Feeding two cats on a budget

Hello all,

Well I have posted here before on my cat Oscar and my clinic cat Kattie.
Well, Kattie is now officially mine . I am moving to Wa in a few weeks and my coworkers and boss thought that Kattie would do better with me because I can handle her issues and keep on top of it. Anyways, she has a clean bill of health, I believe that her so called megacolon is under control, in fact I have had to back off the lactulose as it is making her stools too soft. She is having a good size bowel movement every day to every other day and her abdomen is soft and supple. She is a happy camper. Anyways, at work I had her on a diet of canned twice a day and Ca natural dry which is low fiber at 1.5%. She is doing well so far. Oscar my male is on a mix of canned and Blue Wilderness and Wellness mixed together and he is doing great. Obviously, it is impossible to seperate the dry food. I don't free feed but set out a set amount every day. Kattie loves dry food so gets a little every day. I don't know how much longer Ca Natural is going to be a good food, so want to switch her to what Oscar is eating. Also canned food is going to get more expensive.
I feed Blue, Innova, natural Balance, wellness ect. They eat it ok, but love the cheaper brands like Friskies, fancy feast ect. I do a mix of both good and lower quality canned to at least get the canned in their diet. thier preferences are the sliced meat in gravy. Most of the cheaper kinds have wheat gluten and I avoid those. I just want to give both cats a good diet that is affordable, and that they will eat. The affordable is important, because when I move, I won't have a job right away, and need to watch money. I am going to stock up on all my pet supplies before I go, but till i get a job they may have to eat the occasional fancy feast or friskies. I know some people on here do feed the occasional cheaper brand of canned, I am just wondering if there is a list of kosher lower brand foods.
This move is is scary but it will be better in the long run. Somehow I have to cart, 1 dog, 2 cats, 3 birds and 2 rabbits safely up to Wa. This will be interesting lol.

what city in washington? or near what city?

My cats eat a lot of "junky" canned food. They do eat high quality dry. But when feeding 16 cats wet food, it gets expensive! They love their Friskies, but they do also get higher quality canned (like Soulistic, Chicken Soup, NutriSource, Solid Gold Blended Tuna, Merrick, Eagle Pack, etc).

FYI - Soulistic (green can) is chicken shreds in gravy. I have a shreds in gravy freak that adores it. My guys also really like Eagle Pack, as while it is pate, it's "softer" pate & has more gravy than others.

Well I am going to be temporarily living with my parents while I find a place and job up there. They live in Port Ludlow near Port Townsend. More likely I will eventually be either in Silverdale or on the other side of Puget sound. I am stocking up on pet supplies this weekend to get me through at least a month to a month and a half. I created a first aid kit using supplies from work and stuff i bought to get me through most minor predicaments. I of course will take them to a vet for anything serious, but minor first aid stuff I can handle .
Both my cats are on a high quality dry food because they are dry junkies, but Kattie gets canned twice daily and Oscar gets a smidge in the am and his normal meal at night. They are very picky about their canned and have been snubbing the better quality ones. They do like Tiki Cat, Taste of the Wild, some Blue Buffalo, Natural Balance ect. The ones they eat the best though are Fancy Feast and Friskies. I try to get the better quality of those kinds and mix in with the better canned foods but that gets expensive lol. They also really like the shredded meats, but of course I avoid the wheat gluten ones. The Fancy Feast Appetizers though have nothing but meat in them, but are mostly fish varieties. I try not to feed fish more than 2 times a week as a preventative.

A thread you may find helpful:
Non-loaf wet food

Petsmart s Authority may be one to look into...

Wheat gluten while not a wonderful thing is only a problem if your cat is allergic to wheat

Oh cool, thanks for these link.

I have tried the Authority brand and they like it pretty well, but I've only tried the oceanfish formula. I only feed fish 1-2 times a week even though my cats don't have a history of UTI's I want to keep it that way. They also don't have allergies or anything so far, so I guess i could feed the ones with wheat gluten, but I am just leary because of the whole pet food recall. I believe though that in a way the recall made petfoods safer because they were once in the spot light and had bad press. The only issue that my one cat has is the possible megacolon or potential to get constipated. Since switching Kattie to better dry food and canned twice daily and lactulose, she hasn't had an issue. Lately, it has been the opposite, she has had some diarrhea, but I think it might be stress related, so I backed off the lactulose a bit to let things firm up. Man it is one thing or the other, I just want a happy medium.

I have 24 cats eating friskies wet and purina dry. I know it might not be ideal but all but the one who came pregnant are fixed and happy. The 4 outside eat wet only as a treat. My vet actually said fancy feast is pretty good-I never talked to her further as I knew it was out of my price range, but shes into cat health on a whole-alternative meds/treatments.
If you have a petsmart near you go look as by me they put the short dated foods half off.

Back when money was tighter for me than it is now, my cats lived on Friskies. Neither of the ones I had at the time (one of whom is still alive and kicking) liked anything but the loaf varieties. You know what? I don't think they were any less healthy than my Wellness/Avoderm/Evo cat is now.

I still have one that lives on Purina One. She loves it.

I'm a big believer in Costco's Kirkland brand dry cat food. It's very easy on the budget @ $16 for 25 lbs, and my cats love it! Their ingredients are very high quality, and if you are living in Washington State, there should be a Costco near you!