My cats deserve the best, But I don't want to go bankrupt.

Wellness pouches @ $1.29 a pouch. 2 Pouch a day. 3 Cats.

Works out to around $230 - $250 a month.

I'm not very rich, but I love my cats more than anything.

I'd like to cut the food cost a bit, because it is starting to get a bit too much.

The reason I chose the wellness pouches are because they are decent quality food, and very convenient to use.

I am looking for a similar wet food product that has no soy, grain, meat-by-products, "meals".

Came up across a company called natural balance and they offer a similar product, got some last week and my cats liked it just as much as wellness. They're about $0.80 at petco where I live. That is a huge saving, however, the ingredients are not exactly the same.

The main ingredients are almost exact, but some of the chemicals they add to the food are different. I reckon it's because they use different preservatives or something. Anyways, does anyone have any detailed information about the Natural Balance pouches product line-up? or just about the company in general? Any recommendations on other foods? (They don't have to be pouches or anything. $0.80 is still a lot)

We all want to do the best we can for our animals, but sometimes it is not possible, or necessary to go to the top of the range. I have always found that it is cheaper to buy cans rather than pouches, and keep it in the refrigerator between meals. A can does not usually last very long with more than one cat to feed! That way you can afford a better branbd than if you go for pouches. Just make sure you don't overfeed - it is much easier with a can to goive a little bit extra every meal.

I try not to get married to any particular brand, and just read recipes and look for sales.

Food also becomes exponentially cheaper in the greater bulk you buy.

Look at the little 100 Calorie 3oz cans of food.  Often around 75 cents a can, comes out to 133kcal/$.    

Then look at the 200 Calorie 5.5-6oz cans, around $1.25, 160kcal/$.    

Then you move up to the 12oz cans like Innova Cat and Kitten for $1.75 for 500 Calories, 285kcal/$

But you really can't go bigger than 12oz as the wet food goes bad after being opened in around 48hrs.   You don't have that limitation w/ dry food though, and can buy 15lb 25,000 Calorie bags of Blue Buffalo, which comes out to over 700kcal/$.    (1/5th of the 3oz food, so a $250 a month bill becomes a $50 bill)

So for us, half of their food is dry, and half of their food is wet.    For the wet, half are 12oz cans and half are 5.5-6oz cans that happen to be good but on sale.   Nutro Complete Care, Blue, By Nature, Evolve, Authority, whatever I think has good ingredients.   

The other trick is to buy in BULK when you do find sales.    The shelf life of most commercial food is at least a year unopened, so no worries.  I found the Evolve on clearance for 50 cents a can, and so I bought everything off the shelf (probably sixty cans worth).    Petsmart had a 15% off sale, so I bought three cases of 12oz Innova, Authority, and Wilderness since sale prices stacked.   So if you find a good price, go ahead and buy $200 or $300 worth of food, it will last.   Just be sure to taste test each flavor while in the return period. 

Do you have a Trader Joe's by you? If so, I'd try their cat food. 59¢ for a 5.5 oz can and ingredients are really good (though it does have grains, the only downside IMO). no by-products either.

I can't seem to find ingredients online, but the can in my hand: Trader Joe's Chicken, Turkey and Rice Dinner.. first few ingredients: 

Chicken Broth, Chicken, Turkey, Ocean Fish, Animal Liver.

My picky cat likes them too.

I also try to buy in bulk. My natural food store owner will always cut me a deal on buying cases. I have six cats and go through a lot of can's a day too. .... I also do not stick to one brand and rotate - if something goes on sale and has the ingredient's I require - I will buy it up. There are so many good quality wet foods in the market now - but it is very expensive to feed cat's healthful . Just like people - eating healthy is just plain expensive.....

I try to feed my kitties as healthy as I can but they both shun dry food like the plague and with me not working I feeding some low quality cans but I do buy like 4-5 good quality foods for the week but they mainly get purina one or fancy feast but I will rotate those with evo, eagle pack or wellness for a few days a week.  I wish I could offer them good quality dry food but like I said they shun it like the plague now so all they want is canned and I have to work within my budget.

