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Reasonable priced dry for my barn cats

post #1 of 23
5/3/11 at 9:25am
Thread Starter 
There aprox 3yrs(he's adopted so DOB is unavailable) and just turned 8wks, both males older is neutered, there fed wet as well.

I had tried felidae(i use this for my housecats) but the older male cannot tolerate it, i tried slow transition and such but no dice totally upset tummy.

It would be ideal if the food could be for both kitten and adult vs feeding two separate foods.

I know costco dry is decent but i am no longer a member and won't be re-newing that anytime soon.

Thoughts?
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post #2 of 23
5/3/11 at 10:00am
Maybe Max Cat or Authority (Max Cat is at Petco; Authority is Petsmart's brand).
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post #3 of 23
5/3/11 at 11:04am
Taste of the Wild, or 4Health if you have a Tractor Supply near you
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post #4 of 23
5/3/11 at 11:49am
What kind of price range were you looking at? I feed my ferals Purina Cat Chow. I consider it to be the best of the really cheap foods.

Anyway, if you're looking for something better than that, more of a mid-range food, if you have a Tractor Supply, 4Health is a good all-around brand and reasonably priced. It's an all-life-stages food. Chicken Soup is also pretty good.
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post #5 of 23
5/3/11 at 12:49pm
I, for one, wouldn't use Nutro. That company has a really bad history...it is IMHO not safe at all.

I feed my barn cats:

Calf barn cats (eight of them) - Priority canned (a Safeway brand) in the morning, raw at night. It costs about $2 total a day to feed all of them.

Farm cats (17 of them) All but one are on an all raw diet. The one that isn't, Nightmare, is fed all grain free canned

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I personally don't/won't feed dry food, but http://ibdkitties.net/CommercialFood.html has a list of good brands of both wet and dry.
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post #6 of 23
5/3/11 at 1:23pm
Thread Starter 
Ok no tractor supply here im in Canada, 4health isn't that part of natura? .. TOTW is not bad for grain free priced foods but i'm unsure how it would be tolerated.

Authority petsmart, i guess i'd prefer something a bit closer to home while i can get to petsmart it's an hour round trip so sometimes that isn't possible. No petco in my country.

Cat chow? the kitten is on kitten chow but he came from a home where they bought whatever was on sale so this was the best choice for now and then i can slowly introduce other grades of foods when i can decide on something lol

Nutro? um, well i have some nutro natural choice for my indoor cats to in addition to the felidae, i haven't had issues with it here.. *shrug*

I know nothing about feeding raw, it's not an option i want to explore.
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post #7 of 23
5/3/11 at 2:15pm
For a cheap kibble, I'm actually a big fan of Purina's new recipe:

Purina One Beyond: http://www.purinaonebeyond.com/healt...whole-oat.aspx

Chicken, chicken meal, whole brown rice, soybean meal, whole barley, whole oat meal, soy protein isolate, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), brewers dried yeast, dried egg product, natural flavor, dried beet pulp, fish oil, phosphoric acid............

Crude Protein (Min)\t33.0%
Crude Fat (Min)\t14.0%
Crude Fiber (Max)\t4.0%
Moisture (Max)\t12.0%
Linoleic Acid (Min)\t1.5%
Calcium (Ca) (Min)\t1.0%
Phosphorus (P) (Min)\t0.9%

A coworker recently started using it, and is happy with the results.
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post #8 of 23
5/3/11 at 2:29pm
Thread Starter 
I wish we had the choices you guys do! but they don't have it here, i emailed them about it before it came out and they said no intent on bringing to this market we have no purina naturals either

Our purina one isn't even the same ... the only new product we have from there cat food lines is the cat chow 'healthful life'



Quote:
Originally Posted by Ducman69 View Post
For a cheap kibble, I'm actually a big fan of Purina's new recipe:

Purina One Beyond: http://www.purinaonebeyond.com/healt...whole-oat.aspx

Chicken, chicken meal, whole brown rice, soybean meal, whole barley, whole oat meal, soy protein isolate, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), brewers dried yeast, dried egg product, natural flavor, dried beet pulp, fish oil, phosphoric acid............

Crude Protein (Min)\t33.0%
Crude Fat (Min)\t14.0%
Crude Fiber (Max)\t4.0%
Moisture (Max)\t12.0%
Linoleic Acid (Min)\t1.5%
Calcium (Ca) (Min)\t1.0%
Phosphorus (P) (Min)\t0.9%

A coworker recently started using it, and is happy with the results.
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post #9 of 23
5/3/11 at 3:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ducman69 View Post
For a cheap kibble, I'm actually a big fan of Purina's new recipe:

Purina One Beyond
It's not cheap. I did buy some because I had 2 coupons that got the price down to something reasonable, but even with the coupons it cost more than most brands (more than $1 a pound even with my $8 off! The small bag is only 13 pounds, as opposed to most brands being 15-18 pounds, so while the big bag looks cheaper, it costs more per pound). While I agree that it's halfway decent and has the benefit of being sold at Wal-Mart and grocery stores, I wouldn't consider it inexpensive at all.

Since I'm not familiar with brands available in Canada, I can't really make any more recommendations. I guess you can just read the labels of all the foods available to you and pick the best. Try to find one with meat as the first ingredient, no artificial colors or flavors, and no BHA/BHT or ethoxyquin. I know that once someone listed their feed store's house brand's ingredients, and it actually had chicken meal as the first ingredient, that's pretty good for a feed store brand.
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post #10 of 23
5/3/11 at 3:49pm
What about foods like Premium Edge, Diamond Naturals, etc?

