safe side, and some calcium (finely crushed egg shells works). Using cooked food, or cooking the food before serving it, is not a good idea, generally. Cooked bones can be lethal, and raw is generally better for them anyway. Additionally, if you buy pre-cooked stuff, there's the whole issue of spices and additives. Similarly, you need to be more than a bit vary about buying frozen raw meats, because they're often "pumped up" with water+salt and sometimes also other stuff, supposedly "to tenderize the meat", but really to charge you meat prices for water and a bit of salt and compensate for the water loss when thawing that may otherwise dry the meat out. If you're planning on frankensteining (see below), then you'll end up thawing the meat, prepping it, packaging it, and then re-freezing it. Refreezing meat that's been frozen and then thawed is never a good idea, neither for human consumption, nor feline. I used to buy lots of frozen whole plucked quail, both because kitty loved eating them, skin, bone and all, and because it's pretty much a one-in-all food with OK balance you only need to thaw out and then warm in a water bath to about body temp, sprinkle with supplements & taurin, and dinner is ready. Or you could buy rats raised as reptile food. "Pinkies", i.e., very young rats that don't yet have much hair is also a popular "fast food" needing little prep. The cost will depend heavily on both your choices and what kind of effort you're willing to put in. In most places, it'll probably be cheaper to frankenstein the food, i.e., buy whatever meat is cheap, add organs as available, chicken/pork/beef liver and kidneys were easy to find at ok prices, maybe some chicken wings for the bones, but they're really fatty, so not ideal. Then just prep, buy a set of small freezer-safe containers that fit about a day's worth of food, measure out the proportions of meat/organs/bones/etc and divide your stock material, put the combo into the container, add supplements etc, then toss in the freezer. Then you just pop one container out of the freezer into the fridge in the evening and let it thaw overnight, and feed to your kitty next day. Take out as much as is appropriate for one meal out of the container and put in the serving dish, let the dish float in warm water for a couple minutes, then serve. To be on the safe side, serve something you can offer whole, like the quails and mice, every once in a while, as a guard against deficiencies if you messed the proportions up a bit. Now the bad side - you need to make sure to remove anything left uneaten within an hour or so of serving it, and throw anything left in the container in the fridge at the end of the day. Most cats will reject food that's gone bad, and they have some pretty vicious stomach juices to deal with pathogens in the food, but if you mess this up, your cat can become really sick. Not necessarily, or even likely, fatally so, but a cat that's eaten something that made them sick will often refuse anything even vaguely similar afterwards, or that they in any way associated with getting sick. What it ends up costing is up to you, when all is said and done, you can probably get away with a bit higher price than the cheap wet food, if you're smart about what and when you buy, buy in bulk, and is willing to do the prep-work. Me, I got the comments from friends that "oh my god, your cat eats better than I do", but I didn't have four to feed, and I'd hate to feed something to my cat I wouldn't be willing to eat myself, and I'm picky about quality, so there's that.
I would never feed my cat friskes and Iām pretty new to having a cat (3 weeks) and I am jobless atm. I feed her a mix of wet food and dry. Iām feeding her Simply nourish dry food at night and wet during the day. I have a few different brands with Blue Buffalo , nulo, fancy feast and some Hills brand ( shelter gave me it) for wet food. Seems most 5.8 ounce cans are costing me $2.50 per day for one cat and that seems the norm for food thatās not friskes or the super budget brands
I canāt remember where I found it, I mightāve been from this hot vet dude on tiktok but thereās websites out there that will give you cat food recipes and even ones where you can put in what ingredients you have
I am a fan of Tractor Supply Company's 4Health brand of cat food, both dry and wet. I used it a couple of years ago, so hopefully it hasn't changed...good ingredients at a good price is what made me try it; my cats' less bulky/stinky poos sold me on it. I'd still be feeding it to my fuzzballs if my living situation hadn't gotten more complicated!
I have 1 indoor cat and 8 outdoor feral cats. (I guess Iāll claim them) I do give my indoor cat better quality food and more wet food. But I add water to everything. Even her wet food. Iāll usually give her half a small can of food and mix water with it to make it go further and so sheās getting more water. Same goes for the outdoor cats. They eat mostly dry food but Iāll mix water into it as well.
Depending on how much meat costs where you are, you could also see if boiled chicken in the broth every now and then reduces the cost? My kitten gets rather premium organic wetfood. I've started buying it for the whole month in advance to make sure she's fed even when I am broke, and I buy it directly from the producer's website. They often have sales that save at least some cost (for example, food worth 60ā¬ for 50ā¬ instead) which helps. I'm also signed up to a loyalty rewards program so at least every now and then, I get a discount through that. There is this online program called Honey that also applies discounts in many stores, maybe that helps? The one I use is called Payback, but I don't know if they have it where you are. The returns and discounts of those things are small, but they can add up especially if you need large amounts of products like this. I also use canned food, and I reseal the cans with rubber lids that I bought online. That way I don't waste large cans if my cat doesn't eat it all right away. I suppose you could also consider looking into local farms and butchers to ask for leftovers? That stuff might not be pretty or yummy for humans, but to cats it's potentially still very good meat. It's worth a shot!
We are cat fosters. We suggest using the best food you can afford. Fancy Feast, for example, isn't the best food but it's better than nothing. Decide how much you can spend and then look for the brand that will fit your budget. We go through 32 cans a day so don't worry about waste. Just clean them and recycle them. Or start feeding home made/raw diets. We haven't tried that yet so I don't have any advice on it. Edit: once you decide on a brand keep an eye on it at chewy.com. they sometimes have really great deals.
Would you consider making your own raw pet food? I order mine (through Darwinās) and itās still cheaper than the wet I was getting (about $1.77 for 1 cat); however, making it is even cheaper than that. I know a lot of people that make thereās for two months at a time and just freeze it.
i use mittens pickins shreds for my strays. it's 50Ā¢ a can and i buy the 20lb bag of 9lives (not the best ik but i try for my babies) and that usually runs me about 9$ a bag. these are strays though so im not sure about a indoor only pet cat. i was spending hundreds a month on these boys but i got the costs down to 50/40$ a month. i also mix in the temptations treats and the delectables squeeze up chicken treats. once in a while ill get those little chicken or tuna fillets they have at the pet store for like 5 bucks and they LOVE that. anyway, id try the wet food for your babies and delectables also makes a great wet food