Can anyone tell me whether it is usually cheaper or more expensive to feed a raw or home cooked diet as compared to feeding canned food? I'm actually more interested in a home cooked diet right now, but I can't find any decent recipes so that I can at least determine how much it will cost. Most of the recipes I've found are questionable. They don't give any information on how much to feed, and whether supplements need to be added.
-
Too many ads? Join our community of cat lovers now to reduce ads by 90%! Click here to join for free!
Home Cooked or Canned Food Cheaper?
- Thread starter mej_1
- Start Date
We have a few threads going on with different cooked food recipes.And the home-cooked resource thread has some good links too. Check 'em out!
http://www.thecatsite.com/t/264153/home-cooked-cat-food-resources
http://www.thecatsite.com/t/263751/cooked-recipes-thread
As for cost, it depends on the meat prices in your area and what kind of canned food you're talking about. Is homecooking cheaper than, say, 9 Lives? Probably not, unless you know where to get meat really cheap. Is it cheaper than Nature's Variety? Probably, unless you're looking for really exotic meats or buy all the best cuts :lol3:.
I kind of figure on an average cat eating about 4 ounces of homecooked food a day (being that cooked food is more energy-dense than raw and cooked food is boneless), although of course you'd have to adjust for your individual cat's needs. So if you paid $3 a pound for the meat and the supplements added $1 a pound, that would be a dollar a day. Rough estimate.
http://www.thecatsite.com/t/264153/home-cooked-cat-food-resources
http://www.thecatsite.com/t/263751/cooked-recipes-thread
As for cost, it depends on the meat prices in your area and what kind of canned food you're talking about. Is homecooking cheaper than, say, 9 Lives? Probably not, unless you know where to get meat really cheap. Is it cheaper than Nature's Variety? Probably, unless you're looking for really exotic meats or buy all the best cuts :lol3:.
I kind of figure on an average cat eating about 4 ounces of homecooked food a day (being that cooked food is more energy-dense than raw and cooked food is boneless), although of course you'd have to adjust for your individual cat's needs. So if you paid $3 a pound for the meat and the supplements added $1 a pound, that would be a dollar a day. Rough estimate.
Last edited:
Have you seen this resource stickied thread? http://www.thecatsite.com/t/264154/raw-feeding-resources It has everything and more that you could want on raw feeding.
How much raw feeding will cost will depend on a few factors, but yes, feeding home-prepared raw or cooked can be cheaper than high quality canned.
How much raw feeding will cost will depend on a few factors, but yes, feeding home-prepared raw or cooked can be cheaper than high quality canned.
It is cheaper for me to feed raw than cheap canned. Chicken thighs are normally $1.99/lb here, but I wait until they are on sale and get them buy-one-get-one or $0.99/lb. Recently I've been able to get chuck roasts BOGO and pork on sell-by that's good quality. That helps to reduce meat costs. Supplements I buy at www.iherb.com.
There's lots of info in the stickies as mentioned by vball and Willowy.
There's lots of info in the stickies as mentioned by vball and Willowy.
Have you seen this thread:
Cooked Recipes Thread
I include a nutritional analysis with a comparison against AAFCO recommendations with each recipe to help with the "questionable" issue.
Any general guidelines on how much to feed are pretty useless because it varies too much from cat to cat. My more recent analyses include calories information though to help with that. You should expect to feed about as much of your homemade food as you would of a canned food with similar calorie density.
Cooked Recipes Thread
I include a nutritional analysis with a comparison against AAFCO recommendations with each recipe to help with the "questionable" issue.
Any general guidelines on how much to feed are pretty useless because it varies too much from cat to cat. My more recent analyses include calories information though to help with that. You should expect to feed about as much of your homemade food as you would of a canned food with similar calorie density.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2012
- Messages
- 39
- Purraise
- 11
If you want to understand what and why to put in for raw food, the quintessential source is catinfo.org. Dr. Pierson has done extensive research and put in exact amounts and everything for her recipe and discussion on cats. It'll take you at least an hour to go through all of the info on her website. It's very indepth. I've also recently discovered Catnutrition.org that has quite a bit of useful info.
As far as price goes - I find that with the correct sourcing and amount made (it's easier to raw feed two cats than one money wise for me), it costs me about the same as paying for Fancy Feast. But all canned food is bloody expensive in the middle of nowhere, Australia.
