Aldis

tweetykiss

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Is it a good idea to give cat Aldis cat food? It is very low budget which is how we live and you get a high quantity of it but I also have to think of nutrition.
 

sharky

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do you have a link? it sounds like a store brand?
 
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tweetykiss

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Are UTs curable in cats? I am not sure what brand is it but you get it from a store called Aldis.
 

sharky

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UTIs come from LOTS of things... Food can help cause or make them worse, but what food is not the same for all cats
 

kittyl0ve4

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I wouldn't give Aldi's brand of food to your cat. I personally don't like any of the brands of food (human or animal) that Aldi sells. It is all very cheap, therefore made with cheap ingredients. They don't sell any name brand foods at Aldi IIRC. That makes me think the cat food they sell there is their brand. The cheaper the food is, the cheaper the ingredients, which means the quality of the ingredients aren't too great. So, if you are concerned about quality, I'd stay far away from their brand of food.
 
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tweetykiss

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Thanks everyone. Now what kind of food should I give Avalon since I am on a very fixed budget suffering from state of economy. I also want to make sure she does not get overweight.
 

sharky

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Originally Posted by tweetykiss

Thanks everyone. Now what kind of food should I give Avalon since I am on a very fixed budget suffering from state of economy. I also want to make sure she does not get overweight.
what is your budget?
 

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In general, avoid store brand dry foods completely (the store brand canned foods often have comparable ingredients to the name brand canned foods, though, at least around here). They're mostly flavored sawdust, and the cats I know who eat store brand dry foods are always terribly unhealthy. I don't know what brands you have there, but the cheapest food I would feed any cat is Purina Cat Chow (which is what I feed my ferals). It's nothing great but it won't kill your cats, at least.
 

farleyv

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I have 11 cats and they all eat wet. I spend about 25.00 a week on it.

Yes, it is expensive, but the alternative is vet bills caused by feeding junky dry kibble.

It is a lesson I learned the hard way. Still paying off that vet bill!
 

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I buy whatever is cheapest at Wal Mart for my ferals, either Precious Kitty or Meow Mix(I prefer Precious Kitty), and they are healthy but I would rather go hungry for a week than feed them store brand cat food, especially unknown. I know Precious Kitty is Wal Mart brand food but when I noticed the 4 girls were pregnant last year I started them on Precious Kitty kitten food and they and all of the kittens were healthy and strong and they thrived on it as well. Plus Precious Kitty original is all age groups so the kittens and adults are all properly fed(no one makes large bags of kitten food, they'd make money off of me if they did.) I wouldn't give either to my inside babies. Keep her food good and she shouldn't get overweight, feed her crap and she might. One reason I am fine feeding the ferals what I do(and really I'm not I feel guilty I can't afford to feed them all Natural Balance) is it fattens them up so they aren't freezing now that it is winter and about to snow(yet again.) My neighbor's daughter say them at Christmas and told her mom that they are the fattest and best fed outside cats she has ever seen. I consider that a great compliment and it made me feel better about what I feed them.

Trust me spend more on food and you'll spend less on the vet.

Taryn
 

ut0pia

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I've looked at Aldi's cat food, it's very bad. The first ingredient in their wet food is "meal by product" yuck...The second was "chicken by product"..I don't remember the rest, just that was enough for me to decide not to feed it.
I bought a can at the time, and when I opened it there was something really gross at the top above the actual food- it was kind of like a foamy version of meat or something spoiled.

I don't know about their dry food, all I know is it's not grain free.
The good news is, it's not any worse the meow mix and whiskers stuff that's more expensive at wal mart.

I have thought about getting litter from Aldi- if anyone has tried it let me know as it's very cheap.
 

Willowy

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Originally Posted by ut0pia

The good news is, it's not any worse the meow mix and whiskers stuff that's more expensive at wal mart.
Actually, it could definitely be worse.....many store brand dry foods do not have a meat ingredient at all until the 6th-7th ingredient, and even then it's usually "meat and bone meal" so basically there's no meat at all in the food. Meow Mix at least has chicken by-product meal as the 3rd ingredient....yeah, that's not great but it's better than store brand. Special Kitty is about the same quality as Meow Mix (haha, I once spent an hour in the pet aisle at Wal-Mart reading all the labels. The clerks must have thought I was crazy).

But like I said, I prefer Purina Cat Chow when it comes to the cheaper foods. My ferals are fat and healthy on it, and it's "all life stages" so even if one is pregnant or has kittens it's still fine. And the first ingredient is "poultry by-product meal"----I don't like to feed by-products in a dry food, but at least the first ingredient is somewhat meat based. Sometimes a higher-priced food just isn't an option, but not all the cheaper foods are equal. Read the ingredients and make your decisions accordingly.

ETA: I did read on online review that spoke favorably of the Aldi store brand. Of course one person's opinion isn't much use, but it's possible that Aldi's store brand is better than other store brands. OP, can you post the ingredients?
 

