HELP Any multi cat households out there... appx how much canned food do you buy a month????

[Deex2]

Hello, here is a little background. I have 3 cats, 2 are only a little of 2 years old love wet food and I give it to them morning and night and occasionally during the day. My other cat is appx 11 year old has to be in the mood for wet/canned food so unfortunately I still give him dry (but mix in freeze dried raw single ingredient food too), and attempt to give him wet.

All 3 cats are about 11 - 12 lbs.

I know you are suppose to give them a certain number of calories a day per weight, what I'm trying to figure out is approximately how many cans I should be buying. When my "twins" were younger they obviously didn't eat as much food and at the time in between canned food I had dry food out "free feeding" which I have done with any cat I've ever had for the last 40 years. But I'm really trying to get away from dry food, as it really is not good for them at all.

I have been mostly buying my cat food on Amazon on subscribe and save which has been working out, except now I'm finding I'm blowing through the food sooner then anticipated that's in addition to the random cans I'll buy when I'm at the Pet store or market.

So basically what I'd like to know, from any of you, is have you mastered how many cans to buy, per month, what quantity would you recommend as its cheaper to buy in bulk, correct? Also I haven't been buy the crappy food with fish, and gums, fillers and gums, pea protein.... (only occasionally a single can here and there locally), so I'm also trying to balance the the budget too and give them good food. I've thought about that RAW diet, but I just don't have the freezer space.

 

[stephanietx]

I have 3 cats. One is on Rx food and goes through about a flat of 24 cans a month. My other cats eat a mix of 3 different foods and I go through about a flat (12 cans) of each flavor a month, so 36 cans. They eat wet food twice a day.

 

[Deex2]

I have 3 cats. One is on Rx food and goes through about a flat of 24 cans a month. My other cats eat a mix of 3 different foods and I go through about a flat (12 cans) of each flavor a month, so 36 cans. They eat wet food twice a day.

Thank you for responding.

So you only buy 12 cans for your "special diet" cat and only 36 cans total for the other 2? are then 5oz or 3oz cans??

Also, RX food??? if its Hills, you know that RX is just marketing, right.

 

[maggie101]

My 9 pd cat eats almost 150 cals a day,my 8 pd cat eats less,and my 7 pound cat eats only 115 cal. If I were to follow what's required she would throw up from eating too much so don't follow the guide lines. They are senior. I don't think their appetite was different at that age though too long ago to remember.

 

[Binxie]

I go through way too much food, I feed a feral and my own 2, I do not feed dry food and I sometimes go through 6 cans a day. The feral eats so much, I'll give him 1 3 oz can and he devours it and sits and waits until I give him another and he shows up twice a day.

 

[DeesCats]

I have 2 indoor cats, both are estimated to be around 2 or 3 years old. One is 11.8 lbs and the smaller one around 9 lbs. I solely feed wet canned food, no dry food. I use autoship from Chewy to get my canned food.

They each get one 5.5oz can of food per day, with an average of 187 Kcal to 206 Kcal per day, depending on the variety/meat source in the can. I tend to split up their meals into 5 to 6 per day which works well for me since I'm home all day.

One outdoor feral/stray gets 1/2 a 5.5oz can daily as well as all the dry he wants.

Have your cats been to the vet recently and any recommendations on how much they should be eating calorie wise or based on their health? I would start there for general recommendations and may fine tune based on your cats particular needs calorie wise.

My vet recommended the 11.8 lb cat needed to lose some weight based on his size and activity level so I count his daily calories and so far it's working out well.

 

[arr]

I have three cats, 17, 14, and 13 pounds. I go through 120 (3 ounce) cans and 30 (5.5 ounce) cans a month. They eat wet food morning and evening and dry food for lunch. I buy their food mostly from Walmart, Chewy, and Aldi.

I don’t count calories. At each meal they eat as much as they want until they walk away from their bowl. No food is left out between meals.

 

[Deex2]

My 9 pd cat eats almost 150 cals a day,my 8 pd cat eats less,and my 7 pound cat eats only 115 cal. If I were to follow what's required she would throw up from eating too much so don't follow the guide lines. They are senior. I don't think their appetite was different at that age though too long ago to remember.

So to answer my question above, approximately how many cans of wet food do you buy a month?

 

[Deex2]

I have 2 indoor cats, both are estimated to be around 2 or 3 years old. One is 11.8 lbs and the smaller one around 9 lbs. I solely feed wet canned food, no dry food. I use autoship from Chewy to get my canned food.

They each get one 5.5oz can of food per day, with an average of 187 Kcal to 206 Kcal per day, depending on the variety/meat source in the can. I tend to split up their meals into 5 to 6 per day which works well for me since I'm home all day.

One outdoor feral/stray gets 1/2 a 5.5oz can daily as well as all the dry he wants.

Have your cats been to the vet recently and any recommendations on how much they should be eating calorie wise or based on their health? I would start there for general recommendations and may fine tune based on your cats particular needs calorie wise.

My vet recommended the 11.8 lb cat needed to lose some weight based on his size and activity level so I count his daily calories and so far it's working out well.

So to answer my question above, approximately how many cans of wet food do you buy a month?

 

[Deex2]

I go through way too much food, I feed a feral and my own 2, I do not feed dry food and I sometimes go through 6 cans a day. The feral eats so much, I'll give him 1 3 oz can and he devours it and sits and waits until I give him another and he shows up twice a day.

