Feeding 2 Cats on a Budget

I've sort of asked this before in a thread about general cat expenses, but what is your monthly or yearly budget for cat food and how many cats do you have? What brands do you feed?

I have 2 cats and right now I spend about $30/month on wet food but I really have no idea how much a month I spend on dry food because I don't have to buy it every month. Chloe is eating Wellness Kitten dry and Matilda is eating Natural Balance Ultra dry.

For wet food, I try to find the large cans that are $1 or less (I can usually find Natural Balance for this price, sometimes I buy Solid Gold cans even though they are a little bit more than $1). I buy the 3oz Nutro Max cans (mine won't eat the large pate style ones) and I can usually find those for under $0.50 a can.

I've got two cats - they split a small can of Nutro between them daily, and I have Nutro indoor complete care choice dry - about a cup a day. Then they have their greenies as treats, and I grow some indoor wheat grass for them....hmm, they're eating better than me!

At this point--with two cats now and adding wet food--our monthly budget is around $20-$25.

They eat Nutro Max cat dry and Max cat wet. They get about 1/2 cup each dry and 1/3 of a 5.5 oz can wet a day.

I got lucky and found Nutro Max cat wet on sale at Petsmart for 40 cents as opposed to 65 cents--so I bought 2 cases--enough to last us about 2.5 months (hopefully Nutro will be on sale again then)

Leslie

10-15 for wet
10 ish for raw or cooked meat
25 for 15lbs of dry

for two cat s

treats the older one is sensitive but luckily the treat she can handle is cheap at 1.99 a bag her others are 7-10 a bag

I'm spending more than I'd like to on wet considering the poor quality.. but my sister's Kitty will only eat Fancy Feast Elegant Medleys and Pro Plan's shredded types. I'm trying hard to get her to eat something healthier. I hate to be spending so much on cruddy stuff. It's sooo overpriced. I'm not really sure the exact amount, around $30/month?

Dry hardly contributes. I get the smallest bag of Nutro every couple of months. I'll cut it out completely if I ever get her eating a better wet.

What are good places to cut back? I am more comfortable cutting back on the quality of wet food than the dry food. I am also more comfortable doing that than I am cutting out the quantity of wet I feed.

I know that in general:
- wet food is more desirable than dry food
- quality brands are more desirable than cheap grocery store stuff loaded with byproducts and fillers

But where do you compromise? Do I start feeding less wet food in general, do I switch to a lower quality wet food (like Fancy Feast, which I can get for $0.30 a can at Costco) but feed the same quantity of wet, do I downgrade to a less expensive but a still-decent dry food like Nutro or Diamond Naturals or Authority? All-wet is good, but not if the all-wet diet is all-Fancy Feast right? Thoughts?

Originally Posted by wishiwas

I'm spending more than I'd like to on wet considering the poor quality.. but my sister's Kitty will only eat Fancy Feast Elegant Medleys and Pro Plan's shredded types. I'm trying hard to get her to eat something healthier. I hate to be spending so much on cruddy stuff. It's sooo overpriced. I'm not really sure the exact amount, around $30/month?

Dry hardly contributes. I get the smallest bag of Nutro every couple of months. I'll cut it out completely if I ever get her eating a better wet.

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Weruva has high quality shredded food. My cats weren't fans because they eat raw but my strays adore it.
http://www.weruva.com/
It is human grade meat and the flavors are quite good.

Originally Posted by Sakura

What are good places to cut back? I am more comfortable cutting back on the quality of wet food than the dry food. I am also more comfortable doing that than I am cutting out the quantity of wet I feed.

I know that in general:
- wet food is more desirable than dry food
- quality brands are more desirable than cheap grocery store stuff loaded with byproducts and fillers

But where do you compromise? Do I start feeding less wet food in general, do I switch to a lower quality wet food (like Fancy Feast, which I can get for $0.30 a can at Costco) but feed the same quantity of wet, do I downgrade to a less expensive but a still-decent dry food like Nutro or Diamond Naturals or Authority? All-wet is good, but not if the all-wet diet is all-Fancy Feast right? Thoughts?

Click to expand...

To be honest I don't compromise on my cat's food. You are feeding such good choices. Perhaps you could feed one premium. Innova EVO dry and wet can be fed for both cats. It is good meat based food, with no byproducts. You could buy economy sized bags and cans. Buy cans by the case and you will usually get a discount.

My kittens are really enjoying the different grain free flavors of Wellness wet, but the 5.5 oz cans are $1.19! I asked my local Pet Supplies Plus, and they ordered me a case of the large 12.5 oz cans, and the whole case (12 cans) costs about $22, which makes a little less than $2 the price for each can, and each can is over twice the size of the other cans!

They can also order Taste of the Wild dry for me for about the same price as Sharky pays (yay!) so we will see if my babies like that, too, because I love the ingredients and it is so much cheaper than Wellness dry!

Anyway, I can easily feed one case of Wellness wet per month because the cans are so much larger. High quality wet for a little over $20 a month! The only problem with ordering a case is that you only get one flavor at a time. I figure that it will cost more up front because I will order a couple of cases in the first month, but then I won't need to buy anymore wet food for a couple of months.


Also, just wanted to thank Sharky for her recommendations. The kittens' coats are shining up quite nicely, and little Bamf is getting all fat on his delicious food. Taste of the Wild is sending me a sample of their foods, and I am going to offer the sample as treats and see how the babies like it. Hope they do, because it is a great price for a 15lb bag of grain free!

My cats don't always get canned food every day, but the canned foods I buy are usually around $1-$1.50 a can, or something like $2.15 for the large 13 oz. can of Wellness. I usually buy Wellness, Evangers, Merrick, Solid Gold or Trader Joe's foods.
For the dry food my cats get grain free foods like Orijen, Instinct Rabbit and Before Grain. I use coupons for these whenever I can find them, for example the sample sized bags of Nature's Variety now have a website listed on them where you can print out a buy one get one free coupon.

I am on a very strict budget but I will only use the high quality foods for my cats because diet can have such a big impact on their health and more health problems also equal higher vet bills as well as being detrimental to the cats.