3catsn1dog

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Aldis litter isnt horrible. But their food isnt something I would feed my enemies. Its horrible. I am on a limited budget also but have found that if I keep them on a better food not only am I cutting back on what I spend on litter Im also cutting back on how much food I by. They dont seem to eat as much of the good food as they did on the junk food. Instead of filling both food dishes twice a day Im only have to top them off once a day and even then I really dont have to top off their food. There would still be enough in there for them to make it thru the day.
 

kit e cat

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I would never feed Aldi food to my cats, but to the person who was knocking the people food you can buy there, Aldi food is the EXACT same thing as brand name, just in a different packaging. I shop at Aldi all the time, and as a former food snob who wouldn't buy generic, I can tell you that everything there is exactly the same as the brand names you can buy in a regular grocery store. You might want to try it, you'll save a heck of a lot of money that way.
 

ut0pia

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Originally Posted by Kit E Cat

I would never feed Aldi food to my cats, but to the person who was knocking the people food you can buy there, Aldi food is the EXACT same thing as brand name, just in a different packaging. I shop at Aldi all the time, and as a former food snob who wouldn't buy generic, I can tell you that everything there is exactly the same as the brand names you can buy in a regular grocery store. You might want to try it, you'll save a heck of a lot of money that way.
this is what I was thinking too...
Aldi has good human food, of course there is junk also but there are some really cheap fruits and veggies, frozen fruit and other things for those who drink milk there is even milk there that's much cheaper than most other grocery stores.
Of course the junk food Aldi has is no different than the junk food at other supermarkets, and I never buy any of their cheeses and meats since I don't typically the stuff from anywhere anyway.
They also have some yummy German chocolates and a variety of chocolates that are a bit more unique than the typical brands you find at other supermarkets.
 

kit e cat

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I buy milk there all the time, and their italian bread is so soft and moist, I think its better than at the regular grocery store. I buy all kinds of canned goods, soups, chicken stock, boxed side dishes (scalloped potatoes, Hamburger Helper type things). I did buy a pork loin there last time and it was delicious. There cheese is also good. I bought a package of havarti cheese, which is my favorite, but cheese is so expensive, and it was great, and so much cheaper. I always made fun of my boyfriend because when he was in college and living alone, before we met, he shopped at Aldi. He told me not to knock it til I tried it. Well, the day I went to Aldo, FILLED up my cart, and only spend $53, I was hooked. They also have these sea salt pita chips that I can't find anywhere else that are awesome!
 

3catsn1dog

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Just dont buy Aldis coffee...ITS HORRIBLE! I shop at Aldis for people food all the time and get most of my dry goods from there. I just wont buy hamburger from there (I got sick once after eating hamburger from Aldis and it freaked me out since then)....
 

tetee bianchi

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Oh, you should try it now.....I used not to like it, but now I think their stuff is way better than any other. Don't know about cat food, but my sweetie is munching on a premium can of wet food right now and looks blissful.
 

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I fed some stray cats for a year or two on Aldi's food at an apartment complex.  Since they had to stay outside there was no litter box of course.  I moved to a house and adopted the cats, continuing to feed them Aldi's food.  They had Purina brand wet food nearly daily both at the apartment complex and definitely after the move.  I did have them fixed to reduce population.  Within a month of the move, one of them had a horrible urinary blockage.  He nearly died and had to spend three days at the vet's for a cost of $635.00 and then a checkup for another $30 (probably unnecessary) so all told it was $665.00.  The vet advised to change the food.  He wasn't wetting enough in the box shortly after being saved and the vet kept thinking he would need to have an operation.

After switching to better food for a couple of months, he was just like the other cats in terms of the box.  He is active, happy, healthy, etc. 

Doing research on the ingredients of cat food and then going back and looking at Aldi's Fine Feline food, I'm not even going to donate it to cat rescues.  I'm actually going to throw it away.  The first ingredient I saw (as in the ingredient with the biggest amount) is "poultry by product meal".   In fact, some of the ferals around here sniff it but won't eat it.  They will eat better food, though.

What I do is go to Petsmart or Petco and get the better food that is close to its expiration date.  My cats will eat it up before it expires.  Within two months of the date, Petsmart marks it for 20% off.  If it's within one month, at least my Petsmart will reduce by 50% to ensure it is sold.  At one point, combined with a sale over a holiday weekend, I was able to get Nutro cat food for $0.99 per pound because it was expiring in a month.  It was an 11 pound bag and without sales or short dates, I think it's over $30 per bag. 

On Amazon, you can "subscribe" to regular deliveries (every one month, every two months or every three months) of Hill's Science Diet for between 5% and 15% off.  But, do go to a store that sells Science Diet wet and dry food and look at the ingredients.  Some of those have by-products and gluten as well.  I think the cans with chunks don't have them as much as the minced/pate varieties.

Good luck.
 
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