Can you buy the big Wellness 13 or so ounce cans instead? I believe those are less expensive per ounce than the smaller cans or pouches...

I don't know about everywhere else...but Wellness is the most expensive brand of food here (The 13oz cans are $3.29). There are plenty of other very healthy brands for much cheaper. Heck, even some of the grocery store/department store foods are decent. You just have to know what you're looking for. I can't always afford high quality food...so I just buy the cheap stuff throw some healthy stuff into the rotation when I can.

They just started selling the Wellness pouches where I live and I like them. I just buy a bunch and give them a pouch every few days. I get 2 meals from one though because these guys aren't big eaters. Anywho...Look around and don't feel badly if you can't afford top of the line. Even cheap meals are better than starving!

lonelykitten said:

I try to feed my kitties as healthy as I can but they both shun dry food like the plague and with me not working I feeding some low quality cans but I do buy like 4-5 good quality foods for the week but they mainly get purina one or fancy feast but I will rotate those with evo, eagle pack or wellness for a few days a week.  I wish I could offer them good quality dry food but like I said they shun it like the plague now so all they want is canned and I have to work within my budget.

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That is just fine - because more wet than dry is better anyway. I do feed both - but mostly wet food. I have to feed some dry because when I have to leave my cat's - Perla will not come out to eat the wet food when the petsitter comes . I need to have a good quality dry food that my cat's are used to nibbling on each day . When I have to be away, then I leave that dry food out day and night for Perla's sake. Anyway - I think that any wet food, cheap or not, is better than an all dry diet. So your kitties are on the right track ......

I have never fed the pouches as we would go through a lot a day. Natural Balance is a decent quality. Tiger loves the Natural Balance wet food.  I just feed him the Ultra formula as he has a sensitive belly. Angel loves the duck and pea formula. Miagi will eat anything thrown at him except the foods with gravy. It's pretty decent in my book and smells great. It's whatever you can afford, really. Nobody is going to knock you down if you have to feed something cheap like Friskies. It's not the greatest, but cats do ok on it and my cats get it once in awhile for a treat. I would just buy the cans instead of pouches, you will save a lot of money that way and even get them in bulk.

I feed raw to my cat and find it's about the same or lower price than quality canned-food. Two packs of Raw Primal commercial food is about 12 bucks and this lasts me easily 2 weeks or longer, and I supplement this with cheaper meats I find at the store (including organ meat). 

LuvMyParker said:

I don't know about everywhere else...but Wellness is the most expensive brand of food here (The 13oz cans are $3.29). 

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Yup, that's why I switched to Innova, the 13oz cans are $1.75, minus 15% on their sales they have now and then at Petsmart (comes out to $1.50+tax).  You USED to be able to buy Wellness 13oz cases from Amazon cheap, but they raised their prices.  

It used to be $26 / no tax / free 2-day shipping which came out to $2.15 a 13oz can (or about $2 pretax price, if factoring in tax locally).   Now Amazon stopped carrying it except through third party Petco, and Petco has always been overpriced IMO.   Shame as I have one literally right next to my house.

We feed our cats Natural Balance products exactly for the reasons you mentioned – great nutrition and reasonable prices.  We usually buy from Petco but we sometimes order online too.  Their daily dry food is called Ultra, and sometimes I give them the indoor canned food as well (they like salmon and ocean fish best).  I also tried feeding them the Platefulls pouches and they seem to really like those too – especially the gravy.   I think for the cost, value and ingredients you can’t beat Natural Balance.

Try PetFoodDirect  

Examples:

By Nature 95% (Grain Free, 6.5 oz cans) $10.49 / case of 12 ($8.92 on AutoShip)

Wellness (Grain Free, 12.5 oz cans) $27.99 / case of 12 ($22.39 on AutoShip)

Evo Grain Free, (13.2 oz cans) $21.99 / case of 12 ($17.59 on AutoShip)

Innova Cat & Kitten (13.2 oz cans) $19.99 / case of 12 ($16.99 on AutoShip)

Wellness (Grain Free Pouches)  $27.99 / case of 24  ($22.39 on AutoShip)

Natural Balance (Grain Free Pouches)  $18.99 / case of 24  ($15.19 on AutoShip)