This food, stella&chewy freeze dried mors, is too expensive!

maggie101

3 cats
Thread starter
Top Cat
Joined
Apr 20, 2014
Messages
7,884
Purraise
9,880
Location
Houston,TX
I feed her 3x a day. Way to expensive to give it to her that much so I will try once a day. It has stopped her from throwing up. Take her off it and throwing up starts again. Put her back on it stops. $40 for 18 oz. What brand of freeze dried do you use? I will not go raw.
 

LTS3

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Aug 29, 2014
Messages
19,209
Purraise
19,695
Location
USA
Stella and Chewy's freeze dried Dinner Morsels is technically raw food. I'm not aware of a freeze dried food that is cooked. Ziwi Peak makes an air dried food that is cooked but that's even more expensive than Stella and Chewy's for an even smaller bag.

I don't think you'll find any other brand of freeze dried raw food that costs less :dunno: It's not really worth feeding freeze dried raw exclusively unless you have an unlimited amount of money. A bag is at most a couple meals worth, either as is or rehydrated.

Try comparing prices of these similar freeze dried foods:

 

Azazel

Time spent with cats is never wasted.
Top Cat
Joined
Apr 14, 2018
Messages
2,844
Purraise
3,465
As LTS3 said, freeze dried food is still considered raw. Besides the price, I wouldn't feed any food exclusively, especially not a freeze dried food that has high amounts of bone in it.

What you could do is feed a mixture of freeze dried and more affordable canned to help keep costs down and to introduce variety into the diet.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #4

maggie101

3 cats
Thread starter
Top Cat
Joined
Apr 20, 2014
Messages
7,884
Purraise
9,880
Location
Houston,TX
As LTS3 said, freeze dried food is still considered raw. Besides the price, I wouldn't feed any food exclusively, especially not a freeze dried food that has high amounts of bone in it.

What you could do is feed a mixture of freeze dried and more affordable canned to help keep costs down and to introduce variety into the diet.
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B01GZ4YGQI/catfood00b-20

This is what I feed her and yes it has lots of bone which is why I was only going to give it to her once a day.
Primal has weird ingredients so I bought north west naturals,no bone. Water is mixed in.
 

Azazel

Time spent with cats is never wasted.
Top Cat
Joined
Apr 14, 2018
Messages
2,844
Purraise
3,465
In my opinion Northwest Naturals is one of the better freeze dried brands. I do also recall that it is a bit lower in bone than the other brands (I emailed them way back to inquire about the amount of bone). I would feed it over Stella & Chewy and Primal. If she likes NWN then I'd just mix it with some canned to offset the cost.
 

Talien

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Oct 10, 2018
Messages
2,650
Purraise
5,131
Location
Michigan
Why do you not want to feed raw? As has been mentioned, most freeze dried food is raw.

If it's because you don't want to prepare it there are some commercial raw foods available that just have to be portioned out and thawed, I know chewy sells instinct which comes in small bits so all you would have to do is put enough for one meal in a bowl and float it in warm water to thaw. It's also much less expensive than the freeze dried.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #7

maggie101

3 cats
Thread starter
Top Cat
Joined
Apr 20, 2014
Messages
7,884
Purraise
9,880
Location
Houston,TX
Freeze dried raw is ok but preparing raw frozen I forget very quick/easily like what I just did, was supposed to do, forget to write it down,forget that I wrote it down.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #8

maggie101

3 cats
Thread starter
Top Cat
Joined
Apr 20, 2014
Messages
7,884
Purraise
9,880
Location
Houston,TX
I did frozen once and none of my cats lliked it
 
Last edited:

Talien

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Oct 10, 2018
Messages
2,650
Purraise
5,131
Location
Michigan
So what makes the carbs and calories so high in northwest naturals freeze dried?

Looking at the ingredients, Kelp, Dulse, Flaxseed, Gelatin, and Psyllium husk powder are all plant ingredients and would contribute to the carb content. Most of it is probably from the Kelp, Dulse, and Gelatin.
 

EmersonandEvie

Mom to Evie, Emerson and Dexter
Top Cat
Joined
Jul 25, 2017
Messages
1,691
Purraise
2,769
Location
Northeast Georgia
Here is a company that I stumbled across years ago. I've never fed this food exclusively, but I have given it as meals and treats. It's very, very calorically dense, so even 1oz of food goes a long way. They also will send you trial packets. :) The lamb and turkey were hits for my crew!

The Real Meat Company: 5oz Trial Size Dog & Cat Food
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #12

maggie101

3 cats
Thread starter
Top Cat
Joined
Apr 20, 2014
Messages
7,884
Purraise
9,880
Location
Houston,TX
Looking at the ingredients, Kelp, Dulse, Flaxseed, Gelatin, and Psyllium husk powder are all plant ingredients and would contribute to the carb content. Most of it is probably from the Kelp, Dulse, and Gelatin.
At least the s&c she only has 6 morsals a day so calories wont matter much. She is active,chases my other cat and plays by herself. Of course other 2 meals are canned
 
Top