Budget Friendly Grain-free Natural Cat Food?

wahine01

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Hi all :)

I've been feeding my 7 month old kitten grain-free wet and dry food for a couple of months now. I was feeding him Advance and Hills Science brand food but his digestion was a mess so I switched to grain-free food after hearing it was easier to digest. Since then his digestion has been much better, although he gets hiccups sometimes.

I was feeding him Wellness brand grain-free wet and dry food for a while but at $3.29 for a 156g can I felt like it was getting a bit pricey. I switched to Ziwipeak, I found a deal for $46 for 12x 185g beef flavour cans and a I purchased a bag of Blackhawk grain-free chicken flavour. I'm feeding him 1/3 of a can twice daily and leaving around a 1/3 cup of dry food during the day and overnight. He eats all this but I'm not sure if I'm feeding him enough or too much?

Also, I'm wondering if there's a most cost effective way to feed him grain-free food? Is Ziwipeak all that great or is there a cheaper food out there that's just as good? I've calculated that if I continue with the Ziwipeak + Blackhawk it will cost me around $50-$60 a week to feed him. Does this sound pricey?

I'm not very clued up on this stuff unfortunately. My last cat was just fed cheapo supermarket food as I was a broke student at the time!
 

thegreystalker

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There are plenty of choices in the moderately priced market of grain-free foods. Keep in mind that "grain-free" does not mean "carbohydrate-free." Many recipes will lack corn, wheat and soy, only to have other content such as potato, sweet potato, cassava root, tapioca, pea etc. My cat enjoys grain-free recipes from Purina Beyond, Purina Pro Plan True Nature, Iams Premium Pate, Whole Earth Farms, and Natural Value.
 

_spadekitty

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I think the fancy feast pate styles are actually grain-free. Your cat would probably need 2-3 cans per day tho which can get pricey but not $50-$60 a week pricey for sure.

You might be able to switch back to wellness by buying the bigger 12.5 oz cans and feeding him half a can a day, stretching a case of 12 (about $30-40 online at places like chewey, jet, etc) to 24 days, thats what I do. I buy trader joes 5.5 oz cans (79 cents) and fancy feast small 3 oz cans (57 cents) as well to supplement that, along with some high quality brands if they're on sale (merrick, tiki cat, etc)

Then I feed Acana dry food as snacks/occaisonally for lunch, its about $22 a bag where I am.
 
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IndyJones

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Where do you think?
I think fancy feast may have corn syrup in it though. It also has "added color" I'm iffy about that (chemicals/food coloring).
 

Kieka

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I've been doing the Only Natural Pet store brand. It is a little cheaper than some alternatives. The wet food averages 9% protein, 78% moisture and 7% carb is 1.99 for a 5.5 oz can. The dry food averages 45% protein, 10% moisture and 20% carb is $29.99 for a 10 lb bag. I can only do chicken free brands so my idea of lower price on the scale is slightly higher. Chicken is the cheapest protein so it makes sense.

Obviously the wet is better but in terms of dry foods in general their carbs are fairly low. Under 10% is ideal for cats.
 

destinyz12

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Since I see that you're in Australia, your pricing and brands may be a bit different than in the U.S., but here, the Fancy Feast Classics and Sheba are both grain-free, carrageenan-free, and have a specific meat as the #1 ingredient without any unnecessary fruit/veggie fillers so I would consider those the best of the "low budget" foods. There are also plenty of mid-range priced grain-free foods that are better quality and cheaper than Wellness in my opinion, such as Nutro Natural Choice (both wet and dry), Chicken Soup for the Soul (wet in the Stew variety), and normally I'd recommend Weruva's Cats in the Kitchen line but There was just a massive recall on one of their other lines in Australia so I'd avoid that brand for now.
 

_spadekitty

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I think fancy feast may have corn syrup in it though. It also has "added color" I'm iffy about that (chemicals/food coloring).
Yeah, I only feed it to him as a treat and usually only half a can at a time mixed with the wellness so the food coloring and such isn't a deal breaker for me. I def wouldnt want it to be his main source of nutrition tho
 
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wahine01

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Thanks for all your replies :-)

I just checked the Fancy Feast website and the ingredients listed on their classics range are: Meat and their by-products (pork and chicken), cereals and cereals by-products, vitamins and minerals, flavours, colours, taurine. Doesn't sound grain free to me? Many of the other brands mentioned don't seem to be available in Australia :-(

I've found a couple of brands that might we worth a shot, one called Artemis and the other is Hollistic Select. Does anyone have experience with these brands?

For Artemis I can buy 24x 85g cans for $37-$43 dollars, which I assume would last around 24 days (1 can a day with dry food between feedings). I can get 24x 156g cans of Hollistic Select for $60 which I guess would last around 36 days (feeding roughly 1/3 of a can twice a day with dry food between feedings). Do these sound like good deals?
 
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