Lost my job - Food for 3? Canadian

[sylorna]

Hi all

I will be unemployed as of next Friday for the first time...well...ever.  

Aside from my sadness and anger around all of this, I'm scared about being able to feed the two of us and our 3 cats.  They were eating Natural Balance Dry reduced calorie and Chicken Soup hairball until the plants shut down.  I am working out of town, and took advantage of the last few days I'll be there (it's about an hour and a half away) to buy some Authority wet and dry from PetSmart.  

Now I'm in a smaller city with the closest big city being an hour and a half away.  Aside from the grocery stores and Walmart we have Pet Value, and Global Pet Foods.  I need to find a food solution that is as inexpensive as possible without being totally 100% bad for them until I get re-employed.  The reason why I put Canadian in my title is that some foods such as Chicken Soup and Wellness are much more expensive here than they are in the US, so I thought maybe I might trigger a Canadian in the know to pop in.  Of course all opinions from those over the boarder are always welcome

Thanks for your help.  

 

[nebula]

Sorry about your job!!

I just had a similiar situation and got a lot of helpful advice on this.

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/245571/pet-food-costs-ideas

Check it out.

 

[luvmyparker]

Honestly, if its only temporary, I don't think there is anything wrong with feeding something like Friskies wet food until you get back on your feet. I find Global is more expensive than Pet Valu, but on a tight budget, high quality food is tough to keep up with anyway, especially for more than one cat. 

Cheap wet food is better than no wet food at all. Friskies is my go-to brand when I can't get the good stuff and is what we fed 3 cats exclusively for a while and it didn't hurt any of them. There is one brand the grocery stores/Walmart sells thats pretty decent and cheap but I am struggling to remember the name. Someone else may chime in with a name but I will take a peak while I am out today and see if I can find it. But yeah, don't beat yourself up if you have to go cheap for a while. At least they will have food in their bellies and love still. 

 

[kittylover23]

So sorry about your job, hun!

I live in Toronto. My main pet store is Pet Valu. I feed my cats canned food only, so if you can't afford high quality wet foods at the moment, low quality wet food (Friskies pate, Fancy Feast, Whiskas) is better than dry food. I would reccomend that you cut out the dry food (which might end up costing more than wet food anyway) and add any kind of wet food that you can.

Also, Walmart has a brand called...Actr1um, I think? It's a pretty okay food, except for the fact it contains grains, it has no byproducts and includes real meat. anything you can afford is the best, so don't worry about it. Your cats will love you no matter what you feed them, and feeding them low quality wet food for a while isn't going to hurt.

Oh and I'm a fellow Ontario citizen! (Believe me, I know Wellness is more expensive here! Crazy prices in Ontario)

Hope I helped,
Jen

 

[sylorna]

Thanks guys.  That does help!  I saw a big case of Friskies at Costco yesterday.  Maybe I'll stop in and buy it next week before I leave (we don't have a costco either, so I'm trying to stock up on stuff we need).  I need to keep the dry in, Dynah only eats dry in the absence of Chicken Soup.  She prefers dry anyway. 

Any thoughts on good drys?  I get the message with wet:  The more the better regardless of quality.  Really I'd prefer no by-products, but meals are ok with me.  We don't have any urinary problems but chester does have a heart murmur that he's on meds for.  The doc hasn't given any food advice for him other than he needs to loose weight (which he has and should be in the overweight range now, not obese).  

Thanks again.  Loosing my job is really hard.  The organization I work for is really messed up and I ended up getting the wrong end of the stick when I applied for permanency.  

 

[kittylover23]

Walmart has Actr1um dry that is both low cost and by product free! :nod:

 

[sylorna]

thanks!  That's really helpful.

 

[kittylover23]

No problem! so sorry about your job again, hon. I'm sure everything will be alright.

