What to Feed?

So, for those that may have read my first post, I am new to this forum, and pretty new to feral cat caretaking. I feed the colony mostly dry, with an occasional supplement of wet food. I feed the Southern States dry cat food, simply because of price. I am thinking of switching over to the Kirkland brand, as it is very economical and a pretty good quality for the price.

I have very limited funds, and can't really afford the "great" stuff. However, the way I look at it is that they would rather eat Friskies than nothing.

Here are a couple options I have when feeding wet food...which one do you think I should feed?

-SophiaCat
-9 Lives
-Fancy Feast
-'Lil Red
-Triumph

and any others that are between 35 and 45 cents per can...

Any and all advice would be appreciated

Sophiacat= sophisticat>?

If so it is decent

I have different standards for wet than dry as wet is processed differently

Some Fancy feast s are actually GOOD

9 lives seems to have lot of colorings and soy so I avoid it

My suggestion go to the grocery store and read ... I found at least 2 brands of decent to good foods for under 60 cents for 5-6 oz

Sorry! Yes, I meant to say SophistaCat

I will try to avoid 9 Lives and look for the good Friskies.

May I ask what you feed [dry and wet], and where you buy it? I am new to cats, and an intrested in learning as much as I can!

Thanks so much
~mtm88781

I have a true rotation diet...

I use wet foods ranging from the western family and pets pride wet( read labels I use the grain frees) to BFF , Wellness , Evo ...

Mine get Kirkland dry with what ever grain free they will eat and does not cause issues..

They also get freeze dry raw , reg raw and homemade

A few of us were just discussing this on the Feral Forum, Questions about Ferals.

I feed my ferals Purina Cat chow. And some feed Kirkland, so I am going to look at that at Costco tomorrow and might change. I think ferals would be appreciative of anything you would offer them on a daily basis, that is, on a schedule. Once you start feeding, keep doing it at the same time each day, they count on you . Stick to the same food once you decide on one.

I also feed canned Friskies Pate varieties. Also, Fancy Feast canned, but that is a bit more pricey than Friskies canned. My house cats eat Wellness Core and Wellness wet and sometime Fancy Feast wet. Fancy Feast has some pretty good quality canned varieties now.

It is nice of you to reach out to the ferals .

Yeah, my ferals get Purina Cat Chow (sometimes Kitten Chow, when it's really cold out). I rarely give them canned, but when I do, it's whatever was cheapest when I went shopping. I figure that ferals can go out and catch some fresh meat if they want to, so the quality of their food isn't as important as for housecats. I won't feed them store brand dry food, though (or anything cheaper than Cat Chow, like Meow Mix or Alley Cat). Those foods really don't provide sufficient nutrition. So far so good! They're fat and have nice thick winter coats.

Some of the higher-quality dry foods that are intended for pet cats don't seem to work for ferals. In my experience, anyway. Not enough fat, maybe. But Kirkland seems to be popular with feral colony managers, so that should be a decent choice.

Thanks a lot guys for all the replys

Sharky- Thanks a lot for the diet plan

Feralvr- I think I may switch over to the Kirkland brand cat food. I am sure they appreciate anything and everything I have to offer It is deffinately better than what they would be eating out on the street! Thank you for the reccomandations on the canned food.

Willowy- Thank you for your input on food choices I will deffinately keep those reccomondations when choosing a food!

Now one more question in general:

-I can not get to the colony every day. They are living in a barn at a horse rescue, so there is someone there every day, just not me. To make sure they get fed, I bought a huge automatic feeder. The feeder holds about three days worth of food for the colony. The cats just come and eat as they please. I know they get enough to eat, becasue they they all are a normal weight, and not skinny or too fat. Is that ok, or do they really need the schedule?

Thanks a lot guys for all teh help!

I use an auto-feeder for my ferals, too. No, they don't need a schedule, although having a set schedule sometimes helps them to get used to you faster (if you eventually want them to tame slightly). Other critters will eat from the feeder, and possibly other cats will show up once they figure out there's a constant food source.

Well, they have been feral for years, so I really do not plan on ever taming them. As far as other critters, I have necver seen anything besides cats, because it is in a barn, and at night the doors are closed.

We have never had other cats just show up, but we have had some dropped off by there owners...

Thanks again!

Originally Posted by sharky

Sophiacat= sophisticat>?
Some Fancy feast s are actually GOOD

Click to expand...

Which Fancy Feasts are good?

Misty8723- I was wondering the same thing!

Read the labels but the ones in aspic seem to be decent to good ... some are by product and grain free