Cheaper Canned Foods?

So the Honest Kitchen venture didn't make it very far.  Last night Shanoah wouldn't eat after eating it for a week.  I put down her food bowl, she took a bite, stared at it, stared at me, and then walked away in disinterest.  She was definitely tired of it because I gave her some canned afterward and she gobbled it up.  Her being sick of it was my fault because I mostly exclusively fed it to her with little canned.  I'll have to feed her canned for a while now and reintroduce HK.

Well anyways, I was curious about what people thought about cheaper canned foods? And by cheaper I mean that one's that are 65 cents-90 cents.  Those Fancy Feasts, IAMS, and Friskies out there.  The reason for switching to mostly HK and little canned was because it was easier on the wallet and a great food that's healthy.  But now since I'm back to canned for a while I want to add some cheaper brands to my rotation.

Right now I'm doing:

Nutro Natural Choice

Nature's Variety

Wellness

Organix

Honest Kitchen (taking a hiatus now) 

Well I went to Petco today and decided to look at Fancy Feast and IAMS.  I decided to leave out Friskies because all the non-fish flavors I looked at had corn, wheat, and flour.  So after thoroughly going through both of those options, I decided to pick IAMS Purrfect Delights Chicken and Delicacies Turkey & Liver along with Fancy Feast Classic Chicken Feast and Classic Turkey & Giblets Feast.  Those are the best ones that I thought looked good with no grains and no carrageenan.  

I guess I fail to see why those are so cheap.  I mean I guess out of the ones I chose out in the Fancy Feast Classic you can look pass the by-products (at least chicken and turkey  are the #1 ingredients) and in the IAMS you can look pass broth being the #1 ingredient with the meat as #2.  Other then that the other ingredients and guaranteed analysis check out.  I guess just because they're that cheap doesn't mean they're necessarily that bad because those brands could be just more efficient with their operations resulting in a lower overall cost.

What do people think of these?

Not sure what Friskies you are looking at but the pates don't have corn, wheat or flour in it. I feed my feral cats Friskies pate because I just don't have the money to feed 6 cats the better expensive foods. I also feed them a PetSmart brand canned food called Grreat Choice.

I don't see anything wrong with having a cheaper brand of canned in a rotation of foods unless they have a problem with it. I do not feed the gravy ones.

I have an indoor cat with IBD and allergies who can't handle the Friskies or Fancy feast but if she could I would have that in her rotation of wet foods.

Also wanted to mention that you can find those cans of food cheaper at other places. Petco's price is pretty high in my opinion. I buy Friskies at Walmart, the 5.5 can is 46 cents and the bigger cans are 78 cents. Fancy Feast at Walmart is 50 cents a can.

I tried IAMS once on my feral cats and they didn't like it.

me, too: Friskies is it for the feral ones. I buy at http://chewy.com/  because that's the cheapest I found (about 45 cents per can) and on top of that no taxes if you live where I live. I tried 9lives once but it was vomited all over.

My cats are 12 year old siblings and recently I decided to try to convert them to a healthier diet. Previously I was giving them canned Friskies and Fancy Feast, and Iams Senior Plus kibbles.

As far as the wet food; I have purchased literally every brand that PetSmart sells (that doesn't have carrageenan in it) without much luck. After exhausting all of those I went to a PetCo and bought the ones they carry. Again, no luck! I am at my wits end. Thankfully, as far as the dry, they seem to like "Taste of the Wild" which I found at a local feed store.

So, at this point I am back to giving them Fancy Feast for a wet food treat but primarily they eat the Taste of the Wild dry. Thankfully they both drink a lot of water. Last year I bought a CatMate fountain and that seems to entice them to drink more.

I suspect part of the problem with switching food is their age, as from what I have learned it is much more difficult to convert an older cat. I would be very interested to know if anyone has had success doing this with a senior feline, and what did the trick.

MsCatmom said:

 
I suspect part of the problem with switching food is their age, as from what I have learned it is much more difficult to convert an older cat. I would be very interested to know if anyone has had success doing this with a senior feline, and what did the trick.

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patience, bribes, going very slowly, mixing a small bit of new with lots of the old and increasing the ratio verrrrrrrrrry slowly so it isn't noticed.

