How Can I Make Wet Food Affordable?

[arouetta]

So now that Shadow's gone and I'm only feeding two cats, I thought about switching to wet food. Did the research on calorie needs for both the boys, went to the store, picked up a can of Fancy Feast and found the number of calories per can on the label, and started punching numbers on my calculator. So, that comes to.......$35-40 a week. Whoof. My entire grocery/household/hygiene maximum budget for three people and two cats per week is $140 a week.

So how do you all manage to make wet food affordable?

 

[Willowy]

Friskies. It's less than half the price of FF and isn't much lower quality. My cats do great on an all-canned Friskies diet. Only old and sick kitties get FF around here . Stick with Mixed Grill, Turkey and Giblets, and Poultry Platter. If you get the 13-oz can it will be even cheaper.

 

[mysticmama]

You can add some cooked rice in with the wet food to stretch it. Plus it helps for their poop not to smell as bad.

 

[Willowy]

You can add some cooked rice in with the wet food to stretch it. Plus it helps for their poop not to smell as bad.

Friskies is moderately high in carbs and contains rice already. I wouldn't recommend adding more. Adding a bit of plain meat to increase protein wouldn't hurt.

 

[Alejandra Rico]

If It is an option for you, buying Big amount of wet food does really make a difference in price. I buy It online from different pet shops (I check which has the best offer when I need to buy more) and I can save a really good amount of money this way. My adult Cat is eating Felix and the kitten is eating whiskas (not my favourite brand BUT my vet friend told me to get her used to as many brands, textures and flavours as possible as a kitten so that when she grows up she will be a good eater. So far, so good). I think I paid around 60€ for food for 2 months and half or so for both cats.
Smilla's cans were ever cheaper, but the adult cat won't even touch then.

 

[MissMolly08]

I am trying to figure this out right now too...
I only have 1 cat and $35 a month TOPS for both food and litter. Litter is about $10 so $25 a month for food. Very tight for an all wet diet .
I've read that rotation is better so I was trying to find a few different foods within my budget to rotate but there really isn't much in that price range. I can definitely do 100% Friskies and could even possibly make Fancy Feast work with coupons/sales but that's really it. I need foods under .20/oz and there are not many .
Some stores have decent house brands like Tractor Supply's 4health and Petsmart's Authority brands BUT because they are store brand, they are ONLY sold in store, not online. That means if you make a rotation of multiple store brands, you'd be running to 5 different stores for cat food . It's not easy!

 

[arouetta]

I tried a wet food a long time ago, before I adopted the always hungry Midway, and I think it was Friskies. Whatever it was, in about 2 months Montressor's fur had lost its glossiness, and switching back to the dry food brought back the glossiness. That kinda makes me wary about the "junk food" types of cat food.

 

[momof3b1g]

Do you have a Dollar General near by? Their Friskies 13oz cans are only a $1 and the always have discount coupons on your total purchase. I wish good wet cat food was cheaper. I dont understand why dog food is so much cheaper.

 

[Alejandra Rico]

Do you have a Dollar General near by? Their Friskies 13oz cans are only a $1 and the always have discount coupons on your total purchase. I wish good wet cat food was cheaper. I dont understand why dog food is so much cheaper.

Because cats need a higher percentaje of protein and a lower one of cereals. Dogs are omnivores, so they can build the proteins they need from different sources more or less effeciently (meat is both preferable and necessary for dogs, but not as much as it is for cats). Cats, as obligate carnivores, have to obtain their proteins from meat sources, which makes the recipe more expensive. Cat food is not so much about the total amount of calories they eat but about the kind of calories they are eating.

 

[Willowy]

OK, if you don't want to go with Friskies (and, like I said, all of my cats do great on it; when I give them any dry food they all get nasty coats :/. But of course every cat is different), I think this one is in your budget: pro plan true nature cat food 5.5 oz - Free Shipping at Chewy.com

Yes, it is $1.19 a can :/. But the Chicken & Turkey one has 200 calories per can (I haven't checked the other flavors) so each cat should need just one can a day (unless they are particularly large and/or active). So that should be less than $20 a week.

