Please Help Me Find More Affordable Alternatives...

[auntie]

My cats currently eat:
Wellness Core Kitten dry food $24/ 5 lb bag
Wellness "Minced" wet adult food (older cat) $1.99/ 5.8 oz can
Blue Buffalo Wilderness kitten wet food (6-month-old kitty) $1.49/ 3 oz can

I can't afford to keep feeding my cats this stuff. They don't eat an extreme amount--I leave the dry out for them and they don't go through it quickly, and they get a small amount of wet food 3x per day. They always have access to fresh clean water. The cat bill is just getting too high; I am seriously going broke with the food, litter, vet bills, and other expenses. Of course, I knew there was financial responsibility that came with cat ownership, but I am starting to panic because it's seriously like having another child. Only, you can at least nurse the baby which is free!

I have two jobs and can't cook custom food for the kitties. I also don't want to give them Meow Mix or something really cheap-o that's going to hurt their kidneys. Does somebody have a well-priced alternative to this Wellness/Blue Buffalo stuff? Maybe something I could get at the supermarket (Shaw's or Hannaford's...not Whole Foods!). There is seemingly no way to get the food I am using any cheaper--it costs exactly the same at all the pet supply shops in Southern Maine and even online. I thought I was basically middle-class but I'm getting super broke and super stressed. My childhood cats were so cheap to keep, probably because they got most of their nutrition from mice, snakes, etc. Please help!

 

[LTS3]

Have you seen the TCS threads on affordable canned foods?

Healthy but affordable canned food
Affordable canned food?
Cheapest/Most affordable Grain free or healthiest canned food
http://www.thecatsite.com/t/330459/...conomical-way-to-buy-friskies-canned-cat-food
New Affordable PetSmart Brand! =D
4health now has affordable grain-free wet food

Purina Beyond dry food has been recommended before as a decent affordable dry food.

 

[auntie]

LTS3
Thank you! I hadn't seen any of these articles. I am so hopeful that one of them has a solution for my cat food problems!
edited to add:
I just checked the links out and they are all threads. This is fine, of course...I'm also starting a thread. Do you know, however, of any trustworthy articles? Just wondering, I have been looking through Google as well but it's so hard to see what is true vs false

 

[xcourtney3]

I feed Friskies canned food and my cats do well on it. Fancy Feast classics are good. 4health at Tractor Supply. Dave's. Nutro Max cat... For canned food. Petsmart's Simply Nourish Source, Pro Plan True Nature, American Journey on chewy.com.. are all good dry foods.

 

[maggiedemi]

Hi. My cats do really well on canned food from the supermarket. I know it's frowned upon here, but that's what I can afford and they do well on it. In my opinion, getting canned food into the cat for the moisture is the important thing. Then you can buy a fancy dry food to supplement with if you want.

 

[duckpond]

I recommend staying with a high quality dry, so often dry food is full of carbs, and not good for the cats at all. Wellness is good. You may also want to check out the american journey, dry and wet on chewy, its a good price. especially for the dry, and looks to be good quality. I have several friends that feed this food, and their cats like it and are doing well on it.

American Journey Turkey & Chicken Recipe Grain-Free Dry Cat Food


There are some less expensive wet foods that are fine. Fancy feast, i like the classics, and the grilled flavors, they are the lowest in carbs, and the ingredients are not bad. I found another one at tractor supply this weekend, paws and claws kitchen selects, the pate looks pretty good. My cats like the chicken, were not fond of the turkey or beef. A lot of people feed the friskies wet too, my cats prefer the shreds. I think its easier to find a budget friendly wet food, i just wouldn't go to low on the dry.

 

[sweetblackpaws]

Holy Toledo! I thought Fancy Feast was pricey! I get FF pate formulas and I buy from Chewy.com. It is about 13.00 for a case of 24 (3 oz cans).

If you want to go cheaper than that, Friskies pate is pretty good.

One of my girls likes Blue Buffalo Sensitive Stomach dry - it's pretty reasonable. They are on Rx food now, otherwise I would still buy the BB.

 

[Furballsmom]

There was a discussion I was involved with a couple days ago where the situation is somewhat the same and a possibility was mentioned of feeding canned food every other or third day...

 

[maggiedemi]

My cats need canned food every day, or the pee problems start. Please don't feel bad if you have to feed grocery store canned food like Friskies or Fancy Feast. The important thing is to get canned food into the cat. It saved my boy cat when he couldn't pee from too much dry food, even the expensive kinds.

 

[sweetblackpaws]

Auntie, it is all crazy expensive, that is for sure. I was looking at my expenditures the other night and my litter bill alone was insane. But they are our babies. It is hard, though, that is for sure.

