Cheaper Canned Foods?

anne with cats

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I have seen several people on this site that like the Sheba. I looked up the ingredients, and they look fairly good by not adding extra added stuff that doesn't need to included to cat's diet.  I would really like to order from Chewy's  website because they list ingredients with each food. I also see great customer reviews! I was feeding a lot of Trader Joes turkey/giblet (no rice) and I think they have burned out on it. It didn't help when I bought some so called high end Wellness, Wild Calling and Rad Cat raw. They saw the light! Also TJ's and Wellness have carrageenan. Wellness also has all kinds of unnecessary vegetables! I am trying the Petco Soulistic  (Weruva's plant) They really loved the chicken with pumpkin. The other brands with gelee, not so great. The gelee is so thick and hard, I think that there might be way too much gar gum.( I mean this stuff is hard to break up gum!) So I will need to make some exchanges at Petco, and then get a couple of Rad Cat raw at the local independent pet store. I think the cats liked the Rad Cat turkey best, but they also ate the lamb.
 
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felineempathy

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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
. 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.
That's a good point.  It also seems wasteful if they don't use the broth.  I have no issues with broth but I've heard some people have grievances against it for some reason - probably the reason you stated.
 

lisahe

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I am trying the Petco Soulistic  (Weruva's plant) They really loved the chicken with pumpkin. The other brands with gelee, not so great. The gelee is so thick and hard, I think that there might be way too much gar gum.( I mean this stuff is hard to break up gum!) So I will need to make some exchanges at Petco, and then get a couple of Rad Cat raw at the local independent pet store. I think the cats liked the Rad Cat turkey best, but they also ate the lamb.
Our cats also love the Soulistic chicken and pumpkin foods, though watch out: the price on the pouch version went up $1.69 from $1.09 in our closest Petco! According to the woman I spoke with in the store, the company decided it had been underpriced. The new price is higher per ounce than RadCat (turkey's the fav here, too) or Tiki Cat, and those foods both have more meat and no starchy gravy (that I drain)! Of course the cats love the Soulistic food (even more than the equivalent Weruva, which sells for a mere $1.29 in a much more pleasant store) so I may still get it as an occasional treat. Ah, cats.


And yes, Soulistic's gelee foods are very solid! One of our cats got very gurgly and gassy from the fish/chicken one, and I have to wonder, too, if it's all the gums. Or maybe even the fish, which I don't feed them very often. The cats loved that food, though, probably because they had so much fun carrying chunks of food around the house. They ate it up, though.

To get back to the OP's question -- about cheap canned foods -- the more I feed (moderately picky) cats who love shreds and demand a lot of variety, the more I come to the conclusion that the best values are the foods with the most meat, the least (meaning none!) vegetable/grain fillers, and, the biggest thing, the greatest appeal to the cat(s) in question. Weruva's Cats in the Kitchen are the best value for us because the prices are moderate and the cats eat them up. For these two, though even Tiki ends up being cheaper than, say, much lower-priced but very good pates like Wild Calling or Hound and Gatos, because the cats walk away from the pates but will happily eat every shred and drop of Tiki. I wish the cats liked pates but, even more, I wish more cat food companies would ditch the carrageenan, potato, peas, gums, and other fillers and thickeners!
 
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felineempathy

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I do think Tiki and Weruva are good foods with no fillers but I still consider them to be in the middle in terms of pricing.  However, they also have more unique ounce measurements compared to most brands such as 2.8, 3.2, 6, and 10 oz. That's still a great price for food that has no fillers in my opinion.  I also my have to reconsider putting them back into my rotation but the only store around here that has them is a bit out of the way and I still go to Petco to stock up on Nutro Natural Choice since my cat loves that brand.  I also realize that Chewy has a lot of good price deals with Weruva and Tiki.  No more standing in the store for a long time trying to figure out what all the Tiki names mean 
.

I'll have to look into the Soulistic stuff, I know I saw those somewhere at Petco but I'm pretty sure they only have a small section on the shelves which didn't really catch my attention.  Also speaking of pates, I mentioned before that Shanoah seems to not like them but it turns out it has to do with how it's "formed" in her food bowl because I always use a spoon to get her foods out of the can, always mashing the pates so they aren't in a big chunk....so she likes it in a "hill" shape, not flat at the bottom of her food bowl.  Every cat has some sort of picky attitude.