As far as price goes - I find that with the correct sourcing and amount made (it's easier to raw feed two cats than one money wise for me), it costs me about the same as paying for Fancy Feast. But all canned food is bloody expensive in the middle of nowhere, Australia.
Yes, links to those sites (and more!) are included in our resources threads:
http://www.thecatsite.com/t/263955/helpful-resources-raw-home-cooked-cat-food-forum
http://www.thecatsite.com/t/264154/raw-feeding-resources
http://www.thecatsite.com/t/264153/home-cooked-cat-food-resources
As you say, Dr. Pierson of CatInfo does a good job of discussing the "why" of the ingredients in her section on Making Cat Food: http://www.catinfo.org/?link=makingcatfood
But the members of TCS, with the painstaking help of mschauer and the program she's written that analyzes diets based on data provided by the USDA database, have created nutritionally complete recipes for home cooked foods. The recipes AND their analyses are provided in the link provided by mschauer above.
We have also created balanced raw recipes using freeze dried liver instead of fresh liver and using bone alternatives for those that want to feed prey model raw without feeding whole bones.
I feed 8 cats raw, and it costs me less to provide homemade food than the canned foods I was feeding (EVO, Wellness, Ziwipeak, Nature's Variety) - and this diet is much higher quality.
http://www.thecatsite.com/t/263955/helpful-resources-raw-home-cooked-cat-food-forum
http://www.thecatsite.com/t/264154/raw-feeding-resources
http://www.thecatsite.com/t/264153/home-cooked-cat-food-resources
As you say, Dr. Pierson of CatInfo does a good job of discussing the "why" of the ingredients in her section on Making Cat Food: http://www.catinfo.org/?link=makingcatfood
But the members of TCS, with the painstaking help of mschauer and the program she's written that analyzes diets based on data provided by the USDA database, have created nutritionally complete recipes for home cooked foods. The recipes AND their analyses are provided in the link provided by mschauer above.
We have also created balanced raw recipes using freeze dried liver instead of fresh liver and using bone alternatives for those that want to feed prey model raw without feeding whole bones.
I feed 8 cats raw, and it costs me less to provide homemade food than the canned foods I was feeding (EVO, Wellness, Ziwipeak, Nature's Variety) - and this diet is much higher quality.
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2012
- Messages
- 39
- Purraise
- 11
Yes, I didn't mean to discredit the fine work of the amazing people here, LDG. There's a LOT of great info here.
We all refer people to CatInfo ALL the time. And CatNutrition is a great site. 
Neither is appropriate for home cooked foods though. I personally see no reason to add the cooking step, but if someone wants to go that route, the recipes are here and available. 
I am trying to feed frankenprey and I plan on buying Foster Farms chicken stuff from Safeway. I calculated without the secreting organs (5% of the diet) it will cost me about $22 to make 10lbs (Wings, thighs, heart, gizzard and liver). That is about 13 cents an ounce? Feeding Fancy Feast (classic pate) is about 20 cents per ounce. So it would be much cheaper for me to feed frankenprey than feeding a low-mid canned food. Hope this helps!
Meat prices, along with other agricultural commodities, fluctuate all the time depending on weather, trends, etc. There are regional differences as well. One thing is for sure: chicken is the cheapest. Once outside that...prices climb like crazy.
If you are in the northeast of the US...look into Hare Today, located in PA. Best prices out there for rabbit, but best if you live in the region, due to the fact its pricey to ship frozen goods a great distance.
And don't forget to look for feeder mice...in our area, they are too expensive but you never know. You might have a big community of snake lovers in your area that may help.
If you are in the northeast of the US...look into Hare Today, located in PA. Best prices out there for rabbit, but best if you live in the region, due to the fact its pricey to ship frozen goods a great distance.
And don't forget to look for feeder mice...in our area, they are too expensive but you never know. You might have a big community of snake lovers in your area that may help.
Last edited:
I feed home-made - started due to health issues with one of my cats and I would never go back. I get hormone and antibiotic free chicken thighs at Sprouts for under $2/lb. I figure it's 35% to 40% less expensive than a good premium canned food, even when I amortize in the cost of the grinder. I use Lisa Pierson's website and recipe as my guide http://www.catinfo.org/?link=makingcatfood. Btw - one of my girls has so many health issues that my vet was dead-set against raw, so I go with semi-cooked. My healthy girl dropped a couple of unwanted pounds as soon as she switched over, and I have never seen them looking and acting better.