I agree with Maggie about the wet food, though. Some cheap wet is okay. Stick to pate formulas (not gravy).

 

[nansiludie]

Auntie, it is all crazy expensive, that is for sure. I was looking at my expenditures the other night and my litter bill alone was insane. But they are our babies. It is hard, though, that is for sure.

I agree with Maggie about the wet food, though. Some cheap wet is okay. Stick to pate formulas (not gravy).

You might be able to cut back on the litter bill if you could find a store brand litter that the kitties like. I use store brand litter.

 

[vyger]

Here is a discussion that was recent that involved a man who was spending over $1200 a month feeding a colony of feral's. He actually went back to work just so he could pay for the cat food. With all the suggestions that were made he was able to cut that by more than half. One of the big changes was to start giving them Special kitty dry food from Walmart. There is a bunch of information mentioned about why it was a good idea.
In Desperate Need Of Advice

And yet another about making food more affordable.
How Can I Make Wet Food Affordable?

 

[maggiedemi]

For litter, I get the big 40 pound boxes, it's the only affordable way for me to do it. If you have a warehouse store like BJ's you can get their store brand Berkley & Jensen for $10, also Walmart Special Kitty and Tractor Supply Paws & Claws are $10.

 

[auntie]

Friskies & Fancy Feast is really okay? Is it more the cheap dry food that is bad for them? If so, I like the idea of keeping the expensive dry food and switching to cheaper wet food. I can’t bring myself to compromise on litter...our apartment is just too small for budget cat litter
Thanks guys for the help

 

[maggiedemi]

Yes, in my opinion their canned foods are fine. My cats do well on it, it keeps their pee flowing and not blocked up. What brand of litter do you use? I think the store brands are fine, but I haven't used any of the really expensive brands. I do like Scoop Away and Arm & Hammer from time to time when BJ's sends me a coupon.

 

[Furballsmom]

With Friskies and Fancy Feast and, really, just about any wet food you look at regarding the ingredients, they nearly all have something in them that isn't appealing, or worse, such as menadione or carrageenan, agar-agar et al.

By having a variety of brands of canned food (think of keeping your wellness and Blue Buff in the rotation maybe once every week, or every couple weeks, whatever works budget wise) and maybe also a variety of brands of kibble, I think this helps to limit exposure and allows the digestive system/organs to better deal with the bad stuff.
Plus, it can be a good plan if one of the manufacturers changes their formula and the cats decide they hate it

That's my two cents

duckpond , you'll be so tickled I grabbed a bag of that walnut litter you've been talking about
M maggiedemi , thank you from me, I just picked up a bag of special kitty litter while I was at "wally-world" today

 

[duckpond]

With Friskies and Fancy Feast and, really, just about any wet food you look at regarding the ingredients, they nearly all have something in them that isn't appealing, or worse, such as menadione or carrageenan, agar-agar et al.

By having a variety of brands of canned food (think of keeping your wellness and Blue Buff in the rotation maybe once every week, or every couple weeks, whatever works budget wise) and maybe also a variety of brands of kibble, I think this helps to limit exposure and allows the digestive system/organs to better deal with the bad stuff.
Plus, it can be a good plan if one of the manufacturers changes their formula and the cats decide they hate it

That's my two cents

duckpond , you'll be so tickled I grabbed a bag of that walnut litter you've been talking about
M maggiedemi , thank you from me, I just picked up a bag of special kitty litter while I was at "wally-world" today

Awesome, let me know what you think. I have been pleased with it. what scooper do you use? I was thinking earlier today that my scooping has been so much easier since i found the catit scoop. The clean litter falls through so easy you dont have to shake it and break up the clump. I LOVE mine

 

[Furballsmom]

OH, now THAT's good timing
I hate mine, it's metal and everything just sticks to it. Sounds like somebody's breaking into the house everytime I'm scooping since I have to constantly bang it on whatever to get stuff off LOL
The one I had prior was one of those Petco ones if I remember right, and the handle broke off which I guess is typical...

 

[LTS3]

Generic store brand canned food are nearly similar to pate Fancy Feast and Friskies and other similar brands. Like with some people foods, a company can make two identical products and put two different brand labels on them and sell one at a higher price than the other. One brand may only sell at certain types of stores while the other lesser expensive one may be more widely available.

Walmart's Special Kitty brand of canned foods have been compared to Fancy Feast on some other cat boards. The price may be a little less than Fancy Feast and I believe the food also comes in a larger can size.

Petsmart and Petco have their own generic canned foods and during big food sales you can really stock up on food.

 

[miagi's_mommy]

Try Friskies canned They’re 48 cents a can for a small and $1.08 for a bigger one at Walmart Rufus and Angel do well on those. They love the poultry platter flavor.