Bribes sprinkled on top. Room temperature. Patience. Going back to old food if mix isn't eaten and starting all over again. (Having ferals that eat any leftovers help a lot )

Thank you - I sure appreciate the tips. How funny you should mention the room temperature bit. Even when there is interest in a new food, once I bring the remaining portion out of the **** it loses any appeal it may have had. Tried microwaving it, but that doesn't work. The part that concerns me with just leaving it out to warm up to room temp is the bacteria issue - how long is safe to leave it out? Of course, cats in the wild eat stuff that lays around in the woods for God knows how long!

The patience part has been challenging but I will try again. Sigh.....hope they know this is all for their own good.

MsCatmom said:

 
Thank you - I sure appreciate the tips. How funny you should mention the room temperature bit. Even when there is interest in a new food, once I bring the remaining portion out of the **** it loses any appeal it may have had. Tried microwaving it, but that doesn't work. The part that concerns me with just leaving it out to warm up to room temp is the bacteria issue - how long is safe to leave it out? Of course, cats in the wild eat stuff that lays around in the woods for God knows how long!

The patience part has been challenging but I will try again. Sigh.....hope they know this is all for their own good.

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For the cat, the food is safe to eat for at least the whole day   (depending on your temperature... it will smell bad for the cat when it is starting to go bad). For you, it's not (because you have a different digestive system). So make sure you wash your hands after you've handled it. Even when it is fresh.

I tried microwaving, too, without success using things from the fridge but successfully when defrosting things from the freezer.  

MsCatmom said:

 
Thank you - I sure appreciate the tips. How funny you should mention the room temperature bit. Even when there is interest in a new food, once I bring the remaining portion out of the **** it loses any appeal it may have had. Tried microwaving it, but that doesn't work. The part that concerns me with just leaving it out to warm up to room temp is the bacteria issue - how long is safe to leave it out? Of course, cats in the wild eat stuff that lays around in the woods for God knows how long!

The patience part has been challenging but I will try again. Sigh.....hope they know this is all for their own good.

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Does your cat tolerate extra water in the food? If I'm taking a can from the fridge, I'll mix in hot water. That way the final product is about room temp. But he likes watery food, so not sure if that would help you.

To the original poster, I feed Friskies & Iams to my 2 cats. My 3rd has urinary issues, so he's different. I agree that the quality of the food isn't as bad as some may think. I think that when any company produces larger volumes, they can purchase ingredients at lower costs. I've fed pricier ones before, but with 3 cats & 1 with a special diet, I spend around $200 a month on their food & litter, combined. So, this is the best I can do for now.

I think one of the reasons that cheaper cat foods are cheap is that they use lower quality ingredients that are not for human consumption, meaning they are reject or waste from the human food industry. How bad they are, I don't know. 

For example, brewers rice (from Wikipedia)

Brewers' rice  is the small milled fragments of rice  kernels  that have been separated from the larger kernels of milled rice. (AAFCO  definition).^[1]  Brewers' rice is a processed rice product that is missing many of the nutrients  contained in whole ground rice and brown rice  thus reducing the quality^[2]

Brewers' rice and second heads are one of the many byproducts  that rice milling  creates. Second heads are milled rice kernels that are one half to three quarters of the original kernel. Brewers' rice is a milled rice kernel that is one quarter to half the size of a full kernel. Second heads, depending on their quality are used to make rice flour. "If the quality of the second heads are poor, they will be sold for pet food  or dairy feed. Brewers rice is sold for pet food  and dairy  feed exclusively."^[3]  and, despite having little nutritional value is found in approximately one third of pet food sold in the US.^[4]

This can also be the waste rice product after it runs through the brewery.

Cheaper canned foods aren't too bad. There are some that are truly low-quality (Twin Pet is one) but most canned foods have a decent amount of meat in them. The vitamin/mineral premix also makes a difference so I prefer to not use store brands exclusively. Have at least some name brands in the mix, because their vitamin/mineral mixes are usually higher quality.

