Cheaper to make homemade cat food for strays?

[tigger13]

Hello everyone, hope you and your fur families are doing well!
Have a question for the group.
I'm feeding around 8-9 feral/strays at my home. The cost is just getting crazy, not to mention they are picky now, my fault I'm sure from spoiling them. Makes me happy!!
So I waste a lot of wet food, trying to see what they'll eat. I do leave a little extra cause I've seen a few new cats eating what I put out so have to make sure they have something to eat as well. No Belly Left Behind!
They eat some but I toss more than they eat. Give less and they give me those eyes and sad cries. Ugh. They eat a lot of dry which I hate cause its not the best I've read so I do try to give them the best dry food...Arcana, Wysong etc. I've tried everything regarding wet food to see what they like but its getting expensive. I then wondered...Would it be cheaper if I tried to start making homemade cat food? Just the thought of it is overwhelming for all the articles, do's, dont's and my over-anlylictical nature creates nothing but panic about doing it right but I thought it might be cheaper and they might like it better. I've heard its healthier for them but could it be cheaper than buying a ton of wet food? If this would be cheaper, I'd appreciate any trustworthy and confirmed healthy recipies anyone could share or point me to! Also, is cooked better than raw or canned better than both of those if I don't know for sure if any of these kitties have FIV, diabetes or anything like that? They all seem healthy but I don't know their histories. All of them are fixed as well. Thanks everyone, stay well!!

 

[Willowy]

Unless you have a source of extremely inexpensive meat, I don't think you could make it cheaper than canned food in general. Now, if you're throwing away a lot of canned food but they like the homemade food better, yeah, it could end up being cheaper for your individual case.

And make sure you can find a reliable source of meat. It's frustrating when you can't find as much as you need.

I'll leave the recipes to others, but, because I have a lot of cats and have looked into costs and sourcing myself, I just wanted to weigh in on those.

 

[tigger13]

So to find out I would probably have to try it and chart the costs and stuff to really see the expense. Well thank you very much for your opinion! Much appreciated!

 

[Azazel]

I do think it could be cheaper than canned food depending on what canned food you're feeding. I feed three cats organic locally sourced homemade raw (I'm buying high quality chicken and turkey thighs and breasts - the organs are cheap) and spend about $50 per cat a month. If I was doing decent quality canned per month it would about the same or more.

Homemade food is expensive up front because you need lots of supplies, but over the long run it is not too bad.

 

[Tobermory]

Hello everyone, hope you and your fur families are doing well!
Have a question for the group.
I'm feeding around 8-9 feral/strays at my home. The cost is just getting crazy, not to mention they are picky now, my fault I'm sure from spoiling them. Makes me happy!!
So I waste a lot of wet food, trying to see what they'll eat. I do leave a little extra cause I've seen a few new cats eating what I put out so have to make sure they have something to eat as well. No Belly Left Behind!
They eat some but I toss more than they eat. Give less and they give me those eyes and sad cries. Ugh. They eat a lot of dry which I hate cause its not the best I've read so I do try to give them the best dry food...Arcana, Wysong etc. I've tried everything regarding wet food to see what they like but its getting expensive. I then wondered...Would it be cheaper if I tried to start making homemade cat food? Just the thought of it is overwhelming for all the articles, do's, dont's and my over-anlylictical nature creates nothing but panic about doing it right but I thought it might be cheaper and they might like it better. I've heard its healthier for them but could it be cheaper than buying a ton of wet food? If this would be cheaper, I'd appreciate any trustworthy and confirmed healthy recipies anyone could share or point me to! Also, is cooked better than raw or canned better than both of those if I don't know for sure if any of these kitties have FIV, diabetes or anything like that? They all seem healthy but I don't know their histories. All of them are fixed as well. Thanks everyone, stay well!!

Using individual supplements, boneless chicken thighs at $2.49 a pound, and chicken liver at about the same price, my cost is roughly 18 cents per ounce. That’s following the recipe at catinfo.org and buying the individual supplements. Of course you have the upfront cost of the supplements, but they do last a long time. Also, you need to grind the meat. My cats eat about 4.75 to 5 ounces each daily.

Making Cat Food

 

[minish]

If boiled chicken costs less (it does in Turkey where I live) you can mix it with bread boiled potatoes rice etc. And legumes. Also leftovers preferably no onions garlic tomatoes or salt in them. They will pick the parts good for them unless they are starving. Not ideal of course but stray cats here become morbidly obese on cheap kibble

 

[minish]

Yogurt without sugar (like Greek yogurt) mayonaisse. Eggs (whites and yolk separated) are also ok

 

[Azazel]

If boiled chicken costs less (it does in Turkey where I live) you can mix it with bread boiled potatoes rice etc. And legumes. Also leftovers preferably no onions garlic tomatoes or salt in them. They will pick the parts good for them unless they are starving. Not ideal of course but stray cats here become morbidly obese on cheap kibble

This is not a nutritionally complete meal and cats are obligate carnivores, they have no need for legumes, bread, potatoes and rice and cannot properly digest these things.

 

[minish]

Azazel is totally right I suggested these in case there isn't enough food for all each meal (last resort)