What are some good affordable foods?

Jadeloveshercat

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I’ve been told to stay away from a few brands such as Purina, blue buffalo, and nutro. I’ve been feeding my cat expensive wellness food ever since I got her from the breeder. She is now pregnant and it will be extremely costly to buy a lot of extra wellness for starving, growing babies. This is because I plan to keep them till 14-15 weeks to make sure they are vaccinated and socialized, and can all go to good homes. So what are some good affordableish foods that you would recommend? It doesn’t have to be dirt cheap i just need to save money for other things such as spay/neuter and vaccines :)
 

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nulo grain free but i cant really say for sure how budget friendly it is other than its cheaper than tiki/weruva and fussie cat/ wellness to i think :biggrin: i am not a good budget shoppper i just buy it if they have it
 

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Fancy Feast pate's are decent, including the kitten varieties which would also be good for mama.

I use Blue True Solutions Perfect Coat and Halo Sensitive Stomach kibble. I don't care about the names of the products, but I like the nutritional analysis. Merrick Backcountry, maybe Tiki Cat (they now have chicken) depending on the variety are some other possibilities.
 
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Jadeloveshercat

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Fancy Feast pate's are decent, including the kitten varieties which would also be good for mama.

I use Blue True Solutions Perfect Coat and Halo Sensitive Stomach kibble. I don't care about the names of the products, but I like the nutritional analysis. Merrick Backcountry, maybe Tiki Cat (they now have chicken) depending on the variety are some other possibilities.
My cats are sphynx so would the fancy feast pate be ok for her? She’ll eat almost anything I’m just concerned about the nutritional value
 

Furballsmom

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I’m just concerned about the nutritional value
I believe that it will be ok. In a comparison to the nutritional makeup of Royal Canin's Mother and Babycat, the FF kitten food is better, definitely, and the FF is almost as good as Instinct Kitten and Wellness Core Kitten.
 
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Jadeloveshercat

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Ok th
I believe that it will be ok. In a comparison to the nutritional makeup of Royal Canin's Mother and Babycat, the FF kitten food is better, definitely, and the FF is almost as good as Instinct Kitten and Wellness Core Kitten.
Ok thanks! I’ll definitely try fancy feast
 

Sarthur2

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I would suggest Friskies or Fancy Feast, though all cat food - both canned and dry - has gone up in price astronomically over the past two years. I used to get cases of Fancy Feast (24 cans) for around $15. Those are now running about $20 a case. The 7-pound bags of Purina One (grain free / no fillers) used to be about $10-$12 and are now running around $17. My own bill for cat food has almost doubled what it used to be.

I don’t know what Friskies is running, but it used to be cheaper than Fancy Feast, which is significantly cheaper than higher grade brands such as Blue Buffalo.

I still use only Fancy Feast because the pates are meat first ingredient. If you can afford it, FF is a good brand.
 
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Jadeloveshercat

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I would suggest Friskies or Fancy Feast, though all cat food - both canned and dry - has gone up in price astronomically over the past two years. I used to get cases of Fancy Feast (24 cans) for around $15. Those are now running about $20 a case. The 7-pound bags of Purina One (grain free / no fillers) used to be about $10-$12 and are now running around $17. My own bill for cat food has almost doubled what it used to be.

I don’t know what Friskies is running, but it used to be cheaper than Fancy Feast, which is significantly cheaper than higher grade brands such as Blue Buffalo.
I’ll definitely be trying fancy feast :)
 

KevinMadison

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Here are some nutritious cat foods that are reasonably priced.
The grain-free cat food from Dr. Elsey
Nutrish Dry Cat Food by Rachel Ray
Merrick Dry Cat Food Without Grains
These goods from Royal Canin Feline Dry Food and Wellness Natural Pet Food are excellent and reasonably priced, and I use them for my cat as well.
 

Annieca2016

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YMMV, but I had a vet tell me even the cheapest wet food is better than dry. I rotate between Weruva's Cats in the Kitchen (which is $$), American Journey (cheaper) and Fancy Feast Naturals. Fancy Feasts Naturals is, from what I can tell, the cheapest wet food that isn't all fillers, very little meat.
 
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Jadeloveshercat

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I just got the “heart to tail” wet food from Aldi, seems decent and my 2 girls love it! Is it alright compared to pedigree and nine lives? They are also eating wellness kibble with this.
 

Alldara

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Purina gets a bad rep but they are actually the only cat food with a longitudinal study supporting one of their cat's foods: Purina Pro Plan Prime Plus.

Here's the thing:
1. Cats are the ONLY domestic animal that we have more than doubled the lifespan of. Part of this is due to the long-standing commercial foods that many communities now hate on (I was bad for this too!)
2. Now that we've extended cats lifespans we are starting to see that some of the ingredients are hard on some of their organs long term, like grain and the amount of phosphorus. (Some) Brands have responded, but the AAFCO has not yet changed their recommendations.


That being said I would consider a few things:
1. We are just learning now after decades that 'boutique' brands are causing heart disease and failure in dogs. We do not yet have 'boutique' brands studies for cats. Or raw brands studies, everything is anecdotal evidence.

2. Some cats, not all cats, have issues being on the high protein diets long term such as arcana and Orijen. I say some because I had two cats on those long term (well a similar Canadian brand), but my friends cat became ill from it. Magnus became ill from it during his transfer to it as well. We now feed them Iams due to Magnus's beef allergy. I would prefer him to be on Purina)

That's it. Each cat is an individual. Just do your best to limit grains. Personally I do like Instinct, Wureva and such. Blue Buffalo has good foods too. Fancy feast, Iams Perfect Portions and Purina canned foods are quality lower cost brands.
I keep Friskies very much away from my cats as the salt content is very high..
 
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Jadeloveshercat

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Alright :) I’ll see how she does on this and go from there.
 

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what is Turkey meal, chicken meal? Are they a cheap filler? I’m still trying to find a decent wet and dry cat food but it seems like 95% contain some type of seafood….any suggestions? Right now my cats eat mainly Friskies wet and fancy feast wet….looking for a decent dry food for weight control…
some have said fancy feast aren’t bad but when I look up the ingredients they don’t see that great…
 
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Jadeloveshercat

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what is Turkey meal, chicken meal? Are they a cheap filler? I’m still trying to find a decent wet and dry cat food but it seems like 95% contain some type of seafood….any suggestions? Right now my cats eat mainly Friskies wet and fancy feast wet….looking for a decent dry food for weight control…
some have said fancy feast aren’t bad but when I look up the ingredients they don’t see that great…
I’ve been using whole hearted sold at Aldi, but you could also try purina one. The ingredients aren’t the best out there but wayyy better then friskies! My cats like those 2 a lot. And for the meal I’m not a professional but it means that they are crushing up different body parts of the animal (turkey for example) but you don’t know which parts. Personally I’m fine with that in cat food because all those organs, eyes, and such make the diet complete.
 
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