I feed my farm kitties a mix of Purina ONE & Premium Edge.
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post #11 of 23
5/3/11 at 3:52pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Willowy View Post
It's not cheap. I did buy some because I had 2 coupons that got the price down to something reasonable, but even with the coupons it cost more than most brands (more than $1 a pound even with my $8 off! The small bag is only 13 pounds, as opposed to most brands being 15-18 pounds, so while the big bag looks cheaper, it costs more per pound). While I agree that it's halfway decent and has the benefit of being sold at Wal-Mart and grocery stores, I wouldn't consider it inexpensive at all.
Fair enough, but its a lot cheaper than Wellness Core, Blue Wilderness, and the like.

Obviously they aren't going to be able to compete on cost with brands that are 50% corn protein, but a bit moot if its not available up North, eh.
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post #12 of 23
5/3/11 at 3:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ducman69 View Post
Fair enough, but its a lot cheaper than Wellness Core, Blue Wilderness, and the like.

Obviously they aren't going to be able to compete on cost with brands that are 50% corn protein, but a bit moot if its not available up North, eh.
I pay less for Chicken Soup, Diamond Naturals, TOTW, 4Health. . .lots of brands are cheaper and not "50% corn protein", if you find a good feed store or TSC. Availability is a big thing, though, and Beyond probably is the best food available at places regular people (not crazed pet people ) shop at.

I did a search for the feed store brand that has chicken meal as the first ingredient. . .it's Southern States. Judging by the name, it's probably not available in Canada . But maybe there is a comparable brand, worth shopping around anyway.
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post #13 of 23
5/3/11 at 7:23pm
I have fed my ferals Purina Cat Chow and Purina One. They also get Friskies pate wet food once a day.
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post #14 of 23
5/4/11 at 5:58am
Thread Starter 
Premium edge is available in my country i may look into it, how is the pricing there? i know ours will be higher but it gives me a baseline.

Unfortunately, we are more limited here with our choices. My feed supply is mostly into acana/orijen plus royal canin.. which are fine but unless i can combine it with the household cats it's to pricey, even royal canin i am ceasing in my house as the price is insane.. 6lbs costs me 38$ w/tx.

In an ideal world lol i'd love to be able to feed all five the same but i doubt that would work as the needs really do vary..and so do the tolerances.
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post #15 of 23
5/4/11 at 9:26am
Orijen is a good all ages food, but like you said - it is pricey.

When we had our foster kitties with us, we fed Authority (Petsmart's house brand) it's not too bad and definitely economical (we had four of them to feed plus our own guys) 8lb bag was around $15 if I remember correctly.
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post #16 of 23
5/4/11 at 9:55am
I pay....oh man I'm not sure if I remember right.....something like $25ish for 18 lbs? I haven't had to buy any food for awhile, as I stock up several bags at a time.
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post #17 of 23
5/4/11 at 11:27am
Quote:
Originally Posted by white cat lover View Post
I pay....oh man I'm not sure if I remember right.....something like $25ish for 18 lbs?
That sounds about right. . .my feed store just got it. I was looking at the bag and debating whether to buy it, and instead I bought Chicken Soup, but it was a close race. So it must be just a bit more expensive than CS . I pay about $23 for an 18-pound bag of CS.
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post #18 of 23
5/5/11 at 3:33am
You can try Nutro Max Cat. It is reasonably priced and it's a guaranteed product. If you don't like it; return the unused portion for a refund. Picky eaters like it and for the money it's a great food.
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post #19 of 23
5/5/11 at 4:44am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by NutroMike View Post
You can try Nutro Max Cat. It is reasonably priced and it's a guaranteed product. If you don't like it; return the unused portion for a refund. Picky eaters like it and for the money it's a great food.
That's true, i have natural choice in the rotation for the indoor cats. I guess i would prefer an all stages though because as per usual, the adult is eating the kitten food and the kitten is eating the adult
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post #20 of 23
5/5/11 at 4:45am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by white cat lover View Post
I pay....oh man I'm not sure if I remember right.....something like $25ish for 18 lbs? I haven't had to buy any food for awhile, as I stock up several bags at a time.
Thank you, it gives me a ballpark.. our prices here can be strange sometimes there real close within 5$ other times it's like whoa!
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post #21 of 23
5/5/11 at 4:47am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ms. Freya View Post
Orijen is a good all ages food, but like you said - it is pricey.

When we had our foster kitties with us, we fed Authority (Petsmart's house brand) it's not too bad and definitely economical (we had four of them to feed plus our own guys) 8lb bag was around $15 if I remember correctly.
I've never had any luck with orijen at my house... my indoor cats have been resistant to it forever ..i remember driving forever years ago before it was widely available and they totally rejected it time and time again...

They cannot stand grain free *shrug*

I'll look at petsmart house brand, i'd love it if the food could be used for both indoor and barn cats even if it's only part of the ragdolls rotation.. that way i'd get better bang for my buck lol
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post #22 of 23
5/5/11 at 4:51am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Feralvr View Post
I have fed my ferals Purina Cat Chow and Purina One. They also get Friskies pate wet food once a day.
Thanks, i used friskies wet with them daily to, the kitten is actually on kitten chow at the moment, since where he came from was a family who bought whatever was on sale that week..

oddly enough though he's not real fond of it, mind you my adult sure is
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post #23 of 23
5/17/11 at 7:51am
Thread Starter 
Thought i'd update since i did finally decide upon a feed.

My local Global(Canadian, pet food store) suggested i try feline plus lifetime. This is a Canadian food, so i don't expect many of you to be aware of it, however the first ingredients are chicken and turkey meal, it's corn & wheat & by product free and is for all life stages as well as naturally preserved.

Reasonable in pricing and comes in a large package to. The cats are both tolerating it well.
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