Anyways, since this thread is more about foods that are under $1 and since we're on the subject of Weruva.  I just remembered a brand called BFF which is the more affordable version and manufactured by Weruva.  This food is hovering around the $1 mark which is good.  However, the downside is that all their flavors are seafood focused and some of their recipes have carrageenan in them.
 

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I'm having to feed my cats cheaper food for the time being. So after scouring the ingredients, I bought some cans of Sheba at the 99 cent store. Zora doesn't love it, but she'll finish it if I add a bit of freeze-dried liver to the top.

Emile
 

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Update: I found an unpleasant side effect with the Sheba. It's producing a light tannish BM and it's stinkier than usual. Soon as a I get my paycheck this week, I'm switching over to a better food.

Emile
 

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Anyways, since this thread is more about foods that are under $1 and since we're on the subject of Weruva.  I just remembered a brand called BFF which is the more affordable version and manufactured by Weruva.  This food is hovering around the $1 mark which is good.  However, the downside is that all their flavors are seafood focused and some of their recipes have carrageenan in them.
the BFF ones appear to use a lot of fish.  i considered BFF when we were feeding weruva cats in the kitchen, and i opted against BFF due to the fish.  one of my cats regurgitates anything with fish >.<
 

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Another update: I switched to Fancy Feast Classics, and Zora loves it, and her BMs are back to normal.  I won't be using Sheba again.

I managed to get a good deal on Cats in the Kitchen from petflow.com, so I'm looking forward to that shipment arriving and putting her back on the good stuff.

Emile
 

mscatmom

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Are you referring to the pouch style stuff from Weruva? After exhausting every healthy option Petco and PetSmart carries, I am back to Fancy Feast.

How old are your kids and what dry do you give them? Thanks!
 

emilesc

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Hi, MsCatmom. I'm not sure if you were talking to me or the original poster. But I stopped dealing with the CitK pouch food just because it's easier to scoop out all the food from the can than the pouch, and the cats like it just the same.

My oldest, Allie, is 12 and my youngest, Zora, is 1 1/2. Zora's completely on wet food after her last UTI earlier this year (I talk about her dietary restrictions here). But I'm finishing my last bag of dry Wellness Core with Allie before I transition her completely to wet (which I already know she likes because I've given it to her occasionally).

Emile
 

lokhismom

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 Update: I found an unpleasant side effect with the Sheba. It's producing a light tannish BM and it's stinkier than usual.
Hmm.  I occasionally feed Sheba in rotation and every once and awhile my 2 have the same BM.    Now wondering if Sheba was the cause.
 

emilesc

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Hmm.  I occasionally feed Sheba in rotation and every once and awhile my 2 have the same BM.    Now wondering if Sheba was the cause.
I saw a direct correlation to feeding her Sheba and taking her off it, so it may very well be.

Emile
 
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felineempathy

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Definitely staying away from Iams now.  The one chicken recipe I picked out because it was better then the rest (ingredients and analysis wise) turned out to be deceiving.  In little tiny font size near the bottom of the can, it says "Made in Thailand".  

At least I was only feeding it a few times a month but now I'm totally cutting it off.  I've been mainly feeding Fancy Feast Classics as a cheaper rotation option anyway.
 

emilesc

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My older cat's doing really well keeping down a full can of Fancy Feast Classic, so I just bought a variety box of the non-seafood cans. So it looks like I can get her off the dry food faster than I'd thought, thankfully.

Emile
 

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Definitely staying away from Iams now.  The one chicken recipe I picked out because it was better then the rest (ingredients and analysis wise) turned out to be deceiving.  In little tiny font size near the bottom of the can, it says "Made in Thailand".  
At least I was only feeding it a few times a month but now I'm totally cutting it off.  I've been mainly feeding Fancy Feast Classics as a cheaper rotation option anyway.
Most of the high grade cat foods come from Thailand including Weruva, Cats in th kitchen, Soulistic, Fussie Cat and more. They have better quality control on pet food plants than USA!
 
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felineempathy

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Most of the high grade cat foods come from Thailand including Weruva, Cats in th kitchen, Soulistic, Fussie Cat and more. They have better quality control on pet food plants than USA!
Huh...I didn't know that.  Well that's good to know.  I'm going to read some articles on this.
 
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