 

[arouetta]

I honestly had not thought of Chewy, as when I priced dry food I was better off going through the local store. But randomly selecting stuff, I can see how to do the math pretty easy. Even just a random jaunt through, I already found a way to drop it to about $25-30 a week, so there's hope of going lower.

 

[MissMolly08]

How many cans a day were you calculating per cat with the FF? I just started re-reading the original post because $40/week sounded like a lot for 2 cats when I was calculating FF to be $30 a MONTH for my 1 cat....
If you were going by the feeding recommendations on the back of the can, that is usually a gross overestimate! Average size adult cats usually need around 5-6oz of canned food a day. That means if your cats are around 10lbs, you would be feeding 2 cans per cat/per day. FF is around 0.59 a can here...
0.59 x 4 cans a day = 2.36 a day x 7 days = only $16.52/week...

 

[Vega's Dad]

I am trying to figure this out right now too...
I only have 1 cat and $35 a month TOPS for both food and litter. Litter is about $10 so $25 a month for food. Very tight for an all wet diet .
I've read that rotation is better so I was trying to find a few different foods within my budget to rotate but there really isn't much in that price range. I can definitely do 100% Friskies and could even possibly make Fancy Feast work with coupons/sales but that's really it. I need foods under .20/oz and there are not many .
Some stores have decent house brands like Tractor Supply's 4health and Petsmart's Authority brands BUT because they are store brand, they are ONLY sold in store, not online. That means if you make a rotation of multiple store brands, you'd be running to 5 different stores for cat food . It's not easy!

I'm surprised that you spend much less on food than me (I'm in Canada is probably the reason. ..) but more on litter than me. I buy No name 18kg pack for 8.99 regular or 6.99 or 5.99 when on sale. It would last 1-2 month. And, Vega is a good peeer (is it a word?).

 

[MissMolly08]

I'm surprised that you spend much less on food than me (I'm in Canada is probably the reason. ..) but more on litter than me. I buy No name 18kg pack for 8.99 regular or 6.99 or 5.99 when on sale. It would last 1-2 month. And, Vega is a good peeer (is it a word?).

I have been trying to find a cheaper litter. There are cheaper ones available but I haven't found one I like. I am using the Tractor Supply litter this month which only cost me $6 but the odor control is not great . $10 is for Arm & Hammer clump & seal which has been my favorite so far.

 

[arouetta]

How many cans a day were you calculating per cat with the FF? I just started re-reading the original post because $40/week sounded like a lot for 2 cats when I was calculating FF to be $30 a MONTH for my 1 cat....
If you were going by the feeding recommendations on the back of the can, that is usually a gross overestimate! Average size adult cats usually need around 5-6oz of canned food a day. That means if your cats are around 10lbs, you would be feeding 2 cans per cat/per day. FF is around 0.59 a can here...
0.59 x 4 cans a day = 2.36 a day x 7 days = only $16.52/week...

Different online calculators gave me a daily calorie need, around 240-250 calories/day for Montressor (who is only 12 pounds and super skinny) and around 275-290 calories/day for Midway (a beefier 15 pounds and fairly active). From there I looked at calories per can (the different flavors averaged 70 calories), divided calories by day by calories per can to figure number of cans, and then multiplied cans by cost to figure out weekly cost.

I have been trying to find a cheaper litter. There are cheaper ones available but I haven't found one I like. I am using the Tractor Supply litter this month which only cost me $6 but the odor control is not great . $10 is for Arm & Hammer clump & seal which has been my favorite so far.

I have actually been incredibly happy with Target's store brand, it's also $6 per 20 pounds and for my poop & pee machines it clumped tons better than the big three (Arm & Hammer, Tidy Cat and Fresh Step).

