Cheap yet quality grain-free canned cat food?

Hi I don't know what area you live in but are you familiar with the supermarket chain Trader Joes?
I just got a 6 month old cat about six weeks ago and am feeding him Wellness wet cans but I supplement with a couple of other varieties of wet food as well. One of these is Trader Joes wet food. The ingredient list seems good to me and I did a little research and people seem happy wtih them. Just avoid the tuna flavor (except on occasions as too much fish can be bad for cats, according to my research. (who knew!). Anyway, the 5.5 oz cans cost 69 cents or something like that, so they are pretty inexpensive compared to some of the other brands.

Actually, Felidae is an excellent choice and quite reasonable. My cat's love that brand of canned foods. There is also Best Friend's Feline that I use in rotation too. It is a bit less than Wellness. There is also a brand called "Dave's" that my natural pet food store just started carrying. VERY inexpensive canned grain-free line. Excellent quality too. You can always ask a Natural Food store owner in your area to order a certain brand of food. Most will be happy to oblige. Good luck in your search

Just remember that only the Pure Sea and Pure Elements line from Felidae is grain free. 

The easiest way to save money on the canned foods is to buy the large cans, the 13oz ones being the cheapest per oz IME.

We feed Wellness grain-free canned as well as Innova EVO.  Wellness can be purchased at PetCo.  We buy EVO either at the feed store or online.

Rather than feed just one type of food (no one wants to eat the same thing day after day!), why not spread the cost out a bit and feed a rotation of products? This will keep your kitties from becoming fixated on any one product (a problem if they change or stop producing it) and protect them from potential quality control issues by diluting their impact. Since cats can develop hypersensitivity when continually exposed to the same proteins or ingredients for extended periods, it will also help prevent food intolerance issues (and the associated diarrhea and vomiting). Dr. Hofve has a great article with even more reasons for rotating foods: Switching Foods.

 

Wellness, Natural Balance and Felidae all have grain-free varieties, and Nature's Variety Instincts and Evo 95% meat products are all grain-free. A "grain-free canned cat" search on petfooddirect.com will yield a veritable cornucopia of options, and you can conduct a side-by-side analysis of the ingredients and nutritional profiles.

 

Feline-nutrition.org has a nice article on deciphering pet food labels under their Nutrition section that offers additional insight into choosing different products.

 

Best regards!

 

AC

Yes - that's right. Those are the two that I use in rotation. Very reasonable. I also feed a few dry PureElement Felidae as an evening bedtime snack. Felidae is overlooked and is an excellent line of cat food - both the grain and grain-free. And easy on the pocketbook