Raw Food Brands

[ohheybambi]

Hello everyone, I'll get the main question out of the way before the background.

My question is: what is the best food I can feed my cats that won't break the bank? I need to keep it $30 or under per cat a month.

I've got two cats, Oliver and Mia. They have been on high quality canned food for most of their lives (Merrick, Natural Balance, Eco, etc.) And are currently on Weruva Mack&Jack and Polynesian BBQ. They are on this because it's the best priced and best food available near me (can't beat $30 for a case). However I don't like feeding them an entirely fish diet.

I just recently started doing some more research and came across frozen raw diets. I've seen Primal and Nature's Variety Instinct as the top two brands, but they have a lot of vegetables in them and cats are strictly carnivorous so this confuses me.

 

[vball91]

Have you seen the Raw & Home-Cooked Cat Food forum? It is a great resource for those new to raw but interested in feeding raw. Personally, I think the best commercial raw cat food is probably Rad Cat, but it's expensive and not widely available. An alternative is something like Hare Today or My Pet Carnivore depending on where you live. Another cheaper raw option is to prepare it yourself.

I would agree that an all fish diet is not good for a variety of reasons.

 

[peaches08]

I spend less than $1/day to feed chicken to all 3 cats (2 meals each/day).  I buy chicken thighs on sale at $0.99/lb, buy liver at the same store, and my supplements at www.iherb.com.  I use the www.catinfo.org recipe.  Other meats get more expensive, and because I'm a student I only buy on sale.  There was the initial cost of a deep freezer and a grinder, but they paid themselves off in less than 8 months.  Check out craigslist for a freezer, many have found great deals that way.

You can also check out prey model raw (aka frankenprey) to eliminate needing a grinder and some supplements, but it depends on what you have available to you.

Also, know that you don't have to go all raw.  You can alternate canned and raw.