{And, moping, I never realized how much water and food was passing through Shadow, the pan's daily waste amount is less than half of what it was.}

 

[_spadekitty]

I am trying to figure this out right now too...
I only have 1 cat and $35 a month TOPS for both food and litter. Litter is about $10 so $25 a month for food. Very tight for an all wet diet .
I've read that rotation is better so I was trying to find a few different foods within my budget to rotate but there really isn't much in that price range. I can definitely do 100% Friskies and could even possibly make Fancy Feast work with coupons/sales but that's really it. I need foods under .20/oz and there are not many .
Some stores have decent house brands like Tractor Supply's 4health and Petsmart's Authority brands BUT because they are store brand, they are ONLY sold in store, not online. That means if you make a rotation of multiple store brands, you'd be running to 5 different stores for cat food . It's not easy!

You use a whole thing of a litter in a month for one cat? I buy the fresh step 28-32lb boxes for I think $15-18? And usually Petsmart is having some type of sale or bogo that helps as well. They last my cat 2-3 months. He pee's quite a bit (he eats wet food and is a good drinker) and poops 1-2 times a day. I dump the whole box and refresh it every month. Maybe I should be cleaning out his box more thoroughly lol
I spend $40 a month on wet food and just have to budget in litter/dry (he gets it as snacks) when needed every few months.
He eats some mid/high quality foods like Lotus, Wellness, Canidae, etc as well (because he has poultry sensitivities and cheaper foods all have poultry lol).

 

[_spadekitty]

I only have one cat but spend about the same as you for a month, so no real ideas on how to make it cheaper...other than maybe adding some dry in to help stretch the wet food? I feed a high quality dry mid-day as a snack and then he gets one 5.5 oz can/1/2 of a 12 oz can each day. I try to pick brands/flavors with higher calories to keep him full and sometimes we skip the dry food "snack" as well.

 

[yeva2292]

For litter, have you tried ordering Dr. Elsey's Multicat litter? I can usually get the 40lb bag for $15 and its very good at odor control if you clean the pan every day.
For wet food, have you considered the Natural Balance Wild Pursuit line of cat food? A case of 6oz x 24 (250 calories per can) costs $21.48 on Chewy. That puts you at $6.26 per cat, per week.

Chewy also has Dave's Pet Food. They have 12 oz cans of food (410 calories each - so enough for both cats) - $23.88 for a pack of 12. That's also around $7 per cat, per week.
Slightly more expensive than Natural Balance and Dave's is Whole Earth Farms (Real Duck and Chicken is 166 kcal/5oz, so you might have to split a 1/2 of a third can between both cats each day). Slightly above that in cost is Holistic Select, which does have the advantage of coming in 13oz cans.

I made a list on Sunday of wet food prices per month for 200 calories (for a single cat). Its not all inclusive, but I could share it with you if you like.

 

[FelinskiFamily]

How much does store brand food cost where you live? If you want to feed all wet maybe you should try buying store brand 400gr cans? I think that's 13.5oz. In Europe generic store brands can be found at as little as .40€ per can (that's at Lidl that has best quality and affordable products as far as I'm concerened), or in other stores they can be found for under 1€ for sure. I understand that 1€ (or 1$) per cat a day is more than you want to spend, so try finding 13.5oz cans that cost 50 cents or less.

 

[kittens mom]

Like a lot of cat owners mine get wet food several times a day and have access to a high end kibble. FF is the only wet food they will eat consistently and the plate is usually licked clean. Aside from price, wasted food can become your real budget buster. We feed only pate never gravy. A bag of good quality kibble will set you back in cost but your cats need less to get their requirements so the bag should last a long time.
None of my cats will eat a full can so they share. None of my cats will eat wet food once it's been in the fridge no matter how I warm it. My cats have a fountain and several raised water bowls. I stopped making myself crazy trying to feed this and that because it's supposed to be better and found a formula that works for my cats and doesn't cost an arm and a leg with half of it going in the bin.