So to answer my question above, approximately how many cans of wet food do you buy a month? What size are the "6 cans" you feed your 2 cats a day, I assume 3oz +/-?

 

[Binxie]

I would say about 150- 170 cans a month. Not all are 3 oz, the feral I feed will easily eat 1 large can and then wait around for an hour or 2 for more, so he then will get another 3 oz.

 

[DeesCats]

So to answer my question above, approximately how many cans of wet food do you buy a month?

I use approximately 75 cans monthly and they are the 5.5oz cans.

 

[maggie101]

So to answer my question above, approximately how many cans of wet food do you buy a month?

36 5.5 oz +72 3oz +72 3 oz = 180 cans more or less
Wow! I have never wanted to figure that out before.

 

[Mac and Cats]

This is the question I never wanted to ask myself or to know the answer to! But I'm going to do this anyway. I will break this down by cat for my own thought process:

• The baby (a year, 12-ish pounds) only eats one-ish 3oz can a day (he also eats dry food as I can't get him to eat enough calories of canned food), so we will say 30 cans per month for him.
• The middle child (14 years old - 12-ish pounds, should be 9) - 3 cases of 24 - 3oz cans per month. She eats 2-2.5 cans per day--she's over weight, petite, not very active, has hyperthyroid (medicated), arthritis (also medicated) and CKD = 72-ish cans. She does not eat dry food.
• The oldest (15 years old, 12.24 pounds, which is up from 9.5!!) - He eats a variety of foods. He's picky and has possible IBD/small cell lymphoma, is on daily steroids, also has hyperthyroid (medicated) and CKD. Depending on what food he is deciding he is willing to eat that day, he eats anywhere from 2-4 cans. He does not eat dry food. The food varies drastically and I have about 55,000 different foods on hand for him. So, let's meet in the middle and call it 3 cans per day. = 90 cans

Total would be approximately 192 per month. That would be in a perfect world if I am not forced to throw out any of the cans due to Sir Picky Man that won't finish what I put in front of him. However, I try to stock up on foods I know they will eat when I can find them on sale. I am totally stocked up on food at the moment for all the cats and for September (and maybe October) my goal is to not buy a single can!!

PS. There are some questions you may want to ask yourself to figure out how many cans you should buy:
1. How many calories per day should each cat be eating? You may need to ask your vet to help you figure this out.
2. How many cans/calories per day are they willing to eat in wet food? If they're also eating dry food, you'll need to figure out how many calories you are giving them in dry food and then figure out how many calories they can have in wet food.

Once you figure those two things out, you can do the math and figure out how many per month you should be buying.

Some things to keep in mind: you're going to get a VAST array of what type of food people think is right or wrong to feed your cats on the internet. The important things to ask your self is:
1. Will my cats eat the food I am buying them/do they like it?
2. Can I fit this food into my budget?
Sometimes your cats will dictate what you end up buying and it's ok if it isn't deemed 100% perfect in the eyes of everyone else on the internet. I tried to feed our oldest "better" food for 2 years and he fought me every step of the way. So, I finally said, "Ok, you want Fancy Feast? You shall have it then, Your Majesty." It's not worth it to lose my mind and money over trying to get him to eat what strangers on the internet deem as "better" food. It was a long hard lesson for me to learn, but I finally admitted that to myself and I am at peace with my realization.

 

[Mighty Orange]

60 cans of friskies total cost of $53.00 a month. Feeding one cat other one eats dry most of the time. Previous cats survived for 17 to18 years old on friskies.

 

[maggie101]

No way am I going to figure out the costs!

 

[theyremine]

195 cans of Fancy Feast a month for 5 cats. I also feed Instinct dry three 5 lb bags every 2 months. I don't like to add up the cost.

 

[FrazzledMumbly]

30pk Fancy Feast + 24pk Tiny Tiger = 54 cans per three weeks on autoship. Max eats 3 cans a day, one of my four housemates splits one can into two meals alongside dry food for their tiny lady. Other housemates buy cat food separately because of special protein needs, so I'm not sure exactly how often they stock up. Seems like I always see a couple 30pk boxes of Tiki Cat seafood around.

I also stocked up extra a while back during sales, so I'm always a little ahead of the curve by a random amount. If I ever get low for whatever reason I'll add an extra pack of one or the other. It's not the absolute best of the best food quality but my Max is happy, his fur soft and glossy, and no issues in the litterbox. He used to be a picky eater but these days he just wants a different flavor each meal and we're all set.

 

[Gunther4ever]

I go through way too much food, I feed a feral and my own 2, I do not feed dry food and I sometimes go through 6 cans a day. The feral eats so much, I'll give him 1 3 oz can and he devours it and sits and waits until I give him another and he shows up twice a day.

You are so nice to that feral I hope it returns the kindess by keeping mice and icky bugs away from your home - super kind of you to take care of that kitty.

 

[Binxie]

You are so nice to that feral I hope it returns the kindess by keeping mice and icky bugs away from your home - super kind of you to take care of that kitty.

Unfortunately this guy does not stick around, he comes to eat and then leaves, I refer to him as my little vampire cat, he is not out during the day, he has someplace he goes and he will be back just after sunset and again just before sunrise.