So don't worry too much about getting them on a "better" canned food. Some of the more expensive brands actually have less meat than the cheaper brands! Because some consumers like to see fancy ingredients like veggies and herbs, but cats don't need any of that; they're obligate carnivores. But it wouldn't be a bad idea to switch to a better dry food, or switch to all canned food. At this age they need all the moisture they can get to keep their kidneys healthy.

My cat loves Sheba, it is a cheaper brand also. What does everyone think of this brand? Is it any good?

Jano437 said:

 
My cat loves Sheba, it is a cheaper brand also. What does everyone think of this brand? Is it any good?

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I feed Sheba pate in my kitties rotation to try and keep cost down.  I think its a decent food and both my cats enjoy it.  Its pretty much like Fancy Feast classic except Sheba doesn't hide fish to theirs like a lot of FF flavors do.     Its grain free, protein is the first ingredient, no unnecessary veggies, fruits or starches.   Its not perfect though since there is the added color and the Menadione Sodium Bisulfite which there is some controversy over. 

We were feeding our 3 cats high quality raw.  They didn't like it.  We went back to canned Friskies (bulk cases from Costco).  Now they won't always eat that.  They want Kibble - more carbs.  I refuse to go all Kibble because I think they need the moisture.  I have only ever seen one of them at the water bowl.  My compromise is high quality kibble and cheaper canned.  Forcing them to eat raw because it's healthier wasn't working.  Our dogs love it so it's ok.  I thought the cats would enjoy it as much as the dogs but that didn't happen.  If they want to eat kibble I guess it's my job to make them happy!

Jano437 said:

My cat loves Sheba, it is a cheaper brand also. What does everyone think of this brand? Is it any good?

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Maia and Foley are really picky. I tried Sheba. Wasted pretty much a whole box. They smelled it took a bite and left it there all day.

Thanks everybody for the feedback!  I totally agree with some more expensive brands having less meat because of other fancy ingredients that cats don't need - adding on to this, some of the expensive brands don't have the regular 3oz cans and instead having 2.8oz.  Also another reason why I avoided the Friskies was because different by-products were listed before the actual meats in the Pates.  But yeah, the pates don't have wheat, corn and flour.

Shanoah likes the Fancy Feast Classics which is good.  I'm able to look pass the by-products in the food seeing how it's probably just animal organs.  Nonetheless, I'm happy with the Fancy Feast and IAMS recipes I chose out.  

What does everybody think of the #1 ingredient broth in the IAMS food?  Is broth bad for cats or is it just meat being the #2 ingredient unappealing to most?

I've honestly never read the ingredients of iams but Maia and Foley love any Fancy Feast that's grilled and delight.

Some brands use broth instead of water. . ."broth" just means meat was cooked in the water. I know this is commonly misunderstood because one person said they wouldn't feed a food with broth because it would be too high in salt :tongue2:. Yeah that's not what it means. Most brands have water listed second. So whether the water/broth is listed first or second doesn't make much difference; canned food is always around 75%-80% moisture anyway.

They seem to like the gravy/sauce in most of the canned stuff (they will lap that up and leave the meat) so I have tried adding hot water to food that has been refrigerated, but no go. Also, they have resumed liking "pate" style food (they used to shun it) so I even tried pureeing some of the chunky style ones in my little food processor to get it to a soufflé consistency. That didn't work either.

I agree, that some of the cheaper canned stuff isn't as bad as we have been lead to believe. I just wish they would refrain from adding things like artificial colors (what's the point?) and some of the chemicals or other additives. As much as I have researched the ingredients of their food, I will admit that I am far from an expert on the subject......and would like to believe that companies like Purina would not put things in that would harm them.

I was concerned about the Menadione Sodium Bisulfate as well. I expressed my concern about that one to our vet, and he sent me some articles from a veterinary journal on the subject. From what I read, it's one of those things that would have to be consumed in very large (and unrealistic) quantities before there would even be a chance of any adverse effects. So, I have relaxed about that one. However, the evidence against carrageenan is a different story and that one I do try to avoid - not only in my cats diet but my own.

MsCatmom said:

 
However, the evidence against carrageenan is a different story and that one I do try to avoid - not only in my cats diet but my own.

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same here - what's that with putting carrageenan in almond milk??? I have to check at least four brands before finding one that doesn't have it.