 

[nerdrock]

Pet Valu sells a brand called Lifetime that isn't too bad, it's wheat, corn and by product free but does contain grain. They also have their own brand, Performatrin, that comes in three types/price ranges. The purple bags are the cheapest, the white ones are a little more and the ultra is the most expensive. They have a frequent buyer program for it as well, at my store it's spend 100$ and you get 10$ off (it accumulates based on Performatrin purchases), some stores are buy 10 bags get one free. Buying bigger will often save you a lot of money too, so if you can get a big bag that will save you more. Pet Valu also has a program called SAS, you'll have to check with the store but most foods will save you quite a bit of money. You basically buy 6 bags of food at once and you save a bundle. The discount will be the most with Performatrin, but it's pretty good for other foods as well. Again, the bigger the bags you buy, the more you'll save. 

 

[Willowy]

Honestly, even if you get the most expensive dry food, it's a very small expense. My math: if you buy Purina Cat Chow (lowest quality I'd feed even if I starved :tongue2, it costs about a dollar a pound (OK, I can get it for less at Sam's, but assuming higher overall prices and not getting a warehouse discount. Plus easy math ). You would need to feed about a cup a day, and there's usually about 4 cups of kibble to a pound. So 25 cents a day per cat, which is about $7 per month. Now, I don't know about you, but I spent $7 on lunch yesterday. And for people who smoke, don't cigarettes cost more than 25 cents each? So that's a negligible expense.

Now, let's pick a really expensive food and say it's $4 per pound. It's more nutrient dense so the cat needs less, so we'll estimate 1/2 cup a day per cat (which might even be a bit high). Which would come to 50 cents a day. Yes, twice as much as Cat Chow, but still negligible. Less than 2 cigarettes a day :lol3:. Less than one soda or coffee a day. For 3 cats it would come to about $45 a month (if they only ate dry food), which seems like a lot, but compared to other expenses it's not much. There are other expenses you could cut out that would save a whole lot more, without risking upsetting the kitties' tummies.

So unless finances are at a point where the people aren't drinking any soda or alcohol, smoking, eating out, etc., changing the brand of dry cat food is just not going to make much difference.

Canned food does cost more. . .just feeding canned Friskies would cost as much as the $4-a-pound kibble. But if it prevents even one vet visit, you'd come out ahead.

 

[ldg]

Aw, I'm sorry! The Friskies (pate styles only) really aren't that bad. They do have by-products, but are pretty low carb. :nod: Hopefully this will be just short term! :cross:

Really I'd prefer no by-products, but meals are ok with me.  

Actually, I feel the opposite. :lol3: Have you seen this thread? http://www.thecatsite.com/t/245614/...by-products-meal-or-rather-not-think-about-it

 

[motoko9]

You've already received some good advice regarding food (and in any case, I'm in the US), but I wanted to say that I'm sorry to hear about your job. Sending vibes that you find another gig soon! 

 

[sylorna]

Thank you for your thoughts Willow, however we don't smoke, drink or drink coffee.  We also don't have much pop, and when we do it's from our soda stream.  I understand what you're getting at, however I am the major bread winner in our family and having our income cut like this will mean cutting back on how large our portions are, and what we can eat.  Unfortunately my student loan payments are unforgiving.

Besides that, we had to change brands anyway, Natural Balance, and Chicken soup are out of production at the moment due to salmonella found in the plant and will be as such for a number of months.  

Soooo....we feed both anyway....and you're right, dry is a big cost savings.

 

[melesine]

You know, feeding raw meat is one of the cheapest and healthiest ways to feed a cat. I can get quality chicken thighs for a dollar a pound ( US) not sure what the costs are in Canada, but it's something to think about. 

 

[nerdrock]

You know, feeding raw meat is one of the cheapest and healthiest ways to feed a cat. I can get quality chicken thighs for a dollar a pound ( US) not sure what the costs are in Canada, but it's something to think about. 

I'm not sure exactly where the OP is but meat is not that cheap where I live (London,ON). Sometimes it does go on sale that cheap, but most often it's at least double that. Even organs are over a dollar a pound

 

[kittylover23]

I just thought I should mention, I was in Shoppers Drug Mart today and they have a store brand called Amigo that has no meat byproducts and no fillers. It's also at a good price, $7.99 for twelve cans, which is cheaper than most brands. Just wanted to add that in.