My adult siamese cross, Hex, has been on Blue Buffalo Wilderness(grain free) for years and has done great on it...beautiful coat, no health issues, etc. I would measure out her food daily (1/2 cup) and sometimes she wouldn't even finish that in 24 hrs. She is a very active, playful girl.
Recently, we adopted a male orange tabby kitten (11 weeks old). The shelter sent him home with a bag of Science Diet kitten, which we promptly changed to BB Wilderness Kitten(grain free). He loves it and has already started filling out more and his coat is improving gradually.
We keep Hex's food on top of the dryer and although the kitten cannot yet jump up there to eat her food, Hex is now eating his food as well and has already been showing weight gain. I give them wet food only once a week and they LOVE IT, but currently it's just a treat. I researched ideas online and basically determined that the best way for them to get the preferred amount of food daily is to switch to wet food, which I understand CAN be healthier for them anyhow. They eat up wet food so quickly, that I know I can feed them a couple times a day and supervise them until they finish. With dry food, they only graze and although they like it, they don't gobble it up like the wet food, so it would be difficult for me to do a ton of feedings every day with each feeding only consisting of a few bites (I have an 11 week old son and am busy enough as it is).
So, although i'm all for switching to wet food, with my husband being the only one working, we just CANNOT afford a grain free wet food for them. We are currently spending approx. $20 a month for both cats to eat grain free dry food and I calculated that even the least expensive grain free wet food would run us at LEAST double that...if not around $60 per month! I just can't justify that when my baby boy already goes through $200 of prescription formula per month(health issues).
I have read articles claiming that even "average" wet food that may contain grains is STILL better than premium grain free dry food. Is that true? Basically, the articles I read said this because cats on a dry food diet don't get enough hydration but both cats go through a cereal sized bowl of water every 24 hours...which seems like plenty of water to me. The only wet food that would cost us about the same as the BB would be friskies or comparable. I have a hard time believing that friskies or 9 lives would be nutritionally equal to dry grain free foods. After all my research, it seems you can save money on wet foods if you can find 13 oz cans. Felidae, which I found to be the least expensive grain free canned food would still average $1 per day for each cat.
Basically, what I am asking is for recommendations. Should I really be concerned with feeding a grain free canned food? Are there really any good quality canned foods that would cost less than $1 per day/per cat? Should I just let my cat get chunky? The two cats are finally starting to play more and she is getting more exercise the last week or so, so should I just wait and see if the weight comes back off? I would guess she has gained about 2 lbs in the last month or so!
Thanks for reading!
Recently, we adopted a male orange tabby kitten (11 weeks old). The shelter sent him home with a bag of Science Diet kitten, which we promptly changed to BB Wilderness Kitten(grain free). He loves it and has already started filling out more and his coat is improving gradually.
We keep Hex's food on top of the dryer and although the kitten cannot yet jump up there to eat her food, Hex is now eating his food as well and has already been showing weight gain. I give them wet food only once a week and they LOVE IT, but currently it's just a treat. I researched ideas online and basically determined that the best way for them to get the preferred amount of food daily is to switch to wet food, which I understand CAN be healthier for them anyhow. They eat up wet food so quickly, that I know I can feed them a couple times a day and supervise them until they finish. With dry food, they only graze and although they like it, they don't gobble it up like the wet food, so it would be difficult for me to do a ton of feedings every day with each feeding only consisting of a few bites (I have an 11 week old son and am busy enough as it is).
So, although i'm all for switching to wet food, with my husband being the only one working, we just CANNOT afford a grain free wet food for them. We are currently spending approx. $20 a month for both cats to eat grain free dry food and I calculated that even the least expensive grain free wet food would run us at LEAST double that...if not around $60 per month! I just can't justify that when my baby boy already goes through $200 of prescription formula per month(health issues).
I have read articles claiming that even "average" wet food that may contain grains is STILL better than premium grain free dry food. Is that true? Basically, the articles I read said this because cats on a dry food diet don't get enough hydration but both cats go through a cereal sized bowl of water every 24 hours...which seems like plenty of water to me. The only wet food that would cost us about the same as the BB would be friskies or comparable. I have a hard time believing that friskies or 9 lives would be nutritionally equal to dry grain free foods. After all my research, it seems you can save money on wet foods if you can find 13 oz cans. Felidae, which I found to be the least expensive grain free canned food would still average $1 per day for each cat.
Basically, what I am asking is for recommendations. Should I really be concerned with feeding a grain free canned food? Are there really any good quality canned foods that would cost less than $1 per day/per cat? Should I just let my cat get chunky? The two cats are finally starting to play more and she is getting more exercise the last week or so, so should I just wait and see if the weight comes back off? I would guess she has gained about 2 lbs in the last month or so!
Thanks for reading!